Don't Market Like an Ice Cream Truck

One of the highlights of summer is the ice cream truck. There are few sounds that bring as much pleasure to kids during the summer as the bright, cheerful sounds of the ice cream truck. While the treats can be downright scary looking as the eyes of some treats are partially melted before refreezing, the kids don't care so much for what they look like so much as the sweet, sweet taste.

However, ice cream trucks do provide an interesting example of how not to properly your business. They are a simple enough business, but there are some issues with how they manage their advertising.

[For those unfamiliar with the idea, an ice cream truck is best known for roaming neighborhoods during the hottest afternoons of summer playing high-spirited music while offering a variety of frozen confections, ranging from various ice creams to what amounts to frozen Koolaid on a stick. Suffice it to say that they tend to sell out frequently.]

Proper Marketing Concepts

So, what do these have to do with marketing? Most ice cream trucks don't market, after all, with only their music announcing their presence. They don't always show up at the same time each day nor do they even follow the same paths or even visit the same neighborhoods each day. Most don't even take advantage of social media to either announce or plan their trips.

This is not the way you should do your business.

You need to be advertising your business constantly, even if it's just a small ad. You should be updating your social media constantly; better yet, you should be encouraging customers, potential and real, to post on your pages while listening to what they are posting. Your products and services should be readily available; don't forget to post prices. Most artists make the mistake of not posting prices for commissions; "inquire within" feels funky for a website. If you're doing commissions, post a few examples alongside the prices; the site should be a menu of what you offer and for how much, not some charcuterie board placed out of reach.

You should be discussing ad exchanges with other comics; it may not be the best for SEO, but you need to decide between getting the word out and working with rules that don't always work for small businesses. If you can get your ad onto one of the big sites, do it; the more eyes that see your ad the better. Don't forget to work with your local comic book shop; most are more than willing to work with local comic book producers, even if it's a webcomic.

[The same logic applies to other online businesses; you should always be looking for alliances between your site and others. Just make sure that they make some sort of sense before you pitch to the other company.]

Once you publish a book, it's time to work with the local booksellers. You should start with a book launching party, and then follow up with author meet-ups at other locations. You should also make sure that as many local booksellers have copies of your book as possible. If there are applicable specialty shops, you should hit them up as well, checking on the sales of the book every so often.

Seasonal Marketing is Fine

While it is a good idea to bump up advertising at Christmas and any other time that works throughout the year (such as right before Memorial Day and the Fourth of July for a barbecue book or Valentine's Day for something that features romance), you should nonetheless be advertising throughout the year. 

In short, buy ice cream from a truck, but don't use it as an example of how to market your business…