July 2009

The biggest mistake most business owners make (and writing is a business!) is to ‘go dark’ at the first sign of economic trouble. Advertising is typically the first thing cut from budgets and the last thing added back in.

When I sold radio, I could always feel the market contractions long before there was any real evidence of a slow down. My clients almost seemed giddy to have what they viewed as a ‘legitimate excuse’ to tell me to get lost. For some reason, most people view advertising as something thought up by the Devil to give them a taste of hell.

I can’t for the life of me figure out why. Advertising keeps their doors open and inventory off the shelves and in their hands.   

While there is certainly nothing wrong with stepping back and evaluating if you’re  spending your advertising budget wisely, dropping off of the face of the earth won’t save you one red cent and may end up costing you more when the market returns to normal. Prior to the recession, you spent countless hours and hard-earned money promoting your name and your work. Every time you had a new release, you ratcheted things up a notch and built on the foundation you’d established with your last release. With each subsequent release, you just added another layer and probably found the murky marketing waters a little easier to navigate. You noticed more traffic on your website; you sold more books; more emails found their way into your inbox.
How did that happen?
All of those new readers didn’t just happen to stumble on your book in the store and decide to give you a shot. Some found out about you from a friend, but most found your advertising message compelling and believable enough to part with their hard earned money.
When you give in to that evil little anti-advertising devil on your shoulder and hide in a cave, you might as well take all of the money you spent and give it to the author who is advertising.
Essentially, that’s what you’re doing.
Numerous studies have shown those who advertise during tough times enjoy significantly larger market shares when the economy rebounds than those who don’t.
Here’s a little secret: every single person you advertise to wants to buy from you. If your campaign didn’t work it was because your message wasn’t compelling enough, or you weren’t targeting the right audience or your message was lost in the crowd.
If you’ll tough it out through the long haul, not only will your message be heard, it will echo!