Niche Marketing - Indie Bookshops

My best friend Janet Buell, is a wonderful, published author. She's written a number of books for children, the most recent being "Sail Away, Little Boat." This delightful book features Janet's beautiful, lyrical language gliding across page after page of gorgeous, full color illustrations by artist Jui Ishida. 

Sail Away, Little Boat is carried by select Barnes & Noble stores as well as other booksellers nationwide. While it may seem like a big deal to have your work in B&N, it's easy to get lost among the tens of thousands of books offered through this retail giant.

The real promise for the success of Janet's newest book lies in the capable hands of independent bookshop owners. "Indie" shops are owned, operated and staffed by people who love books. In addition to mainstream work, indie bookshops carry the work of accomplished, lesser known authors. While marketing to mega-retailers may get you noticed, placing your story in the hands of the owner of an indie bookstore will. Because of the nautical theme of her book, Janet plans to target independent bookshops that surround coastlines & lakes. The narrow focus on this niche market will put her information in front of buyers with a natural, regional interest in sailing.

The images on this card were created using PhotoShop CS4. The front features the cover of Janet's book, along with portions of illustrations pulled from interior pages. The interior of the card includes promotional text designed to introduce buyers to the concept, character and language of her book. A personal note from Janet is included on the right.

People love to see their name in writing. Personalizing the front of her card with the owner's first name creates an instant connection. Artfully designed, personalized cards are more likely to be displayed than discarded. By sending her cards to a narrow market segment in a specific geographic location, she'll put her work directly in the hands of the decision maker.

A few minutes spent on Google unearthed a promising resource for finding independent bookstore owners. Newpages.com offers a free list of independently owned bookstores, sorted by state. Some additional on-line research will ensure these sellers are current. In addition, they sell lists that include mailing addresses for independent bookstores, as well as both public & academic libraries. Unlike some list renters, Newpages.com allows unlimited use, guarantees the accuracy of their list and even offers postage reimbursement.

Promote yourself and your work through personalized, niche marketing - send out art cards. The SendOutCards program lets you send creative, targeted marketing that's easy, cost effective, and memorable - right from your computer. We'll let you know how Janet's journey unfolds. We expect it to be "a fun, daring trip, from beginning to end."

Smooth Sailing,

Digital Paper Designs

5x7 Card front

These digital paper designs were created in Photoshop CS4 using free digital downloads from designer Sara Carling for The Shabby Princess. The Shabby Princess one of many sites offering free and fairly priced digital papers & design elements available for download. They ask that you limit their use to personal, non-commercail & do not try to sell their work as your own. Each designer has their own Terms Of Use (TOU) included with the download.

7x 10 Card interior

Photoshop is an amazing and complex program used by design professionals. Most computers come with basic photo editing programs such as Microsoft Picture Manager which allow you to make minor corrections such as crop & rotate. To create a "layered" image like those above, a design program such as Microsoft Publisher or Adobe Elements is required. More on this in a later post.

5x7 Card Front, Personalized

A shapely label from the SOC elements library combined with their Cursive Pen font creates a beautiful beginning. The name is easily changed using the "insert name" feature, allowing you to personalize an entire campaign, instead of one card at a time. This card was sent to a friend I haven't seen in more than 20 years.

10x7 Card Interior

The artful interior of this card was created using an image I snagged from her Facebook account - the black patterned paper, part of the free The Shabby Princess download. The paperclip and photo element behind the letter are all part of the extensive collection of creative elements in the SOC library.

5x7 Back of Card

The back of the card displays both the sender & recipient's address. This creates another opportunity to be reminded of who sent this way cool personalized card. The SendOutCards web address points to the SOC account holder's personal retail website. Visitors to this site can create and send a two panel card for $2.99 or learn about the SOC business opportunities. Commissions are paid on sales from this site.

Yours by design,

The Perfect Small Business Marketing Tool

At Museware Pottery, we design & create hand painted, personalized pottery for weddings, new baby and friend & family celebrations. Our product line focuses on the things that matter most: Love, Life & Home. We'll marry, have babies & celebrate friendship and family, no matter what is happening with the economy or in the world.

As marketing manager, I promote Museware Pottery through wholesale trade shows, e-mail campaigns, our retail web store and at one time, print ads. Trade shows put our highly visual product in front of a large wholesale buying audience, but are extremely expensive and disruptive. E-mail is a cost effective way to reach a large audience, but is impersonal & easily dismissed. While web sales represent a small yet growing part of our business - website optimization is a complex & mysterious science best left to professionals. Our results with thousand dollar print ads were not impressive.

5 x 7 Greeting card front and fold-over

15 x 7 Inside of three panel greeting card 

Last week I sent our top customers this custom, full color, personalized card - right from my computer. Using SendOutCards' simple on-line program, I imported my own images then added text to create this beautiful three panel card. Each card was personalized with the shop name & location and included a personal note. Printed on heavy card stock, it was stuffed, stamped and mailed in a crisp white envelope - addressed with a hand writing font - the next day. I never left the studio. As a wholesale buyer, my cost per piece - including postage: $1.68.

This brilliant marketing method puts - in their hands - a beautiful example of who we are and what we do. It targets the 20% of our customers who keep us in business. An artfully designed & personalized paper card featuring Museware Pottery, sent to the people who buy and sell our pottery. A card too personal to ignore or discard. Less than a week after the mailing, we're already taking new sample orders.

Promoting your business, art & design through SendOutCards is easy, fun and a reasonably priced way to add a personal touch to your marketing efforts. Watch for design tutorials, card designs and marketing suggestions in subsequent posts.

Artfully yours,