“udi’s crazy ideas”, 3 secrets, 2 links, 1 quote

Reader,

I missed you last week…

let’s just say I’d highly recommend a flu shot if you haven’t gotten one yet!

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Today’s 321 is inspired by a little marketing book that recently came across my desk by the former CMO of Gong.

Udi Ledergor was partly responsible in his role for taking a small startup and turning it into to a multi-billion-dollar company in under 10 years.

I love looking outside of Book marketing to find new book marketing ideas because as soon as a good idea is introduced to the industry, it’s not long before everyone is doing it and it’s no longer that useful.

Outside of book marketing is where you find the most untapped marketing ideas to sell your book.

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3 Secrets:

1. Think national, go regional

Not unlike a startup, a no-name author must find ways to “punch upward” and look bigger to their market than meets the eye.

Looking bigger gives you trust that your ideas or stories are vetted.

Udi did this at Gong by getting placements in the most impressive places they could show up, front page of the WSJ, Super Bowl Commercials, etc.

Except they didn’t pay for it, at least not as much as most do. Udi focused on just getting placed regionally so the cost was a fraction of what it would have taken.

Now I’m not saying that even a fraction of a super bowl ad cost isn’t an enormous expense to sell a book and am not recommending you start filming your Superbowl ad.

I’m saying that wherever or whatever national brand is seen as legitimate in your niche, find a way to get listed on just a regional or fractional version.

There’s platforms like this one where you can pay less than a hundred bucks to get whatever you want on a billboard in Time Square for 15 seconds. Then, just make sure someone takes a pic of it and all of a sudden you seem bigger than you are.
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Udi’s 6 steps to punch upward:

1. Pick an offline medium,
2. Buy a small version of it,
3. Get creative with the medium,
4. Photograph your campaign,
5. Share on social media,
6. activate employees and customers to engage with it

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2. 5-10% for marketing experiments….”Udi’s crazy ideas”

You’ve heard me talk about moonshots – how about budgeting for them?

Each quarter Udi’s team would budget for him to spend 5-10% on crazy ideas.

Now…we’re not companies with hundreds of thousands in marketing budget…BUT….

what if we take the same approach for our $1,000 budget and the time we put into our book marketing?

What if we make it our standard to attempt “crazy ideas” that probably won’t work and invest 5-10% of our the time and resources to them?

I sit down at my desk and think, what’s my crazy idea for this month?

Will I reverse shoplift and drop off 10 copies on a Walmart bookshelf? (Thanks Ed Rush for this one 😉

Will I run some low budget ads on a weirdly niche but relevant website my audience frequents?

Will I sell my book like Rich Dad Poor Dad and stock a car wash with copies of my book?

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3. Putting yourself in a position to get lucky, redux​
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​This secret is a reminder of what you’re really working to achieve by marketing your book.

Most books have one huge pivot moment

like Oprah becoming a fan of A New Earth,
or an organization making Rich Dad Poor Dad mandatory reading,
or a talk that goes viral which was the case with Radical Candor
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One of those moments came for Gong when Udi bought a regional court placement ad that Steph Curry happened to jump over as he broke the record for all time 3-point record.

That clip went viral and what should have been seen by a few thousand ended up being seen by millions.

Udi punched up and it payed off.

When you take moonshots, sometimes you get lucky.

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2 Links

1. Probably one of the most important podcast conversations I’ve ever had – talking about the current state of book discovery and the future of marketing with none other than the longest running book marketing podcast host of The Novel Marketing Podcast, Thomas Umstattd Jr. Listen in here.
2. The previously mentioned little marketing book that happened it’s way across my desk. Would highly recommend for those who have more than just a book to sell. Get it here.

1 Quote

“Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you’re climbing it.”
— Andy Rooney

with love and sincere appreciation,

Alex
​BeforeTheBestseller | ShelfLife​
alex@getshelflife.com
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