My Approach to Marketing

Marketing seems like this overwhelming business function you need a degree in to actually do it well. Or people confuse marketing with sales and envision pushy and deceptive practices.

But marketing is simply telling the world about who you are, what you do, or what you make. And content marketing is doing that through writing, creating graphics, or through another creative medium.

I’ve always been a writer and a creative person. I drew comic books and wrote stories growing up. I made my first website in 2000 to tell people about this cool historical thing I knew about! I’ve created physical newsletters and booklets and brochures. I kept personal blogs and wrote blogs for companies. I’ve always managed websites throughout my career. I’ve been on social media and have sent out e-newsletters for years.

All because I was excited about something and wanted to share it with the world, and could do so by being creative. Who knew that was essentially content marketing all along?

Some marketers are quick to tell you to “Get on TikTok!” or “Start a Substack!” or “Post every day!” Instead, I start with three things:

1) What do you have to say to the world?

Authors are passionate about the topics they write about. Booksellers and librarians are passionate about sharing great books with readers. Literary non-profits are passionate about serving communities in specific ways. Marketing is how you tell the world about what you do and what you’re passionate about.

There’s a marketing concept called thought leadership that focuses not on selling products or services first, but on sharing your ideas with the world first. By leading with your ideas, interests, and imagination in your marketing, you’re drawing in an audience that resonates with those ideas as well. You’re also establishing yourself as a knowledgeable and trusted voice in your industry. It’s your nerdy interests that will set you apart and attract the right audience to who you are and what you do!

2) How can you use your writing and creative talents to tell others?

We’re writers. We’re storytellers. We willingly spend our time being swept away on adventures to distant lands! This means the literary community has an advantage when creating marketing content like social media posts, storytelling videos, written blogs and newsletters, or even graphics. I think marketing can be really fun if you use your creative skills to create content that talks about your passions and interests, because marketing then becomes an extension of your creative work.

3) What is your strategy to do so?

Finally, before you start creating posts in Canva, figure out what newsletter service to sign up for, or get over your fear of being on camera (hi! me), you need a strategy for how you’re going to share who you are, what you do, or what you make with the world. What will you talk about? Where will you share your content? Who is your ideal audience or reader that you want to attract? Why are you sharing all this content?

That’s where having a solid, doable, and exciting content strategy will guide you in your marketing efforts. And that’s what I help folks in the literary community figure out!