Benefits of the CAN Marketing Awards Contest

Marketing fails because of lack of measurement. We may spend large sums of money and time on tactics that don’t work and underinvest in strategies that do work. We won’t know until we measure the results. The CAN Marketing Awards is all about measuring the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. Many authors do not take the time or effort to figure this out.

With that in mind, I decided the CAN marketing contest might motivate me to determine if my campaign was effective. So, I decided to enter.

However, the contest wasn’t straightforward like a book awards contest. In-depth questions were asked that required gathering data and analysis to provide proof of the marketing campaign’s effectiveness. There was also the issue of what campaign I might actually try to measure. 

My Journey

At the beginning of 2022, I prayerfully set a goal of doubling my sales from the previous year. I invested in everything from in-person events to magazine advertising to meet that goal. But how much of that was measurable? After reviewing all my marketing strategies, I realized the Christmas holiday season was the most clearly measurable period of activity for my publishing business. I could quickly correlate the difference in the previous year’s performance to the same marketing activities.

With the scope of the analysis set, I then focused on gathering data. That proved to be more difficult than expected. I had to learn about pulling bulk data from both Amazon and Facebook advertising consoles and getting raw sales from Amazon, Ingram Spark, ACX, and my website. I needed this information to define the period’s clear ad spend and revenue numbers. Here’s what I came up with:

Needless to say, I exceeded my goal of doubling my sales, which made me very pleased. Without preparing for the marketing contest, I would have never gotten this level of clarity on my writing business.

With the data put together, I wrote a narrative around the process and submitted it. You can read the analysis here.

I prayerfully submitted it and put the results in God’s hands. Even if I didn’t win, the process of working through all the numbers and getting to the explanation drastically improved my business model.

Winning the Award

A couple of months later, I was notified that I was a finalist for the award and then asked if I was going to The Well Conference. I hadn’t planned on attending, but I decided to bring my son along because I might win an award. We had a great time learning valuable skills and meeting new people. So it was definitely worth the trip, not to mention that I won!

After winning the award, the Jones Literary Agency contacted me with a questionnaire to help them assemble my media kit. Like the marketing analysis, this process was eye-opening and helped me look at my business in a new light. The agency team created my author one-sheet. I was blown away by both the quality of the graphic design and the effective summarization of what my writing business is all about. They did an excellent job of putting that together before we even spoke. 

But that wasn’t the most valuable part. In addition to media contact lists, I received two hours of consulting from a publicist who really knew her business. She provided me with a comprehensive list of media contacts to engage and a detailed plan for using those contacts. After an in-depth discussion, I devised a fairly simple plan using tools to execute a campaign. Additionally, the advice I received helped me build out details such as the email subject to use. Her advice led to my emails being opened more than 50 percent of the time. Industry standard open rates are only 21 percent. My open rate is pretty much unheard of for unsolicited marketing. 

Overall, the investment in putting together a quality contest submission improved my business and the effectiveness of my marketing. Entering the CAN Excellence in Marketing Awards was a wise investment of my time. Are you ready to take your author platform to the next level? 

The top three winners receive a publicity package that will open doors to 15,000 Christian readers, 1,400 retailers, 400 media, and 300 book review bloggers, not to mention a unique feature on the CAN blog. The top-place winner will receive the same publicity package I did with the esteemed public relations firm, Jones Literary. Don’t wait—submit your entry by February 1 for a chance to win this career-changing honor! Enter at https://christianauthorsnetwork.com/marketing-award/.

About the Author

Allen Brokken is a teacher at heart, a husband and father most of all. He began writing the Towers of Light series for his own children to help illustrate the deep truths of the Bible in an engaging and age-appropriate way. He’s dedicated 15 years of his life to volunteer roles in children’s ministry and youth development. Now that his own children are off to college he’s telling stories and sharing clean humor on social media @allenbrokkenauthor, and through his blog https://www.allenbrokkenauthor.com/blog.