Bryan Heathman's Blog, page 2

How to Build the Perfect Product Funnel

Building a product funnel is a fundamental item for your speaking and writing business. Yet few efforts are more misunderstood in the information business—from Internet Marketers to Professional Speakers—creating the means to effectively sell products online or offline is largely a mystery.

Getting this right can be the difference between having a luncheon featuring beef bourguignon by the green at the Pig & Whistle or packing bologna on white bread in a brown paper bag.

So just what is a product funnel, and how do you use it? Is it some mechanical gadget that baristas use to whip up a mocha Frappuccino? Is it the end piece of a conveyor belt found in a state-of-the-art Amazon warehouse? Hardly. Let’s start with a few basics.

A product funnel is the sequence of exposures or “touches” that your prospective customer goes through before deciding to buy from you. It begins with the initial touch and manages your prospect’s buying relationship with you all the way through product up-sells and special offers.

Whether you’re using advertising, email marketing, social networks, live events or a combination of media, your customers learn your “music” through repetition—like a song on the radio. Typically, you find a set of marketing vehicles that works for you and repeat their use until your prospects absorb enough information to make buying decisions.

The magic number here is seven—that’s how many exposures it takes to cross what I call Made for Success Publishing and the host of Conversion Marketing, a marketing book on converting website visitors into buyers. Bryan’s Fortune 500 experience includes Microsoft, Eastman Kodak and Xerox.

Ready to take the first step towards unlocking your leadership potential? Leadership and Motivation by Made For Success is an all-in-one storefront, personal library and audio player focused on enabling and coaching your leadership talents with world-class speakers. Download now from the App Store

Crossing the Trust Gap – Musings on Thought-Leadership

The ancient Romans had a saying that still lives today—Caveat Emptor, or let the buyer beware.

Just as in ancient times, there’s a lot for buyers to be nervous about in today’s marketplace. From the world of home ownership to your local pharmacy, so many choices have the potential to yield unfortunate results. Truly, the buyer must beware now as much as ever.

Booksellers are not immune to this consumer skittishness. As a speaker, author or thought leader, it behooves you to move the conversation forward with your audience across the great divide I call the Trust Gap. As you gain success in establishing trust, then your message, your brand, and your products will take root.

Let’s consider the seven ways you can improve your relationship with the world-at-large.

7 Fundamentals to Bridge the Trust Gap

As a subject matter expert, people are looking to you to provide the benefit of your knowledge and experience. They want to see you as a trusted ally, and they want to believe in you.

Following are seven fundamental elements necessary to improve your interaction with your audience and build trust.

1. Understand Your Audience

Consider your audience and their needs. How does your knowledge of your chosen topic fit with their needs? Are there areas where your topical understanding could use a boost? Where is your knowledge specialized or unique—different from every other expert’s comprehension?

Be clear on what you’re offering, understand just how well you present your material, then improve yourself. Stay up to date by subscribing to trade publications, keeping an eye on industry news, and attending workshops and seminars in your field. This is one of the greatest investments you can make in your speaking and writing business.

2. Life Hacks

Synthesize your knowledge into clear, compelling solutions using directives that actually work…some call these “life hacks.” Do you have a unique approach that no one else is offering? Do you have an off-beat way of viewing the chief pain in your prospects’ lives? Are you able to provide tools and techniques that no one else has considered before?

The difficulty that many thought leaders face is a qualified lack of confidence in the thing that makes them especially unique. Embrace your weird little hacks—those solutions that genuinely work. Bring them out to see the light of day and attract an audience. The human mind is attracted to uniqueness!

3. Have a Unique Point of View

Beyond offering solutions that no one else has, your individual take on your field makes you qualified to speak to an audience no one else can address—at least, not in quite the same way. Your perspective gives you an entry into a world no one else can tap into like you can.

There are thousands of books on leadership, and even several dozens that shares a common name. What makes each one different—and salable—is the fact that each of these authors has a unique point of view. Find yours and tap it for all it’s worth.

4. Capitalize on Shared Experiences to Create an Instant Bond

What do you have in common with your avatar—you know, that icon which so keenly represents the ideal member of your audience? How do you relate to the people you would like to serve?

Whether you have experienced their pain directly or you have stories to tell about others like them who have already solved their problems, you owe it to your audience to help them see what you have in common.

Use stories to illustrate the experiences you share with them and connect the dots for your audience. Lay it all out clearly and help others see your common bond.

5. Speak With Authority

I once had a music teacher who was known for his charisma. His favorite fiat was, “If you’re going to make a mistake, do it with authority.” In other words, don’t be timid.

There’s no reason to omit your sense of authority from a dialog. If you have something to say, say it clearly and confidently. To play the role of expert, there’s no room for half-hearted guesses. Speak with authority and others will trust what you say.

6. Listen

“If you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door.” The way to build a better mousetrap is to interview someone with a mouse problem in their garage. Ask me how, I know.

Tap into your prospects’ greatest pain by listening to their stories about what that pain looks like. Ask them about it—about what makes that pain so especially difficult to endure. Use social media, email, surveys or your website to solicit their opinions. When they answer, listen.

7. Be Yourself

Nobody likes an imposter. Being your authentic self is the surest way to bond with others and attract people of like minds. Building rapport is essential to crossing the trust gap.

Wherever possible, be candid without losing your sense of tact. Be direct without being blunt. Be transparent without totally losing your sense of mystery. The surest way to build trust is to be yourself. Everything else flows from that.

Just as in ancient times, it’s possible to build a successful career as a scribe or an orator. With measured practice and perseverance, you can build a bridge across the Trust Gap. In time, you’ll find your persistence pays off. Remember: Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Bryan Heathman is the President of Book Publishing Success podcast show. Bryan works with best-selling business authors including NYT best-selling authors Chris Widener andTom Hopkins, plus up-and-coming authors including Johnny Covey. Bryan is the author of Download now from the App Store

8 Essential Apps for the Solopreneur Speaker: Create Leverage to Stay Ahead of the Game

Typically, speakers and authors work solo. As a speaker, author or thought leader, your greatest advantage is the fact that there is only one of you. Your career literally capitalizes on your uniqueness and the contents within your head. Lofty? Indeed!

This solitary uniqueness, though, can be your greatest weakness because it means you rarely have an extra pair of hands when you need them. There are also few chances to bounce ideas off trusted executives. From sales prospecting to product delivery, the buck stops right at your door. Having to wear all those hats means a time-consuming learning curve.

Ironically when you work solo, your most valuable asset is your time. Wasting it is not an option, and there’s no room for rabbit trails. Being incredibly efficient with your time is a must.

Eating My Own Cooking & Other Lessons

Just over a decade ago, I entered into the business of publishing audiobooks for professional speakers. At a time when Costco’s center aisles were bulging with physical media, Made for Success was moving CD’s by the pallet-load into stores worldwide.

Keeping up with the demands on my time was tough as we launched the company, yet falling behind wasn’t an option. My small staff and I had to take advantage of tools wherever possible in order to stay nimble and keep ahead of the game. Keeping track of To Do lists, schedules, contracts and royalty payments was an incredibly daunting task.

On top of the demands of running the business, I was launching my own career as a speaker and author off the launch of my book Conversion Marketing. I practically had to use a crowbar to open up my schedule for meetings, let alone find a little private time with my family and to pursue hobbies. My time was at a premium, to say the least.

It was during this period that one of our authors, Dr. Sheila Bethel, came to town for a Leadership speaking engagement at the IRS, her biggest client. She wanted to meet with me and talk strategy for her upcoming audiobook release. Though I thought about turning her down, I reluctantly said yes. Meeting with her turned out to be one of the smartest moves I’ve made in this business.

There was no way I could squeeze a meeting or a lunch into my already crammed schedule. I thought about offering her a fabulous home cooked dinner at Chez Heathman, but my lovely and talented better half wouldn’t hear of it. She insisted on reservations instead.

Thankfully Sheila was flexible, and she joined my wife and me for dinner at a quaint neighborhood restaurant called The Red House just south of Seattle. The place was a tiny but historical old house on the edge of town that had been converted to a restaurant. The off-beat atmosphere and great food lent something memorable to the outing, and the timbre of the conversation rose to the occasion.

I thought I would be advising Sheila on sales and marketing for her audiobooks. But as the evening wore on and dinner turned into dessert, it was clear this seasoned veteran had a lot to teach me.

Using Leverage to Be More Effective

One thing in particular that Sheila told me about leverage has stuck with me all these years. Since then I’ve used her advice myself and shared it with dozens of authors in my circle of influence.

As a speaker or author, you already know that content creation is time-consuming. Creating new content (books, audio programs, webinars, keynotes) gobbles up your most precious asset like it’s crème brûlée on your table at The Red House. Just like a rich dessert, content development leaves little room for anything else.

This is why it’s essential to make the most of every idea you present. You can triple your efforts by leveraging each piece of content you develop in at least three ways —more if you can. This technique not only maximizes your time, but it also develops an abundance of touches with your audience to keep your brand front-of-mind.

For example:

Write a chapter in your book
Create several blog posts from the ideas you have written about in each chapter
Use the content in a newsletter to send your list of subscribers
Record a podcast from the blog posts
Record an audio program and compile it into an 8-part training system

Besides using leverage to create your content, you can use tools and technologies to maximize your time and efforts in your speaking and writing business. Using tools helped me dig out from under a heavy burden in those early years of Made for Success.

I’ve hand-picked several technologies that have stood up under the demands of my own schedule, at the counsel of my advisors. These tools will save you time and money as well, making the most of your limited staff and resources.

Sweet Process: Visually appealing process documentation for standard operating procedures and work instructions. www.sweetprocess.com
Commit To 3: Prioritization tool, with accountability. Create teams and simplify your priorities to 3 per day. www.committo3.com
One Page CRM: Sales CRM simplified. www.onepagecrm.com
Sprout Social: Social media management made easy. www.sproutsocial.com
Bomb Bomb: An incredible app for business development, customized email to your prospects inbox. One of my clients claims to get a 100% response rate from her video emails. www.bombbomb.com
Lead Crunch: Lead generation tool to find B2B leads. www.leadcrunch.com
Wistia: Alternative to YouTube to post videos (no ads). www.wistia.com
Ignite Reviews: Automation to grow your online reputation with reviews. http://ignite.reviews

You may not have an extra pair of hands or a trusted ally to help you in your speaking and writing business. By using leverage, you can get more done in less time, serve more people, and still have time in your day to make a fabulous dinner. Or reservations. You decide.

Bryan Heathman is the President of Made for Success Publishing. Bryan works with best-selling authors in the role of publisher and marketer, including the late Zig Ziglar, Chris Widener and John C. Maxwell. Bryan is the author of Conversion Marketing, a marketing book that condenses knowledge on website conversion from 7-years running an online ad agency. Bryan’s Fortune 500 experience includes running high impact marketing campaigns for Microsoft, Eastman Kodak and Xerox.

How to Set MSRP Pricing for a Business Book

How much do you make for each copy of your book that sells from a retailer?

I get this question a lot from the authors I publish. Their eyes are filled with a mix of hope and angst, fueled by their dreams of glamorous independent living – soaking up sun and umbrella drinks in the shade of a palm frond on a sugary beach, as their royalty checks roll in.

The answer to the book pricing question is complex, and it depends on several factors. The tough part is that a lot of authors glaze over when we break it down. Book pricing is subject to genre, book binding, and even the retail venue where the books are sold. These factors weigh in when calculating the likelihood of your tropical sabbatical.

For example, let’s look at the price of a top selling Business book. The hardcover edition may sell for double the price of the paperback. But that same hardcover book may sell for 50% off it’s sticker price at a live event such as a keynote speech or book signing.

Profit margins are highly variable according to the volume of books printed. Walk into any bookstore and you’ll find this scenario played out in stunning clarity. Pricing at a brick-and-mortar store is quite different from what you’ll see on Amazon, where multiple booksellers compete on price for both new and used editions.

Adventures in Publishing, as Told by the Jet Set

Let’s say that once upon a time, you loaned your cousin a copy of Tim Ferris’ The 4-Hour Work Week, and he took the author’s sage advice a bit too literally.

Now he’s off taking salsa lessons in Buenos Aires – or maybe it’s scuba diving in Cozumel. Anyway, you never got your cherished book back, and now you’re on a mission to replace it at your local Barnes & Noble.

You saunter over to the Business aisle, and you find the now-classic guide to business & high adventure, stolidly taking up shelf space alongside such gems of thought leadership as Jim Gilreath’s Skin In the Game (published by Made for Success Publishing, by the way).

You find a hardcover copy of the Ferris book, and instantly notice a major change. The gold-on-white dust jacket of your first edition volume has been replaced by a lusty orange color with the title in red text, evoking the promise of Mai Tai soaked sunsets on a beach bedecked with palm trees.

You pick up the book. You feel its satiny texture and hefty weight as you notice the annotation on the cover: “Revised & Expanded”. Somebody put a lot of thought and heart into publishing this, clearly. That brings us to the price.

The price you can expect to pay for the hardback is $24.99 – $29.99. The paperback edition is available on Amazon for $19.95 (probably discounted to $12-$13).

Usually the hardback price is a lot higher than the softcover. Hardbacks are expensive to print, and they also have a higher perceived value in the mind of consumers. Regardless, there’s almost always a major disparity between the two, based on materials, retail venue and the timing within the book’s life cycle.

Most retailers expect books to be priced based on the genre and page count, per industry standards. If you price a book too high, the vendor will not purchase it for their inventory. Getting the pricing right the first time is essential to the success of your book.

Unlocking the Coveted Book Pricing Schematic

For professional speakers who want to sell books directly to the public at speaking engagements, the price printed on the back of the book does not preclude you from selling it at any price point you want. In fact, the higher the perceived value, the better your sales at the back of the room.

For paperback books, the calculations for low volume books sold through retail look better than hardcover books because paperbacks cost so much less to print.

Let’s say you self-publish a 220-page book, and you want to print one copy at a time through print-on-demand (POD). Your paperback book will cost you roughly $5.70 to print, and shipping is extra.

If your paperback book’s suggested retail price is $16.99, that means your wholesale price is $7.65. This is based on an industry standard that dictates the wholesale price at 55% of retail.

With printing costs of $5.70, you are now in the black, making $1.95 per copy. The good news is, if you print 100 copies, the cost drops to $3.41 per book, giving you a margin of $4.24 per book.

Now let’s look at the same example for a hardcover book. If your suggested retail price is $27.99, then your wholesale price is $12.95. Using print-on-demand, that same 220-page book in hardcover format will cost you roughly $11.17 to print one copy. Again, shipping is extra.

Despite the retail price of the book being relatively high at $27.99, your book is marginally profitable at $1.78 per unit. Typical shipping costs would be $3.80 per unit, meaning your book is in the red, selling at a -$2.02 loss for every unit you ship.

This is why many publishers opt to print a minimum of 100 copies and ship to central warehouse (such as Ingram). Printing 100 units gets the cost of hardcover printing down to roughly $7.65, or less as printing quantities increase. Now we have a gross profit of $5.30 to work with.

All this background economic information comes into play when setting book pricing for retail distribution. For speakers who operate back of room sales, you only need to calculate the cost of the book and then the rest is profit to you – 100% in your pocket.

Often it makes sense to work with a publisher to print a minimum of 2,000 copies of a book and to ship inventory to Ingram’s central warehouse for retail distribution. In the case of the paperback example above, your printing costs could be lower than $2.35 per copy. This gives your book the best chance for profitability in the marketplace. And you know what that means – more salsa lessons and scuba diving adventures! Such is the stuff of dreams and the inspiration to write your next best seller.

Bryan Heathman is the President of Made for Success Publishing. Bryan works with best-selling authors in the role of publisher and marketer, including the late Zig Ziglar, Chris Widener and John C. Maxwell. Bryan is the author of Conversion Marketing, a marketing book that condenses knowledge on website conversion from 7-years running an online ad agency. Bryan’s Fortune 500 experience includes running high impact marketing campaigns for Microsoft, Eastman Kodak and Xerox.

Representational Systems: Top 10 Methods to Reach ALL Audiences

If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would ever get done—or so the saying goes. As an author/speaker and a business owner, that goes double for me.

It’s often tough to strike a balance between finding the message and being the messenger. But finding that balance can be an unexpected gift bestowed at the last minute.

I went to a Costco early Monday morning, right before a major holiday. My wife sent me on this errand to pick up seafood to make an exotic meal called paella, a traditional Spanish dish. This year our annual holiday meal was a departure from the traditional turkey dinner, and I was looking forward to sharing this meal with friends & family.

I found myself driving endlessly through the parking lot of this huge club store looking for somewhere to park 20 minutes after the store opened. I was a bit exasperated because I arrived “early” to beat the rush. I finally decided to wait for someone loading their trunk, then literally pulled into the only available spot in the massive parking lot.

After parking, I thought sarcastically, “Holidays can be such a joy,” as I ducked through the driving rain from the far end of the parking lot. I struggled to maintain control, both in the physical and emotional sense.

I urgently wanted to get back to the office to work on some pressing issues that had landed on my desk that morning. One contract, in particular, offered some intriguing opportunities to do foreign rights licensing for a book we publish. The trouble was, I had to create a complex document and turn it around faster than I’d ever done before. Landing this deal meant stretching my professional skills, which put a crimp in my “holiday spirit.”

“No rest for the weary,” I mumbled under my breath as I grabbed some king crab legs from the guy in the hairnet working the seafood counter. “Poor guy,” I thought, then spun my cart back into the crowded aisle like a 320-horsepowered sports car on an open freeway. I suddenly stopped short. A silver-haired woman had inserted herself between me and my target in the wine aisle, a magnum of Spanish Rioja. Narrowly avoiding a collision, I left my cart and stepped around her, only to find her hand on the same bottle of wine that was on my shopping list.

Our eyes met. “You go ahead,” she said, her voice warm and confident. “I’ve got all the time in the world,” she told me, “and surely I have enough to spare for you.” Her eyes twinkled, and she gave me such a mischievous look.

She was onto me.

It was one of those strange moments when one of life’s greatest lessons blossoms in the mind. It was a stop-and-smell-the-roses moment, squared. I felt like I’d been tapped on the shoulder by Time itself and rapped on the knuckles by my loving grandmother while trying to sneak a slice of turkey off the carving table. I smiled back and wished her a happy holiday.

Getting the Message Through the Right Messenger

Standing there in the aisle of the warehouse store I had learned a deep lesson from a source I didn’t expect. Here was this woman who clearly had more days behind her than ahead of her, yet she was willing to take in the moment and take her time. Not only was she willing to be generous with her time for me, a complete stranger, but there was also something within her that made me want to model her lesson. Where I’d assumed she was just another stumbling block for me to overcome as I dashed through a series of chores, she was instead a wise teacher.

The irony of this moment is that I’ve been receiving this lesson in many ways over the years, starting in grade school, but it never quite sunk in. I’d heard it from family members while growing up. One of my favorite college professors fed it to me as a student, and even the pastor of my church promoted the concept on that Sunday just before this hectic holiday I was frantically trying to get through.

The message finally came to me in a way I was able to receive—from a wise stranger at the huge club store. I accepted the message she was sending because she delivered it in a way that I was prepared to grasp. In effect, she got through to me because she tapped the right representational system for me.

How Representational Systems Equate to Professional Speaking & Writing

We all have one sense that is stronger than the rest—sight, sound, touch and so forth. This profoundly affects how we communicate. No matter what language we use to talk with each other, our communication is most effective when we use the specific representational system which is easiest for us to digest information.

Someone who relates strongly through their hearing is going to have an easier time learning if they listen to the lesson. Not only that, but they will respond best to speech that uses auditory terminology, such as “I hear what you’re saying,” or “That sounds good to me.”

A visual learner responds better to visual media and visually oriented speech, such as “I see your point,” or “That looks good to me.” A kinetic learner responds to the way an experience feels as well as the way the lesson appeals to the sense of touch or movement. This type of person responds to speech that uses imagery involving motion, emotion and the sense of touch.

Find the representational system that you relate to best. This is a powerful tool as someone tasked with influencing others. You can use this in your writing, publishing, speaking, and one-on-one communication. Understand how you are wired, and you will see the ways your audience is attracted to your message. Use several representational systems to reach many different types of people.

You can also use several publishing derivatives or media to tap a variety of audiences. Don’t just write books or give speeches. Why limit yourself? Engage in talk shows, published articles, do book signings at your local bookstore, create instructional videos, and even host experiential workshops. You can hone your communication skills to a fine point and connect with your audience in a whole new way.

Use a variety of senses to sculpt your work, then use a variety of media to package your message to the world.

They say when the student is ready, the teacher will appear, just as this wise woman appeared to me. Yet I also say when the teacher is ready, the student will appear, just as you have appeared in this sphere to read this material. Now as you model lessons for others, it’s time to ask this question: Your story is ready. How are you going to tell the world?

For those of you who love Top 10 lists, here are the top 10 ways to package messages for speakers and authors and reach multiple representational systems of your fans:

Book Derivatives

Physical book, eBook, Enhanced eBook


Audio programs

Audiobook or a series of audio recordings or podcasts


Teleseminars

Conference calls


DVDs and Video

Physical discs and/or online delivery


Subscription / Membership Program

Video, eBook, DVD or content on your website


Webinars
Seminars

Live events, retreats, adventure trips, conferences, workshops


Coaching / Consulting

Work with people individually as a coach, or with a company to implement a system


Licensed Merchandise

Promotional products embedded with quotes, tips, and memorable phrases; mugs, shirts, pens


Apps

Create an interactive mobile app to keep the attention of your audience who is on-the-go

Bryan Heathman is the President of Made for Success Publishing. Bryan works with best-selling authors in the role of publisher and marketer, including the late Zig Ziglar, Chris Widener and John C. Maxwell. Bryan is the author of Conversion Marketing, a marketing book that condenses knowledge on website conversion from 7-years running an online ad agency. Bryan’s Fortune 500 experience includes running high impact marketing campaigns for Microsoft, Eastman Kodak and Xerox.

Funding a Book with Kickstarter: Crowdsource Fund Raising

Imagine yourself on a vast playing field in a sports stadium—a dream from childhood come true. The turf you’re standing on is a rich emerald green under the bright stadium lights. For a brief moment, you’re in awe that you’ve finally made it big as you scan the thousands of faces cheering you on.

The stands are filled to capacity—more than 65,000 souls—and the roar of the crowd is all but deafening with only seconds left in the game. You and your teammates have been moving like a well-oiled machine, playing all-out the entire game. Now it’s down to the wire. The other team is pushing hard to score, but you and your crew shut them down just in time. The game is over, and victory is yours!

What an amazing feeling to aim for something and hit the mark. This is true not only in sports but in business and life as well. When you set a goal and commit to it, all kinds of strange, happy coincidences conspire to bring you what you’ve decided upon.

Author Michael Tetteh knows first-hand just how true this is. Michael had that experience I just described, playing professional soccer for the wildly popular Seattle Sounders. It was his fondest dream, as a nine-year-old boy living in Ghana, to play professional soccer.

Michael’s journey from a humble African village to living the life of a sports celebrity in a major U.S. city only happened because he’d taken that first step—setting a goal. He followed his dream and used his natural gifts to become a successful soccer player.

Michael is now retired from the sport and has written an account of his unique and glamorous story. His book, Giftocracy, is based on the idea that everyone has a gift—a unique talent that when channeled, is your unique path to success. Michael set a goal to raise money to cover the marketing costs of his book launch. How did he accomplish this? He’s used the Crowdfunding Website Kickstarter.

Reaching Your Goal with Kickstarter

Kickstarter is a huge worldwide community of like-minded people offering each other support. The website’s mission is to help artists, authors, performers and other creative people. It’s a platform where everyday people can raise the money needed to reach creative goals. Since Kickstarter’s launch in 2009, the site has helped over 12 million people fund a project. More than 115,562 projects have been funded, with a total of $2.7 billion pledged.

In my travels, the topic of funding a book release came up during a discussion with one of my clients. She asked if I knew anything about crowdfunding generally and Kickstarter specifically. In fact, I do have experience with it. I told her that if she raised $25,000 to fund her book project, then she would have the budget to launch a healthy marketing campaign to gain nationwide attention to her ideas.

As you might imagine, my client was enthusiastic and wanted to get started right away. Here are four steps I gave her to fund a book launch with Kickstarter.

AMOUNT: Determine your fundraising goal. Here are some thoughts to get you started:

Raise $7,000 – 10,000 to self-publish your book, including graphic design and layout.
Raise $20,000 to work with an experienced ghostwriter.
Raise $25,000 to hire a professional publicist to schedule a media tour.
Raise $250,000 if your aspirations are to run a marketing campaign that will produce a New York Times bestseller.

APPEAL: Create excellent visual photography assets to represent your book or your ideas. You’ll need these for your Kickstarter project page so people can see what they’re buying into. You’ll also want to record a thoughtful, heartfelt or funny video about your project—about 3 to 7 minutes long. You want to move people and get them excited about supporting your cause. Besides using photos and video, Kickstarter Live is now an option to stream live video of your appeal.
BONUSES: Create an inventory of bonuses that you will give away with each level of donation. Here is an example of how a Business author might structure their giveaway.

$10 for a copy of the eBook and a custom mug.
$25 for a pre-release signed copy of your book.
$50 for a 5-pack of signed books for your staff.
$100 for a nice gift item, with a copy of your book.
$250 for a nicer gift item, with a copy of your book.
$1,000 for an event such as a dinner for four with the author.
$2,500 for a free speaking engagement to an organization of your choice (charity

event, corporate retreat or another gathering).

COMMUNICATE: Write good copy for your landing page. In fact, unless you have a marketing degree, hire a professional to write your copy for you. It needs to pack a punch. Then once you launch your campaign, talk it up! Tell your friends and promote the campaign in your social circles. Know that it takes several reminders to fund a campaign fully. You’ll want to be active on social media and send plenty of emails. Many successful authors even pick-up the phone (gasp) to personally ask people to support their campaigns.

When you start thinking like a professional fundraiser, you’ll do great! When people like your Kickstarter project, they love to join your journey and see it as a joy to support your cause. Remember to thank them for that precious support and then follow up when your project is done with a hand-written note.

You can contact a team member at Made for Success Publishing to brainstorm ideas for your campaign from the successful book campaigns we’ve tracked over the years. Good luck, and good hunting!

Bryan Heathman is the President of Made for Success Publishing. Bryan works with best-selling authors in the role of publisher and marketer, including the late Zig Ziglar, Chris Widener and John C. Maxwell. Bryan is the author of Conversion Marketing, a marketing book that condenses knowledge on website conversion from 7-years running an online ad agency. Bryan’s Fortune 500 experience includes running high impact marketing campaigns for Microsoft, Eastman Kodak and Xerox.

Ideation: Bucking the Odds by Using the Story Inventory System

When it comes to communicating your ideas, do you sometimes feel like you’re taking a shot in the dark, gambling with your core message?

Early in my speaking career, I needed to brainstorm ideas for a keynote speech for an event in Las Vegas. I was asked to address an audience of several hundred CEO’s following a highly paid thought leader and speaker, Seth Godin (no pressure!). This was both a rare privilege and promise of a good time in the Entertainment Capital of the World.

Besides the excitement of Vegas night life and the opportunity to address a prime audience, the desert climate, to a Pacific Northwesterner, was hard to beat. I really looked forward to basking in the bright sunshine and escaping the long gray days of winter in Seattle, if only for an extended weekend. I packed my tennis racket, an under-used pair of swim trunks and ordered-up tickets to a glittering show I’d been wanting to see.

Before I could get on a plane, though, I had to confront the blank slate in front of me. I had to write a speech.

In my early career, writing the bones of a keynote speech was tough for me, enough to create butterflies in my stomach and sweaty palms. How do you choose what to talk about from a world of ideas? How do you illustrate the points you want to make so they are memorable? How do you create laughs, but still be taken seriously by a group of CEO’s?

Whether you’re tasked with giving a high-pressure speech, addressing a conference room of people at work or even telling stories at a holiday party, your chances of being completely understood are pretty slim if you don’t have the right approach. Sometimes the odds of getting your point across to your audience vaguely resemble a Vegas style pari-mutuel game of chance.

Unlocking the Right Communication Combination

It’s true! There are times when communicating with your audience can be reminiscent of throwing your money away on a lottery ticket, with odds of 100 million to 1 of making a significant impact. If you’re not connecting with the people you’re talking to, hitting your mark is, at best, a shot in the dark.

So, how can you buck the odds and bring your point home? Like so many other things in life, it’s easy when you know how. In other words, it’s simpler when you have a system.

Dr. Iliya Bluskov, a noted mathematician, is an expert on “combinatorial systems” or figuring out different ways to win the lottery. In fact, this is the topic of his doctoral thesis and his best-selling book Combinatorial Systems with Guaranteed Wins for PICK-5 Lotteries. (And you thought mathematicians were boring!) His dexterity with number crunching has allowed him—and lots and lots of happy gamblers—to buck the odds and win small pots of lottery money around the world.

Bluskov’s systems increase the odds of winning and turn luck into a matter of logic. Using his tables can reduce the odds from, 100,000,000:1 to less than 1,000:1. There’s certainly no such thing as a sure bet, but by using a system, you can tip the scales in your favor.

But how does Bluskov’s system for beating lotteries relate to creating ideas for a speech or a book?

Trusting the Story Inventory System

Just as you can increase your chances of winning the lottery by using a system, you can take the guesswork out of developing your core content as a speaker or author. It starts by trusting an established system to bring you consistent results.

I use a system called the Story Inventory System. Developing new ideas for writing a book or speech is easier than you might think when you follow the steps that have worked so well for countless others.

When I talk about trusting a system, one of the best things any speaker or writer can do is to brainstorm a story inventory. The pros in the professional speaking industry leverage their key ideas for speeches by creating an inventory of their key stories. They develop these ideas from brainstorming, interviews, life experiences, and studying other thinkers. Then from the inventory of key stories they choose to communicate, the pros select which stories support their core ideas for each keynote speech.

If you are working up ideas for a speech or a book, you can use this system to develop and illustrate your content. The concept to remember is this: you never tell a story without making a point, and never make a point without telling a story. Here’s how:

Brainstorm an inventory of ideas that you want to write or speak about. Don’t stop until you get a list of 25 to 50 ideas.
List three bullet points for each idea, which are the main points you want to communicate for each idea.
Craft a story that encapsulates each point you want to make. The stories can come from your own life experience, or you can borrow stories from friends, celebrities or even historical figures.
Rehearse telling these stories in 2-4 minutes per story. I find little pockets of unused time to practice these stories, such as in the shower or behind the wheel of my car.

Writing a speech with this system is easy. First, take a look at the master theme of the event where you are speaking. Next, look at the inventory of stories you developed—your story inventory. Then pull stories from your inventory that work together to support the flow of your speech.

If you are writing a book, the steps in the system are equally simple to follow. Come up with a Table of Contents based on your best ideas followed by three supporting points. Pull in a supporting story for each of the supporting points. Then write 800 words about each bullet point. Voila! Your chapters will unfold quickly and easily, and your audience will love your clarity.

If you want to communicate clearly, get good at telling your stories both in writing and speaking. Then you can craft your key points and illustrate them with the stories that best support your key message.

So the next time you are asked to speak or generate ideas, all you have to do is trust the system. The Story Inventory System is an evergreen tool to become a thought leader, which will level the odds of winning in your favor!

Bryan Heathman is the President of Made for Success Publishing. Bryan works with best-selling authors in the role of publisher and marketer, including the late Zig Ziglar, Chris Widener and John C. Maxwell. Bryan is the author of Conversion Marketing, a marketing book that condenses knowledge on website conversion from 7-years running an online ad agency. Bryan’s Fortune 500 experience includes running high impact marketing campaigns for Microsoft, Eastman Kodak and Xerox.

How to Set Up a Book Pre-Order Campaign

I love my job. Talking about books sometimes takes me to interesting places… like picturesque Ashland, Oregon, for instance. On a recent trip, the topic of generating pre-orders for new book releases came up over lunch. Here is how the conversation developed…

Ashland sits in the heart of the up-and-coming wine country of Southern Oregon, and it’s long been home to the famous Ashland Shakespeare Festival. Wine and words—an undoubtedly winning combination in my book. I’m sure the Bard himself would have approved of this fabulous business lunch with an executive of our audiobook distribution team among the cobblestones and Tudor half-timbers.

As my colleague and I sat in a quant bistro on a glorious afternoon—talking about library orders, taking in the crisp air, and observing the bustle of college students on the streets below—I looked over the menu with a critical case of indecision. Everything looked so delicious. Just as I was about to make my choice, our server sauntered over and filled us in on the specials.

She quietly mentioned that the Crab Newburg was sold out. “There’s a big family reunion here tonight.” She explained, “They’ve pre-ordered the entire right side of the menu.”

Suddenly, I had a mouthwatering desire for Crab Newburg with an insistency that cannot be explained. But no matter the desire, there was no way to satisfy my appetite for the buttery little delights. I settled for the chicken fettuccine served with a smattering of prosciutto and capers (yawn!). As the conversation developed, the executive I was meeting with began explaining the incredible importance of generating pre-orders in major retail catalogs for new book releases. In that moment, everything came together and it all made sense.

There’s a new dynamic in the book publishing world, she explained, and it directly affects our new authors. Here is what she dished out while I poked at my plate of poultry.

Many authors will run a pre-sales marketing campaign for their book release. This sends a signal to retail buyers about the number of readers who are eager for the upcoming launch. One factor that dictates how many books a retailer will buy up-front is the number of pre-orders they see in their system for the new release.

Having pre-orders can mean the difference between big retailers like Barnes & Noble or Amazon ordering, say, 400 units of your book versus 2,000 units. In other words, it’s the difference between having a pedestrian chicken dish, or landing an exotic Pacific Northwest crustacean delicacy served with a piquant cream sauce and a splash of dry sherry. One tries; the other succeeds.

I should mention that my lunch partner is an executive with direct working experience with Barnes & Noble, Baker & Taylor, and Books a Million, along with an impressive number of libraries. She was very clear on the topic of getting pre-orders of your book and emphasized it as a major priority. More than ever, book buyers look at the following hot topics when ordering for their stores and libraries:

How famous is the author?
How do the book Title and cover artwork work together?
What is the author’s marketing plan for this book?
How many book pre-orders are in their system?

If you have intentions of succeeding in the hyper-competitive retail book business, here is what savvy authors are doing to stimulate pre-orders for their book release, which we call a Pre-order Campaign:

Build a page on your website with at least 5 links to pre-order books. This signals retail buyers that you are not partial to any single retailer. Check-out Conversion Marketing, a marketing book that condenses knowledge on website conversion from 7-years running an online ad agency. Bryan’s Fortune 500 experience includes running high impact marketing campaigns for Microsoft, Eastman Kodak and Xerox.

The Golden Egg: Book Marketing and the Power of a PR Campaign

The journey to a best-selling book often hinges on your skill working with a PR, or public relations firm. The author’s path to fame and glory is strewn with brilliant ideas and wild goose chases. So many book promotion plans sound good on paper but turn out to be ineffectual.

There are authors who crack the code anew every day and wind up on the Best Seller list. So why not you? After all, every best-selling author has to start with a plan.

With this in mind, is it a good idea for an author to hire a PR firm to promote their published works? Like so many things, the answer isn’t cut and dried. It all depends. While you nearly always get what you pay for, it’s crucial to be clear about what exactly it is you’re paying for when hiring an agency to promote your book.

The first thing to look at is your goal for promoting your book. Are you publishing your book so you can have the credibility of being a published author? If what you want is the respect of having this important credential, then releasing your book into the marketplace may well be enough. A few book release announcements on your blog and newsletter could give you some exposure. This means that with a “book release” instead of a “product launch,” you can use your book as your calling card to get new speaking and consulting gigs.

But what if the credential of getting published is not enough? What about those ambitious authors who want their books to propel their brand to a nationwide audience?

Finding the right kind of help to tell your story to the media can make all the difference in the return on investment you get with your book release. This is the job of a book release PR firm.

Finding the Masses

Most authors invest months, even years of blood, sweat, toil and tears writing their manuscript. Ironically many authors believe that if their book is good, it will sell itself. Have you looked at the volume of books on Amazon lately? Each year, there are hundreds of thousands of new books released…just in the non-fiction category! The idea that your book release is going to rise to the top of the sales charts based on the sheer brilliance contained within its pages is hopeful, at best.

A good book is certainly worth the effort of a good hearty launch. But how do you go about it? Using a skilled literary PR agency could be the answer to putting your message in front of your primary audience.

One of the biggest appeals of hiring a PR firm is the well-worn path they’ve trod to media outlets. A non-fiction author with the right platform is highly desirable in the eyes of talk show hosts, and a good PR firm knows just how to get their attention.

Popular topics like business, politics, finance, inspiration, health and relationships draw viewers and listeners to fresh ideas and the authors who write about them. If you’ve got a good story to tell, you could well find yourself on TV or radio with the help of a solid PR firm.

Social media is also a key ingredient in your book publicity campaign. While it’s up to you as an author to develop your following, a qualified PR firm can help you design an effective social media master plan. They can also direct you to other like-minded centers of influence in the social sphere. The degree of help with social media depends on the agency.

What Makes A Great Publishing PR Agency?

Whatever your level of experience – from first-time indie author to veteran bestseller – hiring a PR agency to market your book is probably a smart move. So, what do you look for? Here are the top 4 ingredients:

Industry Specialization: Often, a PR firm that has experience with media outlets which cover the topic of your book is the best place to start. A client of mine, Dr. Allan Colman, consults with marketing departments of law firms. He is working with a PR firm that is involved in the legal industry and has lists and current contacts with the influencers in this industry. Hence, the PR specialist know about media outlets that an industry outsider would be hard pressed to identify.
Literary PR Agencies: There are a variety of PR firms who work exclusively on book releases. This means that they are savvy to insider dynamics of working in the book trade. This can include managing things like:

Award Submissions: they keep a list of literary awards on-file and regularly submit manuscripts for consideration.
Trade Reviews: book industry buyers read trade journals regularly. Reviews in the major literary trade journals have extraordinary weight on buying decisions from corporate buyers and library districts. Some of these respected journals include Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Kirkus.
Bookstore Tours: there is a list of highly respected bookstores nationwide, and some PR firms will maintain a list of people to contact for high-impact bookstore tours with large independent retailers including Powell’s Books, Politics & Prose or Elliott Bay Bookstore.
Speaking Tour: there are many speaking engagement opportunities which are available to authors, who are considered experts in their field.

Dream Media Outlets: Often successful authors will identify a list of dream media outlets where they want to expose their books. Provide this list to your PR firm and get their ideas on how to get featured in these publications.
Weekly Reports to your Publisher: Your publisher can work magic if you feed them real-time information about “PR wins.” Feeding this information on a regular basis to their Sales & Marketing teams does wonders, as sales teams tend to talk-up books that are getting national media attention.

Take an unflinching look at the strength of your network of news outlets, blogs and book reviewers. The marketing support you get from your publishing agency will be greatly enhanced by the amount of time and attention you contribute to your success.

Be clear about the tasks you want to accomplish before hiring a PR firm. By getting clear about your goals and milestones before hiring an agency, you can be sure that the PR firm you hire will help you and your book reach the widest possible audience. Instead of a wild goose chase, you could end up with a basket of golden eggs!

Bryan Heathman is the President of Made for Success Publishing. Bryan works with best-selling authors in the role of publisher and marketer, including the late Zig Ziglar, Chris Widener and John C. Maxwell. Bryan is the author of Conversion Marketing, a marketing book that condenses knowledge on website conversion from 7-years running an online ad agency. Bryan’s Fortune 500 experience includes running high impact marketing campaigns for Microsoft, Eastman Kodak and Xerox.

Planning a DIY PR Tour

As a speaker or an author on the way to publishing your next book, the time to plan your public relations (or PR) strategy is upon you. You’ll hear literary agents and publishers talking about your “platform.” This article gets down to the essentials of getting your platform built.

Authors have two essential choices to generate buzz from coast to coast on an affordable budget: 1) Hire a PR firm to do the work for you, which can get pricey, or 2) Plan and run your own PR campaign. Today, let’s focus on the later using DIY steps to build the platform for your book launch

The game plan for a book launch sets the stage for the payoff in book sales and reputation. As an author, you’ve made a monumental investment of time, heart and soul into your manuscript.

Realistically, it takes about three to six months to build excitement and demand in the marketplace for your book. First comes the need to create interest, tension and excitement centered around your book’s core message.

Where many book launches have enjoyed multi-million dollar budgets, not many authors have these kinds of resources to launch their book. You’d be surprised at how accessible the strategy is for typical authors, if you follow the same steps as the big budget pros in this business.

Getting Madison Avenue Results on a Main Street Budget

Two of my favorite PR recommendations have no cost associated with them at all. These favored do-it-yourself PR tactics are Blog Tours and Podcasting. These methods are so powerful, that PR firms use them consistently with exceptional results. Many authors find these PR strategies accessible to the average person and choose to do the work themselves.

Podcast Tour:

Podcasting is on the rise with well over 57 million active listeners in 2016. 21% of Americans have listened to a podcast episode recently (to compare, 21% of Americans are on Twitter and 13% use Spotify). It can be an effective tool for attracting attention to your book. With a podcast, people all over the world can access the ideas you talk about and create a more personal relationship with you.

I’ve seen authors build up a massive following using podcasts that highlight excerpts of their books or existing audio recordings. There’s something enticing about a book either read by the author, a discussion around your topic or an excerpt from a keynote speech. No one else can offer such shades of nuance.

It’s possible to get thousands of faithful fans this way, fans who will become aware of your book. These fans are quite valuable because not only will they buy your book but they may become loyal customers who purchase your audio series, coaching or consulting services.

The powerhouse of podcast traffic is Apple’s iTunes. However, there are other venues available to host your podcasts such as Stitcher and other Conversion Marketing, a marketing book that condenses knowledge on website conversion from 7-years running an online ad agency. Bryan’s Fortune 500 experience includes running high impact marketing campaigns for Microsoft, Eastman Kodak and Xerox.