Did you ever try to lose weight? If so, you may have set a goal to lose 24 pounds in one year, broken down into twelve monthly two-lb. increments. Then you probably weighed yourself regularly to see if you were on track to reach your goal, and you may have had to make adjustments to your diet or exercise program.
This same process can be applied to your book-marketing efforts, and you can start the process by asking yourself a few questions. Did you set a specific sales goal, and a date on which you wanted to achieve it? Are you on target to reach it? If not, what needs to be corrected?
When to measure
Just as it is not necessary to weigh yourself every day, you shouldn’t measure your progress too often. A good rule of thumb is to record your sales on a monthly basis but analyze them quarterly.
What to measure
A thermometer measures temperature; it doesn’t control the temperature. It gives you an indication that the heating or cooling elements are working properly. Evaluation acts as your marketing thermometer, measuring your sales and/or profits and telling you if your marketing efforts are working properly. If your indicators are off target, look at the various elements of your marketing mix to find the reason. Luckily, there are only four areas in which you need to look.
- Product. There are both objective and subjective ways to evaluate your book. Objectively, are there typos or poor grammar throughout your text? Does your rear cover show the price of your book, testimonials, your ISBN and a barcode? Is the title on the spine? Subjectively, is the title provocative and enticing? Is the cover design good? Is the page layout inviting to read?
- Place. Are you selling your books to bookstores as well as non-bookstore markets?
- Price. Is your price too high or too low given your competitive situation and market value?
- Promotion. The promotion category is subdivided into publicity, advertising, sales promotion, Internet marketing and personal selling, and these all have both short and long-term implications.
How to measure
Set up a system that points out where problems exist in your book-marketing efforts. There are two ways to do this. The first is with a quantitative audit and the second is with a qualitative audit.
Conduct a Quantitative Audit
A quantitative audit is objective in nature, comparing numbers that were forecast with numbers that were actually achieved.
Conduct a Qualitative Audit
Your quarterly quantitative evaluation shows if your sales are on track vis-à-vis your forecast, but it is not good for suggesting why sales may be down. Subjective analysis can help you find the cause of poor sales. The list of questions above and below should stimulate your thinking to identify and respond to possible causes.
- Have any new competitors entered the arena?
- Is your plan written and in a form that is easy to use?
- Are your objectives specific, reasonable, measurable and attainable?
- Have you identified and defined your market segments?
- Does your book have a demonstrable competitive advantage?
- Are you acting as a partner to your distributors, communicating with them regularly?
- Do enough people know your book exists?
- Are you communicating the proper message to the right people by means of the correct medium?
Simply knowing what is wrong does not correct the situation. Given the deviation from your forecast, you may need to make some changes in your marketing efforts for the remainder of the planning period.
Plan a strategic brainstorming session following your quarterly evaluation. Analyze and discuss your results and think of possible remedies. Maybe you are not reaching your objectives because they were unrealistic. Was the plan ill conceived or was poor implementation the culprit? What are possible causes of your shortfall? Poor design? Bad timing? Not enough time? No differentiation? Not enough promotion/budget? Try to pinpoint the cause, make changes in your strategy and/or implementation, and then try something different.
It does not make good business sense to continue doing the same thing, but expecting different results. If what you are doing works, do more of it. But if what you are doing does not work, try something else. The question is, how do you know if a particular action is productive? You can ell this by evaluating your progress, making changes as necessary and then implementing your new programs. Then next quarter you start the entire process again.
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Brian Jud is the author of 17 titles including 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. Brian is the host of the television show, The Book Authority, editor of the Book Marketing Matters special-sales newsletter and creator of the Special-Sales Profit Center to help publishers sell more books to special markets. Brian also hosts the online Publisher’s Bookstore listing many discounted titles on publishing, publicity, planning, marketing, publishing law, design and writing. Visit his blog at http://blog.bookmarketing.com and contact Brian at P. O. Box 715, Avon, CT 06001; (800) 562-4357; brianjud@bookmarketing.com or go to http://www.bookmarketing.com
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