Perceive

The final entry in the WAKE UP Marketing Strategy is all about Perception, but this is really just the beginning of the real work of marketing your book with solid information about your target audience!

P = Perception

Always remember that as an expert in whatever you have written, you are probably very much like your prospective customer.  Just like you, your customers immediately perceive the things they see, hear or experience. Perceptions are technically nothing more than what a person recognizes and understands -- but that's all marketing really is. 

All along in our analysis of the WAKE UP psychographic marketing strategy, we have been talking about locating your target audience through their beliefs, values, habits and interests. These can not be easily manipulated by a marketer; however, a person's perception of something can be controlled by skillfully crafted and placed messages. Your packaging, your marketing, and any other tie-in to your book should honestly and effectively convey a message that results in the perception you are aiming for.

“It is one of the commonest of mistakes to consider that the limit of our power of perception is also the limit of all there is to perceive.”    ~ C. W. Leadbeater

There's perception, and then there's reality. The reality is what your book will provide to the reader -- from the format, to the words you've chosen, to the distribution strategy that you selected. It's your skills, your story, your life, your expertise, and then even your delivery of all of those things in a form you can share that are the reality. It's the things you have chosen in your publishing program that make your book what it is.  But does the reality of your product match the same as your customer's perception of your book?  It needs to be totally in sync to maximize your effectiveness. 
Consult with your Watch Group again to gauge their perceptions of your marketing messages. 

Now the real work begins.....