Have you ever heard of the saying: ‘You need to take 1 step back to take 2 steps forward?’ I always take refuge in this golden advice as it helps me stop, take a look around, and carefully decide what to do next.
It’s easy to get carried away and take giant strides without carefully thinking about the consequences. That’s what this episode of the How To Build An Author House Series is about; to look at what’s been done so far so we can appreciate where we’re going.
Recently we’ve been looking at Segmentation and how it fits into the overall author marketing activities. Knowing who you’re targeting is key, and after some careful consideration we’ve discovered there are three segments to target:
– Readers/Customers
– Experts
– Agents/Publishers
In the next few weeks we’ll be looking at Marketing Tactics, with each one needing a purpose and particular segment(s) in it’s sight. Author marketing can be easy as long as everything has its purpose in life.
Although I have my overall Aims & Objectives I shall be creating mini aims throughout this entire process. I prepared a few of these in the last couple of posts. So here’s some I made earlier (Blue Peter style for all my fellow UK readers):
– To join one more Online Community
– To have 15 RSS Feeds on my Google Readers (I currently have 8)
– To be following at least 6 people on WordPress (I’m currently following 2)
– To have a list of 10 Agents, at least 5 of which are in the YES YES YES category
– To have a list of at least 5 Publishers
On the 1st April I’ll create a new Blog post describing where I’ve got to, why I chose what I did, and how I got there.
If you look at my overall Aims & Objectives all five mini aims should help in my quest to the Promised Land. These are areas I need improvement in and feel I now have the knowledge to go forward to make some strides. The questions you need to ask yourself are:
– Do you have enough Readers, Experts, and Industry Folk in your life?
– Is there room for more?
– Do you have time to find them, and more importantly, connect with them?
– Is your current position good enough to reach your overall Aims & Objectives?
Ask yourself these questions and the answer, I imagine, will be to create some mini aims. Let’s face it, everyone reading this will be able to look deep below and find areas they need to improve. An extra 5% here, 10% there… absolutely everyone can do a little bit more to improve their author platform.
So you know your segments and a few areas to improve upon. Hell, you even know where to find these folk and how to stay organised. Yet one term goes with Segmentation like Peanut Butter goes with Jelly; and that term is Positioning.
I won’t delve into positioning too much, but it’s a very important aspect of segmentation because it determines how you’re going to attract and market yourself to these segments. I don’t mean this in a specific sense (that’s discussed next in Marketing Tactics – Social Media, Advertising etc), rather a general sense – what’s your unique selling point? What can you offer that no other person can? etc.
Simply put, now’s the time to go back to your Brand Identity and see how to leverage YOU to each individual segment. What do you have to offer? Are you:
– A confident networker?
– Artistic and good at design?
– Are you funny?
– Are you deep and meaningful?
Your own Brand Identity will determine how to Position yourself to these segments. I’m not sure what this will entail for you, but for me it’s:
– Use Matthew Turner to connect with Agents/Publishers
– Use Turndog Millionaire to connect with readers
– Use Matthew Turner to approach experts, but use Turndog Millionaire to connect with their audience (Guest Blogging for example)
– Use my creativity to create interesting and helpful content for my author marketing.
– Use my marketing background to attract new Readers and Experts
– Use my ability to structure and stay organised to help maximise my relationships
We all have that special something to set us apart from the rest of the crowd. Hopefully by now you’ll begin to see a process forming. A reason as to why we looked so deeply at Brand Identity, and a reason why focussing on different focal points interlink. By looking back you can determine what best positions YOU to the people you’re looking to REACH. What is it you offer that no one else can?
There we have it online readers. So brings the end of Segmentation and hopefully the knowledge of:
– Who your segments are
– How to reach, connect, and develop these relationships
– Where to improve to help reach your overall Aims & Objectives
– How to Position YOU to reach the people you need to in your author platform
Next time on the How To Build An Author House we’ll begin Marketing Tactics and look at areas such as Twitter, Facebook, SEO, and Advertising. Before we go however let me introduce you to an infographic I’ve made, demonstrating the process so far and how it will all look in the end.
The term Author Platform is quite common, but why stop at a measly author platform when you can build a House… an author house that is! This goes into more depth then an author platform. Combining the Foundations (Brand Identity, Aims & Objectives etc), and Walls and Floor (Segmentation), to the roof, doors, windows, and furnishings.
Turndog Millionaire – @turndog_million
