Happy New Year! If you missed my 14 Marketing Do’s and Don’ts for 2014 that I posted last week, you can read it here.
I’d like to start off this year with a confession. As a marketing expert, I’m not perfect and sometimes make mistakes. For example, as 2013 wound down, I looked at my website one day and realized that it had barely changed since January. The imagery was the same. I hadn’t added many new articles. The promotional text wasn’t updated.
A visitor to my website could have justifiably said, “This site hasn’t changed in months. It doesn’t look like a thriving business.” Admittedly, I wasn’t practicing what I preach. The problem came to a head when a discussion with a prospect revealed that my website was causing confusion for some people.
Why did I get lax with my own marketing – even though I’m a marketing expert? Ironically, 2013 was the best year ever in the history of WildFire Marketing. I landed more new clients and secured larger projects faster than any year in the past. But, that success was precisely the problem. I got so busy and distracted that I allowed the marketing of my business to get stagnant. My confession raises two principles for all of us to keep in mind this year:
1. Never stop marketing yourself
Your marketing message needs to mimic the advances and improvements that you make. Otherwise, people don’t see the real you. This holds true whether you’re an author, non-profit director, or business owner. Did you create new intellectual property? Did you land new success stories? Did you expand your reach into new audiences? If you don’t document and promote these things, the public will never know. Thus, they’ll perceive you as being stagnant. The reality may not be true. But, in the public’s eyes, perception is reality.
2. Be wary of the success trap
The more successful you become, the easier it is to get complacent, lose momentum, and stop innovating. Apathy or procrastination can set in, which can cause your creativity to weaken. When creativity dwindles, your business will usually follow suit. In a recent interview with 60 Minutes, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said that he is confident another business will eventually come along and destroy Amazon. So, he fights everyday to continue innovating and hold off that impending company as long as he can. That’s how you avoid the success trap. You don’t live in fear. But, you always believe there is more to learn and more challenges you can overcome before your time is done.
I’ll close by saying that I took my marketing mistake to heart and made several improvements to my website over the holidays. I set up new imagery, updated important pages with new text, recorded several new videos, and created new products that I’m excited to launch.
I’m especially happy to announce the release of a new audio teaching series called “Advanced Book Marketing for Authors.” I recorded 10 one-hour audio sessions that cover the most important marketing topics any author needs to know:
Session 1 – How to convince readers to buy your book
Session 2 – How to find new readers
Session 3 – How to build an effective author brand
Session 4 – How to insert marketing tools into your manuscript
Session 5 – How to create an effective author website
Session 6 – How to maximize sales on Amazon
Session 7 – How to utilize social networking
Session 8 – How to entice sales by using free giveaways
Session 9 – How to send effective newsletters
Session 10 – How to successfully market a novel
You can purchase each one-hour session individually for only $24.99 as an mp3 audio download file. Or, buy the whole set of ten for $199 and save 20%. There’s a 100% money back guarantee, so you’ve got nothing to lose. Use this link to purchase.
Here’s to a fun and creative 2014 where we all avoid the complacency bug and spread our messages like wildfire!
