Day 12 – Marketing Arsenal

Authoring and Coaching

Superior marketing tools squeak loudly.   Their whole intent is to make people stop what they are doing, look and listen.   It makes sense that whoever is using marketing tools that make them squeak the loudest is going to be who is going to be heard the most frequently and most likely in the most clear and direct way.

In order to make all of the marketing tools and tips that we have shared with you squeak and become a shout not a mere whisper in your market – you need to understand the influence of and desire to add authoring and coaching as the final tool in your marketing arsenal.

What is an Author?

We all have ideas of who and what an author is and we picture them as recluse people tucked away in some one room cabin somewhere with an old typewriter pecking away.   We see them as artistic people who fill notebook after notebook with wise things.   We view them as intellectuals tapping on their laptops ready to rid the world of ignorance with this one last helpful piece of knowledge and information.

An author is anyone who wants to establish themselves as an authority in their particular field  by writing down the steps, tips, observations, or “secrets” to their success.   In fact, wanting to “write a book” is one of the most common goals of the average person.

To make being an author an effective marketing tool you have to work within your sphere of influence and tie in your writing to your products and services.

You can:

Create a courses relating to your products

Put your methods into a book to help others in your profession

Develop training courses and materials that teach your clients how to use your products

…and much more!

Books You Write, Co-Author or Have Ghostwritten

Being an author does not always mean that you have to do the writing.   In today’s marketplace you can do all of the writing, some of the writing or none of the writing and still have a book to present to your clients and customers and that will help establish you as an authority in your field or profession.

If you do all the writing – then you are developing the book yourself from start to finish and then will most likely hire an editor to complete the final edits of the book and then you will work on getting the book published.

If you do some of the writing – then you are working with one or more additional authors to help create a final work product.   You are co-authoring a book.  While it is not required that you give the authors credit, often it is to your advantage to expand your sphere of influence by including others so that their marketing groups are included into your overall markets.

If you do none of the writing but still have your name on the book then you have had your book “ghost-written”.   This simply means that another person has taken the idea that you have given them, along with some concepts and/or an outline and has fleshed out the thoughts into the material you need for your book and they are doing this for your benefit and not their own.   Usually ghostwriters are hired on a “work for hire” basis which means that they give up all rights to the material they write and in turn you can use their work as your own.

Another alternative that allows you to get the books and workbooks you need is the private label workbook printing and publishing services offered with your membership.   In addition to receiving complete workbooks in perfect bindings that have YOUR NAME as an author on the cover, you have the option of custom printing and binding as well and book promotion and distribution services.

Overnight, you can become a “published author” by utilizing resources that are already in place and ethically available to you for little expense.

Even New York Times Bestselling authors have contracted ghostwriters to write the complete manuscript for them or to share in a “co-author” role (but still write the complete manuscript or a partial manuscript) in order to make better use of their time and resources.   This is how outsourcing is done in the writing industry.

How Do I Get Published?

Basically there are two ways to get a book or workbook published -

Traditional and Self-Publishing.

Traditional publishing is where you or an agent acting on your behalf submits your unique manuscript to a publishing house for the purpose of them publishing and marketing the book for you and giving you a percentage or a royalty interest in the proceeds from the sale of that book.

In traditional publishing the contracts vary substantially as does the potential of what you can earn per book.   The competition is fierce and no matter what the publishing house they want to see three things:

1.  Quality of Writing

2.  An Established Platform and Market of Potential Buyers

3.  Your Unique Knowledge and Expertise

For most people, getting a book published traditionally is not likely and if you do get a contract the delay between the acceptance of your manuscript and the actual release date of your book can be 18 to 24 months or longer!   Most financial business owners want materials in a shorter time frame than that and for them Self Publishing is a better option.

Self-Publishing Basics

Like traditional publishing, self-publishing does require some work but it accomplishes what you want accomplished – of having a book or workbook – in less time than traditional publishing.

There are many types of self-publishers and each self-publisher has their own options for binding, book size, printing packages, marketing packages and more.   Some of the more popular self-publishers are Xulon Press, Xlibris, AuthorHouse, Tate Publishing, Lightning Source, and Book Surge.

Many traditional publishers or major book resellers like Amazon.com have self-publishing for interested authors or a Print On Demand (POD) service available to authors who have registered as their own “publishing company” with an International Standard Book Numbering or ISBN Agency (isbn.org and bowker.com) to acquire ISBN numbers for their books and materials and who want their books, workbooks or other materials published, for a fee.

The expense of self-publishing is typically covered by the author but is a valid business expense if you are creating a book to use in your speaking, advertising or promotion of your products, services or to establish yourself as an authority in your field or profession.

Having a book of your own is a great marketing tool to utilize when you do public speaking, hold seminars or workshops.

Professional Coaching, Seminars and Workshops

A final stage of marketing and becoming an authority on a particular subject or topic in your profession or field is sharing what you know with others in a way that is meant to teach them how to take what you know and incorporate it into their own businesses, products and services and use those tools of yours to expand the potential of their success.

There are three ways to help facilitate this process of transferring your knowledge to others in a way that is highly effective:

1.    Professional Coaching.

2.     Seminars.

3.     Workshops.

Professional Coaching

Professional coaching has been around since the beginning of time it simply was known by a different name – apprenticeships.   In professional coaching you build a direct relationship with another person or business for the purpose of transferring what you know to them.   The relationship in a professional coaching situation is typically one of a mentor to the mentored.   Most of us have had mentors in our life who have passed along beneficial knowledge or skills necessary to our establishing ourselves as leaders or authorities in our own spheres of influence.    Some of our first mentors were our parents or our teachers or college professors.

When we act as professional coaches we are establishing ourselves as a person who has the answers, is successful in our business and is willing to help others.

Most professional coaches in addition to mentoring one-on-one will also hold broader events in which they are passing along general information to others at the same time through seminars or workshops.

Seminars

A seminar can be any event over the course of a specified time or number of days in which experts (you) get together for the purpose of directly teaching a group of differently-talented and skilled individuals how to do a specific task, acquire certain information or utilize certain resources.

For example, as a tax professional, it would be common for you to hold a multiple day seminar to explain some of the tax law changes and how they impact your clients.    Additionally, if you work in the area of credit management or as a loan officer, a great seminar you could facilitate would be about the basics of getting a loan, identifying the key items that prevent a business owner from getting a loan and how to become more “credit-friendly” and a better candidate for a loan.

When you are creating a seminar it is essential to think of

1.     Location -  You want a location that is user-friendly that centrally-based in an area that the people most interested would like to go to and that offers adequate and secure parking.

2.     Space – Like location, you need to hold a seminar in a place that has enough space for all of the attendees.

3.     Cost – if you are charging for your seminar, you need to make the expense market-friendly and reasonable enough for your clients to participate in while at the same time covering the expenses of hosting the seminar.

4.      Topics – Because life is complex, there is no one seminar that can cover every topic related to business in one day.  Focus on specific areas such as taxes, maximizing profits, executive recruiting strategies and staffing solutions, etc.

When marketing and promoting your seminar – treat it as you would any other product.

1.     Advertise effectively and timely.

2.     Target specific audiences.

3.     Promote efficiently using press releases, media outlets and direct mail marketing tools.

When organizing your seminar  – do not do it alone.   Hire a team of qualified people who can help with the organization of location, products/resources on hand, marketing and promotion, development of schedule and topics, and can even schedule additional speakers.

Workshops

Workshops are seminars taken to a hands-on level.   At a seminar, the material that is presented is often structured in a very academic way.  The attendees are “students” while the expert is the teacher.   There is little interaction or dialogue between the attendees and the expert.   In a workshop the concepts of a seminar are still in place but the attendees are encouraged and expected to participate by bringing specific problems and/or questions that the expert, possibly with the help of the other qualified staff members as well as potential involvement of other attendees help to resolve during the course of the workshop.

As a financial professional, you could hold a budget workshop over the course of several weeks or months in which participants could work on learning the fundamentals for household or business budgeting.

An investment manager could hold a workshop on Stocks, Bonds and Investing in which he/she could teach their clients how to understand the stock symbols and better “swim with the sharks” in the stock market.

By utilizing workshops, you pass on the essential knowledge your clients need to make better use of your products or services.   In the investment training example, if a person knows more about how the stock market works – they are more likely to take a vested interest in trading and this is great news for an investment manager as that client will more likely invest more for substantial goals and gains rather than spending that money on other expenditures such as shopping trips, additional vacations and so on.

By teaching your clients baby steps of your business you are securing their dependence on you as you establish yourself as an authority or a mentor in the areas that matter the most to them.

In Summary

Books that you author or have written for your benefit, as well as seminars and workshops are the crowning achievement of your marketing success.   By having a book to sell at the back of the room during your talks you are creating more of a solid foundation for your business and are establishing yourself as an expert.    Seminars and workshops are both useful tools that allow you to convey broad amounts of information in a way that is direct and personal to a group of people at the same time.   Seminars are lecture-based while workshops are hands-on.   In addition to these forums, professional coaching services allow you to show to others that you have reached the highest level possible of your profession and are ready to share what you know with others to facilitate their success.

All of the tools in the marketing arsenal when used step-by-step and method-by-method combine to create the success in your business and professional life that you have always wanted.   Use these tools in a way to is relevant to your financially-based business and watch the growth and development.   While you’re at it – send us an e-mail and let us know about your success.   We love hearing from you and look forward to seeing you as excited about your business as we are.