'Know your audience and be direct,' Black Girls Book Club founders urge M&P delegates

Marketers and publicists have been encouraged know their audience and be "direct" and "transparent" in their approach, in a keynote at The Bookseller's Marketing & Publicity virtual conference (Wednesday 8th July).

The authors and founders of Black Girls Book Club, Natalie A Carter and Melissa Cummings-Quarry, urged publicists and marketers: "Don't beat around the bush; say what you mean," in their dealings with both their organisation, which hosts events and produces tailored and measurable marketing and PR strategy, and others.

Dedicated to ensuring black women and girls are catered to in the books they share and celebrate and the events they curate, the Black Girls Book Club was founded in 2016 by the pair to create a safe space for black women to come together over a love of books.

In their advice for marketing a new book project, they said it was vital to "know who you are speaking to. It needs to be really clear to you who your audience is and also who is your potential audience," said Carter. "Don't just assume because it's written by one type of person it is only for one group of people ... For example, a book written by a black woman isn't only always going to be directed at black women, it can have a major appeal to all different types of women." 

Asking delegates to consider whether they knew how to communicate with their audience, Cummings-Quarry said for instance they knew black women were "often hard to reach in this industry", but "we knew black women with degrees are more likely to buy books than anybody else".

"They were buying books, they wanted to be seen, they wanted to be heard, but nobody was looking out for them," she said, explaining the rationale behind Black Girls Book Club.

Encouraging publicists and marketers to also "be intentional" in their campaigns, Carter said: "If you do want to engage with different organisations to publicise a book that you are working on, think about why you are reaching out. I know there's a fine line. It can feel presumptuous when you're asking for things but then there's also being too vague to really get the response that you want. You'll get a lot more out of them if you have a genuine relationship with them over time but also more importantly if you're clear what you need from them."

"You can't have people who are afraid to suggest things or push the envelope," Cummings-Quarry agreed, while advocating for a "diverse and empowered" team. "Please don't beat around the bush; say what you mean. Be transparent."

Other speakers during the morning session included Colin Brush, senior creative copy and metadata manager at Michael Joseph, who spoke about the power of simplicity and precision in writing, as well as how to be adaptable in your messaging during times of change, and Amy Charlotte Kean, brand and innovation director for &us, who spoke about how we can remain creative even in “the caves of our homes”. 

Among Brush's techniques for improved copywriting are creating a “word suite” for specific campaigns, writing pitches for books in various lengths, and, along similar lines, moving from a “brain dump” to a haiku on a book's merits in order to distil a campaign message to the core words and ideas that matter.

"If Covid-19 has taught us anything, it's the world is highly complicated and extremely connected and very, very confusing," said Brush. "In the last few years, the most powerful messages and public discourse have been incredibly simple. Simplicity sells."

Rounding off the session, Francesca Pearce, senior publicity manager at Orion, talked about how she managed to pivot her campaign for Exciting Times to launch the debut during lockdown. This, she explained, included through creating new digital opportunities and transforming her pitch from "debut of the year" to a "must-have lockdown read".

"Identifying your audience is everything," said Pearce, in summarising her key learnings from the experience. "Online is just as important as traditional media. Don't be afraid to ask journalists for favours. Aesthetic is really important and make sure there is continuity throughout your campaign. Keep in constant communication with regular updates to your sales team... and for keeping the buzz going on from publication, it's important to recognise if a book is succeeding, capitalise on that."