PODCASTER’S CONVERSATION TOPS AMAZON
Meet author Scott Sigler, www.scottsigler.net (and also our favourite podcast novelist). We’d like to share his most recent success – the latest in a long-line of innovative podcasting marketing tactics. It’s one that must have made the big publishers green.
Sigler has just topped the bestseller list of Amazon by brilliantly orchestrating a mob of ready to purchase fans to hit the bookseller site en masse. It was an audacious approach and one that beautifully demonstrates what can be achieved in online marketing today.
The author of not-so-pc sci-fi horror novels, Sigler tried for years to get his books published and in 2005 found a long tail niche through early adoption of podcasting.
He slowly built a loyal following around his wicked storytelling and great production values. He got picked up by a small publisher and made his way into print with two novels: Earthcore and now Ancestor. But that’s not where the story ends.
You see Sigler’s following is not just an anonymous fan base.
He supplemented his podcast with a blog, a Yahoo group (email newsletters) and a message service where his fans, or in Sigler’s words, ‘damn junkies’ could leave messages of support (which he featured in the podcast). He also worked hard to cross promote his product with other podcasters such as JC Hutchins. But most of all he worked to build a rapport with his fans.
Through these tools of feedback and interaction Sigler has converted anonymous RSS subscribers to his podcast into known individuals – building ongoing dialogue with loyal fans along the way. In addition to his un-missable weekly podcasts he actively messages his ‘customers’ – and he is always available to people via IM, email, Skype, MySpace and more.
On Monday of this week, Sigler’s newly published paperback Ancestor made #1 in Amazon’s Sci-Fi and Horror charts (it’s still #1 as of today) and was #7 overall on the bestseller lists. He managed to mobilise his many fans globally to buy the book over a period of one hour on Amazon.com. In so doing he rubbed spines with Oprah’s new bestseller at the top of the list.
We asked Scott Sigler some questions this week wanting to discover whether there might be some lessons for marketers and here’s what he had to say.
“The key to success is engaging with your audience. This wasn’t a haphazard campaign where we came up with something tricky and put it out there, this has been two years in the making. Giving the customer what they want, and responding to their needs, that’s what develops the community. This is an open, honest communication effort – they know exactly what I’m up to, and being up front with them, they can decide to support it or not.
“Customers see right through superficial marketing campaigns. If you don’t care about your customers, nothing you can do is going to generate passion for your company and your product.â€
Yes folks there it is again it’s that engagement word. The secret (in our view), apart from having a fantastic product, is … feedback. I’ll say that word again because it’s not a fancy marketing word.
FEEDBACK.
It never ceases to amaze me how often we talk about engagement in marketing and then stupendously fail to provide the tools for people to actually engage with us. Of course the message has to be compelling. That’s a given. But think for a moment about the HOW.
How can we best deploy new channels to make it easy for our customers to engage with us. Think IM, SKYPE, Blog Comments, Forums, email, SMS, social networking sites and now even Twitter.
Yes, the multiplicity of inbound channels can be difficult to orchestrate particularly online. But the rewards of real conversation with customers can be enormous.
Thanks for the insight Scott.
Scott Sigler Links
Background Reading
Subscribe to the Podcasts
NY Times
Interview with Scott
Read the Blogs
www.scottsigler.net
http://www.ancestornovel.com/blog/
One comment
David MacGregor said: (on June 25th, 2007 at 8:31 pm)
An interesting case study. I’ll take a close look at the links. One of the observations I would add is that all of the techniques you describe undoubtedly work, but not in every case. There is no magic recipe or formula that will guarantee a corresponding success for you or your clients.
One of the key differences is the direct voice or connection between the audience and the product or service. If the conversation seems mediated or in some way separate from the brand then the authenticity bubble bursts very quickly. In my experience the forms of communication you detail are individual and personal. Imagine someone calling you on Skype on behalf of someone else or leaving a comment on a personal brand on behalf of a brand. It already feels creepily like spam, doesn’t it.
Ornately executed campaigns like the online Lynx experience ( http://lynxvice.com/) by Unilever bring old world interactive ideas to play and, no matter how well it has been put together, it still has the sense of something made up.
The kind of success Scott Sigler has achieved comes from a sesne of personal connection and ‘ownership’ that brand theorists have been, well, theorising about for years. The much heralded ‘one on one’ marketing prophesised by the DM business in the mid 90s (with nerry a mention of the Internet) is finally upon us. It will take a mind shift to make it work for our clients and a willingness to fully immerse ourselves in the task.