How a Book Can Grow Your Business

If you’re feeling the nudge to write a book, there’s a good chance it’s time to get it written. Not later, not when you hit the next income goal, not when you feel like you’ve finally arrived at the “expert” level status- do it now. If you’re still having doubts, check out this post on when it’s time to write a book for your business.

Before you even start writing your book there are three key things you want to know:

1. Who are you serving with this book, and what problem are you aiming to help them solve?

2. What do you want them to do when they’re done reading your book?

3. Where does this book fit into your overall strategy?

I’ll take you through each of these things in more depth so that you understand why they’re so important.

Who are you serving with this book, and what problem are you aiming to help them solve?

It’s not enough to say, “I want to help people navigate buying a house.” What people? Is it their house or an investment property? Are they first-time homebuyers or has it been a while since they last had to figure out the real estate terrain? Are we talking about single parents? Retirees? Remember Marketing 101- if you’re trying to talk to EVERYONE, you’re talking to no one.

Nail down exactly who you want to help with this book so you can clearly explain how your book will help them solve their problem. Ideally, this will be the same client profile as the one you most want to work with over the next 3-5 years. When you know who you’re talking to, you can write to their specific struggles, hopes, and fears. People love feeling seen and heard, and this will help them both love your book and trust YOU as the person they want to help them further.

What do you want them to do when they’re done reading your book?

Once you’re clear on who you’re going to help and how you’re going to help them with your book, you have to know what your call to action is going to be. Do you want them to get on your mailing list? Is there an incentive for them to get on your list? Do you have a Facebook group you’d like them to join? Do you want to invite them to get on your schedule to work 1:1 with you?

You don’t want to make the mistake of throwing ALL of the calls to action at them at one time. That will feel overwhelming, and overwhelm leads to inaction. If any of the above CTAs would be good for you, it’s fine to kind of pepper them throughout the text wherever they’d fit in a way that feels natural. However, you want to have one main goal for their next steps and make that the explicit call to action.

Where does this book fit into your overall strategy?

When I say “overall strategy” I mean both what do you want to come from publishing a book and how do you plan on marketing it? Both of these things are going to influence each other. If you have the marketing in place to sell the book, you could see sign-ups to your membership, people buying your self-paced courses, you could be landing speaking gigs or more 1:1 clients. Notice I said, “If you have the marketing in place.” Too many people write a book but don’t have a clear idea of how the book fits into their strategy, which means they neglect marketing the book and it ends up just sitting there doing nothing for them.

Will your book be the opening of your funnel? Will it be super low cost or free? Will you run ads for it? Will you promote it on podcasts and in guest blogging posts? Will you host a webinar on the topic either leading into the book or on the back end of the book?

Just to give you a clear example:

1. You run some ads for the book, offering it for free or at an easy yes price.

2. Ideal client buys the book, gets to the end and the call to action is a free masterclass in exchange for signing up for your email list.

3. At the end of the masterclass, you pitch the course.

4. They buy the course, and since they’re now on your mailing list you will have the opportunity to put more of your offers in front of them.

You invited them into your world with easy yes offers that demonstrated your expertise and ability to help them, and because they’re now a fan and trust you to help them on this topic they’ll have an easier time saying yes to taking the next steps with you. In this scenario, you had both a clear strategy for marketing your book, and the book had a clear call to action that made the next steps easy for your reader.

In the case of speaking gigs, the book is both a great lead-up in landing the gig in the first place and is also a thing you can plug through the speaking gig! Books are an excellent way of demonstrating authority on a topic and really give you an edge when it comes to booking speaking opportunities.

With the right strategies in place, your book can easily become a crucial piece of your marketing engine, helping you grow your business in leaps and bounds.

What do you think, am I missing anything? Still have questions? Shoot them over to esme@esmeiriswrites.com and I’ll answer whatever you’ve got!