As many of you know, I have a not-so-secret passion for NFL football. So I read this week’s post about the imminent release of the Madden NFL 2022 game with great delight – because it combined two of my favorite topics: football and marketing. Madden is the run-away #1 video game for NFL fans, and every year they publish a new edition (brilliant sales model) with a star on the cover. It’s a big deal to be chosen as the cover star for Madden, which is where the marketing genius begins.
And if you are a book author, pay attention, because there’s plenty to learn and apply to your own book marketing campaign.
You see, the Madden folks have made the choice of the cover photo a marketing event all on its own. By placing a star (often a rising young star) on the cover, they leverage the excitement and media coverage already surrounding that star. They also turn a business decision into a marketing opportunity. There are often polls and contests to guess who will be on the cover – imagine the entire world turning your product release into free editorial content that is fun and engaging – without you lifting a finger!
But there’s more. This week, Madden released a video tease of the upcoming cover reveal. I mean, you gotta love this. Madden got extra mileage out of teasing the cover reveal – before they even revealed it. Again, this isn’t paid marketing – it’s free earned media. Genius.
The video tease itself was marketing gold. Football fans will immediately get it: the video featured two goats breaking out of the barn, with the narrator (a former-football-player-turned-farmer) saying “yep, they did it again.” Tom Brady = the goat (Greatest.Of.All.Time) = won the Super Bowl again (for the 7th time) this past February. Sure enough, today’s reveal has Tom Brady featured on the cover of Madden 22. Thus, as this week’s reveal unfolded, the buzz of speculation then gave way to discussions of whether or not Brady should have been solo or paired with Patrick Mahomes. And of course, Madden had a countdown clock on the reveal to keep us tuned in all week.
Sorry to geek out on football, but there is a marketing lesson here, regardless of your sports appetite.
Authors and publishers often overlook opportunities to promote their books because they are focused on the topic of the book. They forget the fan and they forget the fun. Madden reminds us that the key to effective marketing is to get inside the head of your customer and talk about things they care about.
Madden also reminds us that virtually everything in your journey is a marketing opportunity. When you sign your contract. When you design your jacket. When you get a blurb. When you finish your manuscript. When you send the book to the printer. When the book goes live on Amazon/BN.com/your own website. When you receive that first box of books on your doorstep. Every time you book an interview. Every time you conduct an interview. Every time you have a column or op/ed or excerpts published. Every time you hit a bestseller list. Every time you do a book signing. Every time you hear from a reader about the difference your book made in his or her life.
Here is the cardinal rule for all these “inflection points:” make sure your messaging is fun from the reader’s point of view. Sounds like a high bar? Not really.
Consider – rather than announce your new jacket cover, why not post three possible jacket cover designs and invite people to vote? Rather than “brag” that you finished your manuscript, why not tell a story about your dream for your readers, and how that dream is one step closer to becoming true? Rather than simply announcing that your book is live online for pre-orders, why not offer a special gift to everyone who orders the book in advance?
Your assignment is two-fold: never stop looking for inflection points that allow you to talk to your fans about your book and always craft your messaging by asking “what would make this fun and interesting to my target market?”
You might not wind up on the cover of a video game, but you can be the GOAT of book marketing, and sell a whole lot of copies in the process.