Three Phases To Get People Reading Your Comic!
This three phase plan might take awhile, but it’s totally worth it!
Humans are really simple people. Seriously.
One of my favorite lines in the comic Watchmen, is when Dr. Manhattan says:
“I can change almost anything…but I can’t change human nature.”
So, how does play out in our marketing tactics for our comics. Well for starters, if we understand that human nature is basically the same and has patterns, then we can build out our strategy even better.
For one, humans like to be in packs, groups, and subcultures. We are going to use this knowledge to our advantage.
Today, we’re going to talk about the THREE PHASE CREATOR PLAN!
So my friend Dan who is making a fantasy comic asks me:
“If I filled out my Ideal Customer Profile, what is the next step?”
My answer, the next step is to figure out your strategy on selling.
I’m a huge fan of Alex Hormozi and if you have never listened to his Youtube channel you definitely should. Alex says that there are FIVE ways to sell anything:
Cold Message
Paid Advertising
Partnering with a publisher/affiliate
Create Content
Word of Mouth
With each of these tactics however come sacrifices.
Cold Message - ruining relationships and annoying people.
Paid Advertising - You need money upfront, need to know how to do it or PAY someone who knows how to do is, and there is still no guarantee it will work.
Partnering - anytime you offload part of the “work” that needs to be done, you sacrifice a % of the money you could take in.
Create Content - you’ll have to learn a lot of new skills and sacrifice your own time in order to produce results
Word of Mouth - you have NO CONTROL over this.
Whenever I talk to creators I always tell them to go with option 4 because it’s the road where you gain new skills and get to keep all the money.
My day job is working at a book publisher. When we sign an author’s book, we then put OUR own money into editing it, creating the cover, laying it out for print, paying for the printing, warehousing the product, selling the product into stores, and marketing said comic. Because we the publisher take so much of the risk and upfront work, we take the majority of the money. So when authors come to me and complain that they’re not raking it in with cash, I tell them this:
“Listen, when you signed with us you knew that you were only going to get 5-15% of each sale. If you wanted 100% of the sales, you would have done all of the above with your own upfront cash.”
They then respond:
“But I don’t know how to market or sell, I don’t know how to get into stores, and I definitely don’t want to warehouse my books or have to ship them out myself.”
In which case I respond:
“And that’s why you decided to work with a publisher.”
SO! Back to content creation.
Let’s create a plan for Dan with his high fantasy comic BRINGERS OF LIGHT. We’ve already established in the last newsletter that just targeting “comic fans” isn’t enough. So, we’re going to break this down into THREE phases.
DISCLAIMER: This is one type of strategy that could work. At the end of the day, this is just an example with no guarantee results, and YOU will have to figure out what works for YOU in the end. As well, there is no strategy to speed up this process. This strategy could take a year, 5 years, even 10. The question you need to ask yourself is this: how committed are you to this?
PHASE 1: THROWING THE NET
Dan’s fans are fantasy lovers who are into Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Brandon Sanderson, and more. They love all things fantasy. Our first step is to cast the widest net possible within this subculture of Fantasy Lovers, before we find our core readers for Dan’s comic.
Dan creates a youtube channel where he makes videos 1-2 times a week talking about all things fantasy. But not just fantasy…fantasy movies and Tv shows! This is going to spread the widest net possible because individuals consuming mainstream media are what we would call “normies.” With that being said, you also have hardcore fans as well potentially watching these shows as well.
Dan’s videos are to serve the fantasy community. He reacts to episodes, makes analysis videos on specific characters and moments, and really contributes to the conversations being had in the community.
At no point in this process does he bring up his comic. Not yet.
PHASE 2: THE CIRCLE GETS SMALLER
Now that Dan has made MANY MANY MANY videos on topics like Lord of the Rings, Rings of Power, Game of Thrones, House of Dragon, etc, we now start to bring the circle smaller and start discussing the BOOKS. Dan starts talking about other fantasy books in the genre that aren’t necessarily getting mainstream appeal.
He could make videos like “10 Differences in Game of Thrones TV Show verse the books,” or “How Faithful is the Fellowship of the Ring movie to the book.” Not just that, but he can make content like “If you liked Game of Thrones, you might also like this series…” or “If you’re into magical elves, you’ll also like this series…”
In Phase 1, Dan created an entertainment channel for the community. In Phase 2, Dan now becomes an AUTHORITY figure in the space. If you want a review or a book recommendation, you go to Dan.
And here’s the thing, this ONLY works if you’re actually a fan of this stuff. Remember, you can’t fake it till you make it, when it comes to content creation.
Now that Dan is member of the community, he’s contributing to the conversation, but also STARTING the conversations as well, we can now bring in the THIRD PHASE of this strategy.
PHASE 3: THE CREATOR
In phase 1, Dan became an entertainer, in Phase 2, he became a leader, and Phase 3, we’re going to introduce Dan as a creator.
Dan will continue to make the continue to make the content that he has been, only this time, throughout the intro and outro, he’s going to start saying like “did you know that I am making my own series?” Or “did you know that I am creating a comic?” These little teases will help spark interest among his fans. He might also start a newsletter that says that if you join for FREE, you can get exclusive access to the behind the scenes progress of the comic.
Now he has their attention, and now he has their information.
He might also want to introduce comic recommendations in his Youtube page as well, further broadening his reach on the fantasy community, and bringing in new fans. Fantasy book readers might now know where to find comics they like, but they trust Dan to point them in the right direction. Same with Fantasy comic readers looking to get into the books.
Throughout Phase 3, we will spill more and more about Dan’s series BRINGERS OF LIGHT. He’ll start posting about it more on his twitter, and Youtube. He might even start interviewing other creators that are prominent in the space, and maybe he uses that time to ask for advice from that creator.
Now people go, Dan makes fantasy content, he knows what to consume, and he is making his own.
When it’s time to release his book, those who have been following his newsletter are essentially already activated to buy because they are interested in it, and then he can tell his larger community and hopefully they hop on board as well.
Now.
Why is this a strategy that I like? Because Dan has created not ONE source of income, but two and possibly even more. There are so many creators that I know who are banking on living off of the sales of their book. With this method, Dan has now created a Youtube channel he can monetize, he’s created a newsletter he can monetize, and now has a book he can sell which he can monetize, and along with that book is all kinds of merch.
How did we come up with this strategy for Dan? All beecause of that first newsletter where we identified who his Ideal Customer is. Without that, this marketing plan would essentially be like throwing darts at a dartboard, but blindfolded, and spinned around 10 times.
Why throw spaghetti at a wall and see which sticks, when you can create a plan that is more likely to work then firing in the dark.
So. The questions you need to ask yourself are:
Who is my Ideal Customer? How do I market to them?
Remember, there are only 5 ways to do this…so…choose which one works for you and go for it!
Thanks for reading! Sorry this was a long one but I hope you got some value out of it.
Tyler :)