Why Repetition is the Key to Selling Your Work

“Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence.” — Hal Borland

When you want to promote your work, you should be willing to promote it again and again. Here’s where many freelancers go wrong. We think that we only need to promote our work once and when nobody appreciates it, we think we’ve already failed. We get discouraged thinking that our work is not good enough. We think that after we’ve done our very best, our efforts prove only to be in vain.

What we fail to realize is that much of the work happens after finishing the “work” itself. One example is finishing a book. While it’s true that writing a book is already a grueling task (not to mention the seemingly endless editing involved), work doesn’t end there. People need to know that our book exists. And how else can people find out about it if we don’t promote it well?

Here are some of the reasons why we need to keep on promoting our work:

1. People may not see your work the first time you share it.

What strategies have you employed the first time you tried to promote your work?

• you may have posted it to your social media networks
• you may have posted it to your blog
• you may have shared it with your email list
• you may have paid for advertisements
• you may have utilized some giveaway programs
• you may have requested for some reviews

All these strategies are good and commendable. It’s also not an easy task. Maybe that’s the reason why after doing all these things, you could feel as though you’ve already done the best you could.

But here’s the truth. You have not yet done everything you could to promote your work.

While it’s true that you have promoted your book using various channels, you’ve only done it once. Is it possible to inform all your target readers with just one try? People are busy. Maybe some of your readers are also writers who are also trying to promote their work. It isn’t enough to limit the promotion of your book with just one try. It’s a continuous process of letting people know about your work.

2. People may not feel interested in your work the first time they see it.

Here’s the second thing I’ve realized. I’ve learned this through my own experience of purchasing various products. Many times, I felt like I wasn’t interested at all at a certain product. Maybe it’s due to the packaging or to the advertisement itself. Maybe it’s due to my initial impression of it.

What’s interesting is that there were many times when I’ve eventually purchased the same product I thought I would never buy. What changed my mind? Maybe I saw the product in a whole new way. Maybe I heard other people recommend that product. Maybe I found a feature that I never discovered before.

3. People may not like your work the first time they check it.

Seeing your product is one thing. Liking your product is another. After you catch your target market’s attention, you have to convince them that your product is worth buying. If it’s a book, they have to feel that it’s worth reading. There are already so many books around. Why would they spend time reading yours?

Here’s where repetition helps. Promoting your work continuously not only ensures that people see your work. It gives others the chance to think about it and to change their minds about it. It gives them time to check your work and see something there that they’ve never seen before.

Here are some areas where repetition helps in promoting your work:

1. It helps people find your work.

Not all your target market spends their time on social media. Some may find it more convenient to read your blog. Others may prefer receiving an email from you.

Promoting your work continuously gives it a better chance of being discovered. Perhaps one person may finally visit her social media feeds. Perhaps another may one day feel like checking your blog again.

2. It helps people familiarize themselves about your work.

Some people may need to see your product more than once to grow familiar with it. The first time they see it, they may not even care. The second or third time they see it, the existence of your work may finally sink in.

3. It helps people believe your work is worth checking.

Continuous exposure of your work helps people believe that your work is worth looking into. You build a certain credibility. They can’t as easily disregard your work because its continuous visibility gains for it a reputation of being more stable than those that could hardly stand the test of time.

4. It gives people the chance to look at your work.

After warming up to your work, people may finally be interested enough to check it. If it’s on Amazon Kindle, they may finally read the preview of your book. They may also read relevant reviews to your book that could help convince them better about purchasing your work.

5. It gives people time to appreciate your work.

Some people who checked your work for the first time may not like it instantly. There may be some things about it that they find a bit uncomfortable. There may also be some questions in their mind about your work.

People need time to think about what you’re offering them. You need to constantly make your work visible so that when the time comes that they already want to give your work a chance, they can easily find the available channels to get it.

6. It gives people the chance to share your work.

After people have appreciated your work, they need time to share it with others. Sometimes, people forget about doing that. But when they see your work again, they can be reminded to give it a review or even to share it to their social media followers.

Final thoughts

Repetition is the key to promoting your work. Repetition is a sign that you believe in your own product and you are not ashamed to promote it.

Repetition is a tool to let other people know that your work is there and it could help solve their needs. Many times, people don’t even know they have certain needs until you give them something to address it.

It isn’t enough to tell the world once that you have finally finished your work. You have to constantly expose your work for all the world to see, to believe, to appreciate and to share.

“If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time — a tremendous whack.” ― Winston S. Churchill