Recently, I wrote my second book, Sri Venkatesa Suprabhatam. It’s a bold attempt to simplify the sacred hymn and make it accessible to everyone. The response was overwhelming. But my biggest marketing lesson came from someone who is not even two years old. Her name is Moulya.
I spend a few minutes with Moulya almost every day, reading something to her. When I showed her my book, she was excited. She carefully leafed through it, found my photograph at the end, and ran her little hand over it and then over my face, as if to confirm that it was really me.
Though Moulya cannot pronounce names perfectly yet, the next time she picked up the book, she tried to say my name. Looking at the temple-centric images, she also said the book was about Govinda Swamy.
A few days later, over the weekend, Moulya visited our house. She saw my collection of books and picked up one written by another author. She flipped through it, clearly looking for something. Then she looked at me and asked, “Where’s uncle?”
Obviously, she was looking for my photograph.
It reminded me of something marketers have known forever, but we often ignore: visibility!
We often hesitate to talk about our work, promote ourselves, or tell people what we have created. We worry that marketing ourselves may seem boastful.
If my photograph had not been in my book, would Moulya have connected the book to me? Perhaps not.
So the lesson is: your work deserves visibility.
Whether you are an author, entrepreneur, professional, artist, or marketer, don’t assume people will automatically discover what you do. Tell your story. Put a face to your work. Share your achievements. There is nothing wrong with giving your work that extra bit of visibility. Sometimes, that little bit of visibility can turn a piece of work into something people can associate with you.
