We’ve gotten so used to hearing thousands of marketing messages every year, so used to them that we disregard most all of them. In fact, in watching television, reading magazines, and opening email, I can’t even tell you who most of the advertisers were.
Most advertisers and marketers understand that stories are powerful ways to connect with audiences. They also know that touching on the listener’s pain is the key to getting attention. In fact, most of those advertisers I ignore weren’t targeting me at all because I have no interest in their product.
However, among all those people who heard that message, a few resonated with it and maybe even bought the product. This sentence is the key to why so many marketers blast so many messages out into the world. They know their buyers are out there somewhere, they just don’t know exactly where. If you place your message in the most likely places, someone who wants to see or hear it will.
The same is true of writing books. Most books are very specialized, in fact the more specialized the better because you can reach people easier. Still, the marketing goes out to people marginally interested and uninterested as well because it is hard to target only eager buyers.
One book publisher I once worked with said that nobody in publishing knew exactly which books would sell and which would not. Accordingly, they published a lot of books that would have little chance at stardom in hopes that a few of them would sell well.
You can see a pattern here. In marketing there is always a level of uncertainty. If we know where our market is, we don’t know exactly who will buy from us. If we have a great product we don’t know how many people will buy it. I call this the uncertainty principle of marketing.
The wider you spread your message among those most likely to buy, the better chance you have of succeeding. They way you write that message will also enhance its power. Do both consistently and you will succeed.
