4 Marketing Principles to Consider as a Writer
Having some basic background knowledge and understanding of core marketing principles, concepts and skills can go a long way in helping you as a writer.
For this article I will be specifically focusing on some of the 7Ps of Marketing, in particular, Promotion, Place, Product, and Process.
What are the 7Ps in marketing?
The 7Ps of the marketing mix is a strategy used by marketers and businesses to understand where their products sit in the market. It is an incredibly helpful tool whether you are starting out a new business or planning a new product, to help understand, where it fits in the market.
Not only that but as a writer, some of the tactics within the 7Ps can be a useful tool to help further grow your own writing and brand, and reach not only more people but the right people.
1. Promotion
Taking the approaches and skills used by marketers is essential to getting your writing out there and to reach your audience. You could be the best writer in the world, but if no one can find your stories, your art will be lost.
But fear not, instead of sitting around waiting for your potential audience to come to you, you can use a range of Promotional marketing techniques to help you connect with the right people.
To start with ask yourself the following questions;
- Who are you trying to help?
- What is the purpose of your writing?
There is a range of different marketing activities to help promote your writing, from using paid social advertising to test headlines, that resonate more with your audience, to email marketing.
This is where the first question becomes more important, if you know who your writing is for, you can start to understand what would be the best way to communicate and connect with them.
Say for example you write about fashion for a younger audience, you may find they spend a large amount of their time on Instagram and within certain online communities, that is where you need to go to connect with them.
To make your audience more aware of your writing you need to connect with them, where they spend their time, which is a reason why social media can be a great place to start connecting with your audience and connect with them.
2. Place
As a writer, this is where your audience can find your writing. If you are just starting out it is a good idea to use a platform that already has a large audience. Platforms like Medium, Vocal, Wattpad, and Substack are great places to start.
Once more unless you are specifically writing for SEO, it is better to spread out across a number of platforms, where your audience spends their time.
For example, if you were writing about productivity advice, it would be worth sharing your writing across, Medium, Vocal, and LinkedIn. There are many arguments for and against this, but if you are writing in the online world, there is nothing wrong with copying and pasting an article your write on Medium and sharing on Vocal and LinkedIn. It will give you a far greater chance of further connecting with the right people.
If you want to read up more around this, I would advise looking into ‘The Art and Business of Online Writing’ by Nicolas Cole, who covers this much better than me and from someone with a lot more experience in online writing.
3. Product
You might be thinking why I have included Product here, ‘I’m a writer and I don’t sell any products’ however your writing is what you produce to help your audience.
In marketing when looking at Products in the 7Ps, we look at how you can further develop your products. A key tactic within this to consider as a writer is differentiation.
For example, if you are writing fantasy-style stories, it can be hard to set yourself apart from the already huge names out there like J. R. R. Tolkien, and let’s be honest, you probably will not be able to create something better than Lord of the Rings.
But you don’t have to make something better, you just need to create your own category and become the best writer in that category. Instead of focusing on creating something better, look at writing something unique and different.
I would highly recommend reading chapter 3 of Nicolas Cole’s ‘The Art and Business of Online Writing’ for a more detailed breakdown of this.
4. Process
In the marketing, world the process is all about creating a more user-friendly experience and having an understanding of the different stages of their journey through a number of different channels.
How can you aim to improve your reader’s experience when they are reading your articles?
There are a number of different solutions to experiment with from changing the structure of your writing to make it easier for your audience to read, to really understanding in each post, what is in it for the reader?
If you always keep your reader in mind, experiment with your writing and try to understand what each article should do for them. Are you trying to educate them around a particular skill or area? Be clear, be focused, and remember not to waste their time.
If you are telling me you have 10 ways to help become more productive, you better deliver, or I will head somewhere else.
Before you go
There are a number of great marketing techniques that you should consider using to further help your journey as a writer, and even learning some basic marketing skills can go a long way in helping you as a writer.
Research and sources
- Understanding The 7Ps of The Marketing Mix from the Oxford College of Marketing
- 7Ps Marketing Mix from Smart Insights
- ‘The Art and Business of Online Writing’ by Nicolas Cole
