Creating a Booklet - the Best Time

Periodically someone makes the point that everything is done in its own time, especially when it comes to creating a booklet. This week a few people did that. One is a professional speaker who attended my public workshop five years ago. He bought lots of products and services from me at the time. He holds a unique position in his industry, one that he can trade on quite readily. He phoned me this week to say he misplaced the materials he purchased from me, and he's now ready to write his booklet. My hunch is that he will do it this time.

Another person decided to participate in a Collection of Experts collaborative booklet. She shared with me in a telephone conversation that she had seen the opportunity to join in on two previous groups who were doing this kind of booklet with me in the past year, yet now was the time for her to be part of creating a booklet.

I think back on the start of my booklet journey. June, 1991 was a less-than-ideal time for creating a booklet in my world. My money and time were limited, not to mention my enthusiasm and creativity. Fear was about the only thing that was abundant. Yet something inside me said it was time to do the booklet.

What stories are you telling yourself about the best time for creating a booklet in your life? The sooner you do it, the sooner you reap the rewards. It really is that simple. And if you've already done one or more, how about doing another one?

Until next time,
Paulette - assuring you that creating a booklet now is the best time to do it


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

Online Booklet a Good Idea

After recently writing about whether your bulk booklet buyers prefer paper or pixels, the following showed up in an Internet Retailer ezine. A savvy booklet author and marketer will see this industry intelligence for the great opportunity and invitation that it is.

The Internet kills off Penney's big-book catalogs

With consumers shifting to shopping online and placing fewer paper orders, J.C. Penney (No. 15) will no longer publish its twice-yearly big-book catalogs. J.C. Penney will shift more resources to the web and smaller specialty catalogs.

Whether you choose to approach the person/department responsible for marketing the primary website activities or go to those in charge of the smaller specialty catalogs, the electronic versions of your content can be used by a company like J.C. Penney in the same ways that they would have used your printed version -- to increase sales! What do you have that could be a match for a company like this? This kind of licensing deal to their marketing department could be huge for you and for them.

Until next time,
Paulette - appreciating how the changing times prompts new twists on old ideas

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

Booklets are the Best Business Cards

Think about the pile of business cards you likely have in a rubber band in your desk drawer. When was the last time you glanced through that bundle, much less contacted anyone in there?

Yes, the title of this blog post is a bold statement, you're right. However, think about your attitude about the author of a booklet that is sitting in your desk drawer. That person makes a very different statement in your mind about the business they have, their credibility, their accessibility, and probably a few other good things.

Make your booklets be the best business cards anyone has, directly from you or, better yet, distributed by a company or association who bought them in large quantities from you, to help them further their own promotional activities.

Until next time,
Paulette - who rarely distributes standard business cards anymore

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

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
Follow me www.twitter.com/pauletteensign

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
Follow me www.twitter.com/pauletteensign

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
Follow me www.twitter.com/pauletteensign