Webcomics Marketing Strategies : Philosophy

A commentary on my 13 part series: Exploring Webcomics Marketing Strategies

Creating a webcomic business is a very difficult thing to do. The market is small, flooded and has its unique challenges. This makes marketing to make a webcomic business successful 'uniquely challenging'. Developing a philosophy might be a good idea...

Comics in general have a stigma attached to them. "They're only for children" and "Comics are for people too lazy to read" are two very common perceptions of comics. I know we have all heard them. Even my family members say these things and hold onto those perceptions tightly for fear of becoming "geeky" and then say, "But we love your stuff" ( I make comics ;) . I love them but they "know not what they say".

Webcomics have the potential to bridge some of this gap. A webcomic circumvents some of the fears attached to reading comics for 'noobs'. There's no more fear of the comicbook domain of the specialty store. People can secretly indulge in their like for a comic in the privacy of their own home. Getting a comic is now as easy as getting the news on the internet. These alleviates in turn open up new avenues to the people that have never read or never allowed themselves to read a comic to give it a chance.

ON the other hand, this also makes marketing challenging because targeted efficient marketing is difficult. Advertising on CNN isn't going to get you readers. I know, I know, you could always advertise on other webcomics or webcomic related websites. However, isn't that a little inc3stuous? You can't reach new members, you are just stealing time from other webcomics.

I think that when attempting to develop a marketing plan the philosophy I try to stick to is, "think outside the box". Most of the marketing information I have found only relates to people trying to just sell products. So when I find marketing information, no matter how irrelevant it is to webcomics, I try to give it a spin. Try it, no matter what business you are in, you might be surprised how many good ideas you will get out of spinning the irrelevant information into new relevant ideas.

A couple of marketing sites that may spark your creativity...

About.Marketing.com
TamingTheBeast