More than just a book

While it’s really good for your ego to be able to say you’ve authored a book, there is far more to a book than a little halo-polishing!  A book is the fuel for so many other things that will benefit your business.

So if you have already published a book - or plan to do so - here are some of the things you can do with it.

A powerful business card

If you’re in discussion with a potential client, presenting them with a copy of their book (don’t sign it until they ask, unless you want to look pretentious), gives a message that you are a thought-leader in your field.

A marketing tool

Send copies of your book to companies you’d like to work with.  Having an author as a supplier or consultant adds a little kudos.  Also if they read it and like your approach, the door is already ajar - and it’s a good reason for calling, to find out if they received it OK.

A structure to underpin consulting

If you’ve written a book that describes a framework, blueprint, techniques or a process, this can become the structure for your consulting system.  Give it a name and it will start to become known as your signature system.

The material for training

Your book can be converted into training programmes that can be delivered either face-to-face or virtually online.  You can add massive value by teaching people exactly how to use your information and can even tailor it to individual clients’ needs.  You can convert the book into workbooks with exercises and examples for your delegates to do or discuss.

A keynote speech

Most professional speakers write at least one book to sell at the back of the room when they present.  But it works the other way too.  If you’re an author you can be asked to speak on the subject of your book at conferences and industry events.

A podcast series

It doesn’t have to be an audio book, but you can convert it to a series of podcasts where you discuss a chapter or section and elaborate.  You could also invite industry experts to join you in the discussion to add more value.

A video series

In addition to your podcast you can make short video tutorials around the subject of the book.  If you don’t want to appear on screen there are all kinds of other options, from images, video clips, animation and slides that can retain people’s visual interest while you narrate it.

That’s seven different ways to leverage your book.  Why do all that work just to sell a few copies, when you can use that to bring in more, and very lucrative, business?

How can I help you?

If you could speak directly to the visitor to your website, this would be a good question to start with.  Unfortunately, you can’t do that live, so your website needs to deliver what that visitor wants.  Not only what they want, but you need to make it easy for them to find what they’re looking for and ensure that they’re not kept waiting while your pages load.

This is called usability - or UX.

The challenge is that, unless you’re a large organisation, it’s rare that websites built for smaller companies go through any kind of UX testing.  The result is that the website may look beautiful, but if it’s hard for visitors to navigate or there are irritating features, you could be losing potential business.

UX for small business owners

However, you can do some quick and dirty UX testing before signing off the final version of your website.

If you go networking the best place to get some help is to ask your regular networking contacts if they’re willing to give your website a test run.  Most people are happy to do this - but, before you do that, have your testing process ready.

If you ask any six people what they think of your website they will give you six different - and often conflicting - answers.  So that’s not the answer.

Instead think about what a potential client will want to know - or start the testing with a handful of people and ask them what they most want to find on a business like yours’ website. 

This might be:

• Specific products or services
• Costs
• Images of products
• Details of how a service is delivered
• Your contact info
• The company history
• Guides or templates for something

The list can be quite comprehensive.

THEN you can ask your UX testers to carry out specific tasks.  Give them a list of tasks and ask them to give you feedback on how easy it was to complete them.

You’ll soon get feedback on hard to find items because the menu didn’t have what they wanted where they thought it would be or frustrations in pages taking too long to load.

All this should be fed back to your web designer/developer with requests to improve the UX.

Navigation is the key

The navigation includes not only the menu tabs and options, but also any clickable boxes and links. 

• Big fat buttons or boxes fairly high up your home page for your core offerings is a good way to make finding things easy.  Stick to fewer than five or it will start to look cluttered, but it will make it easy for people to get where they want, without having to scroll back up to work through the menus.
• Have your contact information - phone and email - at the top of EVERY page.  If someone just wants to call you, don’t make them jump through any more hoops than necessary.
• Don’t bury core pages in a sub-menu.  Your About page and Contact page should be on the main menu and easy to find.
• Don’t give pages quirky names.  Stick to the obvious.  The aim is not to impress people with your creative labelling, but to make finding the right page a no-brainer.
• Stick to a maximum of eight tabs on your menu or it will look cluttered and confusing.
• Try to avoid lengthy lists of sub-pages.  People want to know if you’ve got what they’re looking for - so don’t give them too many options to work through.
• Avoid too much detail.  Your main copy on each page should focus on pain and gain - what problem does this solve and what will it be like when you’ve got it?  If products need specifications, then upload a pdf with the nitty-gritty.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, but it’s a good place to start! 

Stress-free video

Video content is becoming the norm.  People expect to have video material in their social feeds and, of course, on YouTube.  But if your business hasn’t quite got to that point, it’s time to give it some thought.

You could invest in getting professionally made videos, but that incurs a cost and not every small business has the budget to keep generating this kind of video.  It is possible to do it yourself and today’s smartphones video cameras are excellent, but then you have to consider what kind of videos you want to make.

Not everybody is comfortable talking to a camera.  While there are many people who feel completely at ease chatting away to their smartphone video camera, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.  

If you’re one of the people who press record and then stumble over your words, get embarrassed and try again - and again.  Or you just can’t remember what you’re supposed to be saying, there are other ways to produce video material.

Animation

Everyone loves a good animation - they’re generally attractive and easy to make.  You can subscribe to something like Doodly, probably the best known (and currently on a special deal). 

Alternatively there are great free options like Powtoon which is excellent for explainer videos.

There are others such as Videoscribe and this article lists a selection with costs. 

Voice over slides

If you prefer to voice over slides there are plenty of software options, such as InVideo and Wavevideo.  These allow you to build a presentation and add your words on screen to the combination of images and video clips.  You can upload your own images and video or use their library.

If you don’t want to use your own voice some software offers an automated voice or you can look on Fiverr for a voice-over actor and give them your script and/or slide presentation.  They will then do the voice over for you to upload.

You can even simply use a Zoom meeting - without inviting anyone and record it.  However, you might need something like Camtasia to do any editing.

Video clips

You may be wondering where to get video clips from.  Most of the image libraries, such as Shutterstock and istockphoto offer video as well as static images.

Even the free libraries like Pixabay, Pexels and PikWizard have video libraries too.

Initially, it will take time to put together a video, but as you become familiar with the tools and know what you’re doing you’ll be able to put together a short promo or explainer video in a relatively short time.

The secret is to explore the tools, find the ones you like best and then have a systematic approach to create a video once a week (fortnight/month) and you’ll soon grow a video library.

Use your videos on your website, on social media and on your YouTube influencer channel.

Does email marketing work?

There’s plenty of evidence that it does - and also plenty of evidence that it doesn’t!

The question is a bit like asking ‘how long is a piece of string?’  There’s no simple answer.

A better question might be ‘how can I make email marketing work?’

And here are my top 10 tips to improve your success rate:

1. Know your audience.  The more you know about the people you’re trying to influence the better your content will be.  Understand their problems, their dreams and goals and that will guide what you deliver to them.
2. Be clear about your purpose.  If you’re sending an email campaign, you must have a clear goal in mind.  What do you want your reader to do when they’ve read your message(s)?
3. Don’t swamp people with sales:  Think about how you feel when you get daily emails selling you something - you either delete or unsubscribe.  Plan your campaign carefully to spread the message.  If there’s an event or closing day, then by all means do a countdown - usually the last few days you can get away with emails on D-Day minus 5, 4, 2, 1.
4. Spend time on your subject lines.  Your subject line is the equivalent to a headline.  It’s the trigger to get people to open and read your message.  Pain and gain both work well (Are you suffering from … problem or The secret of … [big result]).  Refer back to tip 1 to really hone your subject lines to your target audience.
5. Deliver genuine value.  People aren’t idiots so pretending that your offer is limited numbers, has an end date or is a price drop (when it isn’t) are only going to damage your reputation.  Always present your offer in terms of benefits - what’s in it for me? (WIIFM)
6. Choose the right image.  An image brings your text to life - but when you’re trying to promote something it must be the RIGHT image.  It’s not visual candyfloss, it must work to help you to get the message across.  If you’re promoting a product it’s easier as you will have professional shots of your product - or someone using it (won’t you?)
7. Speak your reader’s language.  That doesn’t mean pepper your text with jargon, but it does mean writing copy that shows you get their challenges and why they are keeping them awake at night and that what you’re offering will solve their problem.  
8. Keep it conversational.  The best email marketers use a conversational style - as though they are talking directly to the reader.  Imagine that your ideal client is right in front of you and you were talking directly to them - and write that.
9. Don’t forget a clear call to action.  Tell people what to do next and make it easy for them to do that.  That means a live link - ideally as a button (links embedded in text can be hard to use on a smartphone).  If you want them to phone you - put the phone number right after you’ve asked them to do that.  In a perfect world you will have a dedicated number, but even if you don’t make sure everyone who might answer the phone is aware of the campaign and can answer questions and convert enquiries to sales.
10. Don’t add anything after your call to action.  This is a common mistake - some people think that, if people don’t take action you need a secondary offer.  However, all that does is downgrade potential enquiries to a lower level of action.  P.S.s do work well, but they need to be a second call to action for the SAME offer, not offer an alternative.

Happy email marketing!