Two Things My Cat Taught Me about Marketing

He’s annoying, but he’s effective

Photo by Paul Hanaoka on Unsplash

I have a traditionally published book that will be released this month. These days, authors are asked to participate heavily in getting the word out about their own publications. Unfortunately, I am practically the worst in the world at marketing my own creations. Luckily, though, I have an annoying cat. Let me explain.

Vladimir the luxurious minx must be fed first thing in the morning. It’s in his contract. When I am groggily making my first cup of coffee, one eye open, he employs various tactics to get me to pop open his can of Fancy Feast before I have gathered the cognition to spell my own name.

Sometimes his tactics work. But other times, they make me want to throw him across the room. I realized this morning that I can stand to learn a lot from Vladimir and his morning requests for his fancy kitty food. Perhaps, I thought, I could take the best of these lessons and apply them to marketing my new book.

Don’t “paws” the process

The one thing that makes me want to pitch Vlad right out the front door is when he stops the coffee-making process. The dang cat will literally jump onto the counter, place his body between my hands and the Keurig, and howl. It makes my blood boil. It makes me just as angry as . . . consecutive pop-up ads on sites.

When I go to a website, I generally know what I want (unless I’m wishfully scrolling through the designer section of the Nordstrom app after two glasses of wine). When I go to the website to find out, say, the number of televisions sold in 2020 and I have to wait for an ad and find the correct way to close it, not only have 2.5 of my seconds been wasted, but I never want to go to that site again.

These ads pause my productivity. Just like Vlad blocking the coffee, I have to find a way to get around the ad to do what I want to do. This not only annoys the crap out of me, but also sucks away just a little bit of brainpower that I could have otherwise allocated to writing fantastic articles like this one.

Apparently, I’m not alone in my frustration. A study on the effects of online advertising concluded that “All other factors being equal, (controlling for all other…