Lessons from a Best Seller

Seth Godin writes on his blog daily. I believe this is a very important question that he asked this weekend:

Not a trick question

Should you make stuff aimed at people who usually buy your product?

or

Should you make stuff aimed at people who rarely do?

The DaVinci Code became the bestselling book of the decade because it got bought by people who don't buy books. On the other hand, plenty of successful authors (like Dave Eggers) only write books for people who buy lots of books.

The advantage of mass is that it's big. The advantage of the devoted is that they are paying attention and have a desire to spend.

Most times, it's not obvious which one to pick. But you need to pick.

To dig further, The answer to this question requires digging further. DaVinci Code book buyers all had an interest in the subject. That's what led them to the final destination (spending $$ to buy the book). But if you dig deeper, you'll see that there are many paths that were taken to get to that destination.

There were traditional book readers. But there were also Movie Goers that saw the film and then bought the book. And from that group are the ones that saw the movie in the theater, there are those that rented the DVD, and those that bought the DVD. There's also a group that took the path from the internet to buying the book.

See the target was not the book buyer, but the person that has an interest in the subject matter.

Apply this to your marketing and you'll save money by MATCHING your product properly.

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