This is day three of my Kindle Scout campaign. I’ve tried every publicity method I could think of and am starting to get a feel for what works. I’ve done multiple posts on all my social media accounts, I’ve printed out business cards with the info and handed them out (with the immense help of my husband), I bought a paid promotion that should start in a few days, and I’ve even surfed on some traffic exchanges.
Today I reviewed the results on my stats page and was startled by some of the results. The traffic exchanges were, somewhat predictably, responsible for a good portion of the views–but I wouldn’t count them quality views, and decided earlier that I would be better off spending that time researching ways to get more authentic views from potential customers. The second biggest source of views was… manual type-ins from my business cards.
Wow. I never thought that the offline marketing would be that effective at all. I didn’t even know most of the people my husband and I handed the cards to, and I was so shy that I couldn’t make eye contact. It was embarrassing. Some of the people hardly paid attention. But I’ve actually gotten more votes that way than cards I’ve handed out… meaning that they’ve been shared and passed around.
So maybe I should step up my game in this area. I don’t want to sound desperate or too sales-person-y, so I’ve been brainstorming ideas. One name has popped up in my mind repeatedly in the process: Bill Goodwin.
Goodwin in 1951
Bill Goodwin was a radio and early television announcer/actor/spokesman from the 1940s-1950s. I know of him through my fandom of the awesome comedic duo George Burns and Gracie Allen, where Goodwin was a regular on the show for much of its radio life and the start of its life on TV. He wasn’t as good of an actor or as perfect on the show as the later Harry Von Zell, but he was such a good salesman that Carnation evaporated milk and Maxwell House coffee still catch my eye in the store. He didn’t sound like he was forcing it. He sounded like he naturally loved the product he was supporting so much that he couldn’t stop talking about it and sincerely wanted everyone in the world to share his joy. He was bubbling with exuberance.
I wish I could go back in time and hire Bill Goodwin to ride around town and tell people about my Kindle Scout campaign, but since that’s not going to happen I guess I’ll settle for studying his techniques and trying to see what made him so casually convincing. I’m not naturally outgoing at all. Even around friends, my voice catches in my throat when I have something to say, and more often than not I back out before I even start. But I can see that it doesn’t need to be that way. But now I need to stop writing and get back to work. I’ve had two other Kindle Scout authors contact me as of this morning and I’m excited to see what they have to share!