Welcome back to our series on marketing basics! In my first article, I discussed the basics of marketing and the marketing mix: product, price, place, and promotion. Although most people equate “promotion” (advertising) with marketing, the intersection of the so-called “four Ps” of marketing—product, price, place, and promotion—forms the basis of a strong marketing plan and helps you sell your products or services effectively.
Today, we’ll dive into “product”: the services or products you offer as an independent writer or editor and how to find the right blend that appeals to your market or audience.
Definition of Products in the Marketing Mix
Because you are an active member of NAIWE, you likely have significant time invested in your “products.” (To all the creative, independent writers out there – the novelists, the short story writers, the poets, the creative nonfiction authors – please forgive me for using such a prosaic term as “product” to describe what I know from firsthand experience as a fellow novelist is an intense labor of love, creativity, and art.)
These products may include physical products for sale, such as books, short stories, essays, and courses. They may also include services such as copywriting, editing, indexing, and proofreading. We will use the term “products” to encompass physical products, digital products, and services.
Creating the Right Products
Creating the right products can be challenging. Marketers typically conduct extensive market research to understand their audience the people they believe will purchase their products. Next, they assess the competition in the marketplace and design products that stand out from the competition. Finally, they create their product, choosing everything from ingredients (flavors, colors, scents), composition (plastic, wood, metal), and packaging (external packaging, boxes, containers, shapes) to make the product appealing to the target marketplace.
Creative artists typically do not begin with such a logical product development process. Their product creation phase often begins with seemingly random inspirations that gel into a coherent story.
I remember when I wrote my first novel, I Believe You. The novel’s genesis began with a daydream about a tall, intense, dark-haired man arguing with an older man who looked like Will Geer, the actor who played Grandpa Walton. The images seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Who was this dark-haired man? Why did the old man have an Eastern European accent? And then suddenly, a young boy appeared in my imagination who seemed afraid. All of this was a series of daydreams of random characters who looked like actors I had seen on television. Suddenly, I “knew” that the tall, intense man was David, that the young boy was named Eddie and was his son, and that the old man was his father, and while he loved his father, “Papa” could be overbearing at times.
The unconscious works miraculously, or so it seems, knitting together various threads from seemingly disconnected events, observations, and experiences in our lives to form new and ever-fresh inspiration. I have had the honor of watching this process unfold many times, resulting in stories I have written and shared with the public via my novels and short stories.
However, even these creative inspirations needed to be shaped by logic. It wasn’t enough for me to experience this vivid daydream and to write it down. I had to shape it many times into a salable “product” called a novel. I chose to shape it into a paranormal mystery novel since I enjoy that genre and am very familiar with the audience’s expectations for such books.
Through at least three completely revised drafts, I shaped the story into the final novel. And I wasn’t done yet with refining the “product” I was going to market. Donna, a dear friend, amazing fantasy and science fiction author, and a former editor, was my beta reader and editor, catching elements that made sense to me but did not make sense to the reader. Through this stage of careful editing, I was able to shape the story further into a salable product. Finally, Eleanor, my proofreading friend, helped me ensure “quality control” of the final “product.”
This is an example of how creative writers apply the concept of “product” to the marketing mix. Cover selection is another important element of creating the ‘product’ of a finished book. A book cover is its packaging and one of the most important factors in its salability. My own covers need further work, and I have plans to invest in improved “packaging” for the novels’ re-release.
Non-Fiction Writers, Copywriters and Editors: Productizing Services
Now, we will talk about applying these concepts to professional writing, editing, and proofreading services.
For those of you who offer services, the concept of ‘product’ as part of the marketing mix is a little different. The services you offer are personal but can often be grouped into easily identifiable categories for your customers: proofreading manuscripts, indexing services, writing articles or web pages, and so on.
Each of you offers such a ‘product’ to your market. Many people who offer services consider packages of services or bundles of their most frequently request services. This is how you can package up a service, so to speak, into an attractive offer for your clients.
An example may be a professional writer who ghostwriters blog articles for clients. She may package up her blog writing service into a bundle of four per month for an attractive price. Or, she may offer a discount to clients who secure her services in prepaid six-month increments. The bundle of services or the time-bound offer are examples of how services can be treated like a product.
Remember: Products Are Purchased Based on Benefits, Not Features
As you consider how to package up your product – your creative work, your course, your services – it is important to avoid the ‘feature-based’ marketing trap.
It is very easy to think only about the features of your product. You’ve written a paranormal fiction book about a wealthy widower with a deaf son (that’s my book, by the way.) You offer blog writing services. You offer editing services. This is what a client receives when they hire you…
People buy based on a combination of factors, but the one that catches their attention quickly is the benefits of what you offer them.
A “feature” is a specific characteristic or attribute of a product or service, while a “benefit” is the positive outcome or advantage that a customer experience as a result of that feature; essentially, features describe what a product does, while benefits explain why that feature matters to the customer and how it improves their life.
Book Example
Feature
- A paranormal mystery about a wealthy widower, his deaf son, and his close, extended family.
Benefit
- A compelling story with believable characters that advocate for the disabled with a hint of the paranormal that will make you forget the time and get lost in the story.
Service Examples
Feature
- Proofreading services for freelance authors.
Benefit
- Save time and embarrassment by catching every pesky typo every time!
Feature
- Expertly written and researched search engine-optimized blog posts.
Benefit
- Save time and gain valuable organic search traffic with well-researched, accurate, and properly optimized blog posts.
As you think about your products, consider writing a list of its features, then the corresponding benefits – what people get out of buying it. Then, when we talk about promotions, we will refer to the features and benefits list (especially benefits) to help you craft compelling promotions.
I hope this explanation of the ‘product’ section of the marketing mix helps you understand more about marketing in terms of writing and editing services. We are a unique breed, us writers and editors, and we can benefit significantly from the application of smart marketing and branding processes to our work. As your NAIWE marketing and branding expert, I hope to share what I have learned by wearing all three hats – writer, editor, marketing manager – and how to make the most of marketing your work.
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