Set Up a Gravity Well—Building a Marketing Platform (Step 3 of 5)

By Michael Drew - Apr 08 , 2009

To review, there are five primary steps in the platform-building process-

Step 1:  Identify Your Target Audience
Step 2:  Make a Plan for Reaching Them
Step 3:  Set Up a Gravity Well
Step 4:  Brand Yourself as an Expert
Step 5:  Accommodate Human Temperaments

We have taken the first two steps. Would you like to revisit them before proceeding?

Step 1:  Identify Your Target Audience
Step 2:  Make a Plan for Reaching Them

Good. Let’s move on.

Step 3: Set up a Gravity Well

It is time to design a path that starts at “I’ve never heard of you before” and leads to “I buy all your books and recommend them to my friends.” That path is called a gravity well.

In science, a gravity well refers to the field of pull exerted by a large body in space. Similar to a black hole in that the deeper something is drawn in, the tougher it is to escape. Watch this two-minute video for a good visual representation of the Earth’s gravity well compared to that of the Moon. As you will hear, if the Earth’s gravity well is 22 steps deep, the Moon’s gravity dimple is only 1 step deep. So you can imagine how much tougher it would be for something to escape Earth’s gravitational pull versus the Moon’s.

When adapted for platform-building, a gravity well creates tiers of products and services that let audience members step deeper and deeper into your world at a pace each of them is comfortable with.

Picture yourself standing at the bottom of a funnel, calling out to people as they peer down from the perimeter high above. “Jump down and buy a book!” you exclaim. “Reading it will improve your life immediately!” A few of the spontaneous passersby drop in, but most simply shout back, “It’s a long way down and we don’t know anything about you.” Without knowing who you are and what you are all about, they refuse to take a leap of faith into the arms of some unknown author they only just stumbled across! So you have to give them a safe path that descends gradually. One with deepening levels of commitment as they make their way down to where book sales (or even deeper points of conversion, like hiring you as a professional speaker) reside.

Can you identify some components of best-selling author Garrett B. Gunderson’s gravity well on his home page? Arranged by depth of commitment, they include:

• a free recorded message
• a free whitepaper
• his blog
• live private phone access
• his Killing Sacred Cows book
• hiring Garrett as a guest speaker

Creating Baby Steps

People tend to do things in stages. We crawl …we walk …we run. We date …we get engaged …we marry. We play …we work …we retire. We’re born …we live …we die.

“The person determined to achieve maximum success learns the principle that progress is made one step at a time. A house is built one brick at a time. Football games are won a play at a time. A department store grows bigger one customer at a time. Every big accomplishment is a series of little accomplishments.” — David Joseph Schwartz

That is how we are wired. So it is misleading to think all you have to do is publish a good book to get a whole world of people who have never heard of you before to flock to the nearest bookstore and buy it. Instead, you have to give them the chance to work up to that point.

Using an online content syndicator like Promote A Book Media to distribute audio recordings, video presentations or blogposts to popular social media sites is a good first step. The only commitment required of those who discover you on one of these sites is the time it takes to review your content. If they find you interesting, perhaps they click one of the links back to your website.

Can you feel the pull getting stronger? Now people are browsing around your ‘online store’ to see what you have to offer. Finding the information interesting and credible, some of these people might want to sign up for your free online newsletter. Several newsletters later, buying a book becomes the natural next step. See how we created an unintimidating path that leads people where you want them to go?

Review content >>>visit website>>>learn more about you>>>sign up for a newsletter>>>buy a book.

A gravity well with that kind of pull is usually a good indicator of a respectable platform. Each step further inside is an indication of the growing familiarity and trust people have in you as their primary source of content. Not to mention if your books have that kind of organized motion supporting them, they are probably going to be good back list titles that sell well over time as more and more people descend into your subtle, yet inescapable, gravity well to book sales.

We’ll pick up here next week with Step 4: Brand Yourself as an Expert.

Questions about building a marketing platform may be directed to Michael R. Drew at the Austin, Texas, headquarters of Promote A Book: 512-858-0040. You can also contact Michael via email at michael@promoteabook.com.