The Usual Marketing Problems

I'll probably run this into the ground, but artists suck at marketing. While you should definitely take a class or three in marketing, this means that you need to be aware that you are likely to commit some of the of the worst marketing mistakes known to man when you first start. It can only help to figure out what those mistakes are ahead of time so you can at least attempt to head them off at the pass. As these mistakes can cause the death of your project before you even begin, it is worth discussing them at the early stages of your project, preferably before your premier day.

Fortunately, it's not that hard to figure out what those mistakes are and deal with them ahead of time. It takes some planning, looking over those plans, and editing them off the schedule. Once you know what those mistakes are, you can more easily allow for them in order to make sure that they don't happen to you. As those mistakes are pretty common, it is pretty easy to allow for them. With that in mind, here are the Top Twelve mistakes you are likely to encounter even before you begin and how to deal with them.

Becoming White Noise

I'm going to mention "white noise" a lot, so let's give it a definition. There are a lot of things that you hear a lot of in real life, and after a while you just ignore them: That's "white noise". It's something so prevalent that you may see or hear it, but it no longer registers; it's effectively invisible and in audible. In marketing, it's beyond spam: It's that commercial you see so often that you are just no longer even annoyed by it. Since you want people to act on whatever it is that you are advertising, this is something that you want to avoid at all costs.

No Buzz

Too many projects arrive on the scene with no prior buzz: You either don't do any advertising more than a week before it premieres or, worse, you only announce it the day of its premiere. Mysteriously, there are few visitors and even fewer people buy anything.

The reason is pretty simple: You failed to create a buzz about the project.

You create a buzz by starting up your marketing a few weeks before the premiere day (any earlier and people will either forget about it or becomes white noise). You show some of the characters, pictures of the setting, even a few free pages; you show not only proof that it's happening but also a taste of the comic. You start bugging podcasters and Youtubers. You even start showing what's happening on your TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and other social media pages.

In short, start marketing before it premieres for the best effect. No one can catch the wave if there's no wave.

No Social Media

You don't like spamming, so you don't spam. You feel nervous about any kind of bragging, or just don't like putting yourself in the spotlight. Others want to wait until they are established. Well, that's something you need to change. Marketing requires that you get the word out; this means that you need to step into the spotlight. And if you wait until you're established, you'll never actually establish yourself; you'll be waiting for a perfect moment that may never come. If that's a problem, either get over it or just do it as a personal project. Or even get someone else to do your marketing; it can get expensive, but if it's the only way….

The bottom line here is that you need to establish some sort of social media presence for your project in order to properly market it. You need some way to let people know a new episode is up, that you have merch available, even bug them about donating to the cause, and social media is definitely good for that.

Spamming

Let's take the opposite tact for a moment: Too many people spam their social media so often that others easily ignore it; it's the electronic version of spam. You do not want to become white noise; you want to be a call to action. As such you do not want to put up too many notices. Obviously, this means paying attention to any rules established by the group(s) you're in, but it also means posting in moderation everywhere else. I'd suggest no more than once, maybe twice per event in order to keep the spamming to a minimum. Just remember to not go crazy and you should do okay.

No Press Release

A press release is actually a simple document, but a lot of people stress over it unnecessarily. It is simply a statement of intent, letting others know what you plan to do so that they can join you when you do it. However, the reason for the stress is that it appears to be a lot of extra work, and everyone hates any sort of extra work; however, if you don't tell anyone what is going on then no one will show up. It's basically like planning the best party ever and then forgetting to send out the invites; no one knows about so no one comes. So get going and write out those invites; you have a party and it needs guests!

No Email Lists

Almost as bad as no press releases, this is something that you can wait until after the premiere day, but it is still something you need to set up ahead of time. An email list may seem like a lot of unnecessary work, but it better enables you to keep your fans abreast of what you are doing; if you are making guest appearances on a podcast or doing some work on a different comic, if you have new merch or are running discounts on older merch, or even if you are selling books, an email list is how you tell everyone what's going on.

Look at it this way: Without an email list, you have to hope your social media marketing works, and as people only see about 5% of the messages you post, it's just likely that they will miss your event. So institute a list as soon as you can.

Ignoring Media Outlets

Every industry has media outlets. It is just a matter of figuring out what those outlets are and how to properly exploit them. These are the people you send your press releases to, ask to be on their shows, and generally annoy whenever you get a chance. Better yet, spamming is encouraged; if you bug them often enough you're likely to get an answer just to shut you up. However, if you don't track them down and otherwise ignore them, they can't help you market your project, so track them down and see what they can do for you.

No Engagement

Fans can be fickle. They like to know that you know that they exist; it doesn't matter if it's them personally, just so long as they see that someone in the fandom gets the attention. This can be as simple as you retweet someone's meme, their wedding pictures, or even their cosplaying your characters; as long as they see that the respect they show you is reciprocated. Heck, some are even willing to be abused as long as it shows that you are paying attention. This means that you need to engage with your fandom to at least a minimal degree if you want to keep them, or they will go somewhere else.

No URL

Your project is going to be displayed on the internet, and so you need a place to put it on display. Even if you are just selling trades of your comic, you need to let people know where to buy it. This means that you need to find a site that can handle your project and take advantage of it, and then make sure that everyone has that URL. This also allows you to take advantage of that site's marketing attempts as well as take advantage of how they present comics; this bolsters your numbers and you don't need to re-invent the wheel.

No Homepage

You need to give people a chance to communicate with you and possibly even see what you are doing. The easiest way to do this is to create a site and then pass out that URL to your fans. You will need to keep the site updated, including a way to enroll in your mailing list, but the major advantage is that you know that they are going to one site for their information and this gives you a chance to keep them informed about what you are doing and where you will be. The best part about this is that it allows you to give out all of your associated social media, merch links, and anything else you want them to know about, making it a great clearinghouse for fan information.

[Obvious Clarification: It is possible to have a URL that is different than your homepage. This means that you post your project on one site and everything else is at the other. The advantage to this is that the project URL gets to deal with all of the casual fans while the homepage gets the serious one. Another advantages is that the URL site gets to deal with all of the memory issues, keeping your homepage cheap (most builders charge for total memory used; your project and affiliated files can take up a lot of memory, especially if video is involved somehow.]

No Consistent Releases

Readers hate checking in only to find out that you have not updated yet. If they update with any kind of real frequency only to find out that you haven't updated again, they will eventually stop checking in. This is why you schedule your updates, and keep to your schedule: It trains your fans to expect your updates and makes sure that they keep checking. If you update on Thursdays at 4 PM EST, then they will anticipate that weekly update, and that keeps them happy. Otherwise, they become unhappy fans and eventually non-fans, and that is something you want to avoid.

Hating Your Readers

Admittedly, this can be a tough one. Some writers naturally hate people and it shows in their writing; this can easily extend to fans, especially if you hate being in the spotlight. Fans can also make living a regular life difficult, especially if you're easy identify. If you really, really hate people, then you need to find a way to deal with your fans. This is not that hard; as noted above, some fans are willing to accept abuse if it means that you are the one doing it. While this may not be the most healthy of relationship, it is nonetheless a relationship. Just remember that actually hating them can result in you losing them, and that is something you want to avoid.

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Obviously, this is not going to guarantee that your project will be a success. However, it should help your project become a success; most people forget that marketing is an important part of success and for some reason choose to forego it. Look: Not everyone is a born marketer and that's fine. This checklist should help you market your book. And if you are an experienced marketer, it should help you make sure that you didn't forget anything. For both of you, this list should help you solidify your marketing plan, giving your project the best possible chance of success.