Tell People About Your Book

Stuart: Foreign. Welcome back to another episode of the book More Show. It's Stuart Bell here and today joined by Betsy Vaughan. We're going to dive into a subject that again, a lot of people have been asking recently of how best to use their book once it's created. So we obviously have strategy calls with the majority of our thought of our authors that we work with. One of the things that I'm always surprise that people don't think about doing is just sending out a letter or an email to existing customers and prospects. I think the allure of the attraction of brand new people always overshadows the fact that the people who already know you trust you and like you to varying degrees. That's where the best relationships are and the best potential is. So going to dive deep into a couple of examples of reaching out and contacting those people. Now your book is, is out in the world and exists. And then we also touch on at the end this idea of creating video, quick, short video, as a way of amplifying some of the messages in your book and as a way of having an excuse to reach out to people. So we often talk about this idea of flagship broadcasts and staying in touch with people over the long term once they've opted in if they're not immediately ready to become customers. This idea of very quickly creating short, engaging videos that you can send out over the long haul is a super simple way of achieving this flagship broadcast type type of communication if something more involved like a podcast is too difficult. So some fantastic content for everyone here. Regardless of whether you've written a book with us or by yourself or whether you're thinking about it. This idea of staying in touch with people and using your book as the excuse to reach out to them. Fantastic opportunity to really get those conversations going. So enjoyed this conversation. The time went fast. Excited for you to listen to it and I'll catch you on the other side.

Guest: Betsy Vaughan, Stuart Bell. How are you today?

Stuart: Good, thank you. How's it going in sunny Florida?

Guest: Not so sunny. Kind of a little cloudy today, you know, so.

Stuart: Isn't it? There's a mandate that the local tourist board says you're not allowed to talk about. So if you're a resident it will.

Guest: No, I only do that when I'm talking to your wife. Like she thinks it's always sunny here. Like the weather is always perfect. We don't talk about it being cold or rainy.

Stuart: Keep up the propaganda. 5 to 10 year move down there permanently planned, right?

Guest: Exactly. So just keep her off the weather channel. You know,

Stuart: so today I thought that we would talk about two things today in the same ballpark. This idea of, or giving people ideas of when you've written the book. Because at the end of the day we talk a lot about their book not being the product, it's the conversation or the opportunity for the conversation, it's the product. So when I give some ideas a little bit more around that, we've done a few shows talking about the book creation process and what's a great time,

Guest: some of the things you want to talk about, you know, I think people are sort of stuck right now and need some ideas or need some reminders even, you know, of what to do or what they can, can do if they're sort of stalled out from, you know, their promotion side of things, marketing

Stuart: side of things, actually getting there and using it.

Guest: Yeah, yeah.

Stuart: So I think it's so much the, that psychological condition of like, I don't know if it's the recency effect or just the kind of brighter light syndrome that it takes so many cycles to get it done. Particularly if you're doing this by yourself without working with us. It's. There's so many things that if you're going through this for the first time, you need to know that all of that kind of crowds out the bit that you should be concentrating on, which is just the content and then how are you going to use it once it's done. I've given the example of the on the podcast before about when I imported a Japanese sports car into the uk.

Guest: No, I'll say again, I don't think I've even heard this story.

Stuart: Oh, okay, please. Little Mitsubishi fto, which is like a little two seater Mitsubishi sports car. I don't even think there's a US equivalent to it. They were, they did a short run UK run for them, but after that they were mainly just Japanese cars. And then because Japan drives on the same side of the road as the uk, Japanese imports are over thing because the steering wheel's on the right side of the car. So I had a friend who'd imported a few cars in the past, so I imported one of these. And the actual importing bit of it was relatively straightforward, especially with the friend kind of walking me through the steps. But the overhead, so you need to get it certificated when it's like a safety certificate, like an annual inspection equivalent when it lands, just to prove that it's not a weird death trap. So that has an overhead going through that. I mean there was even the case where it was so many little things I must have had to. Even with. Because this wasn't that many years ago. I mean, it was certainly in the days of being able to Google and YouTube things to see what the deal was. So even with that help, I mean, I still must have had to put it in for the test about four or five times because there were little things. I think the last pickup point that it failed on was the fog lights. You know, you get. Fog lights are a thing over here on the.

Guest: They are, yes. Yeah.

Stuart: Okay. I've been here for two years permanently. I don't think I've had an occasion to use a fog light yet. So anyway, so fog light.

Guest: Well, maybe not under like the fog. There may be two different things. Like. So the. Like your. Your cars have fog lights on them.

Stuart: Yeah.

Guest: And like, come on, Autumn. Oh, yeah. So, yeah. I don't know if they're super bright, but they're like the. They're typically considered the bottom of the car underneath all the lights.

Stuart: Those extra down there, a lot of car use them as like daytime running lights or.

Guest: Yes, yes.

Stuart: Or driver lights. They sometimes call. Yeah. So similar thing.

Guest: Okay.

Stuart: Yeah, yeah.

Guest: I had this. Envisioned this big bright light like on the side of the car. You know, you're like a lighthouse light. Just that.

Stuart: Right.

Guest: Sorry.

Stuart: That's how. Well, it's because all of this cars in the UK are steam powered and we need the fog lights on the top and there's that person walking in front of them with the horn ringing a bell. So anyway, fog light. Japanese cars don't have fog lights by standards, so you have to. That's how you can usually tell a Japanese import because the models look the same. But all of them have got aftermarket fog lights. So I was doing this myself. A lot of them are just like tacked on extra light that are just stuck on the edge and they look rubbish. I thought, no, no, I'm going to do this properly and make it look nice. So I kind of cut it into where the license plate was and made a nice housing for it and really subtly set it in there just so it looked as if it was as good as it could look. Anyway, apparently it needs to be one side of the car versus the other side of the car. I had it just off center on one side and it failed. So I had to go get another license plate surround that I'd cut into, cut it into the other side, send it back in. All of these things that. So the point of this slightly rambling story is all of that mental overhead of just going through the production on a thing that I was only ever going to do once. So kind of all of that learning went. All of that acquired knowledge was kind of wasting in the sense that I never had the opportunity to use it again. But that mental overhead, I mean, all through that period, I barely even thought about driving the car. And it even got to the point where it was a damn pain in the neck, to be honest, trying to get it done. So the same with the books, I think, particularly if you're not working with someone, there's so much little bits and pieces of production overhead that just takes cycles and burn cycles that the actual use case, how are you going to get it out there in front of people starting those conversations, which as we talk all the time is the important thing. It's easy for that to just get pushed further and further down the important list. And the worst case scenario is people cross the finish line and then, oh, thank God for that and don't want to think about it for a couple of weeks. And then a couple of weeks turns into a couple of months and all the opportunities.

Guest: Yeah, they do. I think we used to see more of people really like knowing what they were going to do at the end of this process. And now I feel like we get to. It's almost like I've started asking that question, like, so what are we going to do with this book at the end of this? Making them think about it now at least planting that seed. Because we have had so many people that will get almost finished and say, can you help me with this book? Like, what do I do with it now? You know, and yeah, we have resources. We have the. Beyond the book. That's. That's a valuable resource that all of our clients receive. And, and we're happy that you're always happy to hop on a call and discuss, you know, strategize some things. But it's funny to me how many people just, I need to get a book, but what am I. Oh no, I have it. What am I going to do with it now? So just, just to use a couple of ideas would be, you know, would be helpful to people, right?

Stuart: And even the couple to start with, because it does then generate its own momentum to a certain degree. And once you've kind of broken the seal on, on using in a few scenarios, others kind of reveal just because you start thinking that way. I mean, the strategy calls. I'd probably say that the. Because it's only the kind of the intro level, the fastest option that we've got, that's the only one that doesn't have any strategy elements included in it. So it's probably a good 80% of people that we work with have some kind of strategy call. And just as you say, it's often people are arriving at that call saying, okay, well, can you help me? Now what do I do? Which is a surprise. I wonder if in a way it's because this kind of life cycle of using books as lead generation tools, years ago it was something that was. Excuse me, sorry. The emotion of the conversations obviously getting to me. The I need. I've got a mute button on my setup in the office, but not at home. So obviously need that here as well. Yeah, sorry. A life cycle of the. Of using book as a lead generation tool. So years ago it was something that was relatively exclusionary. It was difficult for people to do almost to the stage that the only option of doing it was to get a book deal and have some kind of publisher do it on your behalf. Then it was democratized a little bit in that it was easier to do technically, but it was still quite an overhead. So Amazon's CreateSpace platform kind of really brought that to the masses. But it was still a lot of. It was really only a DIY type option. And now obviously there's a number of companies around and certainly we're really trying to democratize it and bring it to everyone. We're kind of very focused on getting that price, something that's achievable and helping people in the sense of using it. But I think in that life cycle, from the customer perspective, from you as a person thinking about writing, it just moves to something that's in more people's awareness. So it moves from, okay, I've got a use case for this. I to need, need to do it. Can you help to. I've seen everyone else doing it. I don't want to be left behind like having a website kind of 15 years ago, that similar kind of transition. So I definitely don't think we're there yet. I mean, we're very much still in the early stage of that. But it definitely is. More people see it not only as more accessible but more achievable now than perhaps even five or six years ago when we started.

Guest: And I think, I think you're right, people will say, oh well, so and so told me that they did a book. And so I've been thinking about it, but. But I, I can't tell you how often I hear, I've been thinking about this for like 5 years. Like I hear that all the time. So everybody has that idea, like, I know I should do it, I know I want to do it. It's been planted for some time, you know, and then those are always the ones who get excited. Like I think about a call I have today about this gentleman who's been thinking about he just finished his first book and he's been thinking about doing that first book for a number of years. And then finally now he's like, well, I want to talk about more books, you know. And so there's that excitement that comes in and they realize, hey, again, it's

Stuart: cracking the seal on it and. Yes, right, exactly. Yeah.

Guest: So excited about it and such a great tool, you know, to use. And, and, and, and, and like you said, we're not at that point where everybody has a book like everybody has a website. So it, that there's still that wow, you have a book, you know, factor, you know, that wow, that's impressive. You must be an expert, you must know what you're talking about, you know, kind of thing. So it's still.

Stuart: Even when it gets, even when it gets to the stage of, I mean, I don't think I'll ever get to the stage where everyone has one. It's definitely not as a website or a phone number. Would have been kind of 40 years before, 50 years before that. It still is a. I think there's a slightly different. It's not as essential as those other elements. Those other elements are very much direct channels, but even if the numbers increase substantially so it becomes far more common, I think sticking with the website analogy, you'll then see the use case elements coming into it. So it's not just having one now then no longer becomes a differentiator, but it's how they're used that's the differentiator. So likewise today, just having a website is no longer something special. But there is a huge spectrum between people who are using their assets very well and those who are just throwing something up there because it's now become the minimum, the minimum threshold to having something. So that I guess transitions us nicely into what we're going to talk about today. And those kind of two use cases, two examples of how to use it asap, which are probably one of the most simple things that you can do.

Guest: Sounds good.

Stuart: Okay, so two things we're going to talk about then. The first one is a letter or an email out to existing clients and prospects. And then the second one we'll talk about is this idea of launch video or launch zoom, something that you can use as a piece to get out there. And I think over the next couple of shows, we'll expand on this a little bit more and go into the. We really suggest there's usually sort of five or six things that you can do out of the gate that are easy to. That are really the minimum possible thing that you can do to use it in the best possible. To use your book in the best possible way. So we'll cover more of these over the next couple of episodes in between some interviews that we've got. So we'll go deep on these two and then check back in for some more in future shows. So the idea of a letter or an email announcing the book's release, this is. I mean, it's really the most straightforward thing you can think to do. If you've got any list at all, if you've got any existing customers, any unconverted prospects, then it's these people, the people who either absolutely know, like and trust you the best because they are customers of yours, or the people who have already raised their hands and expressed an interest. It's that group of people that are the easiest to engage with because they're already there. Everyone gets kind of drawn to the flashy lights and unlimited potential of new traffic. People talking about Facebook ads or postcards or print ads or buying a list, ways of getting in front of new eyeballs. It's almost like the familiarity breeds contempt thing kind of skipping over that gold or gold pile of the existing people looking for the unlimited but unconfirmed potential of something new. So with the people who are already on your list, there's those two categories, customers and prospects. Now, the very simplest thing is to write one letter and send it to both of them. But that's probably a little too simple, because what we really want to do is tailor the message to each of those groups. So when you think about it, those people, they're at different journeys of having different stages of the journey of your relationship. There's the customers who are the closest and the warmest and the most likely to be raving fans of yours already. And the prospects who are aware of what you do. But for whatever reason, either it's not time for them or they're on the prospect list, but they're actually not real prospects. They're just there because they haven't kind of removed themselves. Then those two groups have got different. There's a way of talking to them in different ways. So when we look at the customer group, it's the people who you know who they are. If you spoke to them, if you had reason to speak to them individually, you'd have some kind of understanding, particularly even with a cursory glance at what you've done with them before, you'd know who they are, where they came from and what their scenario was and how you were able to help and any of the challenges that you had. So writing a letter or an email to them, and I'm talking about letters and emails in the same sentence, obviously, because the format's the same, it's words on a page, but the delivery mechanism also gives a slightly different feeling to it. So a letter is something. A handwritten letter is something that people rarely get and the open rate on them is probably close to 100% because it's so unusual. So depending on how many customers you've got, obviously that's easier or more challenging, just a numbers game. But writing this letter that we'll describe in a second, handwriting it to them is the most personal you can get to. And the practicality of that is obviously a little bit different from most scenarios, unless you've got a very small client list. So typing, but having it in a handwritten envelope. Typing, but making sure that you individually sign it. Ways of streamlining some of the process from a production point of view, but making sure that the message is very personalized and tailored to the. The individual group of people that's going to give the best returns. So as the book's written, writing to existing customers and saying something along the lines of, hey, Betsy, I've just finished writing my book on whatever the subject is, obviously we've worked together and it's people just like you who we can help the best. So because I respect your opinion, I just want to get a copy of the book to you first before it goes to anyone else. For this group of people, I'd ideally print some and send it as a printed copy and then personalise the inside of it, because again, assuming the numbers are in the low hundreds, that's achievable with a little bit of effort. And I guess even you don't actually need to write it yourself. Someone in the team could write it, but obviously be careful of the authenticity behind it. But writing saying, I wanted to get this copy to you because your opinion is one I value. I wanted to share this with you before anyone else. I wanted to give you the opportunity, if you know someone else that this would benefit, then just let me know and I'll get them a copy too, then that's a way of engaging those personal customers in the most personal way possible. Because thinking about it in a bigger picture, what we want to do with existing customers is there's an opportunity to further help them with a product or service that they might not be using that could give them value. And sharing your book with them is a way of raising your hand on their radar again in a way that gives knowing that you're going to ask for something later on. So you might follow up with an email to them a week or two later referencing something in the book, linking it to another additional service that you offer and asking the whatever way you've decided is the easiest way for them to get started. Presenting that offer to them to get started. So sending them a copy of the book kind of warms up the relationship again in a way that's giving asking existing customers for referrals and recommendations or connecting, making, connecting conversations with other groups you want to work with. All of these things are things that we want to strategically have in our after unit. Having our relationship with existing customers and sending them the letter as personalized as practical, with a copy of the book with an inscription, highlighting, maybe stick a post it, highlighting a particular chapter that's relevant to them. Anything you can do to kind of make that the most individual connection possible, then that's going to be the highest value for that group of people as opposed to sending out just a blanket email saying, hey, I've written a new book, go buy a copy. Obviously that's not progressing the relationship very much at all. The individual breakdown of how the language goes, the wording that you include on there, how many subgroups you break it into, whether you've got all customers are in one group or whether in a couple of different groups, whether you've got some more recent customers and then a separate group of customers that you haven't spoken to for a long time. The language might vary letter by letter, but the, the intent, the reason for doing this outreach is to engage with those people who are the ones that know, like and trust you the most in a way that's as personal as possible given the practical constraints of how much time you've got and how many customers you need to need to get through. But really writing it in a way of I've just written this, I think it provides value to people because it, it shares more of the subject. I sent it to you because you're the closest group, the people who I know I can trust the most. I wanted to get it in your hands before anyone else and just make that very personal connection.

Guest: Yeah.

Stuart: Does that one make sense?

Guest: No, that makes total sense. I think that personal connection is so important. Like you said, it could just be like a hey, here's my book, hope you read it, whatever, you know, kind of thing. But to really engage, I think it's. Is where you're going to get the response.

Stuart: It's just thinking about it in a little bit. Right. And thinking about it in a little bit more of an orchestrated way. Rather than doing the bare minimum of just sending something without really thinking about how it's received at the other end, instead thinking about the. If I could do this one on one and give 100% attention just to this one piece of this one connecting piece, how would it look? And then from that point, then think about practical scale. Okay. I can't have to write letters to each individual person because it would just take too long. What can I do to make it appear as well, not even appear. What can I do to make it as personal as possible? Given that the real constraints that exist, I think there's a way of looking at it. Sometimes we say, it's so funny, even on, like the entrepreneur list we've got on Dean side of the business, where we're dealing with tens of thousands of people who've been on the list for years. When we're sending out the entrepreneur emails, and still to this day, we have people replying as if they're replying to Dean individually. Now, a lot of the emails that do go out, particularly the. The, the in the ones are asking individual things. It's very often Dean is writing that uniquely the other emails, which are the more flagship broadcast emails that we'll actually talk about in a future show. We've talked about in the past, this idea of as people raise their hand and join the list, if now isn't now for them, how can you communicate with them over the long term in an easy way? So those communications we refer to as flagship broadcasts, so those actually go out on more of an automated schedule. There's more of a automated setup, but still, if Dean could write it individually to one person, these are still the words that he would write. It's just that we have to scale it because there's so many people that we're needing to send it to. But how do people receive it? Even though these people are on Dean's entrepreneur list, out of everyone across the whole population, they're the most likely people to understand what a flagship broadcast is. But still because we write in such a way that we write for individuals, we just deliver at scale. Because we're writing for individuals, the person receiving it isn't thinking about that delivery mechanism. They're just thinking about the individual letter that they received. So there is a way of thinking about scale in a negative sense. And all this was just a broadcast message that went out. But if instead you think about it as, okay, what would the personal message be that I could write? Understanding that there are some practical constraints that it has to be delivered at scale, but still having that mentality, having that position of writing it as if you're writing to that one person, it changes the tone and the language and the, and the expectation that does come across to the receiver. So that's definitely the way of thinking about it. Even if you are trying to do it at scale.

Guest: I totally agree. I agree with that. So my, I was referred to as my fiance, but now he's my husband and did a campaign recently that sometimes weird to say that. And so he was, he brings home these. He's going to do a mailer, you know, 800 people, 800 people, mailer, person, mailer, mailer. And he says, well, I'm gonna hire the daughter to address these. And I thought, well, it is 2020, like print out some label, you know. And I again from. And I get why. But I'm thinking, oh, she's agreed to this job for this small amount of money, not realizing, you know, and she, but actually she ended up handwriting each, you know, name and address to each client. And, and the letter wasn't actually personalized, but the envelope looked like, you know, because it was like this handwriting of this 23 year old who was kind of messy, but it looked like, oh, well, this, it looked like it was more important, you know, that it wasn't just another piece of junk mail, you know, and so it was, you know, it was worth it. And he was kind enough to give her a little extra money for doing it because he didn't realize what a job was. But it's that kind of thing that just like, oh, this is a personal piece of mail. This is not just, you know, some junk that has a label just even that, you know. So the letter he did not personalize, but the envelope did. And it really, you know, I mean, he has gotten a lot of response out of that. So it's amazing when someone feels like it's just them, you know, people respond. Yeah.

Stuart: And that's the way of thinking about it. I mean, the practical constraints that Mike had for that project was he could get someone to handwrite all of the envelopes, but it's impractical to handwrite all of the letters. So that was a practical constraint. But writing it and the personal sentiment that was going into it, I would imagine that if Mike had the time to do it, that he would have handwritten all of the letters to all the people individually. Because I know Mike and that's just the connection that he's got with, with his customers. I mean, he's personally engaged with, with all of them. And a lot of them have been there for many years. So it's got that kind of history and not quite like a family doctor, but kind of like a family house doctor. That practical limitation, knowing that and knowing what that level is. So that was about 800 or so envelopes and a couple of days worth of effort of someone just doing that dedicated. So that just goes to show if as you're listening to this, you're thinking, oh, my list is 100 people, that's too many. Well, it probably is too many for you to do individually, but it's not too many for you to get someone else to do. And the benefit, the kind of cost benefit analysis of just getting it down to pure numbers, of being able to have that connection and feedback from people, it's worth the effort. Now, if it was 8,000, obviously that's not an option.

Guest: Right, right.

Stuart: But having that hitting that sweet spot between what can be done and what is just then starts getting. It's just too much an overhead. Not because it's not worth it even, but just because it will take too long and you might get around to it. That's. That's a great way of thinking about it and within the category. So as we were, we were talking about the letter that Mike did and thinking about some other. Some other organizations. So even that letter, I think it was, There was time and effort spent on the envelope part of the exercise, which is, will have increased the open rate. I mean, if we think about email metrics, we're kind of often looking at kind of deliverability, open rates, and then how many people clicked or took in action at the end of it. When we're looking at the overall success, so bridging that across into physical mail, the open rate for that handwritten envelope will have been astronomically higher than if there had just been labels or printed directly on the envelope. Whether or not the. The response rate to the content itself. The letter went out there and it was done. And it was a project that Was very successful overall. I mean, very successful overall. We were looking at the. The outcomes at the end of it.

Guest: Yeah, yeah.

Stuart: I have been an option to tailor that further and break down the groups a little bit more and be a little bit more specific on the call to action depending on whether the customer was an air customer, a water customer, a remediation customer. But that wasn't what happened and didn't need to be what happened. The overall campaign was very successful and Mike could have spent another three weeks trying to break down the groups into different groups and tailor it group. But it's not. The cost benefit analysis of that wasn't worthwhile. So I think as you're listening to this and thinking for your own. I would start off by writing one letter that would go unless your groups are very clearly separate and it's very obvious and easy to separate them. Just write one letter first that announces the. You've just written the book. You wanted to get it to you guys first. You wanted to get it to you first because you guys, as I was saying that that's a general term and we want to be individual. So I've just written this book. I wanted to get it to you first because our relationship is. Is important. Start off with that one and then if you've got time later, tweak the words and separate that into groups because it's, you know, unless until you actually press print on the letters, it's easy to change the digital content. But yeah, think about the most achievable but most considered option first and then add to it afterwards if you've got time or kind of emotional budget in the project.

Guest: That's fantastic.

Stuart: That's customers. So I just can quickly reiterate that last point that touched on at the end there, just in case it wasn't clear what I was trying to say as I was describing what the letter should be. I use the example of hey, I just wrote my book, I wanted to get out to you guys. Which obviously you would never write you guys anyway. But just the prospect, The setup behind it, the idea of thinking about how you're writing me saying, hey, I've just written a book and I want to get out to you guys. That's not writing to an individual. That was why the final language would be. If we sent it out with. With generic terms and they're making it clear that the letter was going to multiple people, that's not as beneficial as writing it to the individual. So once you've written this before, you actually hit send, definitely give it to someone else and tell them that this is a letter I'm sending to you as an individual. Is there anything about the language that makes it seem like this is group email, as opposed to me individually writing to you? That's a great check and balance on anything. Because the majority of times we're always trying to write to individuals, even if we're delivering it to the same thing to multiple people. So that's a good check.

Guest: That's a good point. Yeah. Right. Yeah. All right.

Stuart: So the same with prospects. So we've talked about sending it to people that are customers, sending it to prospects. Again, we want to write it in a way as if it's going to an individual, although we're sending it to multiple individuals. But here the difference is they're not customers already. You don't have that relationship. You're not going to ask them for referrals or recommendations or testimonials further down the track. The point of sending out isn't to reinforce the relationship more. The point of sending out is to reinforce to them that they were in the right place when they were looking for the solution to the problem that made them inquire in the first place. And here's some additional information that they can evidence to themselves that this course of action is the right course of action and they're in the right place. So a good way of thinking about that is we often talk to people that we're writing with in terms of the back cover copy, and someone requests a copy of your book because they want the answer to the question that you promise in the title. You give them that information and those steps they need to take in the content. It's that kind of very deep but very narrow problem that you're trying to solve and book that you're trying to write about. But then on the back cover, you introduce the obvious next steps. So if we were given instructions from people to get to, from Philadelphia to Tampa, I might give them the overview of the overall journey. But if I could say to them, okay, take these five next turns, and then when you get to that turn, there'll be someone there waiting with the next step of instructions, that's going to be much easier for them to take that first step and start the journey rather than just reeling off a whole set of instructions and expecting people to understand the whole journey before they even start. So the same with the journey that people on board with, they raise their hand wanting that first step in the journey towards the solution. But we don't have to give Them everything now. In fact, it would be detrimental to give them everything now. But at the end of this step we want to give them signposts to the next one. So on the back cover copy we're often talking about, okay, give people an easy way just to generally learn more. If they're kind of just tire kickers at this stage, if now isn't the time for them, how can they just broadly know that they're in the right place and remember that you're there for at some point in the future when now is now for them. The second step is then this point that we're talking about with the book. The second step is providing them with additional information to evidence to themselves that yes, they're in the right place, yes, this is the journey that they should be on if they want to get to the destination. And yes, there's an easy next step, there's an easy step for them to take immediately that will get them that one step, that kind of minimum viable commitment step down the road towards that destination. So the book feeding back to prospects, people who have been on the list for a while, your book can be another step two, another stage two asset that evidences to them that they're in the right place. So hopefully you know where people have come onto the list from, if they've come on from with not necessarily the destinations as in whether they came from opting in from your website or from a Facebook ad, but where they are on the journey. So what it was they opted in for. Obviously it's easier if everyone opts in for the same kind of thing, but if they've come in from very different places, then sending a letter to them that can of reinforces where they came from, talks again about where they came from and then goes on to say, well actually I've just written the book that talks specifically about this. So if you check out chapter three, it goes into more detail about this. There's some insights and some steps you can take to take you further down the journey. By the way, whenever you're ready, I'm here to jump on a strategy call or come to the office or fill out the the assessment or take the scorecard or whatever the next step is. But this letter forms part of that second step. It's another asset that you can send to people to reinforce that they are in the right place. This is a step in the journey and by the way, here's the call to action to then get to the step further on than where they are now. Does that one make Sense.

Guest: Yeah, of course. That's great.

Stuart: So I think that idea of understanding where the prospects are coming from, understanding the purpose, the job of work of sending them a letter with a copy of the book or with a link, a URL so they can get a copy of the book, a couple of the specifics. Then think about they're on your list already. You know who they are because you're sending something specifically to them. So you don't necessarily want to make these guys jump through a hoopa, opting in again because it's, it's pointless. If you can send them to a landing page with a personalized URL so that you know when someone clicks on that, then that, that will be a way of tracking if they respond. You don't even need to worry about that though. You could send them to a URL where they just download a copy of the book because you've got a strong call to action on that same page. So send them a link to the download destination. Download destination has the COVID of the book on the page where they can just click and download it straight away. But then there's a box below that says here, take the next step. Whether that's schedule a call with me or fill out the assessment or download our white paper or checklist, have those things there and then. And that can be behind an opt in because in theory you need to know where to send that other asset to. So understanding where they're where they are on the journey, writing a letter that ties in with that journey step and kind of links reminds them they're in the right place and then gives them an easy next step. All of those are more likely to make that prospect email or letter again, depending on the numbers. Prospect ones I guess are more likely to be emails and customers are more likely to be letters, all of the things being equal. But yeah, positioning it in that way is, is this second great group of people to get out to immediately.

Guest: Yeah.

Stuart: Okay, so far so good.

Guest: So far so good.

Stuart: Yeah, I just realized that I don't think I noticed when we started recording, actually I can see on the screen we're way further in than I thought. I think we're coming up on half an hour. I'm just going to hit the video one pretty quickly then because hopefully ties in with what we've said already. As we move into thinking about a different thing now and a launch video then the key thing is thinking about the recipient and how they're receiving it and where they are on the journey. So a lot of what I've said already crosses over into the video in the mindset that you're going into it and then it's just the delivery mechanism, how you're actually doing it, that's different. So keep in mind everything that we've talked about so far and let's talk quickly about launch videos because I think where we are at the moment in the whole where are we now like the end of come up to the end of July, the whole kind of pandemic situation isn't resolving itself particularly quickly. But what has happened since February is everyone's got way more comfortable with video as a means of, of engaging with people.

Guest: Right.

Stuart: Whether that's video. So when you think about the Apple's wwdc that was earlier in the month, that was oh even maybe last month, thank God, time goes fast. That was by video where in the past, I mean that was, that was never even a possibility. Or things like the number of zoom meetings that were probably all on these days. Again, that would have been quite different thoughts this time last year or even at the beginning of the year compared with where we are now. So as far as your book launch goes, that gives a very similar opportunity than with the, with the letter and email that we just talked about the launch video, similar opportunity to engage with those customer groups. And there's actually a third one that I'll include as well if this is invisible prospects, people that you don't know about yet. So, so with the existing customers and prospects, the opportunity to do a video that amplifies the message that you've got in the book is a fantastic way of engaging with people at a time when they're probably more likely to be at home and they're probably more inclined to consume video than a year ago. So in addition to everything that we've said, doing a video and again is a practical constraint on how much time you've got. So I'll describe all of them but you don't necessarily have to do all of them. You could do one combined one. But ideally we want to do three videos or three types of video. One going to existing clients, one going to existing prospects, those people you do know about, and one going to potentially new customers that you don't know about at all yet. Those invisible prospects, the one to customers is really amplifying the message of the letter. So if you got the opportunity to either at the same time as the letter or following the letter, use it as a follow up piece, share a video with people that really goes through the book and allows you to talk about and amplify on certain points in the book relative to where the person's coming in. So if they're customers already, you're not trying to sell people on the idea of working with you. They already do. But you might be promoting a new product or service in the way that we talked about in the letter. The letter is the introduction to warm up the relationship, to send further things down the track. This potentially is one of those further things. So video years ago, just as we were talking about with creating books and building websites, it used to be a huge barrier to entry. But honestly now if you've got a flagship mobile phone, either iPhone or, or whatever, other phones that aren't iPhones are, I don't even know you've got any phone that costs more than a couple of hundred dollars, then that camera is better than any camera you could have bought five years ago. Yeah, just a selfie style, arm's length video. Talking about the book in a passionate way is absolutely going to tick the box of this exercise that we're trying to do. Because what we're trying to do through the medium of video is create something that's engaging and gets people, makes it more of a personal connection with them. So it doesn't need to be over complicated. It doesn't have to be overly produced. It can be as simple as. Hey everyone, I just wanted to shoot this video, the new books out. I've got a copy in my hands here. I really wanted to highlight something in chapter three because even when we were writing the book I was aware that this is sometimes a little bit of a difficult concept to, for people to get their head around and then just elaborate on something for a years, couple of, couple of minutes. The idea is to share that passion, to share why it's important, to amplify the point that's already in there. Don't use the video as an excuse to introduce new stuff. What you're trying to do is amplify the thing that's already there for two reasons. One, because it's less complicated for people to, to receive. It's less complicated for you to do because you're talking about something that you've already done and it just reinforces the thing that's already there. So not trying to new stuff, just trying to amplify the thing that's already created. Because in all of this, so that we talk about writing the email, the video that we're talking about shooting now, some of the things that we'll talk about in the next Couple of episodes. We really talk about trying to leverage the thing you've already created. We're not trying to give you another job and make it more difficult for you. We're just trying to get the best outcome for the thing that you've already done. This is why scorecards are so good. Scorecards for coach clients that have gone through the process, they've done all of this work, hours worth of work to create a scorecard and then creating a scorecard book, creating scorecard website, creating scorecard postcard, all of that is just using the work's already been done. It's just putting it in a different way. So without going too far. So that video can be used for that same video could be used for customers or possible and in fact it could actually be visible prospects after they've opted into the book. So let's say now you've got the book created, you put it on the website, you maybe do a Facebook ad about the book. When people opt in having this video assets, that amplifies a point that's in the book that can be used as the follow up sequence. So day one, they receive the book. Day two, you send them a spear question. Hey Betsy, what business are you in? Hey Betsy, do you have a book title yet? Hey Betsy, are you looking for a home to live in or a house to invest in? Hey Betsy, do you have a wedding date planned yet? All of these spear questions to follow up with. That's a great initial response. Then follow that up with the following day. Hey Betsy, I just shot this video. Even when I was writing the book, I know that there was one particular concept that people struggle with. So I just wanted to shoot this video to kind of give you a little bit more insight into the important bit. So on page 17 you'll see that we're talking about X, Y and Z and amplify it from there. So this idea of creating a video, I just talked about one example that's fit for multiple purposes, but you could also, if you've got time, create individual videos that amplify the relationship aspect of it. So hey, I just wanted to shoot this quick video. As a customer, I know that we've worked together closely. You're the exact type of person that we work with best. I really want to amplify this point in chapter six of the book because we talked about a lot in the review sessions that we do, but a lot of people kind of see it, but they gloss over it or they think that it's simple and dismiss it. But Actually, this is a powerful thing. And then talk about it. Building the relationship to the prospects list. Hey, I just wanted to shoot this video for you because I know that this is a stumbling point for a lot of people. It's not until you get a book title that you really get the passion for the project, because up until that it's something that you want to do. But until you've got the title dialed in, it's almost like that's the story straw that breaks the camel's back. Once you've got a title, then you can get passionate about the whole project and the words that you put on the page afterwards, follow through. So in the book here, we talk about picking titles and there are five title types that we talk about a lot. So take some time. Read this chapter. I've actually got some audio over here as well, where we did a workshop. Anyway, just wanted to get this video out to you because I know titles are such a stumbling block for people, but really it's pretty straightforward and it can unlock the keys to the rest.

Guest: But so when you think about the book, I'm sorry, when you think about the book, like, there's really multiple potential opportunities for, you know, a video there because you, like you said, you can, you can do one. Just sort of a launch in the book, if you will. But also you can, you know, today might be a good day to talk about chapter six, you know, but then maybe you're getting a lot of questions that pertain to chapter three. So you have the opportunity to put yourself out there multiple times. You know, if you want to do shorter videos, if you want to do long, longer ones. Yeah, I talked about all of it, you know, but in general sense. But if you want to sort of pinpoint.

Stuart: Exactly. And this goes back to the job of work versus the doing it for the sake of doing it. So doing a video for the sake of doing it, people might think, okay, I got, I got to do this video and I'm going to make it big and long and go through the effort. I never want to do it once, I never want to think about it again. So it turns into this big overhead, right? Doing short video, especially these days, again with the, the amount of hours of YouTube or TikTok or Facebook video or Instagram video. All of that, all of that, 99% of it I'd hazard a guess at, is handheld selfie style stuff. People are doing vlog type stuff, which is quick and easy to do. Now obviously the technology there is advanced as well, so people have Got higher production values, but it's not film studio stuff. So short content, that's quick and to the point. The whole purpose we talked about was the book is a lead in to people joining the list. It's the minority of people who are ready to go today. But the power is really in the long tail, the ability to encourage people to join the list because of the book. But now you've got their details, you can communicate with them. Until now is now for them, which could be two days or two weeks or two months or like you say, we have how many calls do we get where people have said, oh yeah, start thinking about this five years ago. And the book, if you're looking at a year's worth of content to be able to send people an email every week, for the majority of people out there, you could film two 3 minute videos on 52 subjects just by opening the book, closing your eyes, licking the tip of your finger and just dropping it on a word. And that would be enough inspiration to film something against. Even if, even if that you think that's a struggle. Well, pick two things per chapter, which I'm adamant that everyone can pick two things per chapter that gives you 12, 24, however many pieces of. However many pieces you can pull out of it, just as the easy top level things that you can do. And as soon as you kind of get to 12, 15 pieces, then film all of those first just a two minute selfie videos to drop into a sequence. And by the time you've got that, I guarantee you've got another 12 to 15 pieces that will pop up. Just because you could go on and talk about it even once you start, you can, like we've done now. I mean we had assumed that we'd be talking about this relatively quickly, but we're well past half an hour now. So as you do it, the next set will come up and then from questions, the feedback and the comments that you get from the first couple, that last set will come up. Now you've got 52 assets. It's absolutely fine to recycle those every year because no one's going to remember something that you sent them 12 months ago. So now your whole follow up funnel is done just because you've taken that time to leverage the assets from the book in the first place. And that's just talking about video, that's not talking about doing different things with audio or doing different things with graphics to illustrate the point or do different things with current news that's happening in your industry or things that are happening that you can do the bridging technique that we've talked about before of talk about one particular subject, but then bridge it into content that's in the book. I mean, it really is limitless.

Guest: Yeah, it really is. I mean, we can talk about this.

Stuart: I was just gonna say I can feel myself getting more passionate about it.

Guest: Right, right, right. But it really, it's one of those things that, you know, if you, if you're just using the book, but also if you're putting this somewhere on social media or giving somebody, even sending it out in an email or something, you're giving people the opportunity that they may present things to you that need to be talked about, you know, and, and so it really is a cycle that will just continue to go on, you know. Yeah, that very valuable information.

Stuart: But next time let's do that launch video that we talked about. There was a little bit. It was very similar to the first subject, just in a different format.

Guest: Right.

Stuart: It is another element of launch videos or launch zooms that are more of the presentation kind of thing, having an event based launch. And the event based launch, it doesn't actually have to be when you launch. It can, because you're not. This isn't a book launch. Again, because the book isn't a product. We're not trying to do sales for the book. We're not doing a tour because we've got a small period of time where we're trying to artificially hit a best sellers list just so we can kind of tickle our ego and, and stick, stick Amazon bestseller on our LinkedIn profile. Instead, we're talking about launching it to actually get business. So whether or not you've actually launched your book now, or whether you're just relaunching it in air quotes because of the pandemic and because you've got a different take on it, or because it's important because of what's happening out in the world. This launch event is another opportunity. So let's talk about that next time because there's a way of, of picking up some attention and positioning it in a certain way that will have the best outcomes based on what we want to do, which is get real potential customers in conversations with us.

Guest: Fantastic. Yeah, a lot of great information. I think it's a lot of things that, like I said, we hear it all the time. What do I do? And, and how do I do this? And oh, oh pooh. I have, I have a book and I don't know what to do with it. There's a lot of, you know, a lot of ideas there, you know that I think. And even, even if you don't have a book, I think there's just a lot of ideas on putting yourself out there or your business out there, you know,

Stuart: you don't have to have a book. Yeah, that's so true. Because everything we're talking about really can be with using it in the framework of the book, obviously, because that's what we're doing day in, day out. But if you've just written a 400 word blog post, I mean, it's slightly more difficult because you've got source material you're working with, but everything that we've talked about can be done for that as well. Or if you just record the video or if you've put out a new checklist. Any individual asset that you create. I mean, the benefit of a book is that it is a book and there's a whole kind of social, psychological persuasion elements that come with that. But you're right, it's just as applicable to other stuff. I think people get overwhelmed, like they get overwhelmed with the idea of writing a book. And that's why we try and make it so easy. That stops people for multiple years because it can seem overwhelming because they've got all of this preconceived baggage about what it means with writing a letter, with an email campaign, with drip content, with recording a video. Again, people can go into this analysis paralysis mode and it just seems scary when really it doesn't have to be. Just getting it out there is going to get you 80% of the way to, to where you want to be. And then feel free to refine and kind of dial in after that.

Guest: Yeah, yeah, very good. Great. Yeah. And I would add, if we have anybody that has written a book and, and they want to share any of their ideas that they have done as far as, you know, put videos or emails and stuff. We'd love to hear from you, you know. We'd love to hear about that.

Stuart: Yeah, absolutely.

Guest: A little bit more, you know, so typically we have to go chase those things to find out what are you doing, how are you doing? But it's nice if somebody wants to. If you're thinking about, oh, I did a video or I was just on something, you know, watch my YouTube video, or I did this on Facebook. Let us know. We'd love to hear about that, you know.

Stuart: Yeah, that's such a great point because it's so. Those real life examples make it so much easier for other people to kind of. It's easy for us to sit here and talk about it because. Because we're doing it day in, day out. But it's so much easier for people to kind of conceptualize or imagine themselves in that position when they're talking to or hearing about other. Other people who are actively doing it. If you've got it, the examples, as you're listening to this, the example you're thinking about, just shoot myself and Betsy a note to podcasts in 90 minute books or support in 90 minute books. And if you want to shoot a video, then we can share that as well. So feel free to do that and give examples of the way that you've used it. It's so exciting to see those real cases.

Guest: Yeah, it is. It is.

Stuart: So, well, with that then, let's wrap up. I'm going to put. This is going to be episode 107, so we'll put some links into the show notes for 107. The transcript will be up there. If you want to skip through the transcripts, just get back to some pieces that we've talked about in the past. The other thing is as well that I'll link to is the podcast that we've done with previous clients because a lot of those guys are talking about how they're using their books in different scenarios. So on the website there's a category for interviews that we've done with people in the past. So by all means, look at that and check that out to see how people have the real life examples of how people have been using it. Alrighty. Well, thank you for your time as always, Betsy.

Guest: My pleasure.

Stuart: Thank you everyone that's listening. If you have got any questions about how you can use your book, I guess whether or not you've written it with us, I don't really mind. I enjoy talking about this. Then just shoot us an email to podcast at 90 Minute Books and we'll pick up those messages. As I say, we help everyone with this stuff as we're going through the process. So to get your book out there in the fastest possible way, then head over to the Getting started links on the 90 Minute Video Book website. Or again, if you've got a question, just shoot one to us at support at 90 Minute Books and we'll be happy to help and excited to get you on your way.

Guest: Very good.

Stuart: Alrighty, thank you everyone. Stay safe out there and we will catch you in the next one.