When I ask authors to describe their target audience, the most frequent response is: “everybody who likes (their topic).” It is difficult, time-consuming, and expensive to market a book to everybody. Defining the identity of your primary target readers and buyers is a basic, required task for selling books. But if you limit your marketing to those people, you are significantly limiting your sales and revenue.
Table of Contents:
• Broaden the impact of your book
• Questions to answer about your potential book buyers
• Grow your audience and find new readers
Broaden the impact of your book
Let’s start with a hypothetical scenario. Suppose you have a book to help divorced parents deal with their children’s trauma of being bounced back and forth between homes. Divorced parents would comprise the expected target segment, and most authors would stop there. However, the actual market is much larger — without being labeled as “everybody.”
Enlarge your sales opportunities by seeking book buyers among people and groups that help divorced people cope with their split-up and its impact on their children. These could be divorce counselors, divorce attorneys, divorce mediators, marriage clinics and retreats, marriage counselors, and more. You might also sell books in markets where divorce rates are particularly high, such as on military bases. There is also niche media to consider, such Marriage Builders Radio.
The lesson here is to look for sales in places you may never have considered before. Below is an example of how I expanded the opportunity for my book, Job Search 101, which helped people use marketing techniques to find employment. Find new sales opportunities by asking yourself — and answering — these questions.
Questions to answer about your potential book buyers
Who could use the information in your books?
The answer to this question, define the obvious segments. For me, the book was for anyone seeking employment for the first time, searching for a career change, or hoping to find new employment after being laid off. Describe your primary buyers in terms of age, education, and other demographics. Then think about what, when, and where these people buy books (retail stores, online, specialty shops, etc.).
Where do they look for the kind of information in your book?
The initial answer would probably lead you to selling through bookstores. What I found was that unemployed people do not want to spend money if they can get the information free. So, instead of waiting for job seekers to go to bookstores, I went to them by making personal presentations at colleges and high schools, and presentations to groups of unemployed people at libraries, churches, state employment departments, employment agencies, outplacement firms, and networking groups. In many cases, I had meeting planners buy books for everyone in the audience in advance of my presentations.
Who else could use the information in your books?
Finding new segments in which to sell existing titles may be the most efficient way to increase your sales and revenue. I found more prospects in new niches comprised of high-school and college students, people who are over 50 years old, women, and blue-collar workers.
Who could use your content in generally overlooked segments?
Prisoners must be trained to find jobs before they are released. The same concept applies to military personnel before they are discharged. People in both segments need job-search information, perhaps explained in a different way. This opens the door to an opportunity for niche-specific content.
Where do people in these niche segments look for the information you’re delivering?
Prisoners go to their prison library for career information. Military exchanges sell books for people in the armed services who are about to re-enter civilian life, and for their spouses who change jobs as they move with the transferred service person.
Who could act as a decision influencer on people who could use your content?
Instead of marketing directly to prospective customers, market to the people who can influence them. This could open the door to selling job-search content to career development officers at colleges, to guidance counselors in high schools, or to the parents of graduating seniors, which I did through direct-mail campaigns.
Do people use the information in any unusual ways?
One state government loved Job Search 101 but would not place an order. They conducted regular workshops, and perfect-bound workbooks do not lay flat. I had the binding replaced with a spiral binding, and the government office placed a standing order for 8,000 books a quarter. I volunteered to conduct the workshops for additional income, and I took that spiral-bound book to other states.
What is the biggest hassle of purchasing your content?
Some people do not want to be seen in a bookstore buying a job-search book. Heavy and oversized books do not sell well in airport stores because people do not want the aggravation of carrying them through the airport and on the planes. If your content can be delivered in a more portable form, it may be purchased in larger quantities. This might lead you to downloading your podcasts or publishing an audio version of your book.
Who spends money to adapt your content to their specific needs?
Informal research disclosed an absence of career information available for the Hispanic market. I found that Latinos were spending time and money translating job-search information written in English into Spanish. Hence, I had my content translated into Spanish as Elementos basicos para buscar trabajo.
What knowledge about your content could lead to a new product form?
I found it difficult to adequately portray in writing the interview skills of body language, gestures, eye communication, and facial expression. That lead to demonstrating those skills in the a video instead.
What information about your customers could lead to a new product form?
Research among college students uncovered the need for job-search information in an easier-to-use, less-expensive format. Using existing content, I created series of booklets, each devoted to one traditional job-search tactic, such as writing a resume or interviewing. With a little rewriting, I easily adapted the booklets to meet the needs of other markets, including state unemployment offices.
How could this information lead to a by-product that could be the key to entering another business?
The titles Job Search 101 and Help Wanted: Inquire Within describe many of the basic techniques for finding employment. Together, they explain where to find the names of prospective employers, how to contact them, and how to interview effectively. Fortunately, these are the same steps required by authors to secure and conduct performances on television and radio shows. Even the interview skills of correct posture, eye communication, gesturing, and voice control are similar.
This observation birthed an entirely new product line, using as its foundation the fundamentals of job-search communication. I repurposed this versatile content and presented it to a new market as the video program, You’re On The Air. This media-training product helped authors get on and perform on television and radio shows. Its two companion guides, Perpetual Promotion and It’s Show Time extended this product offering.
Who uses your content in ways you never expected or intended?
Who else could use media-training information in You’re On The Air? An association of civil engineers thought its members could enhance their practices if they could get on the air as local industry experts. I convinced other associations to do the same.
How could the delivery of your content change if it were tailored for every customer?
The fact that I was the author of a large product line positioned me as an expert in the field, enabling me to perform one-on-one consulting services. In this case, my books served as an expensive brochure rather than as standalone products.
Grow your audience and find new readers
Be creative in your definitions of potential buyers. Remember that many book-buying audiences exist, including corporate buyers and non-retail buyers. Finding new prospects for your books is the lifeline to more long-term unit sales, revenue ,and profits. Like electricity, it gives energy and power to the publisher, author, and title. It brings good books to life.
