Writing, producing, and promoting tips booklets for marketing, motivating, and making money.
Friday, October 28, 2005
Astounding Secrets About Secrets
What makes you look at an article, a magazine, a post on a discussion board, or this very post here on this blog? It's the headline, isn't it?
Look at the title of your booklet. Look at the list of titles at the ebooklet catalog at http://www.tipsbooklets.com Some of those titles jump right off the page, pulling you to go further, to see what's behind that title. Some titles are very straight-forward like my own "110 Ideas for Organizing Your Business Life." Then there are other more intriguing ones like "Rate Your Date Before You Mate" or "130 Secrets of the Master Speaker." Don't those two titles call to you to find out what's behind the title?
I am an advocate of calling things what they are, holding the belief that the more cutesie or esoteric the title is, the less likely people are to want to know what's there. You'll find certain words are grabbers, however. A word like "secrets" is one of those grabbers.
Next time you're in the grocery store, look at the magazines near the check-out stand to see the titles of those articles. Look at the words in those headlines. Revisit your booklet's title and the subheadings on the chapters. Do what you can to spice them up and make them grabbers.
Even the most creative among us periodically get stuck in a vacuum, blocked from new ideas. New ideas for products and services, new ideas for adding more clients, new ideas about ways of approaching current and past clients, new ideas about any part of the business.
It got me thinking about the many ways there are to move past that block, and that of course one size doesn't fit all. Everything from meditating, praying, and letting the Universe handle it, to looking at the mail, the television, outdoor advertising all through different filters, to scheduling a formal brainstorming session with people whose input you respect.
The ideas come from a combination of inside you (and me) and outside influences.
When I think about my booklet journey of the past 14 years, there were periods of ideas coming so quickly I could hardly keep up with all of them. Then there were moments where I had to consciously focus on ways to generate activity, to get beyond a void. Either way, it required some motion, some activity.
By relocating from New York nine years ago to living two miles from the Pacific Ocean in sunny San Diego, California, I gave myself the gift of being able to easily take an hour out of an afternoon to go to the beach to clear my head. In fact, in our household, during the week we refer to the beach as The Annex to my office.
I shift gears to allow ideas to surface. I take some action. It may look benign, however it's always powerful as a way to open up the blocks. It took awhile to realize what some of my best techniques are for generating new ideas. Now there's a whole array of them from which to choose, including picking the phone up and talking with someone even for an hour or so.
Notice what works for you, and do it! If you'd like to do some brainstorming with me about all of this, let's schedule some time on the clock together. There's no doubt you'll come away with tons of ideas!!!
It can be easy to immediately think that many prospective clients hesitate in purchasing booklets in bulk because of budgetary issues. Yes, sometimes that's true. However, it's not always the case. Sometimes their resistance is based in something else, even when they like your booklet and see uses for it in their life.
I was given a lead to someone who the referrer thought was interested in a couple hundred copies of my booklet. A warm lead for a couple hundred booklets is fine, though bigger is often better in life. I phoned the prospective client.
Speaking with the person, it quickly became apparent that 1,000 copies would really be more desirable to this person, since my minimum of doing any kind of custom printing on the booklet is 1,000 copies, and customization was what was wanted. The hesitation came in two places other than price. In fact price was never the concern. The concerns were (1) How much space would 1,000 booklets take up since the individual was dealing with limited space, and (2) How would as many as 1,000 copies actually be used beyond the immediate marketing campaign that prompted the initial interest of a couple hundred copies?
The first concern was quickly dispelled when I said the size of the carton would readily fit under a desk or table. The second concern about how all those booklets would be used was quieted when I offered some suggestions about using the booklets as a thank you for requesting a proposal or when sealing a deal, beyond the original marketing campaign. The person's response was a positive one, indiciating my suggestions made sense and had just not been considered before. We've now got a sale in the works.
Talk with your prospects. Help them see more applications for your booklets. You'll help them do more business and they'll help you increase your checkbook balance. It's not always price resistance that stands in the way of a sale.
I love this stuff, and thought you would, too. Marcia puts out such great information I couldn't help but share it with you.
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** The Marketing Minute ** brought to you every Wednesday by Marcia Yudkin Marketing Consultant, Author, Speaker http://www.yudkin.com/marketing.htm http://www.pressreleasehelp.com/ http://www.namedatlast.com/ mailto:marcia@yudkin.com ******************* Numbers are anything but dry when they help you romance customers. Spin a story from statistics, and you can anchor a promotional piece in the charm of unexpected truth. Last week, for instance, I read that Massachusetts, where I live, tops the other 49 states in the age at which couples marry. This fact bloomed in my mind as I envisioned clever companies playfully using it: * Dating services * Hotels * Financial planners * Real estate agents * Executive recruiters * Fitness clubs * Jewelry stores * Sandwich shop
This fact could star in an ad campaign, a postcard or sales letter, a news release, a newsletter, a special event, a menu and more.
To find captivating research, read inner pages of newspapers. Or browse web sites like http://www.census.gov, from organizations that collect and report statistics. You'll get greatest mileage from data that got little or no media attention or that debunk popular notions.
For instance, does Vermont have more cows than people? No, just the highest ratio of cows to people.
Read widely. Collect snippets of suggestive data. Serve up food for thought as appetizer for your marketing message. ++++++++++++
Exploring the possibilities with a prospective client the other day, the person said a couple of very specific directions were the market for their book. Yes, those places were good for starters and made perfect sense, no doubt about it. The more time passed after that meeting, the more directions surfaced that also seemed ideal for that book, places the author had undoubtedly never considered. When our formal work together begins, those additional markets will be presented.
I think back on my own booklet, now over a million copies sold. The booklet is about organizing your business life. When the booklet was written I had direct access to all the major office supply manufacturers and large box office supply retailers because of a top leadership role I had in a related professional association. It seemed like a red carpet was rolled out just waiting to sell multiple millions of copies of the booklet without my breaking a sweat. It didn't turn out that way, for a myriad of reasons. In fact, there was only one major who ended up buying and bought big. The others were on different paths, didn't see how it would fit their plans, had a change of decision-maker midway through the negotiations, and on and on.
Through the life of this booklet, lots of surprises presented themselves, including buyers who were never anywhere on my pro-active radar. The classic one was an electrical manufacturer's rep firm in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I promise you they were never on my target market list. However, as I like to say, their check for 5,000 copies of the booklet cleared my checking account just fine, thank you.
Take another look at who you think your market is. That's probably an ideal starting place. It's highly unlikely it's the finish line. And none of us can think of all the possibilities in a vacuum. Call me. Let's talk.
How creative are you in contacting important prospects you really want to reach, people you just know are a perfect match for your booklet?
There's an adage in some marketing and sales circles that people need about seven exposures to something before they buy. Of course there will be some who will buy the first time they learn about something, and others will still be taking it all under advisement the tenth time they see it.
Parallel to the adage is the question posed by many people on the selling side of the equation -- how many times is too many times to approach the same prospect? One can be too many and 100 can be not enough. Not being too helpful here, am I?
I think it can be easy to forget that more people do not buy on the first chance they have. It takes multiple exposures and different approaches. You may have a corporate prospect who you think would be an ideal match for your booklet. It's a parenting booklet that would be perfectly packaged with each and every box of diapers (or nappies, as our friends in the UK call them).
For whatever reason, the marketing director or head of sales or the product manager at the company you're prospecting has other things on his/her plate and is not seeing the brilliance of the match through the same filters you are. The same tired voicemail message left once a week for that person is probably not the answer to success, as you've probably noticed by now. And they're not answering your emails, either.
Think about what else you can do to capture that executive's attention. It could be six consecutive weeks of some new approach each and every time. I picked that number randomly. In no particular order, one contact could be sending your booklet on a tufted pillow in a box, like a ring bearer's pillow at a wedding. The message is something like "Here's to an elegant increase in your bottom line." Another could be a photo of some highly-stressed parents, with your booklet attached, and the message saying "This booklet keeps these people from becoming too stressed to buy your product." Think up four more possibilities and you've got a whole different approach than that boring old voicemail or email that screams out for the delete key.
You might find that the person you're contacting gets such a kick out of your approach that they wait to see what comes next before calling you. You may want to let week seven go by without contact. On week eight, phone them and reference the things you've sent. You'll probably have a much easier time getting them to talk with you about how your booklet can help them do their business better!
An interesting article in today's Ad Age ezine about missed opportunities in marketing to the highly desirable demographic of women aged 50-70. The article talked about how few companies are effectively doing so, considering these women (myself among them) are important decision makers, are consumers of lots of things, and have more time and money to follow up on their interests. The one company positively cited for doing a good job of reaching this group of people was Mass Mutual insurance company.
What's this got to do with booklets? Think about your topic or topics. Anything there that a woman in her 50's-70's would find particularly valuable? When I look at the list of booklets in the ebooklet catalog on my site, there's very few of those booklets that would not be good for a company, association, or publication to use as a promotional tool for their product, service, or cause.
You may need to specifically frame the use of your booklet that way for that part of the population when speaking with a marketing or sales manager at a company, or a membership chair at an association, or the circulation manager of a publication. These companies want to increase their market share, launch a new product, and keep their brand in front of people. Your booklet can help them do that. Associations want to keep their members and add new ones. Your booklet can help them do that. The same goes for subscribers of print magazines. Your booklet can help them do that. And each of these entities have large universes, which means large sales for you.
Got the general idea and want more guidance? Call me to book an hour on the clock, or get my How to Promote Your Business with Booklets. Then YOU will be enjoying some of the same revenue increases that your clients will.
Booklets are ideal for staying in touch with clients and prospects, especially with the holiday season fast coming upon us. Yes, I know it's only the first week of October, and I can hardly stand walking into stores that have had Christmas things up for a couple months already.
However, there are at least three opportunities in the next three months for people to buy your booklet in bulk, have you customize the booklet with their company logo and contact information (usually at a minimum of 1,000 copies), and use it to send to their clients and prospects.
The first opportunity in the United States comes the end of November when Thanksgiving is celebrated. I know our Canadian neighbors get a jump on this holiday and will be celebrating Thanksgiving next Monday. However, booklets can be an ideal way for a company, professional practice, association, or publication to extend their thanks and appreciation to their customers, clients, subscribers, members, and prospects. Thanksgiving is not typically a time such acknowledgement is offered, so it's a good way to be distinguished from among the crowd.
Opportunity number two is in December during the time of the traditional Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, and Winter Solstace season. Again, another chance to express gratitude to those who add much to other's lives. Getting a tips booklet with useful information in it will stick around long after the pile of season's greetings cards have been thrown away or recycled. Your booklet client's business will remain fresh in the mind of those who received it.
The third moment is in January, at the start of the Julian calendar's new year. Sending out copies of a booklet in the context of 'this is to get you started off on the right foot in the new year' works wonders. This is, again, a way to stand out from the rest, especially once people are back in business mode somewhere around the second or third week of January.
Take a look at who your large-quantity booklet prospects are and contact them this week. Help them find their best positioning for sending out booklets to their people in the next three months by asking them 'which of these times would be best for you?' That removes or at least minimizes the possibility of a yes or no answer. And if their list is less than 1,000 entries, encourage them to use the rest of the booklets to prospect new people or to send as a thank you for a referral.
An excellent new book has just come out that is a must-have for you. I've just finished reading it and I know you'll want to, too. I'm always looking for effective ways to appropriately persuade people, since my natural former-New York personality endears itself to only a portion of the people I meet. :-) Although you may not have such a challenge, I'm sure you will find lots of things that are valuable to you in your business. There's something for everyone in this book.
The book is called "Persuasion - The Art of Getting What You Want." It's by a guy named Dave Lakhani. Dave's writing style is a wonderful blend of invitingly warm personal conversation mixed with powerful suggestions that apply to every part of life even though his focus is about business. It all comes down to mastering the art of getting what you want. And it is an art form, for sure.
Go to Dave's site at http://www.howtopersuade.com/ for more information and to order the book. Let me know what you think about it, would you?
An attendee at a seminar where I recently spoke said she was at the event because she didn't love what she was doing anymore. Not so uncommon is it, whether self-employed or employed by someone else? Her comment did, in fact, resonate with a lot of the people there. Now this post is not about career counseling in particular, though it could turn out that way for you.
Think about your business if you're self-employed. There are most likely bits and pieces of it that don't excite you, and parts that have you so engrossed you hardly realize how much time has gone by. There's parts you can talk about for as long as anyone will listen. Take those exciting parts and write a tips booklet about the topic. Yes, a tips booklet. You can get it done in no time, and it can be the cornerstone for other related products and/or services.
The same goes for you who may be employed by someone else. Maybe there is something about your job that you absolutely adore. If not, look around in the rest of your life, whether it's a personal experience you had, a hobby you enjoy, a research project you never intended but turned out to capture your interest. Write a tips booklet about it. Who knows, that could transition you into a completely new career in the process!
When you write a booklet about something you find interesting, exciting, or otherwise-captivating, it makes it very easy to sell. You'll tell anyone about it, with genuine enthusiasm. That enthusiasm has a way of getting all over people, and they want what you've got as fast as they can get it.
Don't love what you're doing anymore? Then look around to find even a bit of something that you do love and write a booklet about it. I'm on my third career so far, with probably a couple more to go. What about you?
