One time while attending a charity event, I ran into one of our author clients. He said, “The publicist you connected me with is doing a great job of getting me media engagements, but it’s not translating into people buying my books.” Sound familiar? You see, the point of marketing, well, good marketing, is not only to connect you with the right target audience or convey the core benefits that you have to offer, but to do so in a way that compels people to respond. Getting media exposure and creating brand awareness are good things … but at the end of the day, if they don’t translate into a sale, something’s wrong.
You have to remember that humans are subject to a law of physics called inertia. Inertia essentially says that objects tend to stay in their present state until an overwhelming force causes them to do otherwise. In marketing lingo, that means people essentially resist change and don’t want to make the commitment to buy something, to change their status, to let go of their hard-earned lunch money unless you give them an overwhelmingly compelling reason to do so. You have to give them a convincing “call to action” that moves them to respond. You have to take away all their objections, and the little voices inside their heads that tell them that it’s easier to do nothing than to pick up the phone, go online, or stand at the book table and pull out their credit card.
So how do you do that? How do you convince someone who likes your message — who suspects that reading your book will leave him or her better off — to actually buy your product? Entire seminars are devoted to this topic, but here are a few simple principles to try:
1. Make sure that before you start your presentation or interview, you state clearly that you have authored this book (and hold it up), explain in a simple “elevator speech” who the message is for and how it will help them, and that what you are about to share is a small sample of that information. Connect the dots between your presentation and your product. The more often you can make this connection, the better.
2. Be clear about how your audience can get the book — don’t be shy in specifically telling your audience what you want them to do and how to do it. For example, you could say: “If you’d like to put these proven principles to work in your own life, all you have to do is go to my website at www.letmehelpyou.com and click on the special offer.” Remember, don’t assume that your audience knows what to do.
3. Finally, give your audience some kind of time-sensitive incentive to buy now as opposed to later. For example: “As my thank you for attending this seminar, I’ve agreed to give everyone who buys my book today a copy of my bonus report ‘10 More Ways I Can Help You.’”
You wrote your book and created your message to bring value to people’s lives. So, don’t be shy about helping your audience get past their inertia and make the good decision to BUY!
CLIENT SNAPSHOT
To see a great example of an author’s “call to action” to order his book, support his ministry, and more, check out John Shorey’s website by clicking here.
