Booklet Yes - Workbook Usually No

Your booklet can morph into many other product formats. In fact, I strongly encourage it. A workbook is typically not one of the suggestions I make. And I'm using "weasal words" here like "usually" and "typically" on purpose. There are specific cases where a workbook can be, well, workable.

The recipients of your booklet have their own area of expertise. They own a beauty salon, have a financial planning or coaching practice, manage a restaurant, are a corporate employee, are a full-time mom at home, or any of a zillion other possibilities. That's who they are and what they do. Your booklet is intended to teach them to better do what they do, in ways they can readily incorporate into their already overloaded and focused life.

Now you want them to fill in a workbook on top of everything else they have to do. C'mon, that's work! Unless they are attending a workshop or seminar you are presenting, where at least a lot of their focus is redirected to what you are teaching during a particular time period, the odds of them independently reading and completing a workbook in addition to everything else they do is very slim. Not impossible, though slim enough that it doesn't make much sense to me to create and market a workbook unless you are presenting lots of workshops to lots of people.

By the way, I refer to the publication in my home study kit, "How to Promote Your Business with Booklets," as a "manual" not a "workbook." Yes, there's space in it for people to make notes. However there are no fill-in-the-blanks or "make a list of..." or "write about why/how you..." It's intended as a reference, for people to come back to as and when they are ready, on their time table.

Instead of creating a workbook, expand your product line with products that fit better into your recipient's life. An audio program can be heard while commuting, exercising, or doing something else. A card deck can have one tip on one card displayed each day or week to glance at on a person's desk, on their bathroom mirror, or somewhere else they frequently go.

Think about ways to best mesh with the fabric of a person's life. Your message will be better received, you will contribute more to the recipient's life, and your own business bottom line will be positively influenced.

Until next time,
Paulette - encouraging what works for you and your market
www.tipsbooklets.com