Guest Post by Jan King eWomenPublishingNetwork
For coaches, psychologists, attorneys, physicians, and many others, writing a book is an important part of a successful career. In case you aren’t convinced, we think there are seven dramatic impacts a successfully published book can have on your professional practice.
1. Developing and profiting from your intellectual property
Writing a book forces you to really think through the content and the methods of what you tell your clients. You can gloss over things or not fully develop your ideas in speaking or working with clients, but you really put your ideas to the test when you write them.
You can then figure out what types of products you can produce from these ideas – it may be a book, but it might also be audio CDs, seminars, teleclasses. These marketing tools, but these are marketing tools that pay for themselves directly. You also have something to sell to prospective clients and every time you speak. The perception of the value of something you sell is higher than the perception of something you give away like a sales kit.
2. Expanding your audience reach
You probably have clients locally, or maybe even regionally, but to do business nationally or internationally, clients need a way of knowing who you are and what you do. A book tells a client more about how you think, what your values are – real insight into you. And you can reach many more people than you could personally. People you can get to come to your web site, become part of a mailing list and then regularly communicate with. It is particularly important to publishers that you have a larger emailing list – preferably 2,000 or more.
3. Getting much closer and more connected with your target audience
It is important to not only broaden your reach, but also to deepen it. The sweet spot is the intersection between your exact expertise and your clients needs and wants. You need to get intimately familiar with the audience – using demographics, psychographics, and understanding how they behave in problem-solving and where they look for help. When you write a book, your most powerful place is where your ideal client is the same as your ideal reader for that book. Describe blogging, using blogging to create content for the book as well as to get audience reaction to your thoughts before you write or as you write. You can test concepts and see what attracts the most attention or discussion. Blogs that can demonstrate they are widely read are a current hot button for publishers.
4. Proving your credibility as an expert in your field
Experts write books to communicate their wisdom in ways their audience will relate to. Experts have their pick of clients and can set higher fees. A book differentiates you and puts you at the top of the list. Would you rather do a strategic plan with Tom Peters or Jack Welch, or just someone who claims to be an expert? A book allows clients to see who you are and how you work independently – before you ever meet them, and then decide to seek you out. Saves a lot of sales time.
5. Building your platform to sell your core business and other products besides your book
It is a lot easier to get speaking engagements, to get booked on radio and TV, to get to be interviewed as an expert by magazines and newspapers and to begin to build your list of media contacts and corporate and association contacts when you can demonstrate your expertise without having to be there.
6. Increasing the number of marketing tools available to you to sell your core business
As an author, you have written intellectual property you can use as marketing tools. You can write articles that are really excerpts of your book or pieces from your blog.
You can also take much better advantage of free PR opportunities that come your way when you are asked to comment on current news and trends as the expert. Virtually all the expert commentators on news shows are authors. They get free publicity for their products and services every time you see them on TV.
7. Putting you on par with the most sophisticated competitors to your core business
Who else is competing with you for the same clients? Aren’t the ones who command the greatest fees and get all the free publicity the experts who have demonstrated their expertise with books?
With a book, you can take pages and pages to show how you are different than your competitors, and cover what you see that they don’t, and show why your approach is more in tune with what clients really need.
You don’t want to compete with the other local attorney, or psychologist or life coach – you want to compete with the nationally know experts in your field and leapfrog over the local competition, even if you still want local clients. They will line up to work with someone with a national reputation.
Writing a book is a rewarding experience personally and professionally. Once you’ve done it, your resume has the word “author” on it forever.
Ó Jan B. King 2009 888-337-0636 www.janbking.com
Don’t Miss “The ROI of a Book for Your Business!” 6/30/10, 1:30 CST https://events.ewomennetwork.com/event/details.php?eid=13513
