6 Lessons I Learned about Marketing Strategy from Playing Board Games

When it comes to marketing strategy, I’m a babe barely out of the cradle. What I know today I’ve learned by reading articles and by the mistakes I’ve made marketing my own books.

I wish I could tell you my efforts to market Carried by Grace have been a wild success—they haven’t. What I can tell you is I’ve done everything wrong.

Thankfully, I can start over.

The majority of writers I talk to tell me they dislike marketing. As an introvert, I haven’t particularly enjoyed it either.

Writers want to write. I get that. But the fact is, today’s writers must be engaged in marketing.

If you intend to make any money selling your book, you have to spend time marketing. So, the Marine in me is going to tell you to suck it up and deal with it. Your bad attitude only makes the time you do spend marketing that much more miserable.

I’m still learning the world of marketing strategy, but I’ve finally begun to get a better grasp on it. Today, I’d like to share my latest insights that I hope will not only make my tasks of marketing easier, but yours too.

I grew up in the pre-computer era. Board games were, and still are, big in our family as a source of entertainment. I remember playing Stratego with my brother. He always won. In my defense, he was 4 years older than me.

One day I asked him how I could win, and he told me I had to have a strategy to capture his flag before I made my first move. He went on to explain more, but he might as well have been talking to a frog for all my little 8-year-old brain could comprehend.

Now, I get it.

Lesson #1: What is the object of the game?

“Well, duh,” you say. “The object of every game is to win.”

That’s true. But how do you win? In chess, it’s to capture the king; in Monopoly to be the richest player; in Trivial Pursuit to fill your pie and answer one last question.

And it’s here that I think many writers (me included) fall short when they get ready to market their books. Their marketing object (goal) is too general. They think “I want people to buy my book.”

We have no control over what others do. And it’s very difficult to build a marketing strategy for a goal so generic.

Whether we’re planning to run the Boston Marathon, go on the annual family vacation, or launch a book, we must have a specific goal before we can develop an effective strategy. (Tweet this)

Notice I said effective strategy.

You can certainly put a plan together and execute every step of that plan, but without a specific goal to guide your plan, you’ll be like I’ve been—adrift in a one-man rubber raft … with no paddles … in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean … during hurricane season.

Most likely you’ll sink to the bottom, and that’s what your plan will do too.

Is your goal to …

• Sell 1000 copies in the first month?
• Make the *NY Times* Bestseller list within one year of launching?
• Give away your book via your website in order to gain 1000 new customers on your email list by the end of the year?

Each of the above goals are very specific and measurable—your goal must be measurable in order to determine success.

With your goal (objective) in mind, now you determine what’s necessary to reach that goal—that’s what becomes your marketing strategy. This leads us to lesson #2.

Lesson 2: Learn the basics of the game.

Before you play a game of chess you have to learn the names of each piece and how each piece is allowed to move. In Monopoly you need to know how much money you start with, what you get when you pass Go, and the value of each property.

In developing a book marketing strategy, you need to know the basic game pieces available to you.

• Your author platform
• Bloggers
• Book reviewers
• Social media
• Press releases
• Media interviews
• Speaking engagements
• Book signings
• Launch parties
• Author website
• Free ads
• Paid ads
• (and more)

Unless you have the money to hire a publicist/marketing specialist, no writer has the time to conquer every one of those channels and still have time to write (and work the day job). Having a specific goal points the way to the finish line and keeps you going in the right direction.

Chuck Sambuchino, editor of Guide to Literary Agents and Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market in his book Create Your Writer Platform, says: “Platform is what you are able to do, not what you are willing to do.”

Apply that same concept as you develop your marketing strategy. Decide what you are able to do and master that.

When you land on a piece of property in Monopoly that you want to buy, but you have no money and you’ve already mortgaged what property you do have, you have to face that fact that you can only do what you are able. Don’t beat yourself up over your limitations.

Then remind yourself that no one goes from learning the basics of chess straight to beating chess champion Magnus Carlsen.

Lesson #3: It takes time to master the game.

Winning the game doesn’t happen in one move of your pawn or one trip around the Monopoly board or in spending the first month marketing your book and doing nothing after that.

I recommend developing a plan that covers a full year of marketing. (I can hear you groaning!)

That doesn’t mean you’re spending every day doing marketing related tasks.

It does mean you might spend 1-2 days writing and scheduling 6 month’s worth of social media posts, or 1-2 days each month writing and sending queries for guest posting, or sending one sheets to radio and TV stations to obtain interviews, and the list goes on.

During that time, you’re going to become a master at the channels you choose.

Lesson #4: Try new strategies

When my son plays Monopoly he always likes to get Boardwalk and Park Place. That’s because he’s proven to himself that he can often win the game by owning and building on those two properties.

But he’s also learned he can’t always win the game with only those two properties. He buys different real estate each time to see how they work in helping him win the game.

There’s more than one way to reach to your goal. As you master one marketing channel, add another and master it. Learn what channels are and aren’t effective for you. Which leads to Lesson 5.

Lesson #5: Take note of what works

Lessons 4 & 5 work hand in hand. Trying new strategies won’t be useful if you don’t pay attention to how effective each tool is.

When I launched my first book back in 2007, I learned book signings were not effective for my book. With a subject like sexual abuse, few people want to approach you and say “I really need your book.” So when I launched the revised, expanded, and newly titled edition, I didn’t even include book signings in my plan.

Whether you indie publish or traditionally publish, track what you’re doing to market your book.

Study the analytics available to you with your social media (SM) sites.
When posting to SM to send traffic to your blog or to your publisher’s website to purchase your book, use UTM codes with your post.

If you’ve had 2 book signings and no one has shown up for either, ask yourself some hard questions before you schedule a third.

Tracking the effectiveness of your marketing is an area I’m still learning and working to master. I’ve only mentioned a few things here because this is a topic that rates its own extensive posts.

I learn a lot from the Social Media Examiner blog. Here’s their advice about Facebook insights. I also like the Hubspot blog (see link to article on UTM codes above).

Time spent tracking your marketing efforts is time well spent. After all, if those 6 month’s worth of SM posts didn’t reap one sale or one new follower or one new name on your email list, it’s not something you want to spend time doing as you get ready to launch book #2.

You want a return for your investment of time (and money) in marketing your book—what businesses refer to as ROI. That’s why it’s so important to do at least some degree of tracking. Otherwise you don’t know what works and you can’t determine if your time and money have paid off.

Lesson #6: Use what works

If you don’t spend time figuring out what works, you’ll end up in a one-man rubber raft … paddling around in the Atlantic Ocean … in a hurricane being tossed to and fro … trying everything out there … and getting nowhere.

As your journey through your planned strategy, don’t be afraid to toss out what isn’t working and fit in something new. Bathe it all in prayer, be flexible with your plan, and have fun.

Like my brother once told me, have a strategy before you make your first move. And my advice to you is don’t wait until you’ve finished writing your book before you start to develop your strategy.

What do you find the hardest part of marketing? Leave your comments below.

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