A Year’s Worth of Writer Marketing Inspiration

April 12, 2012

Reading Lori Widmer’s latest book was a joy. Called Marketing 365: Daily Strategies for Entrepreneurs and Small Business, the book offers a few hundred marketing tips that anyone could implement. These are all presented in bite-sized chunks and the best way to get started is to riffle through the electronic pages and see what pops out at you. I promise you something will.

Grouping the Marketing Tips

As I read the book, there were two main groups of tips for me. The first set popped out at me because I was already doing them (and I felt a sneaking sense of satisfaction that Lori and I were on the same page about their value). These included guest posting, joining a forum (three guesses as to which one I picked), listening to what your clients tell you (I may have mentioned this a couple of weeks ago) , asking for referrals (Lori has some tips on making this process smoother), over-delivering (one of Lori’s favorite tips as it appears in a couple of guises and she practices what she preaches) and keeping your business slogan pithy. There were a few more in this group to do with ways to do business that naturally increase the profile of your business.

Where there was even more value was in the second set of marketing tips that resonated with me — the ones to be added to my marketing to-do list. This group included a couple of tips I’ve already started implementing (like advertising) or have discussed seriously (like teaming up with with someone offering complementary services). It also offered some great tips for tapping into client demand to increase your service offerings, finding and stating your purpose and marketing to existing clients.

My Favorite Marketing Tips from Lori Widmer

My two favorite tips were:

196. Create a new client welcome kit. What a way to welcome your client! Build a welcome kit for new customers and clients that includes things like frequently asked questions, what to expect from your product or service, and business cards and brochures that give even more detail. Tailor your welcome kit to fit the customer. For example, you won’t want to hand welcome kits to your restaurant customers, but you could deliver a special offer with their receipt that takes them to your website where you can include the FAQ and other information not printed on the menus. In your kit, be sure to include a discount coupon for their next purchase.

304. Use invoices as promotional tools. Why just send an invoice when you can send an invoice that also announces sales, recent business successes, or newsletter sign-up information? Today, think of information to include on your invoices that offer brief insights into your company. These are customers who have already bought from you. Remind them why with short pieces (under 100 words) announcing your new product, your new sale, or your latest sales success.

I think these build on and complement my current interactions with clients, which means they will be easy to implement and very useful.

365 Marketing Tips: The Verdict

My feeling is that this book is worth the $14.95 price tag because with a marketing tip for every day of the year (and then some) you can always find something new to do to market your writing business. Still not sure? Get a sneak peek at more tips and read an interview with Lori on John Soares’ Productive Writers site: Six Tips for Marketing Your Freelance Writing from Lori Widmer

Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this book from Lori but have not been compensated otherwise for this review.