Tell the Truth About Your Booklet

What value do you put on your booklet?I'm not only talking about the price you charge, I'm talking about how valuable you think it is in the life of those who receive it. In fact, the price you charge is often a reflection of how valuable you think it is to the recipient.

This week I got yet another phone call from a person who has called or emailed me at least once a year for about five years, a person who has yet to produce a booklet. This week she wanted to know if my prices had changed. She said she had written about 20 booklets in recent years (currently as Word documents, I believe), and still didn't have the several hundred dollars to have one, much less all of them, professionally edited and professionally designed. When I told her to start with one of those booklets and get a product sheet created to pre-sell the others before getting them edited and designed, it fell on deaf ears. I am sure of it from what I heard in her reply.

Now I am certain this person has had the several hundred dollars in question at various points in the past five years, as she told me about conferences she's attended and professional associations she's joined. What she hasn't had has been the courage or the commitment to move forward with her booklet.

She's been dishonest to herself with her story. The truth is that she's scared. She doesn't believe her booklets are valuable enough to bring the thousands and thousands of dollars they are likely to bring her once she starts talking to people who need and want what she's got. I'm not saying there is ever a guarantee in sales, because there isn't. What I am saying, though, is that this person is very unlikely to ever find out as she continues telling herself she doesn't have the several hundred dollars to move ahead.

What's your truth? What's your story? And, as Dr. Phil, the therapist on television is known to say, "How's that workin' for ya?"

Until next time,
Paulette - who loves most working with people who take action

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

Booklet Marketing Collaboration at Its Best

The following article is from a colleague and client of mine, Beth Woodward. It exemplifies the point she is making by doing collaborative marketing right here.

=============

When I think of marketing I first look at what makes me sing. I market through my strengths, which promotes a lot of positive energy. For me, collaboration is key along with helping others gain visibility and giving back. Let me give you an example.

One marketing vehicle I chose to use is ‘article collaboration’ across the globe. It is very simple. The first collaboration is swapping articles to benefit your readers through your ezines or blogs. I’ve established guidelines to article submission and you’re welcome to use mine. http://marketingontheplayground.com/articles/Article-Guidelines-2009.pdf

The point is, your article will drive traffic to your website and here begins the 2^nd part of the collaboration.

Driving traffic to your website for what? Increasing your database is one good reason and another is to bring visibility to the booklet you want to sell. Here is where the 2^nd part of the collaboration is really key. Invite professionals to be a part of your booklet promotion. This is where I have the opportunity to help others gain visibility. At the bottom of your article you have a signature line that leads your reader to your website. Here’s an example.

• Create a website page with free offers to register in your database.
  See this link. http://marketingontheplayground.com/articlepromo.html
• Create a thank-you page with free offers from other professionals when they purchase your booklet.
• The professionals’ free offers lead to their products, giving them visibility
• A percentage of the proceeds can go to help an organization you are passionate about. This is the ‘giving back’ portion that I enjoy.

Now, you can also do the opposite. You become one of those professionals donating your booklet to a product sale. You can…

1. Give your booklet away and use it as a marketing promotion to further your business.
2. Create a tips sheet on how to make a booklet for your give-away promo. On your thank you page let them know about your booklet. I have combined my thank you page with my sales page for my e-storybook, Marketing Ideas For Women In Business (the guys like it too)

What type of marketing do you enjoy? Bring that up front first and create your marketing steps from there. Article marketing happens to be one of the top ways to build your business.

Receive your complimentary 5-Step e-Course On Marketing YOUR Way. http://tinyurl.com/ye34h6j

Beth Woodward, CPCC, Chief Executive Kid

Marketing On The Playground

beth@marketingontheplayground.com

www.MarketingOnThePlayground.com

====================

Who can be good collaborators for you? Approach them today like Beth Woodward did with me. Look what happens!

Until next time,

Paulette - delighted to bring you good stuff from other people

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

Booklet Buyers and Timing

What story are you telling yourself about the perfect time to contact large-quantity buyers? You might be saying it's too late or too early or the wrong time of year or the perfect time of year. In some industries, yes, there is an ideal time to approach them. If you miss it, you'll probably need to wait a year for the next point in their cycle. Calendar companies are a perfect example of that. They are more than a year ahead in planning, manufacturing, and distributing their calendars. If you have a booklet or other product you want a calendar company to consider, that's the kind of lead time you're looking at.

Sometimes logic gets in the way of taking action rather than supports it. A booklet author who wrote a booklet for college students was happily surprised when a college made a fast decision to purchase a quantity of his booklets in the spring for the incoming students arriving in late summer. The entire transaction took about 6 weeks - record speed for such a purchase. Other colleges could have a similar process that happens in January or some other point in the year. This particular one happened in the spring.

Let your clients and prospective clients be the ones to tell you what their timing is about rather than you attempting to second-guess it. Stay in motion, filling your pipeline with people and organizations who are interested in what you have when they are ready.

Until next time,
Paulette - who can't even count the number of guesses that have been off the mark, in a good way

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

Booklet Series - Sometimes a Good Idea, Sometimes Not

Someone who will be attending the public workshop I'll be doing in Denver next week http://www.tipsbooklets.com/denver.htm informed me she's excited about coming because she's done one booklet and has 19 more in the plan for the next couple years.

Of course I applaud her enthusiasm and the fact she gets it about the value of booklets. However, it'll be interesting to explore with her the thinking behind creating 20 booklets. There's no hard and fast "rule" (like I would live by those anyway?) about whether doing a series is a good idea or not. It comes down to the old "it depends" answer. For some people's business and personality, a series makes perfect sense and is an excellent idea. For others, it's really unnecessary.

A few reasons TO do a series:

• You're a keynote speaker with 4 main speeches. Do one booklet for each speech
• Your business has several primary divisions or product areas. Do one booklet for each.
• Your clients are enthusiastic about doing business with you. Create more to sell them.
• You are in a field that is constantly changing. Do periodic revisions rather than a series.
• Your information lends itself to going greater in depth. Start basic and go more advanced.
• You like creating products and are willing to market and sell them.
  

This is certainly not an exhaustive list, though you get the idea. For me, my business and personality dictate taking a single 3,500 word document and finding many ways to leverage it into other formats and languages. Doing a series was not necessary or desirable at any point since 1991. And I've done just fine, thanks! Do what's best for you. It's the only way it works.

Until next time,
Paulette - encouraging you to do a series as long as it makes sense and you're not just hiding from marketing and selling

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

Booklet Reasons or Results

"My dog ate my homework." Isn't that one of the oldest excuses in the world for not accomplishing the results that were expected of you? For some, it's become a humorous way to express missing the mark on a due date. For others, it's often a major annoyance, a cop-out. All the reasons (aka excuses) in the world don't change the results. It doesn't matter how good the excuse. Yes, there are times when an emergency happens, and it is literally impossible to do what you said you would when you said you'd do it. However, more often than not, it's a matter of a zillion stories you tell yourself and anyone who will listen, stories that seem completely reasonable. See if some of these resonate for you:

* I don't have enough information to finish the booklet.
* I've got too much information and don't know what to leave out.
* It's not written well enough for people to want it.
* I'm not a writer.
* It doesn't go into enough depth for people to want it.
* My wife/husband/significant other thinks writing a booklet is a waste of time.
* I have too much to do in my life to write 3500 words.
* I don't know how to sell it.
* I don't have a website yet for my business.
* I'm an unknown in my field.

Anything there sound like stories you've told yourself? If so, you're busted! They are stories. They are not results. Each and every one of the 10 items in the above list has a solution if a booklet is really the result you're committed to having.

So, what's the truth for you? Reasons or results?

Until next time,
Paulette - reflecting on the stories some people offered with their belated birthday wishes this week :-)

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

Booklet Messes Versus Mistakes

There is no difference between a mess and a mistake, in my opinion. Here's why I say that. In both situations, you and I make the best choices based on the information and resources we have. Then it turns out differently than we expected. After all, do you wake up in the morning and declare you're going to make 4 "wrong" choices (aka "mistakes") today? I sure don't. We make the best choices we can, with the information and resources we have at that time.

Many consultants talk about making your mess your message. That means teaching others how to do it differently than you did so they increase the odds of a better result.

When I think back over the past couple decades to the things that turned out differently than I thought they would in my booklet journey, without exception, it was because I was missing some information or other resources. Once that was changed, so were the results.

So yes, I teach people how to go down roads that don't have the same potholes I fell into, to get better results quicker. Your first-hand experiences and observations of other people's experiences may well be the basis of your booklet journey, too.

I personally don't believe in the concept of "mistakes." Each one is actually a learning opportunity. Some are more fun and less costly than others, and, some outcomes matter more than others. Is it truly the end of the world if the ink color you wanted came out just a tad off from what you got? 3M's Post-It Notes (plus many other products and services worldwide) happened as "mistakes." Get it? And, well, isn't that what life is about? Rolling with it, and making course corrections along the way.

Until next time,
Paulette - leveraging those learning opportunities so you can, too.

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

Give Your Booklet Away to Make Money

Today was the first of the 3-part Booklet Author Success series. It was even more fun than I thought it would be. That speaks to the difference between creating something in a vacuum and then putting it into real time. I mapped out 4 questions for each of he 3 booklet authors, including a completely open-ended question, providing a certain framework, and then let it rip. Each of the 3 booklet authors not only brought their unique perspective to the conversation, they added things I had overlooked, and we all shared some chuckles along the way.

One of the big things I originally overlooked was the technique of giving away the booklet, in printed copy or as a download, as a way to generate other sales in your business. Years ago I had a client who did that very successfully with his family law practice. He strategically gave copies of his booklet about ways to diffuse the battle of divorce to professionals who were in a good position to refer the level of client he was seeking. That meant judges, mediators, therapists.

Today, Caleb Scoville of www.northbankaudio.com talked about some promotional campaigns he recently did where he focused on the collaborative Collection of Experts booklet he was in as a give-away to successfully reconnect with previous clients and prospective clients and generate new business as a result of it. That was, of course, only one of the things he shared with us.

The other two booklet authors on today's call (Peter Thomson from the UK www.PeterThomson.com and Andrew Chapman www.achapman.com) brought completely different experiences to the discussion about product development and big sales. In case you missed this, you can still sign up for the remaining 2 calls in the series, and get downloadable audio recordings and text transcripts of all three calls. Do it now! Just one new idea or perspective could catapult you to heights you never imagined.

Click here to reach the Booklet Author Success series

Until next time,
Paulette - who happily had way more fun today than anticipated

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

Your (Booklet) Baby Is Ugly

Over the years, I've learned the wisdom in not telling a booklet author their (booklet) baby is ugly. I'll sincerely and authentically congratulate someone on what they accomplished in creating their booklet, and then offer a suggestion about how they can present their good knowledge differently (i.e. better) by seeking the talents of (1) a professional editor, and (2) a professional graphic designer.

These are not extras. These are basic requirements. That is, of course, unless you have zero interest in attracting high quality clients who will pay good money for your products and/or services.

Put yourself in the corporate or bulk buyer's shoes. You receive a booklet, either printed or PDF, that was poorly edited (has typos, run-on sentences, lots of negatives to start the tips, inconsistent writing style, disorganized content, an intro that is only about the author without any benefit statements to the reader, to name a few), and was done by the author in a Word document (amateurish spacing, all Times Roman or Comic Sans font, graphic elements obviously amateurish).

Whether the written word has merit or not, you as the potential buyer are left, at best, with a conflicting impression of the person and their business. Common wisdom dictates that a confused mind says "no." And even if the buyer does make a purchase, it's a strong likelihood you are not coming out as an A-level player that translates into A-level money.

Cutting corners on editing and design is clearly a case of penny wise, pound foolish. You'll find referrals to our editors and graphic designer at: www.tipsbooklets.com/index.php?page=vendors.htm Contact them. Make your baby the best it can be so you reap the biggest rewards that are available to you.

Until next time,
Paulette - eager for you to thrive

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

Licensing Your Booklet and Other Info Products

Want to "rent" your booklet content out, with your client doing the work and paying you for it? Then you'll definitely want to attend this week's special teleclass session I'm presenting on the telephone.

Thursday, August 6, 7:00 pm Eastern

License Your Info Products and Contents to Websites,Companies, and Publications

Paulette Ensign - lecture with Q & A presented as part of www.PublishingProsperity.com

Granting specific rights to use your content or produce your information product is among the least-tapped revenue sources and ways to extend your message within and beyond your country, at 100% profit.

Learn to leverage the material you've already developed by "renting" it out.

Give your client specifically defined non-exclusive rights to:

• produce your information in the format you've developed it
• use it in English and/or other languages
• benefit from downloadable versions
• re-purpose parts or all of your content in literally endless ways

Discover how you can create it once and make money over and over with your client doing all the work!

Session registration includes mp3 audio recording and PDF text transcript.

Details and Registration

Keeping Your Booklet Business Afloat Without You

One of my favorite weekly ezines is published by www.SpeakerNetNews.com A recent issue had an article in it by a Professional Speaker that was a great reminder worth passing along to you, whether you're a speaker or not. It also reminded me of the years I was a Professional Organizer, and the value of emergency preparedness. Here's the article, in full, for your consideration, no, for your action!

=====

Your business emergency plan — Bill Conerly

A friend who runs a one-person Internet company was in a severe motorcycle accident last month. Intensive care for two weeks, barely able to speak, unable to move one arm, plus lots of internal injuries. No one knew his Web site passwords or his online banking passwords. His wife was not an authorized signer on his business bank account. She didn’t know about quarterly estimated tax payments, and did not know who their accountant is. A network of friends wanted to help keep his business going, but nobody knew how to get started.

I have created an emergency plan, with copies held by wife and my virtual assistant. Key elements include:

• how to contact my Web site consultant, plus all the passwords
• bank account information, including name of the branch manager who knows me personally
• speaker friends who can explain business issues, including Act database questions
• voicemail password
• files of upcoming speeches and client contact information
• other speakers I recommend to substitute for me, and their contact information
• bookkeeping files: where I keep unpaid bills, invoices outstanding, and a person who can help with QuickBooks
• business insurance information

I also stay off motorcycles.

=========

Until next time,
Paulette - who is updating and expanding a list like this that was started years ago

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

Overcoming Obstacles with Your Booklet

You have obstacles with your booklet. You may or may not view it that way. However, you do have obstacles. Here's a few that some people have, in no particular order.

• Creating an overall plan for product development
  
• Choosing a topic
• Getting started writing
• Completing the writing you started
  
• Overcoming opinions of people in your life
• Overcoming your opinions of your expertise
• Choosing design and print vendors
• Planning how to market and sell
• Creating a price for single and multiple copies
• Licensing partial, full contents,languages, formats
  
• Reaching your buyers

As you look at that list, there are probably some entries that seem easier to you than others, and that you don't even view as an obstacle. There could be things not included here that are bigger than life for you.

The point of this? Like many things in life, you have choices of what to do yourself, what to outsource to someone else, what order to do things, what to include in your process, how long to take, and, bottom line, how you feel about any of it. What you see as an obstacle, someone else sees as easy or interesting or approachable. Look at that list again and make some choices about what you want to do. Is it an obstacle or an opportunity?

Until next time,
Paulette - with obstacles in different places than yours

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

Pricing Presentation - Booklets and More

There is a psychology to pricing. It is also both an art and a science. Our friend and colleague, Marcia Yudkin, has once again, presented very useful findings on how your sales are impacted by how your pricing is visually presented. See what you think and test it out for yourself.

===================

                     The Marketing Minute
     by Marcia Yudkin, Marketing Expert and Mentor
            http://www.yudkin.com/markmin.htm

                *******************

A price is a price, right?  Not really, according to Cornell
University researchers, who tested whether restaurant owners
would profit most when menu prices were formatted as $20.00,
20.00 or twenty dollars.

To their surprise, the 20.00 format netted the most, with
customers spending 8 percent more when menus used numerals
to represent prices, minus any dollar signs.

Without the dollar sign or the word "dollars," diners were
apparently reminded least that what they were ordering was
making them a tiny bit poorer.

Specialists in the field of "menu engineering" have also
discovered that menus bring in more revenue when they insert
prices at the end of each small paragraph describing the
item, rather than all lined up in a column that can be
quickly scanned from top to bottom.

Likewise, those who study these things tell us that we
tend to perceive $23 to be less than $23.00.

One more finding:  When looking at menus, we take prices
like $20.00 as indicative of higher quality food than
prices like $19.99.

                *******************

MARKETING COACHING CLUB:  I didn't master marketing through
academic study.  A key element of putting all the pieces
together on my own was listening to recorded "hot seats"
where a marketing wizard or two would apply timeless
principles for getting customers, packaging an offer or
closing the sale to a particular person's project.

You can listen to my own kinder, gentler version of "hot
seats" in a membership program that brings you a Feedback
Feast® on CD each month, along with a second CD where I
interviewed an expert on a related marketing topic.

Whether you look at the price as $37, $37.00 or thirty-seven
dollars, my CD Club is great value for your marketing
education.  Sign up now so you won't miss any months!

http://www.marketingformore.com/cdclub.htm

                *******************

MORE MARCIA...

Marketing Mastery CD Club:
http://www.marketingformore.com/cdclub.htm

Mentoring Program:
http://www.marketingformore.com

Naming & Tag Line Service:
http://www.namedatlast.com

Press Releases & Distribution:
http://www.pressreleasehelp.com

                *******************

If you enjoy The Marketing Minute, please forward it to
friends and colleagues.  It comes to you every Wednesday
from publicity and marketing consultant Marcia
Yudkin, author of Web Site Marketing Makeover and
10 other books.  P.O. Box 305, Goshen, MA 01032.

For a free weekly marketing tip, subscribe: 
http://www.yudkin.com/markmin.htm

====================

Until next time,
Paulette - who is about to test these findings, and who is grateful to Marcia Yudkin for her wisdom

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

Booklets and Blunders

Have you ever goofed in your business? C'mon, even a small goof? If you think you haven't, you're either smoothing over something (aka telling yourself a bit of a story) or you're one of the very cautious people who takes as few risks as humanly possible once you've taken the risk of getting out of bed in the morning.

The fact is (and yes, it's a fact) that there are endless possibilities of ways you can blunder with booklets and, well, in your business overall. It can be everything from a typo, an upside down page at the bindery, a wrong color on a customized job, a misplaced whatever, and on and on. We need not spend more time or real estate focusing on what can go awry.

What matters and what will always matter is what happens next. How do you handle it? What do you do about the blunder? Some blunders provide the chance for a larger sale, a better relationship with the client, a new skill to be able to upgrade a product, a different way of streamlining your business.

Yes, things happen. What you do about them is really all that matters, even when you've done your best to have it all go smoothly in the first place.

Until next time,
Paulette - reminding myself that most things are forgotten and don't matter five years later

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

Where and How You Learn

Last week in New York, I taught three workshops and I learned from each of them. Some of that happened simultaneously, in fact, since my audiences and clients are always teaching me stuff I had no reason to know before they shared their knowledge. You may be like me, that your best learning is not necessarily in formal situations or when something is intended as a learning experience. I'll hear a phrase that someone uses to identify something, and realize it's the perfect label. That's how Collection of Experts got its name. Or someone will ask for the Word document format of a Collection of Experts so they can go sell it on mobile hand-held devices like the Kindle or Sony Reader or Moby Reader, all of which I basically know nothing about.

I heard a particular colleague speak last week for the umpteenth time. I always learn something new from him, no matter how many times I hear him speak or read anything he writes. After all, how could I possibly learn all that he has to share when I hear him an hour at a time in classes, or read articles or his book. There is always more.

Next time you worry about giving away all your knowledge in your tips booklet, think about the reality of that, would you? Is it really possible to share everything you know in a tips booklet? No, of course it isn't. Your people will learn something from you every single time they have contact with you in any format you present your knowledge.

Until next time,
Paulette - fascinated by how and where the learning presents itself

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

How Americans Do Business Relationships

A few weeks ago I had coffee with a consultant I met at a seminar. The consultant's specialty is in doing business in Mexico and helping others do business in Mexico. Over the years, I've known a number of consultants whose focus is on international business and what's involved in it. One thing that keeps jumping out is the difference in how Americans do business compared with many (most?) other countries.

This consultant explained it to me at a very basic level. It made so much sense. As Americans, we often see that there's a tree and go in to grab whatever fruit we see on that tree. You've likely heard the phrase "low hanging fruit." That usually applies to where to put your sales efforts. Go after whatever seems the easiest sale to make, the easiest fruit to pick. This colleague said doing good business in many countries looks more like going in, planting the tree, letting it mature, and then carefully harvesting the fruit it bears so that it continues bearing fruit over a long period of time.

Although I am not particularly known for my patience in many things, the seed planting and then harvesting carefully over time sure seems to make a whole lot of sense when it comes to building a long-lasting business relationship. In fact, it makes sense for building any kind of relationship, don't you think? It gave me great pause, as I've just returned from attending a publishing conference for the seventh consecutive year, where many relationships are taking every bit of seven years to produce fruit that can be harvested.

Until next time,
Paulette - wondering why I'm so surprised by all of this!

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

Important Tools for Booklet Authors

Depending on your personality style, you're drawn to particular methods of promotion and sales for your booklets. Email and the Internet have presented easy, endless, and economical possibilities to reach a broader audience of targeted decision makers. That's become so much the case that now the very "yesterday" approaches have turned into the more effective ways. Here's two cases in point, from among the many possibilities you can consider or re-consider:

* Telephone - when someone emails a question or comment to me about booklets, and their phone number or website address is in that email, my immediate reaction is to pick up the phone and call them. This has brought more sales and loyal followers than I can tell you. First, it shocks the living daylights out of them that I called, especially when the call was 2 seconds after they hit "send" on that email. The call personalizes the interaction and allows us to explore what it is that best suits their want at that time. Sales often happen, either immediately or sometime later.

* Face to Face
<> Workshops and seminars, either as an attendee or as a speaker, allow an interaction that's even better than telephone sometimes. People are there because of their interest in the event, which says something right away. And they paid something to be there, even if it was connected to the transportation.

<> Add food or drink into the mix and it makes the connection stronger. You also have the opportunity to show and tell with booklet samples in hand.

<>Formal in-person presentations to large quantity decision makers, without food or seminar involved are also warranted at times. You've probably done these, as have I. The conversation usually starts by phone or a face to face somewhere and moves on to the formal meeting.

<>And then there are the endless number of networking groups, which require great focus to accomplish the outcome you want.

While I love email and the Internet, and I'm likely to keep those as a mainstay of my marketing, it makes no sense to ignore the results that come and will always come from that more personalized one on one approach. Pick up the phone and see what happens for yourself!

Until next time,
Paulette - noticing how the old becomes new again

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

Booklets and Other Stuff - Why Don't They Buy?

You may know I'm a huge fan of Marcia Yudkin and her work. This week's Marketing Minute hit the nail on the head so precisely on an issue you've probably had that I couldn't help but bring it to you. Here's her Marketing Minute from this week, in full. Subscribe to it yourself. It's one pearl after another each week.
=============================

          ** The Marketing Minute **
    brought to you every Wednesday by Marcia Yudkin
       Marketing Consultant, Author, Speaker
         http://www.yudkin.com/marketing.htm
            http://www.marketingformore.com
            http://www.pressreleasehelp.com
              http://www.namedatlast.com
               mailto:marcia@yudkin.com

                *******************

If you've ever wailed "Why don't they get it?" because
people who clearly need your services don't flock to buy,
try this typology on for size.

Group 1:  They have a problem but do not realize they have
a problem.

Group 2:  They realize they have a problem but understand it
very differently than you do.  For example, you'd diagnose a
midlife crisis, but they consider their wild behavior and
anguish a marital problem or career dilemma. 

Group 3:  They know they have a problem and understand it
roughly as you would but call it something else.

Group 4:  They know they have a problem and understand and
name it as you do.

Members of Group 4 are the easiest to get in the door as
clients.  Group 3 are also easily snagged as long as you
discover and use their words.

Group 2 require more imaginative educational outreach, as
they are looking for a different sort of solution or tool
than you offer.

Stop trying to reach Group 1, the oblivious, as they will
never seek you out or respond to your marketing.

                *******************

RESIZZLE YOUR BUSINESS:  Last week's Marketing Minute
prompted several emails from readers wondering how they can
revamp their business with a more current rationale.  I'm
putting together an intensive "rebrand your business"
coaching program this summer for a limited number of
participants. 

To receive the description of the program in a few days,
press "reply" and tell me your marketing challenge.

Missed last week's Marketing Minute?  You can find it at
http://www.yudkin.com/markmin.htm .

                *******************

IMPLEMENT A PLAN:  If your business is properly positioned
but you're flailing (and therefore failing) in marketing it,
my mini-marketing plan gives you feasible, coherent to-do's
tailored to your goals and target audience.

Details:
http://www.yudkin.com/marketingplan.htm

                *******************
If you enjoy The Marketing Minute, please forward it to
friends and colleagues.  It comes to you every Wednesday
from publicity and marketing consultant Marcia
Yudkin, author of Web Site Marketing Makeover and
10 other books.  P.O. Box 305, Goshen, MA 01032.

For a free weekly marketing tip, subscribe: 
http://www.yudkin.com/markmin.htm

=================

So, do YOU get it?

Until next time,
Paulette - who loves learning from colleagues like Marcia

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

Booklet Benefits

What's the benefit of your booklet to the recipient? That seems like a simple question, yet one that many booklet authors never consider. It does get somewhat complicated, too, when your buyer is a corporation or association or website rather than the end-user.

So let's back up here for a moment. You write your booklet because you have information to share, whether from your professional life or personal life. You write your booklet because you want it to market your business and/or to bring in new revenue directly by selling it. Okay, so those are the benefits to you, the author.

Back to the benefits to the recipient. The large-quantity buyer and the end-user do have some similarities in how the booklet benefits them, or rather CAN benefit them. It will make their life more, better, or different in some way. The booklet can make the large-quantity buyer's life better as a vehicle to help them sell more of their own product or get their own word out there further. The booklet can make the end-user's life better by bringing new knowledge to them that will enhance their life.

It is ALL about the benefits of your booklet. Keep that in mind when talking with anyone and you are very likely to benefit by selling a whole lot more booklets.

Until next time,
Paulette - bringing good stuff to better serve people

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

Booklet on Tips for Parenting

Amazing grasp of the obvious alert: Some booklet topics have broader appeal than others. The breadth of the topic can be the good news or the bad news, depending on how you approach it. You've certainly heard about the importance of creating a niche, of narrowing your focus. Right now there is a Collection of Experts tips booklet forming, bringing together the respective niche expertise about parenting. It's a fascinating process for me to observe and to facilitate. The most obvious divisions are based on the ages they are discussing. Additional divisions are within those age groups, based on challenges to address. It becomes a matter of endless possibilities. Half the 14 slots in this booklet are filled, and going fast. If your expertise is about parenting, grab one of the places for yourself. And you get some freebie things for participating, too, along with 13 other people marketing you. Let me know any questions you have, or just jump right in through the link on Parenting Tips at the bottom of www.CollectionOfExperts.com

Until next time,
Paulette - grateful for the education my clients give me

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

Tips Booklets - Who Turned Up the Volume?

The past two weekends have been unusual. It's been a lot of sensory overload, with tons and tons of ideas. Ok, so it's not possible to truly weigh ideas. That wasn't meant to be literal. Anyway, two weekends of multi-day events about marketing, attended as a student. The good news is the dozens and dozens of new connections (both nationally and internationally, by the way) and ways of looking at what can be done. Lots of "what," with some "how" thrown in.

Yes, I know I shared with you last week about the first of these two weekends. Read on to get the full dosage, though.

It's important to shake things up once in awhile, especially these days. One of several themes going on at these events was the importance, the requirement, of doing things differently than we've done before. It can take a lot to look objectively at what you (and I) do and have done for a long time. After all, I do booklets. That's what I do. Yeah, that's swell. And what ELSE do I do?

Years ago while doing my undergrad degree as a classical musician, the president of the college said "you go to a concert to hear two things -- what you like, and what you don't like." Same reason to get out of the office to events like these two. It's a golden opportunity to see some new ways to do things that I would like, and a great chance to see things I don't like.

I found contacts to explore doing international licensing of my booklet, and maybe act as an agent for some other booklets in that same vein. Another person asked if I was interested in customizing my home study course for two particular industries, in substantial quantity. Uh, hell yes! By the way, I had been all too close to that one for way too long to even see that possibility.

Then the Internet. Some of what was discussed has zero appeal to how I'm constructed and what appeals to me. Oher ideas were ones bearing more investigation because they initially resonated. There were speakers who were more and less appealing in what they offered and how they offered it. I went to one of the events because I wanted to meet some of the speakers whose names had been familiar for many years yet we'd never shaken hands.

If you're wondering whether I've decompressed from all of this yet, it's a resounding NO. Bits and pieces are getting done while savoring several of the ideas I want to implement sooner rather than later.

In a few weeks, I'll be in NYC for the week, presenting some workshops this time. You better believe you'll learn a whole lot more than the last time you were at one of my sessions! Here's the link to sign up today for the NYC workshop. You'll definitely want to be there.

http://www.tipsbooklets.com/nyc2009.htm

Next time you've run out of ideas or into a wall, go to a workshop. Meet some people. Get some new ideas. Then you can figure out what to do first!

Until next time,
Paulette - happy to have gone

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