Hello, Writer! I hope you had a beautiful week and considered how you can consistently build connections with your readers! This week, we’re going to explore another critical pillar of marketing. That pillar is experimentation.
As we begin our marketing journey, there will be times we must move forward by faith. There will also be times when our efforts don’t pan out as expected. But here’s thing: as God guides us through our journey, He expects us to proceed prayerfully but also confidently, trusting Him to guide our steps as we take them.
You see, one thing that has stopped many writers from marketing their book is a sense of overwhelm or the search for a silver bullet that will grant surefire success. But many times, the Lord leads us as we go. Why? Because He values the learning process and all that He can teach us—not just about marketing–but about Him along the way.
Experimentation in History
David Livingston is a good example of a missionary who was willing to learn along the way. Livingston’s childhood desire to become a missionary, drew to the continent of Africa. In his many years of service there, Livingston won only one convert to the faith. The chief of a small village who never fully forsook his polygamy and superstition. Frustrated by the lack of response, Livingston turned his efforts to exploration, hoping that discovering the Nile’s headwaters, would give his voice the influence needed to bring an end to the African slave trade.
Though Livingston did not locate the Nile’s headwaters nor end the slave trade, his written accounts of Africa’s heartland captured the hearts of the British people and sparked a long-term missionary movement as well as an influx of merchants seeking to engage in non slave-related trades. His work bore fruits Livingston never expected. Even the African chief, whom Livingston gave up on because of the chief’s failure to forsake polygamy, ended up winning his entire village to Christ.
You see, writer, sometimes marketing can feel like throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks—but as we are faithful to persist through the process God will grow us and will often use our efforts in unexpected ways.
Experimentation in the Bible
David is another wonderful example of a man who was willing to learn as he went. David’s first attempt to return the ark to Jerusalem, in his newly united kingdom, had disastrous results. For three months, David waited, afraid of the Lord. But David took that time to learn, and when he received word that the household keeping the ark had been blessed, David sent and, now with the appropriate honor and respect, carried the ark to Jerusalem with great rejoicing.
You see, writer, there may be times in our marketing journey where we make costly or disastrous mistakes. But here’s the thing. When we allow those moments to cause us to lean into God for wisdom, they can become our most valuable moments of learning and can springboard our success.
Experimentation in Life
I grew in experimentation this past year as a children’s leader in Bible Study Fellowship. This year I had a class of four year olds born during the 2020 shutdowns. And as I taught, I noticed a strange phenomenon. Half the children had the developmental level of two year olds. The other half had a normal level of social development. At first, we applied a little extra discipline and many efforts to build connections with the students.
As the year went on, we quickly saw we needed to tailor our approach per student, recognizing which were acting out for attention, which because they couldn’t understand the lesson, and which because of pure distraction. By the end of the year, though the classroom was not exactly still, all of the children had become engaged in the teaching times and grew in their ability to love God and others.
Experimentation in Your Life
You see, writer, experimentation is about a willingness to learn who your readers really are by engaging them. Experimentation is also about deepening our dependency on God, who created our readers, as we learn to recognize His voice and lean on His wisdom more and more through the process. Let me show you…
- Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days… In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good. – Ecclesiastes 11:1, 6
- Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. – Proverbs 3:5-6
- Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, – Proverbs 1:5
- Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established – Proverbs 16:3
You see, writer, experimentation is simply about being humble enough to walk through the learning process with God and with your readers, because here’s the thing…
Every God-given message is as unique as the audience it’s been designed to reach. And marketing is a willingness not to see publishing as the end of your writing journey but the beginning of the true work of ministry God has called us to engage in as we learn to bring His message to His people in way that can impact and change their lives forever.
Where to Start with Experimentation
So are ready to begin experimenting and growing in your marketing process? Here are a few things to keep in mind…
- Pray. Begin your marketing efforts by asking God for His wisdom and continue that conversation throughout your marketing journey. Pray for wisdom, but also pray for the reader your story is meant to touch. Ask God to move in their lives, especially in the life issues your story addresses. You see, writer, one of the best ways to begin developing connections to readers we’ve never met is to begin investing in them in prayer. This opens and attunes us to God’s leading as we reach out to them and grows our love for them.
- Learn. Learn about your readers if you haven’t done so already. Who are they? What do they love? Where do they “go?” Online research and personal conversation are both great helps in this. Also, learn about different marketing options and various avenues and methods of sharing your story. Take an online marketing course. Observe other author’s marketing techniques. As you learn, prayerfully explore which methods are most likely to reach your readers. Also, recognize where you need help and consider asking friends or hiring professionals to tackle those aspects.
- Try. Once you do a little praying and learning, jump in and begin experimenting. Choose one to three marketing methods and give them a try. Identify which experiments will take more time than others to test. Set a timeframe to try each one in. (They can overlap!) Then, be consistent with your experiments long enough to learn from them. And don’t forget to…
- Review. As you try out different marketing avenues, take time to assess their success. Don’t just consider book sales in these assessments. Get your hands on as many numbers as you can! For instance, how many people engaged with your social media post? How many opened your email or clicked a link? How many saw your ad? What kind of people engaged and why? Taking time to review and think through questions like these combined with ongoing prayer, learning, and experimentation is where you’ll truly begin to understand your reader in the marketing process. And here’s the thing…
Committing to experimentation is really a commitment to growth. But it’s not growth for our own sake. It’s growth primarily of the sake of others. As a parent engages in the interests of their children in order to help them become their best, we also can seek God engage in the lives and interests of our readers. Because here’s the real deal…
Love is what dampens anxiety and fuels perseverance through the marketing process. And in any difficult process! Just like Livingston’s love for the African people fueled his desire to some way to help them after he felt his evangelism failed. Just like David’s love for the Lord drew him past great failure into deeper reverence, understanding, and success. Just like my love for my students caused me to dig deeper into God, into myself, and into them to ensure His love left an impact on their lives. And here’s the beautiful thing…
When we allow God to grow our love for our readers through experimenting in the marketing process, we can be confident that love—according to 1 Corinthians 13:8—will not fail to make a mark of some kind.
So I encourage you today, writer, if you’ve felt overwhelmed or daunted by the marketing process, ask the Lord to fill you with His love. Then, by faith, make those fist steps forward. As you seek to love Him and His people, He will order your steps and grow you and His love in you and, through it, touch untold others along the way.
#experimentation #marketing #courage #love #trust #persistence #EveryWriterWriting
