Mid-Brain Marketing

Have you ever had an unexpected idea, or crunched numbers to calculate a budget? If so, you have used right-brained or left-brained thinking. The concept of these two separate modes of thinking can be transferred to book marketing. Right-brained marketing is embodied in the “aha” factor, the source of a creative press release or an idea for new books. Left-brained marketing can be exemplified by the more analytical tasks of segmentation, forecasting and database management.

Historically, these have been considered as distinct functions. But the delineation between the two is becoming muddled as creative marketing techniques are subjected to critical analysis in the quest to make marketing more accountable to budgetary constraints. Subsequently, a third, Mid-Brain Marketing strategy has evolved, requiring a combination of creative and analytical thinking. It is the application of strategic creativity, innovative analysis or imagineering.

A publishing-industry example of Mid-Brain Marketing can help you pinpoint your prospective buyers and communicate with them more economically involves two steps. The first step is market segmentation, or dividing the total populace into smaller groups of people potentially interested in purchasing the content of your book. This process also requires prioritizing the segments according to their need for your titles, combining both creative and analytical reasoning.

The second step in this example is market promotion. This involves creating and communicating a unique message to each segment, and testing the effectiveness of your promotional efforts. Innovative and analytical thinking are required in both steps.

The title Beyond the Bookstoreserves as an example of Mid-Brain Marketing. This book describes how a publisher can increase its sales and profits by selling books to non-bookstore markets. As you suspect, bookstores are not likely to carry Beyond the Bookstore, so it must be sold in other market segments.

Step One: Market Segmentation

Segmentation is the process of finding groups of people with like interests, with similar needs for the information in your books. This process begins with a left-brained analysis of the obvious targets, and then evolves into a creative brainstorming session to stimulate new ideas.

Analysis. Begin the process of segmentation by asking yourself two questions. The first is, “Who could directly benefit from using the information in this book?” This will force you to describe what your content does for people, and then think about groups of people who could benefit by it. Dividing these people into manageable segments will help you pinpoint nontraditional markets for special sales and further increase your revenue. In the case of Beyond the Bookstore, two significant groups are authors and publishers. They can use the information in Beyond the Bookstore, to help them sell more books directly to niche markets.

Then calculate the number of people in each segment. How much are they willing to spend to acquire the content you offer? Are there geographic concentrations of these potential buyers? Do they purchase seasonally? Do they usually buy on credit, or are special terms offered? What are competitive prices for similar products in each sector?

Creativity. Once you have exhausted your list of primary prospects, ask yourself another question: “Who could indirectly benefit from the content of this book?” The answers to these questions test your creativity, and may help to identify additional groups of prospective buyers.

Still using the example of Beyond the Bookstore, the answer to the second question specifies a group of firms such as book designers, publishing consultants, book publicists, book printers, and distributors and wholesalers. These people could sell more of their services if their clients sold more books, or these companies could purchase Beyond the Bookstore to use as a premium to reward the purchase of their services.

Mid-Brain Marketing: Not all market segments are equally accessible, nor is the opportunity for sales the same among them. Now that you have listed all possible target segments, Mid-Brain Marketing helps you creatively analyze the opportunities that they present. Your next step is to rank them according to their likelihood of buying your books.

Prioritize the niches according to their sales or profit potential, and place them in an A, B or C category. Those in group A might represent the largest, or perhaps most immediate sales. Those in the category B could symbolize a smaller; or longer-term source of revenue; and those in the C category may not be prospective customers for you at this point. This, of course, could change, and a C prospect could move up to the A group at any time, or vice versa.

Set up a checklist to rank your niches both subjectively and objectively, according to the ability of each to meet your objectives. Give each an A, B or C rating based upon its:

o Likelihood of purchasing in large quantities. A large niche – in terms of number of people – may not be a good source of sales if it is highly competitive, or if the incumbents do not have the ability to buy. Look for large numbers of potential customers with need and the ability to purchase.

o Decision makers and influencers. Some people can make decisions while others influence those decisions. If you are familiar with those involved in the process, that group would have a higher rating.

o Knowledge of you. If you have a platform already established, you may have a ready-made base of prospective buyers. This platform may be in the form of an email list, personal reputation or seminars that you conduct on a regular basis.

o Accessibility. It could be difficult and expensive to promote your title to a target audience defined as “people who like children’s stories.” The more precisely you can define the target segments, the easier it is to approach and rank them. For example, you can find the names of buyers at daycare centers, home-schooling groups or grade-school teachers and prioritize them using the criteria you have established.

In the case of Beyond the Bookstore, The A prospects would probably be comprised of groups of publishers. These represent the opportunity to reach many prospects at one time. B prospects might be distributors who could influence the decisions of their client publishers to buy it. Printers may also fit in this category, purchasing Beyond the Bookstore to use as a premium for those who utilize their services. The group of C prospects could be individual publishers who would purchase one book at a time.

Step Two: Market Promotion.

People buy products for their reasons, not for yours. Therefore, you are more likely to convince them to buy your books if you can persuade them to do so using information that is important to them. Successful segmentation will enable you to do this. Not only can you show them how the content of your book can help them in some way, but your message reaches only those who are most interested. Subsequently, your promotional communications become more effective an efficient.

Analysis. Most publishers do not have an unlimited budget with which to communicate to every target audience. So, begin your promotional planning by forecasting your sales (see Jud’s article about forecasting in the PMA Newsletter, April, 2003). Next, calculate a cash flow statement that shows the amount and timing of your revenue and expenses, using your forecast to compute your revenue.

Once you determine your promotional budget, there is another way to make it more efficient. That is by applying the concept of CPM (Cost Per Thousand) — or your cost to expose 1000 people to your message. For example, assuming creative equality, which is the more likely choice for a particular communications medium: 1) a direct mail campaign costing $3000 or, 2) an advertisement costing $2000? You might quickly choose the lower amount. But if your direct mail package reaches10,000 potential customers (CPM of $300), and your ad reaches 5000 suspects (CPM of $400), then your direct mail program is actually more efficient.

Creativity. If analysis makes promotion more efficient, innovation makes it more effective. If you can come up with a creative way to demonstrate the value you bring to each audience, you can convert more people from prospects to customers. And it is important to note that the communication to a particular niche may be totally different from that directed to another, since their reason for buying may be dissimilar. Stimulate your creative thinking by listing the benefits to each group of prospective customers:

· Ten benefits for prospects that can benefit directly from your content (people in Group A)

· Ten benefits for prospects that will use your book as a premium (i.e., how your promotion will help pre-sell their customers)

· Ten benefits for buyers who will use your content in an academic setting

· Ten benefits for buyers who will re-sell your book

Develop a clearly articulated, emotionally meaningful solution statement that tells the prospect the benefits your content can provide. Refer to this as you write the headline for a press release or advertisement, or perform on the air. Use this formula for writing a solution statement:

This book helps —— (your target audience)

Who want —— (problem they want to solve)

Get________ (your solution)

The solution statement that might interest publishers in buying Beyond the Bookstore reads like this: “Beyond the Bookstore helps publishers who want to increase sales and margins, become more profitable and reduce returns on sales to non-bookstore buyers.”

Market leadership is maintained by owning the position in your prospect’s mind as the “one and only” in your category. Use your solution statement as a means to invent and own a distinct category among the people in your target markets (This is the only book available that…).

Next, create a one-page letter using your solution statement to describe your content in terms of the benefits for each target segment. Tell the prospects that their best interests will be served by buying your books. Distinguish your title, and deliver your promise in a unique, compelling and memorable way. This will serve as your basic communication device, and can be customized to your email, direct mail, publicity, advertising, sales promotion and personal selling.

Mid-Brain Marketing

You can apply imagineering in the promotional phase, too. Keeping in mind that people must be reminded regularly about how your material can help them, you have to place your creative message in the media that will give you the greatest reach with maximum frequency, within your budget constraints. So, set objectives for the number of people you will reach with your message, and how frequently that will occur.

Your segmentation will be of great help with these decisions. Continuing with our Beyond the Bookstore example, there are approximately 78,000 or so prospective buyers, many of which may be found in our A category of prospects. The reach is a finite number, so we can concentrate on creating more frequency. This can be done with an assorted communication mix, combining different channels to deliver your message.

Mid-Brain Marketing also requires you to evaluate your success. If you are reaching your segments with sufficient frequency, but they are not buying in the quantities you have forecast, how can you change your strategy to improve your effectiveness? How might you change your message to better influence people? Do buyers get a clear sense of your title’s true personality and its true value? Do you understand your competition and recognize how they come across to your prospects?

There are many other applications of Mid-Brain Marketing to help you market your books more profitably. You can combine your analytical pricing formulas with consideration of the value your content provides. Use traditional bookstore-distribution channels, but devise alternate routes to special markets. Think not only in terms of books, but consider other formats in which you could communicate the same content. Use and combine all your analytical and creative skills to differentiate your products and the solutions they bring to your individual market segments, and you can increase your sales, your profits and your enjoyment of the journey.

Brian Jud is a book-marketing mentor available for individual consultation. He is the author of Beyond the Bookstore (a Publishers Weekly title) and The Marketing Planning CD-ROM describing new ways to sell more books profitably to special-sales buyers. He is also the author of the series of Proven Tips for Publishing Success. Brian is the creator of the Special-Sales program that R. R. Bowker uses to sell other publishers’ books to non-bookstore buyers. Contact Brian at P. O. Box 715, Avon, CT 06001; (800) 562-4357; brianjud@bookmarketing.com or visit http://www.bookmarketing.com.

Beyond the Bookstore is a Publishers Weekly title by Brian Jud, published by Reed Press, March, 2004

Brian Jud is author of Beyond the Bookstore (a Publishers Weekly book) and The Marketing Planning CD-ROM describing new ways to sell more books profitably to special-sales buyers. He is editor of the Book Marketing Matters special-sales newsletter, and creator of the Book Market Map directories for special sales. Contact Brian at P. O. Box 715, Avon, CT 06001; (800) 562-4357; brianjud@bookmarketing.com or visit http://www.bookmarketing.com

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