(QM's Note: Social Media Guru Pam Perry's advice is golden.)
1) Ministry Leaders and Lay People
Publishing a book presents a unique opportunity for ministry leaders and lay people in the church. Christianity depends heavily on education and training. There is a constant stream of teaching in the church and among its members that is often times verbal. Verbal education is great but writing a book is forever. It is a perpetual message to the growing believer, which can be referred back to when needed.
When you are counseling or training someone it is great to have a book that reinforces your message and helps them remember and really apply what you have taught. Every pastor can benefit from a book because when new people come into his/her church or they go out to speak to audiences abroad, they want to have their presence and message firmly planted in the minds and hearts of people. This is accomplished through a book.
A pastor's first book can be based on the vision that moves him the most throughout the duration of his ministry and still incorporate other key features. A couple of great features are a plan of salvation and a devotional section at the end of each chapter. The greatest influence on every Christian's life throughout time has been the words of God and His chosen authors. What God chose to use to preserve His word was a book!
2)Family Services
People who have a career in any kind of family service such as counseling,mentoring, or training young, adult, or married people can really benefit from writing a book. When you are counseling young people or adults on any given issue it really helps in your session if you have a book they can follow along with and give or sell them at the end of your sessions with them. They can refer back to the book when that issue pops up in their life. They have your counseling session for a lifetime through a book. If you're over a mentoring program you can include things in a book that you wouldn't necessarily remember when you talk with your client.
There are organizations that congregate at places like the YMCA that are filled with young people who are learning life skills. Young people go through so many things in their lives that they may not remember what you were trying to teach them in your program, so it helps when you have a book to put in their hands to take home.
If you are the director of a non-profit organization then you may be able to get large companies in your city to sponsor copies of your book. This means that a large bank in your city, for example, who supports children's organizations, may buy 500 copies of your book that you will give away to 500 children. Of course the bank would do this for an advertisement that you organized showing that they bought the books that are being given away. You can do this over and over with different large companies in your city.
If you are a marriage counselor it's good to have a book because married couples can use it in the comfort of their own home when they interact. Writing a book is a tremendous extension of your organization that is fairly simple to accomplish with the right publishing company on your team.
3)Financial Institutions
If you own a financial company or you are the CEO of one then you need to know the benefits you have with writing a book. There are financial companies that market their organization's services by giving free lunch and learn seminars. They have lunch catered to a facility and teach a small or large crowd of people about their services. These are very effective marketing tools that really get people involved in your company. But a book has other benefits that can make it a much more effective and practical tool for marketing your organization.
It can be much cheaper to publish a book and pass it out to potential clients than having lunch catered many times throughout the year. You can send an email, mail a letter, or use an automated answering service letting your database of potential clients know you have a free book available that they can receive. Now you have become not only a business, but a resource center to your target audience. A book gives you adequate time to thoroughly expound upon each and every financial vehicle you offer.
You wouldn't want to just make the book a sales letter for your company but you can explain the story of your company and talk about the industry's products and services as compared to yours. The more educational you make your book, the more new clients you'll gain for your company. This warms up your potential clients to your company because you are seenas a friendly advisor instead of a salesman. Writing a book will also cost much less in time and money instead of consuming these precious resources by hosting lunch after lunch throughout the year.
4) Medical Industry
Publishing a book can be a tremendous option for professionals in the medical field. Often times there are great new advancements in the medical industry, such as LASIK Eye Surgery, that people don't understand and are afraid of. It is a real challenge for medical organizations to educate and inform their market on new advancements that exist because of the high cost of marketing and because of the lack of knowledge people have of this field.
With a book you can reach an unlimited amount of people, thoroughly take the time to explain your particular practice and your unique advantage to the market, which warms them up to working with you much faster. You will gain a more distinguished image as being a medical company that cares about its potential patients enough to educate them before they are expected to pay for services.
Publishing a book is a very simple and timely process which makes it a small investment to make for the powerful impact this marketing tool can create. A book can speak to your market many times greater than other advertisement campaigns can.
5) Business Owners and Corporations
If you are the owner of a small business or the CEO of a company you should know the advantages that publishing a book can have for you. If you own a business and you're in an industry that has so many options or rapid and constant advancements, then publishing a book is definitely for you. Let's say you own a restaurant that is known for your great dishes. You can further capitalize on your success by publishing a cook book. You can sell your cook book right up at the cash register and people will grab your book for a $15 price because they love your food. You can publish a book giving good guidelines to customers if you own a computer retail store or a home remodeling business.
Having a book distinguishes you as the expert in the field so customers will be more likely to make you their only source for the products you sell.
If you are the CEO of a large company then publishing a book is very beneficial to you as well. Not only can you market your products and services to potential clients but you can also reshape your internal business and write your way to a new corporate culture. When you go to the Hilton Hotel you can read a copy of the book talking all about the hotel magnate. When the employees read this book they take a sense of pride in working for a company with such a great legacy.
The guests who stay at the hotel feel more intimate with Hilton than they do with other hotels because there is power in being able to identify with the story behind a successful person or company. The Hilton Company can be a multi-billion dollarcomp any and we still feel like they were the 'underdog' because we know their story.
You can harness this same power to allow people to become more intimate and loyal to you by publishing a good book on your success and/or industry advantages.
6) Beauty Service and Sales Companies
The fashion industry is huge! We have so many products, brushes, creams, lotions, sprays, etc. in our home that you could take our bathroom closet for a beauty shop storage room. Women need help, guidance, and direction when it comes to making the right purchases and properly caring for their skin and hair.
You can fill this void! Sure, there are books in your local bookstore on fashion and beauty tips but there's plenty of room for one written by you in your beauty salon.
If you have a full service salon and offer hair and nail services, tanning services and facials you can write a book about your knowledge and share it with the world. You can sell your book to your customers which contains all those little beauty tips and secrets that you talk to them about when you're working on them.
Stop just giving away all the tips for free and tell them about how your book contains the tips and secrets they need to enhance themselves.
This book can quickly become your best selling product because it introduces the customer to the world of beauty from an expert's perspective. You will be seen as an elite professional in your city as an author. You will sell much more of your other products because the book teaches them how to use each product. You will also drive more business to you as well as retain more new and existing business because of your perceived expertise. Genius! You should become an author to expand your business and market it in a unique and effective way.
7) Sales Profession
Salespeople are always giving advice on things. It's a part of good salesmanship to not sell but instead educate and recommend something that you happen to sell. This involves a good amount of talking, convincing, and reasoning.
By publishing a book you can arm your salespeople with a lethal weapon. Whether you own a multi-level marketing company, a real estate agency, or sell insurance, you will leverage your success in closing sales by educating potential customers through a book. A book isn't intrusive, but it is personable. The customer has the opportunity to be educated by your voice without feeling pressured to buy on contact. By giving them a well written book on your industry, various options, and reasons why your products or services are the best, you'll win more loyal long-term customers.
We happen to be educating ourselves on healthy dieting and vitamin supplementation and we have found ourselves really growing loyal to this one particular company that has a daily radio show and an informational website loaded with great information. Of course, they always recommend a product they sell for this and that, and I buy them because they've earned my trust. They have freely given information to me that I feel was as objective as possible and have demonstrated expert industry knowledge so I feel compelled to use their product.
The educational strategy of marketing takes people from being just price driven to being more emotionally driven. I'm not just a customer; I'm a disciple, a student of this health product distributor so it's second nature for me to buy everything they sell.
You can create a following for your company with a book instead of just customers. You can take their loyalty to deeper levels by educating them through a book.
8) Education
If you are in the education field and are ready to take your career to the next level, read this. You already know that one of the greatest tools of educating students is with a book. Teachers who work for the school system at every level use books to educate students.
If you feel that your knowledge should be getting out to a market that is not yet receiving it, then publishing a book could be a perfect fit for you. If you want to travel and give lectures you can take some books with you based on the size crowd you are expecting. You will learn that back-of-the-room book sales are the most profitable way to create a career or second income as an author.
If you speak on a regular basis at various places it is a must to have a published book. This presents you as an expert to your market. Having a book distinguishes you from other educators, lecturers, etc. in your field. It also strengthens your income as an educator. The back-of-the-room sales you will get will make your traveling well worth your effort.
Not only does a book distinguish you as an expert in your field, or build your income, but it also simply educates people better. You won't be able to accomplish in any one lecture what you can accomplish with an in-depth book. When you speak, you forget things and don't explain things in thorough detail like you can in a book. It's good for your audience to be able to see what you were teaching with their own eyes and in their own element. They can take you home through your book. They take with them your heart, your mind, and your passion through your book. God Himself chose to write when He thought of how He could leave Himself with the world. He's been wildly successful and so can you with a book.
9) Young People
If you're in high-school or college and are involved with a writing group we
have a cool project idea for you. You should write a book and support a great local cause.
If you're a member of some special literature, short story, or poetry group in your city or school you can organize your group to submit stories to form a book.
You can have say, 35 short stories or 40 poems compiled into a book and get your school to promote your project. You can do it yourself or have us complete your work and then you can plan a huge book signing to have at your school, at your regular poetry reading locales, and/or at your local bookstores. The entire community will support what you're doing and it can be very inspirational for other young people.
Plus you will become a writer in a book! You get to keep that forever. You can use your profits from sales to save up for college, continue paying through college, or to give to your favorite charity.
10) Technology
If you are in the technology field then you have great benefits to publishing your own book. Technology is fast-paced and to outsiders appears to be intimidating. I understand that the internet has been around for over 27 years but has only been used by the general market around the last 16 years. The same holds true with many different technology products and services. You can become an authority in the area of technology and capitalize on the lack of education that the general market has.
The benefit to that is very simple, you'll be able to recommend product or service solutions that you happen to offer and thus win the loyalty of more of your target market through a book. You establish yourself as the expert authority by educating the market on your sector of the technology industry. There's a woman we listen to sometimes on a radio show that talks and takes calls on technology solutions. She sells a ton of products because she gives so much through her show through education.
You can set yourself up as the authority in the tech market through a book and win loyal customers for life.
Posted By: Marsha Jones
Saturday, November 20th 2010 at 1:22PM
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