We’re creative people, right? We can come up with some buzz-generating ways to market our books; low-cost, high impact. It’s possible; we’ve done it before.

For sales within the comic market, that is.

Let’s face it -- we really don’t have that good of an idea as to how the non-comic fan really perceives our books, and we sure as hell don’t know how to convince them to check them out. Not yet, at least.

Sometimes, it takes an outside perspective, someone trained in the ways of marketing, to help us figure out how to market our books to new customers. There are people like this in the world already -- they’re called marketers -- and for upwards of several tens of thousands of dollars they’ll help you come up with marketing solutions within your price range (you know, minus that initial tens of thousands of dollars investment). They’ll do the research, isolate your target demographic, and find ways to reach them -- all the while keeping in mind your advertising budget.

I don’t think I have the answer as to how we raise the tens of thousands of dollars to get these marketers working for us -- if I did I’d likely say, “F comics” and focus my time and energy into the business that’s making me tens of thousands of dollars -- but I think I know a way to get a not-as-good service for a lot less money. As in free.

College MBA programs, where marketing classes are a staple. These classes don’t have midterms and homework assignments; usually, they have a project, though. A semester-long project where they take on a local business, look over their financials, do the market research that will determine their target demographics, and come up with a marketing plan that maximizes dollars while at the same time reaching the targeted audience.

And I can almost guarantee you not a single one of them will tell you to take out an ad in Previews, and they sure as hell won’t tell you to take out an ad in Wizard; they think differently from us, they don’t think like comic creators.

And here’s the thing -- they may not be credentialed, yet, but they still offer us a different perspective; they’ll still do a lot of work for us for free. They’ll still present us with a plan that may work, and then you have the option whether to implement it or not. And in exchange, they get a “B+” and are three credits closer to earning a lot more money than we will.

Another thing, in case you’re worried about “amateur” marketers -- most people going for their MBA already have several years experience in the business world. The better programs actually require it; these aren’t wet-behind-the-ears twenty-two year olds without a bit of real world experience -- these guys were in the trenches. Additionally, if you can present your company in an attractive way, your little comic book venture would be a lot more attractive than one of the twenty local bakeries applying to be part of the program.

So that’s the discussion today -- how do we present ourselves? David Lewis has a little insight into the college environment, being a professor and all. Step up, baby, and tell us what’s what. Anyone here have any experience with the MBA program, or have friends who do? Robin’s getting her MBA right now and she tells me there is a level of attractiveness in the challenge of bringing something extremely niche, but inherently cool, to a wider audience. (She also tells me Virginia Tech’s Northern Virginia MBA program often finds itself with a shortage of businesses using their marketing program.) Saul Colt tells me he looked into doing something similar.

What do we know about the acceptance process and the cost? I kind of assume Harvard may want a little grease -- in the form of a “donation”, of course -- whereas a state university may not. Anyone here know someone who actually teaches in an MBA program? Because we can really use you in this discussion. And let’s not forget the concept of “opening your books.” We really need to be able to present ourselves as a legitimate company, complete with financials, budgets and maybe a couple of PowerPoint slides.

Yes, I know, PowerPoint slides and comics DON’T go together. Not like you have to tell anyone you’re a huge friggin’ sell-out.

So, let’s get to talking it out, folks: how to get some low-cost marketing plans generated by people smarter than us.