Booksellers Blog

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In an earlier post, I wrote about the need to determine your goals before deciding on the tools to use to attain those goals.  When you read a newspaper article trumpeting that there are now 150 million members on Facebook, it’s easy to think “oh, my store has to be on Facebook!”  But that may not be the best use of your very limited time.

Which tool?

It all goes back to your goals, and evaluating all of the tools in the interactive marketing toolbox to see which one(s) will best allow you to reach your targets. Today we’re going to look at some of the possiblities. In future posts, we’ll look at each tool and what it can do (and what it can’t). It’s important to match the tool to the job, or the results just won’t be there. In addition, the tool(s) that you use will impact how you measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

Did you come up with one or more objectives that you want to accomplish?

I’ve taken the list that I dreamed up the other day, and thought about the various forms of internet marketing and social media that (in my own opinion and based on my own experience) would seem to be the most effective. The tools are listed in no particular order, and you don’t have to choose every option to be effective. However, this list should give you the idea that not every tool can do every job, and there is usually more than one means to achieve your objectives:

• Make your store more visible to potential customers – local search, blogging to attract links, Search Engine Optimization, local blogger outreach
• Offer your loyal customers perks and rewards – email newsletter, social media sites such as Facebook or book-related sites such as Goodreads
• Establish your store as “the experts” in a particular category – content marketing through blogging and podcasting, interest-oriented groups on social media sites
• Sell more copies of particular titles or categories - blogging and podcasting, email marketing, customer reviews on your website
• Increase attendance at author events – email newsletters, blogging, podcasting, social networks, local event sites such as meetup.com and Upcoming, Librarything local, Flickr, YouTube
• Entice your existing customers to visit your store more often – email newsletters, blogging, local event sites, social media sites
• Develop or increase sales through your store’s website – Search Engine Optimization, A/B testing of website, customer reviews, blogging, email newsletters
• Educate your local community about the benefits of shopping locally – blogging, email newsletters, participation in Shop Local directories, Indiebound.org, local blogger outreach
  
• Serve your book groups and other communities within your store – Book-related social media sites, “general” social media sites such as Facebook, meetup.com, Upcoming, blogging, email newsletters, local blogger outreach
  
• Spotlight the particular strengths of your store – blogging, local search, Search Engine Optimization

In addition, I would add that “listening” — monitoring what others are saying about you — is mandatory no matter what your goal. Even if you decide to have no online presence whatsoever to promote your store, you should be watching your Google Alerts and Google Blog Search results, and you should be checking your reviews on local search sites like Yelp.com, Merchant’s Circle, Google Local, and various forms of Internet Yellow Pages.

So if you haven’t already figured out what you want to achieve, please think about it. I hope you can see that it’s the necessary first step.

Does this approach make sense to you? Are there goals that you’ve identified that were not listed above? Please tell us in the comments. And thanks for your time and attention …