By Morris Kaplan, a Special to Overdrive
You have something your customers desperately want…
And it’s not yet another brochure. Nor is it an interrupting ad or irritating promotion-
It’s your expertise.
The insights, wisdom and plain, practical know-how you and your colleagues have accumulated in the course of doing business. As more and more customers and clients turn to the Web to research important purchasing decisions, they’re looking for genuinely useful information that can help them plan, work and succeed.
If you’re prepared to give it to them, they’ll give you something in return: respect. You become the credible authority in your industry or area of business. And once you’ve captured a share of your prospects’ minds, you’re much better positioned to capture a share of their budgets as well.
What can a book do for you?
A book is the ultimate brand calling card. Almost every major business figure has written one. A book opens doors, positions you or your firm as the expert in your field and gives you something tangible from which to leverage a media campaign.
Consumers are increasingly skeptical of advertising propaganda, but a book ensures you have a credible marketing tool which you can use as a premium giveaway; to retain existing customers or acquire new ones. A book turns your invisible expertise into a tangible object you can place in your prospects’ hands. Here’s what it can accomplish:
- Lead generation: An attractive, relevant book is a powerful incentive to respond that attracts qualified prospects.
- Positive press: A great book gives the media something to talk about: you. Yes; books do get media coverage and they’re not all blockbuster novels.
- Expert status: A book tells your prospects that you’re a credible player
- Once e-version is produced it can act as a web and social media catalyst
- Pipeline accelerator: An eBook can be the ideal push-over piece that moves fence-sitters into action—and into the close.
So How Do You Become An Industry Expert?
An expert is someone widely recognized as a reliable source of technique or skill whose faculty for judging or deciding rightly, justly, or wisely is accorded authority and status by their peers or the public in a specific well distinguished domain. Here, in brief is a step by step; how to design, build and manage your personal brand all without spending a cent on PR or sending out a single press release.
You need a PERFECT PITCH
In today’s market, being remarkable is essential.
If you don’t have an amazing pitch, regardless of how great your product or service is, you will always struggle
You need to PUBLISH your ideas
Publishing builds credibility, authority and attracts fresh opportunity. Once you have a clear framework for expressing you thought leadership, the rest is easy
You need to raise your PROFILE
Being good at what you do is no longer enough if you want to be a top earner. You need to stand out and be recognised. What do you want to be known for?
You need great PARTNERSHIPS
Packaging your value so other people can profit is when you will multiply your profit, attract major opportunities, and have more fun. Think about working with strategically aligned, non-competing brands which share similar customer profiles.
The key elements of your book…
Writing a Book? Three Things You Must Know:
OK, so you’re writing a book to get your message out. And you want it to bring you new business, too. Having written and now published literally dozens of books for independent professionals as well as gurus to succeed in getting a valuable marketing tool completed and published, I can (with some authority) tell you there are three key elements to writing a good book that are necessary if you want it to also attract new business to you.
They are:
1. You need to write a quality book on the right topic for the right audience.
2. You need to manage your time if you want to actually finish it.
3. You need to package your book appropriately inside as well as outside to attract business.
Each of these things is essential to a successful book.
Write the Right Book
If you want to write a book that not only is meaningful to your reader but also attracts business to you, then you need to start by setting an intention to write a book that will serve people in your business’ target market.
Niche It: you can’t be all things to all people: pick a topic that appeals.
The best way to usually do that is to identify the biggest business pains and dreams your target market has for which they also have a history of paying for solutions.
Ask yourself, “What information do I have or have access to that, if my target market knew I had it, they’d hire me instantly?”
Manage Your Time
You can write and publish a book fast–in the time you already have–if you do two things: make productive use of the time you have and outsource what others can do more efficiently than you can (like write stories about your clients/customers that illustrate some of your expertise).
To get your book done in the time you already have available, write your book like the pros do: hire a ghost writer or a publisher who can get you one
To get it done even faster, speak your book into print rather than writing it. There are many ways available to do this.
This is my promise to you: you CAN with these three time management tips, do your entire book draft within just 5-8 hours total for most books.
Package it Inside and Out
If you want your book to not only communicate your message meaningfully to your reader but also to attract new business, then both your book text and cover need to be developed appropriately.
Regarding your cover, years of market testing has discovered there are nine cover elements that can make or break sales from a book.
By priority, they are:
1. your book’s title
2. sub-title
3. testimonials
4. back cover headline
5. back cover
6. benefit copy
7. author bio
8. cover color
9. cover design and spine treatment.
Publishing insiders also use many tasteful marketing methods within the pages of their books that are very effective in attracting new business.
An easy one to start with is to add back matter pages to your book that tastefully but compellingly promote your services and other offers that serve your readers.
Categories: general Inspirational PR/MARKETING