"Thought Full" Marketing for Booksellers to Keep Customers for Life
by Kare Anderson

More Information About the Author: Click Here for the Kare Anderson Home Page

2. "Prove Your Point of Difference" What are the two most obvious and quantifiable ways your store demonstrates that differentiation, (depth of titles and staff knowledge in a ceertain subject area, certain subjects, variety of convenient ways to buy, wide-ranging and numerous book reviews, convenient location, etc.) that reinforce your main differentiating benefit in the eyes of my customers. Retail is detail and this "detail" is your main resource to contantly find new business practices that reinforce it.

3. "Know Why We Buy" What are the main reasons you buy from our bookstore rather than another?" is the most important question you can ask your customers, twice yearly and reward them for answering with a drawing for prizes and by informing them how you've used their opinions to further improve your bookstore. Design a "Quick Poll" where they can numbr their top ten factors (you list) that include two blank spaces for their own possible fill in.

4. "Narrow Your Niches to Widen Your Profits" Select two to three niche-within-a-niche markets, people for whom you provide extraordinary, sometimes premium service, sometimes for premium prices, THEN consider the books, related products and service policies and procedures you will implement to provide that level of service to them. A niche might be Koreans. A niche within-a-niche is Korean entrepreneurs. Niche: computer professionals. Niche-within-a-niche: home office workers with computers. Niche: women mystery readers. Niche-within-niche: women readers of mysteries featuring a woman sleuth. Select a niche by considering your own areas of interest or expertise (based on crisis, hobbies or life experiences). As a former stutterer, for example, I always look for books and services for inspiration and information about any kind of speaking disability or skill-building and I know most stutterers also do. The more narrow the niche you target the more streamlined, thoughtful and profitable you can be in reaching and serving it

5. "Make Buying More Effortless" Reduce the number of motions and amount of time it takes for a customer to buy from you, by literally walking through the steps with a co-staffer and / or customer and discussing alternatives to even the most basic current ways you are doing business.

6. "Provide Pleasant Pauses" Make their waiting time at the cash register more pleasant while by having various things to read (reviews, upcoming events, coupon offers), play with (Magnetic poetry, small stuffed animals, "Quotes Here"), sign-ups to fill out (online newsletter, review form), watch (Video Vignettes) smell (waft your store scent over this area).

7. "Find Your Quotes Here" Place a large container like large clear plastic salad bowl near the entry door and/or by the cash register, label it "Quotes Here", with a sign "Take a quote and create one or write a favorite book excerpt to leave in the bowl. Directions invite them to sign their fortune cookie-sized paper contribution. Fill the bowl with at least 200 mulit-colored quotes from classic, new and upcoming books Periodically include a collection of the quotes and the customers' contributions in your outreach (web site, newsletter, etc.)

8. "See Smiles in a Sunshine-Filled Store" Just as many clothing and make-up retailers and restaurant owners have learned the magic of soft lighting, you'll see an improvement in the mood of your staff and customers when you install "full-spectrum" lights that replicate the range of the sun's lights. Unless your store is already awash with natural light, these bulbs and tubes are an inexpensive way to encourage customers to linger, especially during the dark Winter months. Ask your local lighting specialist for brands they carry.

9. Scents of Life Create a "signature scent" to further reinforce the unique character of your bookstore and establish a mood from the moment customers walk through the door. Also scent it for special events (chocolate for the week before Valentine's Day, pine for December holiday time . . .) The most directly emotional sense, scent, can now be used without the fear of adverse effects such as provoking allergic reactions, because of the sophistication of at least one "environmental frangrancing system", AromaSys (612/924-0730). They design a scent with you, then install their unit in the heating or air conditioning system or offer a stand alone unit. They've installed systems in restaurants, casinos, homes, public aquariums and hotels.

9. "Offer Three Minutes of Fame" Create video tapes of "Video Vignettes" book readings by local notables and visiting and local authors who visit your store. Ask each to pick a favorite passage in someone else's book to read for up three three minutes. Keep a video camera (securely stored) in your store for in-store videoing them when they arrive for the appointment you set. Video itself, will be a fun in-store event..

10. "Fame Fosters Fans" Contact public figures and people with a constiutency. If one of your niches is gardening books, invite the local garden societies presidents to read. If you specialize in mysteries, invite the police chief. Invite the presidents of major locally-based companies, high school honor role members, radio sportcasters, United Way's new campaign chair. Make allies and share constituencies as they gain "bragging rights" so their colleagues drop by to see them on the video which you run on a continuous feed loop.

11. "See Book Recomendations From the Street" Display the video monitor in a place where people enter the store, wait (by cash register), converge (cards or magazines display) and / or walk by (in store window for 24 hour viewing with piped out sound.)

12. "Spread the Fame" Offer copies of the video to the readers for them to play at the waiting areas or work cafeterias at their work places and/or at their events. 13. "Watch Words Featured Here" Near each video monitor(s) that features the Video Vignettes, display a sign, "Celebrities and Books Featured in June's Video Vignettes", listing the celebrity readers, and appropraite titles in the order they appear, along with the title of their book selection. If space is available, have a nearby bookshelf of the books, in the sequence they are discussed.

14. "Hear Readers at Work" As an alternative to vignettes of people's book recommendations, have another video of your selected celebrities actually reading from their favorite books, also with an accompanying sign that lists their name, title and favorite book from which they are reading.

15. "Proffer Bragging Rights" Give all video vignette book recommenders and readers a "Celebrity Appearance at (your bookstore name)" certificate or symbolic souvenir (such as bookends) or framed photo of them reading so they can display it and further your store's visibility.

16. "We Coddle Avid Readers" Offer $500 and $250 "Avid Reader" coupons and gift certificates whereby those who purchase a certificate get a free product which they can pick up from your nearby cross-promoting partner who makes a similiar offer to his customers, where you provide a comparably-priced set of books.

17. "Add to Gift Giving Fun" Offer major gift certificates of $100, $250 and $500 where the recipient receives a bonus gift along with the certificate, from one of your cross-promoting partners. At an "Attention-Getting Gifts" display, list the reasons for giving books and the product, s from your cross-promoting partners, that can be delivered with your gift certificate.

18. "Foster Forget-Me-Not Giving" Help customers avoid the guilt of forgetting several special occasions. On the upside, show them how they can give gifts to several people without showing favoritism and how certificates will keep them in the mind of the recipient each time they use the certificate.

19. Encourage book certificate giving by providing forms where givers can write in their name, sender, where to be sent and when. Show the convenience of their listing several recipients at once who may receive ther certificates at different times. Offer a free gift certificate to the giver when that person registers a minimum number of intended recipients at one time. This option may be especially attractive to forgetful or time-pressed people. Later, send a note suggesting that the giver may want to send gift certificates again the following year and/or to others, and put their gift giving pattern in your computer.

20. Your cross-promoting partners can make a similiar offer, of a comparably priced product from them, for their customers who buy gift certificates. Thus all participating retailers gain credible, attention-getting access to each other's big spending customers and can exchange what you can least expensively provide -- your own products.

21. "Stick With Your Customers" Offer your customers free and elegantly - designed gift stickers and book owner's name stickers, stickers that discretly include your store name and contact information.

22. "Help! I Need a Book Now" Get customers accustomed to buying your books (and more) as last minute and impulse buys, even when they can't visit the store, such as when they forgot a birthday or an unexpected opportunity celebrate arises. They might want to send a book, with card or, with less thinking needed on their part, a gift certificate inscribed with their message. Offer a to gift bag and card, with their message, delivered fast for a fee. Your cross-promoting partner might be the messenger service you use.

23. "Be a Real Good Business Neighbor" Display a sign in your store for a nearby outlet's limited-time offer for a specific product or service, using a headline on the sign that gets smaller as it continues into body copy. Use descriptive language that is appropriate for your kind of customer and your kind of bookstore. For example, "In just three minutes you can walk around the corner and pick up a boquet to go with that gift book you're buying. Tell Lily Hills at Flowers Forever on 385 Sausalito Blvd that we suggested it and get a free gardenia to go with your book. What an easy way to brighten someone's day!"

24. Or, in cross-promoting with a bike shop, ask them to superimpose a sign on one of their bike posters, "For those adventuresome enough to take bike tours elsewhere, see three great bike touring books we recommend at Bellamy's Books just down the street. Tell them we suggested it and get a free greeting card with your purchase."

25. "Where Do You Do Your Errands" Ask customers what other places they often visit before or after your bookstore so you can recognize what organizations would be the most valuable allies for cross-promotions. Make it easy for them to answer by providing a form at the counter, listing 30 or so organizations and leaving blank spaces for them to fill in others.

26. "Give Them Another Reason to Buy" Since bookstores, like most other stores, display products and signage in the categories in which they are purchased (mystery, cookbooks,etc.) while customers' needs or interests don't always correspond to those categories, create displays and signage that relates to those special interests based on time of year or life, special human conditions or situations, passionate interests or causes, hot current topics or celebrations, newsmaking events, local leaders' pronouncements, etc. Don't rely on customers seeking out a title they may want (but doesn't know exists) or buying for a reason they would value (but haven't yet considered). Sample messages might be "Graduation presents here", "Plan Summer Trips Now", "Most Widely Read Mysteries This Month", "Stay Fit This Winter", "Starting a Business?" "Books Made Into Movies".

27. "Provide Third Party Endorsements" Increase your per-customer sales by showing them that people they respect or find interesting recommend certain books. Let customers see brief book recommendations by notable people, displayed throughout your store: on shelves, window displays of their five favorites, on your web site, on lifesize cardboard cut-out photos of the reviewer, on floor-to-ceiling paper posters, etc.

28. "I Love This Book!" Make it easy for people to review books in their own way, offering anything from a quick one to three sentence recommendation to a thoughtful, longer review by designing a distinctive " I Love This Book" form that they can fill out and fax/back, drop off or e-mail. Place the reviews near the books an in your other outreach (web site, CitySearch site, newsletter) to stretch the value for the reviewer and your store.

29. "Be a Well-Read Reviewer" Show reviewers how its valuable for them to contribute review, so they'll keep contributing. Displayed reviews help authors stay in the public eye, business owners stand out from their competition, public officials gain more positive visibility, advocates further their cause, experts display their knowledge, heroes and other newsmakers make more news while they're newsworthy, etc. Build a coterie of diverse and interesting experts who have well-known names, interesting jobs or expertise, get in the news or whose titles or achievements make them credible and/or just plain interesting reviewers.

30. "Recruit Valuable Reviewers" Look for book reviewers in at least three ways:

1. Experts. Looking at each book category, consider who's opinion on that kind of book would be credible or interesting to others. For example, for reviews of mysteries, contact the owner of a local detective agency. Its good public visibility for public officials (police chief reviewing books on security or police mystery or the mayor on government or politics). For leaders of a cause or non-profit their reviews can spotlight their concerns.

2. Newsmakers" Seek reviews from people in the news now. Peruse your paper for local people who made "good news' for an heroic action, work, personal or civic achievement, school honor etc. You help make them an ally with your store, gain access to their constituency and add another feature to see for people visting your store.

3. Authors and Other Celebrities. Just as Vanity Fair gets interesting reactions when they ask high and low-brow celebrities what book they are reading, you'll offer your customrs another fun feature to read.

31. "Cultivate Reviewers as Marketers of Your Bookstore" Make it an honor for some reviewers to display their book review and/or a book excerpt at their work site by preparing it in a way that helps them, and display their work at your bookstore. For example, ask the best bike shop owner to review books about bike tours, borrow one of his bikes for an in-store display that includes the review. For his bike store display, enlarge and frame his review, with a frame that includes your bookstore name and address.

32. "Be a Local Columnist" Offer your local shopper newspaper a regular column, perhaps entitled "What We're Reading" where you recap three to eight of the various book recommendations by locals and others who would be of interest to the readers. Also consider offering your services for a "Book Bite" one minute book review for your talk show or news radio station and/or for a weekend morning call-in show of books to read or avoid. Invite opinionated readers to join you for different shows for a lively back-and-forth discussion to stimulate callers. See th rest of the tips at http://www.sayitbetter.com under "Nuggets of Ideas" and sign up for Kare`s free online newsleetter, "Say It Better."