I'm doing this in part to celebrate my good news: THE PAGES OF THE MIND and THE EDGE OF THE BLADE are both finalists in the fantasy category of the Fantasy, Futuristic, and Paranormal (FFP) PRISM Award! It's always a thrill to be a finalist, but with two books in there, I have my fingers crossed that maybe I'll get one of these:
Marketing: Book Trailers, Vine Vids, and Gifs: Can/Would/Could Animated Ads Work For You?
So... I'm just so not a marketing person. I could probably get
good at it if I could get over the idea that a lot of it is manipulation. I
have issues with manipulative behavior of all types, and I pretty much loathe
advertising tricksiness. I learned a long time ago that the purpose of most
advertising is to convince us we have a problem, so they can then sell us the
solution. Thus the whole "do you have ring around the collar?" sort
of commercial, where you come away wondering, "do I???" And they want
you to buy the stuff to make it disappear.
Marketers like to created fear and worry, so that we purchase
their product to make it go away. This fear and worry we didn't have until they
created it.
There's this whole divide between showing people that something is
available - like, just for example - me leading this post off with pimping that
.99₵ sale. I need to mention it, as there's no point in having a sale if I
don't tell anyone about it. But I'm not going to be one of those who tries to
create fear - SALE ENDS SOON, BUY IT NOW OR YOU'LL MISS OUT! - or worry, by
implying that you're the only one who hasn't read it or by telling you about the
bills I need to pay. Nor do I want to bombard people.
To me, the flashy, blinky stuff falls in the category of
bombardment. Animation catches the eye, so advertisers like it. In the Big
Competition for Attention, video stuff does well.
I like doing Facebook Live stuff, because it's fun and I feel
genuine just talking about random stuff. Gifs can be amusing and I use them
sometimes, but not for marketing. Book trailers... I know Veronica Scott loves
them and she'll almost certainly talk about why. I don't care for them myself.
I've never bought a book from a book trailer. They can be fun treats for fans,
but otherwise ... meh.
But, you know, I don't much care for video anything. I get annoyed
every time I click on a news article link and it turns out to be a video I have
to watch instead of something I can read.
I dunno - as readers, are there animated ads you like?
Could be I'm just old and cranky. ;-)
