One Size Fits All with Booklets and Marketing - NOT

It warmed my heart this week to see my colleague, Marcia Yudkin, talk in her Marketing Minute ezine about the need to market based on who your clients and prospects are and how they make their buying choices. Seems pretty obvious, doesn't it? Yet you may lose track of that as you get swept up in the enthusiasm of Internet marketing.

Marcia contrasted the common wisdom of current Internet marketing "squeeze pages" (give me your name and contact info and I'll let you in the door to then sell you what I've got) compared to the longer buying process of committees, considerations, and communication.

It can be tempting to succomb to what can seem easier (note all those wiggle words I purposely included there). The fact is that a large-quantity booklet buyer probably won't be attracted to what has now become an accepted Internet marketing approach, one that works well for a single-copy buyer.

Whether you're marketing booklets or anything else dealing with humans, one size does NOT fit all in your marketing approach.

Until next time,
Paulette - who is amazed that clothing manufacturers still think we believe one size fits all, too

www.tipsbooklets.com
www.CollectionOfExperts.com
www.PublishingProsperity.com
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Booklet Becomes Entire Product Line - Great Example

Several years ago, my friend and long-time colleague, Andrew Chapman, wrote a tips booklet about how to get straight A's in college since he had done that very thing - got straight A's! He recently expanded that information to create an entire product line based on keeping a high college GPA and is now focusing on large-quantity buyers and licensees to use a range of formats of his materials as promotional tools.

You'll find an excellent example of how he presents this whole product line at:
http://www.collegestudentmarketingsolutions.com/solutions.html

Andrew also understands the value of joint ventures, in case you have any introductions you'd like to make on his behalf and share in the profits.

Until next time,
Paulette - expecting great results from this for Andrew and everyone else involved


www.tipsbooklets.com
www.CollectionOfExperts.com
www.PublishingProsperity.com
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Booklets are Cheesy

Yes, some of them are. They have been poorly produced, their content is "ho-hum," or it's good content that wasn't professionally edited. And the booklet turned out cheesy for any or all those reasons, I agree.

However, if none of that is true, and you are comparing a booklet to a book when you say it's cheesy, then your perspective is limited.

* Susan Friedmann of www.thetradeshowcoach.com sold more than 250,000 of her booklets to a company who used them promotionally to increase their sales

* Peter Thomson of www.PeterThomson.com sold hundreds of thousands of his booklets to corporate clients who used them to increase their sales.

* I sold limited rights of a quarter million copies of my booklet to a then-major catalog company who increased their sales 13% by giving away the booklet free with any purchase in one of their catalog editions

And many, many booklet authors have had a wide range of positive results in using booklets as a marketing tool, income stream or both, regardless of whether they had a book to sell or not. 3,500 well-constructed words took less time and money to create, and served their readers and buyers (who are not always the same as each other) well.

Booklets cheesy? Depends on your point of view, doesn't it?

Until next time,
Paulette - who has made a living for 18 years on 3,500 words

www.tipsbooklets.com
www.CollectionOfExperts.com
www.PublishingProsperity.com
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Paper or Pixels?

"Paper or plastic" is a common question posed at the check out stand at many grocery stores. You are asked for your preference of containers to carry out your purchases, even in these times of bringing our own re-useable bags to the store.

There are numerous elements in that exchange that are relevant when it comes to tips booklets and your sales.

When was the last time you asked your buyers (whether single copy or large quantity buyers or even the media) if they wanted the paper or the pixel (PDF) version of your product? People typically have a preference, and sometimes for reasons you might not imagine. Here are just a few things that influence a choice of paper over pixels or pixels over paper:

• immediacy of delivery
• cost
• conservation
• focus on content more than container or other way around

The key thing here is to ask what someone wants. If it turns out more of your people want pixels rather than paper, you directly benefit in both time and money. It costs you less of each to take the buying conversation to the next level. And as for the folks who bring their own bag to the store, well, the parallel to that with booklets turns out to be the licensing deals, where the buyer gets permission from you to do the production themselves.

Until next time,
Paulette - delighted by how pixels are increasingly being chosen, yet paper still matters

www.tipsbooklets.com
www.CollectionOfExperts.com
www.PublishingProsperity.com
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It's All About ...

...them, not you and not your tips booklet or any other format of your product. That includes when you're talking with a colleague about possible joint venturing, or to a large-quantity prospect at a company or association.

Someone who has known of my work for many years contacted me last Friday afternoon to invite me into a joint venture with her. The entire time we were on the phone, the person made it all about herself and her achievements. While I agree it's useful to have some background about a potential business partner, there was no give and take, no balance, no real interest in a conversation as much as it being a monologue. Then she followed up on Monday with an email in the same way. What WAS she thinking? Even if there had been any remote match here in what she was proposing, there was less than zero interest in my part in doing any business with her. It's too bad, too, since I think she probably has a good product.

It is and will always be about them - whoever it is you are contacting. It is about how your products and services improve the business of the person you are approaching. There are endless ways you can positively add to their business. Focus on that and see the improvement in your business as a result of it.

Until next time,
Paulette - still trying to shake off the "stuff" this woman left all over me

www.tipsbooklets.com
www.CollectionOfExperts.com
www.PublishingProsperity.com
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So Many Booklet Prospects, So Little Time

Many booklet authors suffer an embarrassment of riches when it comes to prospective directions to go with their booklet and other information product sales. That was the case with a booklet author I recently spoke to. She created an excellent and lengthy list of directions to go to sell large quantities of her booklet and related info products. The list included companies, associations, websites, retailers, private practitioners, and more.

First we discussed approaching any of the private practitioners through their professional associations instead of individually. That immediately led to talking with people the booklet author knew, to get introductions to the associations and also to companies. The more the booklet author and I talked, the more people came to mind for her to approach, even though we started the conversation with "who do you already know to put at the top of your list to talk to?" It wasn't until we started exploring specific directions did specific names come to mind.

The more we talked, the more the booklet author came up with people -- family members, professional people she had gone to, neighbors, colleagues.

How do you streamline your process, especially when you have many, many directions to go? Sometimes it's a direct route to identify those people you already know, and other times it takes roaming around in your thoughts to be reminded of who those ideal people are. Regardless of how you do it, start capturing names and ideas so you always have a destination in mind no matter how you're feeling at any given moment.

Until next time,
Paulette - remembering how some of the least likely prospects turned into the biggest and best sales

www.CollectionOfExperts.com
www.PublishingProsperity.com
www.tipsbooklets.com
Follow me www.twitter.com/pauletteensign

Hot Topics and Hot Sales for Booklets

What's the hottest topics for writing tips booklets? It the one(s) you get most excited about. Simple as that. Many people talk about writing to topics in great demand. Some oldies and goodies are things like food, kids, pets, money, and sex. If you have to do specific research on a topic and it is a stretch for you to be passionate about it and it needs separate marketing from a business you already have, you are likely to have different (lower!) sales results than when you create products representing something that's meaningful to you and that you're already promoting. It will probably be harder for you to sustain your own interest over time.

In the past few weeks, a wide range of fascinating booklet topics have been birthed by people whose life is represented in their booklet. Here's a sample of those topics:

• How to Choose a Nursing Home - from a geriatric specialist who works in nursing homes
  
• Tips for Girls Volleyball - from a former pro women's volleyball athlete
• Selecting a Financial Planner & Managing Your Money - from a financial planner
• Self-Care for Caregivers - from a long-time spousal caregiver
• Guide for Single Women to Find Their Guy - from a single female author on the same topic
• Parenting the Troubled Teen - from a pediatrician who works with teens
  
• Creative Ways to Use Leftovers - from a military wife who does this for her family

While food, money, and kids are among the topics represented in that list, they are done by people whose lives are greatly involved in those areas.

The above list doesn't scratch the surface of the thousands of booklet authors, worldwide, who are writing and selling their booklets. These people have a passion for their information and have contacts they are approaching for large-quantity sales.

Next time you ask yourself what the hot topics are for booklets, ask yourself what it is you bubble over about anytime you've got the opportunity to share your knowledge with anyone who will listen. That is your hot topic. Start writing your tips!

Until next time,
Paulette - always happy to explore this with you to discover your hot topic


www.CollectionOfExperts.com
www.PublishingProsperity.com
www.tipsbooklets.com
Follow me www.twitter.com/pauletteensign