"65 ThoughtFull Ways for Booksellers & Authors (and Their SmartPartners) to Delight and Serve Customers for Life"

To become their top-of-mind choice when book lovers are buying books, generate differentiating value and visibility – as you can best do with the right partners and methods. In an over-advertised world get introduced to prospective book buyers through organizations they already know and trust.

With the right alliances you can also attract new niche markets, improve your cause support, create new profit centers, attract more of your most lucrative kind of customer, increase per-customer spending, attract unusual media cover – and enjoy your success with allies who are benefiting from it along with you.

The 64 book customer-attracting suggestions are based on three fundamental notions of "thoughtfull" outreach and service.

1. Hone your specific, vivid, valuable point of difference from your nearest competitors that customers can see and care about.

2. Continually offer more ways and reasons to buy from you, buy more and rave about you to their friends.

3. Third, that you must continuously seek ways to reduce the number of inconvenient, boring, or otherwise negative barriers to buying from you. Whether you offer order-by-fax with curbside book pickup or provide amusing things to see and do while a staffer is ringing up a sale, turn every customer moment into something more positive. Now to some specifics . . .

1. "Brand Your Bookstore"

Constantly promote and reinforce the main difference between your bookstore
and the two other bookstores your kind of customers are most likely to
choose. "Bay Area's Liveliest Bookstore" is a more informative and
memorable slogan than, say, "Bay Area's Best Bookstore." The first version
is how the Petrocellis characterize their event-filled store in my county,
and they live up to their motto.

In one vivid phrase or sentence, describe your bookstore's main differentiating benefit. Is it specific, believable, and easy to remember? Does every store employee know it? How many customers would recall it when outside your store? Display it as your motto for staff and customers to see and hear frequently. Use it as your reference point in conversations with customers and for all store decision-making, from operations to book selections to promotions.


2. "Prove Your Point of Difference"

What are the two most obvious and quantifiable ways your store demonstrates its differentiation (depth of titles and staff knowledge in a certain subject area, special subjects, variety of convenient ways to buy, wide-ranging and numerous book reviews, convenient location, more) that reinforce your main differentiating benefit in the eyes of your customers.

Retail is detail - this "detail" is your main resource and you want to
constantly find new business practices that reinforce it.

3. "Know Why They Buy"

The most important question you can ask your customers is "What are the
main reasons you buy from our bookstore rather than another?" Ask them at
least 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" in which they can number their top
ten factors (your list) that include two blank spaces for their own
possible fill-in.

4. "Narrow Your Niches to Widen Your Profits"

Some customers are more valuable than others (the top 5% who buy far more) so find more ways to treat them that way. 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 could be Korean entrepreneurs.

A niche might be computer professionals; niche-within-a-niche: home office workers with computers.

Niche: women mystery readers; niche-within-a-niche: women mystery readers who are also frequent travellers.

The more specific you get in picturing a narrowly defined market, the more easily you can picture them as people. You can see their lifestyle and ways you can reach and delight more of them, with less effort and cost, and in ways they will value. Plus, you can steadily go after one niche after another, knowing that their enthusiasm and loyalty will also spill over to attract others kinds of friends they refer.

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 tend to notice related inspirational or helpful books and services.
as do many of the stutterers I’ve met. The more narrow the niche you target, the more streamlined, thought1` and profitable you can be in reaching and serving that niche.

5. "Make Buying More Effortless"

Reduce the number of motions and amount of time it takes for a customer to
buy from you. Literally walk through the steps with a co-staffer and/or
customer and discuss alternatives to even the most basic ways you are
currently doing business.

6. "Provide Pleasant Pauses"

Make customers' waiting time at the cash register more pleasant by having
various things to read (reviews, upcoming events, coupon offers), play with
(magnetic poetry, small stuffed animals, "Quotes Here"), fill out (online
newsletter request, review form), watch (video vignettes), smell (waft your
store scent over this area).

7. "Find Your Quotes Here"

Place a large container - perhaps a 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 customers to sign their
fortune-cookie-size paper contribution. Fill the bowl with at least 200
multi-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).

8. "See Smiles in a Sunshine-Filled Store"

Many clothing and make-up retailers and restaurant owners have learned the
magic of soft lighting, and you'll see an improvement in the mood of your
staff and customers when you install "full-spectrum" lights that replicate
the range of sunlight. 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 the store 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 fragrancing system," AromaSys
(612-924-0730). They design a scent with you and then install their unit in
your heating or air conditioning system or offer a stand-alone unit.
They've installed systems in restaurants, casinos, homes, public aquariums,
and hotels.

10. "Offer Three Minutes of Fame"

Create videotapes 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 to three minutes.
Keep a video camera (securely stored) in your store for in-store videoing
when notables arrive for the appointment you set. The video session itself
will be a fun in-store event.

11. "Fame Fosters Fans"

Contact public figures and people with a local constituency. If one of your
niche-within-a niche markets is avid gardeners, invite the local garden
society's president to read and lead a pre-Spring mini-seminar. If you
specialize in mysteries, invite the police chief. Invite the presidents of
major locally based companies, high school honor role members, radio
sportscasters, United Way's new campaign chair. Make allies and share
constituencies as they gain "bragging rights" through their relationship
with you, so their colleagues drop by to see them on the video you run on a
continuous feed loop.

12. "See Book Recommendations from the Street"

Display the video monitor in a place where people enter the store, wait (by
cash register), converge (cards or magazines display), or walk by (in store
window for 24-hour viewing with piped-out sound.) Show your videos of
authors and local celebrities.

13. "Spread the Fame"

Offer "free rental" copies of these videos to the people who appear in them
and to their "constituents," for them to play in their lobbies, office
waiting areas, or employee cafeterias - or at their events or at meetings
of organizations to which they belong.

14. "Watch Words Featured Here"

Near each video monitor that features the Video Vignettes for the month,
display a sign, "Celebrities and Books Featured in [month's] Video
Vignettes," listing the celebrity readers and appropriate titles in the
order they appear, along with the titles of their book selections. Within
two feet, display the books (and a bundled price for them), in the sequence
they are discussed on the video.

15. "Hear Readers at Work"

As an alternative to vignettes of celebrities' book recommendations, show
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. Each reader might
read one passage, so the viewer gets to sample many readings.

16. "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. Thus you are marketing to and through each
book lover to reach more people, some of whom might not have stepped into
your store.

17. "We Coddle Avid Readers"

Offer $500 and $250 "Avid Reader" gift certificates. Those who purchase a
certificate get a free product they can pick up from your nearby
cross-promoting partner. Your partner makes a similar offer to his
customers, for which you provide a comparably priced set of books to her
certificate-buying customers.

18. "Add to Gift-Giving Fun"

Offer major gift certificates of $500 for which 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 products from your cross-promoting partners that can
be delivered with your gift certificate.

19. "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 that person uses the certificate.

20. "Make Giving Convenient"

Encourage book-certificate giving by providing forms on which givers can
write their name, recipient, where to be sent, and when. Show the
convenience of their listing several recipients at once who may receive
their certificates at different times.

Offer a free gift certificate to givers who register a minimum number of intended recipients at one time. This option will be especially attractive to forgetful or time-pressed people. Later, send a note suggesting the giver might want to send gift certificates again the following year and/or to others, and put their gift-giving pattern in your computer.

21. "Exchange with Your Partners"

Your cross-promoting partners can make a similar offer of a comparably
priced product 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.

22. "Stick with Your Customers"

Offer your customers free and elegantly designed gift stickers, with your
bookstore name on them. For your major customers, offer book owner's name
stickers that discretely include your store name and contact information.

23. "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 - for example, when they
forgot a birthday or have an unexpected opportunity to celebrate. They
might want to send a book, with a card, or - with less thinking needed on
their part - a gift certificate inscribed with their message. Offer a gift
bag and card, with their message, delivered fast for a reasonable fee. Your
cross-promoting partner might be the messenger service you use.

24. "Be a 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
reflective of 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 bouquet 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!"

25. "Cross-Promote to Attract New Customers"

As an alternative to Tip #24, cross-promote with a bike shop, asking 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."

26. "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 customers to answer
by providing a form at the counter, listing 30 or so organizations and
leaving blank spaces for them to fill in others.

27. "Give Them Another Reason to Buy"

Because bookstores, like most other stores, display products and signs in
the categories in which they are purchased (mysteries, cookbooks) but
customers' needs or interests don't always correspond to these categories,
create displays and signs that relate to special interests. Base the
displays 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, and the like. Don't rely
on customers to seek out a title they might want (but don't know exists) or
to buy 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," "Books
Made into Movies," "Starting a Business?"

28. "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, in 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.

29. "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 they can
fill out and fax back, drop off, or email to you. Place the reviews near
the books and in your other outreach (Web site, CitySearch site,
newsletter) to stretch the value for the reviewer and your store.

30. "Be a Well-Read Reviewer"

Show talented reviewers the value of contributing a review, so they'll keep
contributing. Displayed reviews help authors stay in the public eye, local
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. Build a coterie of diverse and interesting experts with
well-known names and interesting jobs or expertise, who get in the news or
whose titles or achievements make them credible and/or just plain
interesting reviewers.

31. "Recruit Valuable Reviewers"

Look for book reviewers in at least three ways:

a. Experts.
Looking at each book category, consider whose 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. It's
good public visibility for public officials (the police chief reviewing books on security or police mystery, the mayor on government or politics).
Leaders of a cause, civic or other non-profit organization, offer reviews that
spotlight their concerns.

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

c. Authors and Other Celebrities.
Just as Vanity Fair gets interesting
reactions when they ask high- and lowbrow celebrities what book they're
reading, you'll offer your customers another fun feature to read.......

....then read the rest of the tips here