What does it mean to "market/marketing" your comic?

[sadghost]

People throw that term, but mostly reffer to "mass spam social media = marketing", what they mean is "advertising", and that is only a part of marketing, not the whole thing.

For example of advertising: when i "advertise" my comic on social media like twitter, Instagram or art places like deviantart, i got bad to zero results. So that means the "promotion strategy" on those sites is failing. So is not a good marketing for me (i know it worked for others, but not for everyone).

I can't think of people going to my comic or patreon, because they saw it on Instagram or twitter (places that are general, as people can share any image, not just comics, so they tend to give preferences to great art or photos of models, animals, etc) and comics do perform better in comic focused sites like Webtoons or Tapas, because that's what people go to look in those sites.

"The process of marketing is that of bringing a product to market, which includes these steps: broad market research; market targeting and market segmentation; determining distribution, pricing and promotion strategies"
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing

When i started making a comic about romance, that's part of the "market research" as that's the product that's one of the most popular things people look on webtoons/tapas.

By definition: doing your own thing for yourself, and don't care what audience wants, that goes against the whole idea of marketing (as is negating the market research and segmentation aspects).
Now there's nothing wrong with doing your own thing, but then don't complaint when the market doesn't care about your product. Marketing is sometimes way more important than the product itself.

The perfect example would be the pet rock:
"Pet Rock is a collectible made in 1975 by advertising executive Gary Dahl. Pet Rocks are smooth stones from Mexico's Rosarito Beach.They were marketed like live pets, in custom cardboard boxes, complete with straw and breathing holes. The fad lasted about six months, ending after a short increase in sales during the Christmas season of December 1975. Although by February 1976 they were discounted due to lower sales, Dahl sold 1.5 million Pet Rocks for $4 each, and became a millionaire."
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pet_Rock

So a guy become millionaire by selling rocks, now you can say your product (comic/novel/art) is better than a rock, but is...your marketing better than the pet rock? probably not.

tldr / main point: "Being everywhere" doesn't seem to work for me, i haven't found the marketing strategy that works for my product. Are your marketing strategies working?

pd: I don't know what the point of this thread is, probably to discuss strategies that DO work, because the social media strategy is not working for me.

[JeanGuillet]

This is an important topic and a good distinction to make between advertising (which is rapidly going the way of the dinosaur) and marketing. I don't agree that doing your own thing is essentially the opposite of marketing though, because frankly, you're not so special that there aren't other people out there who like the same things as you. Marketing nowadays is figuring out how to find those people and send them a signal that they'd be into the thing you're doing. So presentation is super key to the whole project. Your thumbnails, header images, that's all marketing. How you respond to people who comment, that's marketing. Visibility is marketing. My commenting on your post is marketing. (read my comic it's pretty!) What I've found more important than advertising have been strategies like these:
Show up each week.
Give something for free.
Don't stifle your personality.
Be friendly.
Be excellent at what you do.
Hang out and have fun.

[Jenny-Toons]

And to add to that -- word of mouth. Sometimes, there are people who prefer to find creators not through your standard social media, but through other socials like physical ads, newspapers, and even just talking to someone in passing.

And word of mouth can be a lot of things too! For me, "word or mouth" is just drawing something for a class project or something when I'm a part of any campus programs. I was part of a leader program for my university and I did a bit of drawing for this group I was leading. They asked if I did any work online, and I pointed them to my webcomics. Turns out a few of them were already reading my works!

Sometimes, it does call for talking to actual people to advertise, so I like to mix it up and do stuff both online and in person.

And I do feel actually interacting with your readers and others helps build your rep than just posting on the social medias and not...talking? Like, I see it here in the forums, in the discords, and elsewhere. People just post their work but don't talk, and they kinda expect someone to see them. Problem is -- they're in a sea with many other people who post their work and don't talk. And after a while, you just become invisible.

Edit: And another thing to add -- study the genres you do and don't work in. I see a lot of people who go "well, I don't read romance" or "well, I don't work in action". Even when something is "popular and mainstream", people choose to not at least peek and see the "why" and the "how". That's limiting.

Even though certain genres may have certain tropes they're known for, all tropes and ideas overlap the genres. It's why we get romance horror or drama comedy. And even if we don't like something personally, objectively, we can find a way to look at it and go "ok, I think I understand why it's doing so well".

As creators, it helps to consume ALL media at least once or peek over and go "hmm, I wonder what ideas and themes they're using". It doesn't mean you copy panel by panel, word by word, what a famous creator does because, full harshness, you are not that creator; you won't be able to do the themes the way THEY did it.

You can only do the themes they use YOUR way, and that's the point. To be able to look at the themes other people used for their works, consume it, and go "ok, what do I like about these themes? How can I use them? Do I want and/or need to use them?" When you consume media, any media, you are able to find ideas and twist them in your own way or go "but what if it was like this way?". That's part of marketing and drawing in other people. Sometimes, you gotta start with what you like and what you dislike and just...look at stuff objectively.

[rajillustration]

This is something I've been thinking a lot about since my social media revolves around my painted works. I do really painterly illustrations usually in the vein of covers and concept art, so doing a really simple webcomic on the side is the opposite of my normal style, and promoting it on my main doesn't work very well. (and making an account just for my comic has one (1) follower that isn't me)

Recently I decided youknow, lets try some of the more old fashioned ways to market--because before social media got big (like only 10 years ago) comics would put their stuff up on Webcomic Directories and you would email bloggers who were reviewing webcomics to consider reviewing you and TopWebcomics was a thing (and apparently still is a thing). So I decided, lets go 2005 and try it and it raised my views by a lot for me--it multiplied my daily views on my last few updates--I'm still getting people showing up well after update day because I've put myself out there to other channels who have active viewers. The viewers on social media are good and all, but in my case...my followers on social media just aren't there for comics.

[xabelmind]

The new marketing strategy is:

• Make a cheap prototipe of your idea.
• Put it out in the world, tell people about it, let them test it.
• Does it work? Is people interested in it?
• Yes? Fund the project with the help of the people that's interested in it hitting the market.
• No? Dump that and make another cheap prototipe of another idea.

It's the strategy that plays with the skills Internet offers. That way you afford a lot of effort and money you may be putting in something that people may not be interested in, because no matter how much you analyse the market and how much you calculate how things are going to play out, you'll never know the true results until you go out and give it a try.

Your guesses will always be higher than the true result, because noone undervalue their own project.

[claiborneart]

For example of advertising: when i "advertise" my comic on social media like twitter, Instagram or art places like deviantart, i got bad to zero results. So that means the "promotion strategy" on those sites is failing. So is not a good marketing for me (i know it worked for others, but not for everyone).

Oh yeah, social media marketing hasn't worked for me either. The toughest part about marketing is there is no one 100% successful way to get noticed, or else everyone would do it and it wouldn't work anymore.

Most successful marketing campaigns are basically trying every method until something sticks. Twitter/instagram haven't worked, but how about other major websites beyond deviantart and social media? Where do romance novels usually find their niche? Is there a market for comics there as well?

[sekabead]

This is what I've been wondering, since before I posted my series on both tapas and webtoons. "Hmmm what should I do to increase readership of my cute characters of Just Usual Days...?" So this is interesting discussion.

Give something for free.

I think most of us have already been doing that. We are letting read our comics for free right...? Except if the actual product is actually behind, say, patreon, and the one posted in platforms such as tapas and webtoons are only cut version for demo, I think that's the key difference between selling physical item / regular service and selling comics for people to read on the web. Everybody expect them to be free I guess. Bonus illustration, WIP, sketch, .... then we have to face another problem of managing those works in our tight time budget. Letting other people to do those bonus things is costly too.

Make a cheap prototipe of your idea.
Put it out in the world, tell people about it, let them test it.
Does it work? Is people interested in it?
Yes? Fund the project with the help of the people that's interested in it hitting the market.
No? Dump that and make another cheap prototipe of another idea.

Hmmm... I think the problem is how well-finished the prototype will be? Nowadays more people actually expect prototype to be as close to final product (that's what my experience in trying to build a tech startup). The closer it is, the higher the chance it will be funded. The more unfinished the prototype, the higher the chance of getting rejected. But building a high quality prototype is costly, both in time and cash. Say, in comics, prototype is one-shot or first few episodes. How long we have to make to convince people that our comics is good enough?

Another strategy is arriving at a perfect time. I mean, we arrive at a platform that is going to be booming, but that's rather luck-reliant, unless you're a psychic ^_^

Honestly for me it's more like tug of war between marketing strategy and our constraint limiting us (including budget). Have zero budget? Ohoho good luck marketing your comics :3

[CarltonIsaac]

I don't know what the point of this thread is, probably to discuss strategies that DO work, because the social media strategy is not working for me.

The probable problem with marketing within social media or community groups is that almost everyone is a creative trying to sell to each other within the group, and that in general is just one endless loop.

[xabelmind]

Say, in comics, prototype is one-shot or first few episodes.

I disagree in that, oneshots do not equal cheap prototypes.

For me, in comic, cheap prototype means start the story without worry too much about the final result quality. If the pages one by one build an audience steadily, then the project deserves more care.

This page a bit better than the last and a bit worse than the next. We're always looking on too big changes. A oneshot, first few episodes... who asure you you'll be there to get to that point?

The more unfinished the prototype, the higher the chance of getting rejected. But building a high quality prototype is costly, both in time and cash.

Do what you can with what you have at the very moment you're doing it.

Focus on give value, not quality, quality is subjective, is in the eyes of who's looking.

Oh, hi, Gary Vee!

No, seriously, it's a good advise

[xabelmind]

that almost everyone is a creative trying to sell to each other within the group

This is the reason why we need to learn to interact with non-creative people on social media platforms that are not specialized in comics.

Followers that are creators in your same field are partners to build community with, learn from and help each other, not to sell to.

I'm not the best with interaction, so I asked my fellows in IG how to communicate with selfies accounts without seem like you're hitting on people.

The answer: Signal something they're wearing and show you identify with it. Example: "Wow, you got that eyeline perfect, I always have problems to get mine well."

This can be applied to anything, so you don't need to lie about your interest in something. You may start commenting in artists accounts, to build up some confidence, and then go for other stuff.

Just a compliment, a question or a joke can attract their attention to your stuff, but this is something you have to do consistently, it's like fishing

I started to do this like... two to three weeks ago? My account that remained around 40 followers for like four or five months, is now on 68

It takes time and effort, but when I get out, I feel like I've been doing something worthy to my work instead of feel bad looking at the numbers of others

https://www.instagram.com/xabelmind/

[sekabead]

I disagree in that, oneshots do not equal cheap prototypes.

Oh no I smell misunderstanding! I don't mean oneshots are cheap. Neither prototypes are all cheap. :3 I mean, prototype quality just like spectrum, ranging from cheap to excellent. Games, for example, protoype can be just scribbles on a paper ("meh"). Or maybe a detailed document containing complicated diagrams ("hmmm"). Or maybe a playable demo stunning enough to be showcased at E3 ("wow").

So, an example for comics, hmmm, afaik My Hero Academia had oneshot prior to publishing. It's long (around 50 pages) and excellent, but the storyline is quite different from the final product, the one which serialized til today. But that's enough to illustrate the concept and get publisher convinced that it's indeed interesting (with tweaking of course). That's what I mean "prototype in comics" I'm sorry i'm causing a bit confusion

[OttoGruenwald]

Growing on the internet is like growing on a garden. It's slow and you have to keep tending to it. Mingle with people. Find other people interested in your genre or who do your genre and rt their posts and message them. See if you can organize mutual promotion.

[JeanGuillet]

Give something for free.

I think most of us have already been doing that. We are letting read our comics for free right...?

ah and this let's me explain a bit more what I mean by that. When you've got a free comic that you want people to read, that doesn't count in the 'it's free' category. If you WANT something, then the other person is the one giving, giving you their attention. So set your goals, and if your goal is 'more eyeballs', then figure out something that's a no-strings attached free thing to give out that's not attached to your wants. Then YOU are the giver. Fortunately there's a lot of ways you can do this online for free. E books, art, badges, secret links etc. If you've got money to spend, I know of someone who's mailing out secret maps in a cool kit, it's a great idea, and it's working really well for them. Be a giver.