Although we are a consumer-driven economy and the competition for customers is fierce, most of us probably don’t know what is actually entailed in reaching a customer base. There are two major umbrellas that serve this purpose, and they are huge industries: Marketing and Public Relations.

Many things fall into these two camps.  According to the American Marketing Association, Marketing is defined as “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”   Hmmm. The one I found on Yahoo is somewhat clearer: “The strategic functions involved in identifying and appealing to particular groups of consumers, often including activities such as advertising, branding, pricing, and sales.”

For people who are trying to sell product, especially intellectual property which includes books, there are several ways to go about digging in to the marketing functions.  Let’s break the definitions down and identify what each piece is intended to do.

“Appealing to particular groups” or Finding your audience.  Who is going to buy what you are selling?  Be interested in what you have to say?  What are these people talking about now, and where can you find them?

“Branding”: Deciding what you or your product represents.  How do you want to package yourself?  What packaging is appropriate?  What kind of image are you and your product presenting?  How can you directly appeal to your audience?  Answer these questions and create the right language and visuals that go along with the brand.

“Pricing and sales”:  You don’t want to charge too little, but also not more than the market will bear.  Research what comparable services or products are going for in the marketplace and set your price accordingly.

“Advertising”: In my experience, advertising only works when you are working with something or someone who is already a known entity in the target market.  Otherwise, unless you have a major budget for an ad campaign, you are trying to create awareness about something that no one knows about.  This is better suited to publicity and the public relations industry.

Public Relations is “the art or science of establishing and promoting a favorable relationship with the public, ” again according to Yahoo.  I love the thought of it being an art or science.  In layman’s terms, pr is about getting the word out through appropriate messaging across many channels.  First you create the story or message you want to broadcast and then, via traditional and digital media, you propagate the information.

Messaging comes in many different forms including press releases, original articles, podcasts, and videos that you can market across the media world.  Again, knowing your audience is key because you have to find a way to communicate with them that will get them to take notice of what you are trying to say/sell.

Publicity is all about media and comes into play after the message is ready.  Here there are similarities to the way advertising works, except that publicity incorporates or generates stories.  Advertising can be very one-dimensional and static (like a full page ad in the NY Times).

Generally, given the number of outlets there are to promote things and the many different ways you can reach people through social media channels, you are likely to need a combination of some or all of the above.  In order to meet the changing needs of clients and authors, I’ve become a hybrid publicist who is well versed in public relations strategies and marketing.  It’s a lot more interesting to know how all the pieces fit together and hugely gratifying when you can be successful and see results.

You started a blog, but who’s going to read it?  Do you have to write another one? How do you get the most out of it?

Writing a blog is a basic process: an introduction, the body, and a conclusion. You hit the “publish” button and it’s out in the inter-web, now what? The best result (and most hoped for) would be that people just randomly stumble onto your blog and fall in love with it immediately—but we all know that realistically, getting viewers to your website is going to take a lot of tedious work. Tedious, but necessary! If you are not getting the viewership you’re hoping for, here are some tips that we have found to be successful:

1. Tweet on Twitter
If Twitter overwhelms you, you are not alone. When I first started Twitter, I was terrified of so many things: saying something really dumb, having a person attack me (it happens to everyone—Twitter is a place where many people unleash their critical side [such as here], and it’s not you, it’s them), or using the wrong #hashtag and having someone malign me for it. But Twitter is not all that bad, and you can use it to spread word about your blog.

2. Use #HashTags
There are lots of ways to muster interest, such as posting your blog on Mondays and tweeting your latest post with a #MondayBlogs hashtag. Or #ThrowBackThursday with an older blog post that could still be considered relevant.  For example, did you write a blog post in 2012 about Superbowl commercials? Use #TBT or #FlashbackFriday as a fun way to look back and compare it to this year’s game.

3. Facebook/LinkedIn
More people are shifting their attention from Facebook to social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter, but don’t forget how much of your demographic may still be on Facebook and LinkedIn. Post your new blog posts to Facebook—friends and family members can be a huge help when they share your posts with their friends. Don’t forget that Facebook now uses hashtags too—so make sure you utilize them as well. LinkedIn is similar to Facebook in posting styles.

4. Commenting and sharing; relationships with other blogs
Blogging and getting traffic to your blog is not a one-way street. Other bloggers who are starting out (and even have had blogs for awhile) are in the same position as you: they need readers. You should read other blogs that are interesting to you and share on social media ones that you like (and if they have a social media account, make sure to tag them or tweet their Twitter handle).  You might comment on some blogs, other people might click on your comments, and because you have made sure your name links back to your website, you will gain traffic–Voila!

5. Putting your blog in your online bios.
This may sound like a no-brainer, but make sure that your blog web address is on any and all of the other platforms that you use: Google Plus, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Goodreads, etc.

6. Subscribers
Brainstorm new ways to get people to subscribe to your blog. A client of ours wanted to know how he could leverage his book signing in order to get more subscribers to his blog.  We suggested he print out some sign up sheets for the people who came to his event.   It’s simple, and by the end of the night he might have 20—maybe more—new subscribers.

7. Create a blog roll
Are there blogs that you find yourself going back to over and over again? Create a blog roll on the side of your page that links back to those blogs. It’s another way of participating in the “sharing is caring” culture of the blogosphere—they’ll appreciate it and may insert you in their blog roll as a thank you.

8. Use buttons
There are several websites out there, like BlogLovin’, that pull together tons of different blogs for their subscribers. You can add their buttons to your website, and when people click on “add me to BlogLovin’” it adds your blog to that person’s list.

There is never just “one way” to get traffic to your blog.  It is more about using several of these tips and strategies that will connect you to a community as well as increase your own readership, and you will have to extend yourself sometimes to help a kindred blogger. In order to get what you want, you have to give a little too.