Where [BOOKS] belong in your sales funnel in 2016
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What and where you put content in your sales funnel matters. Whether you're in content marketing, inbound marketing or just regular, old-fashioned marketing, the elements that you use to court a prospective customer matter a lot. Today I want to look at a few places where I think self-publishing a book makes sense as part of a company's marketing initiatives.
C-Suite, tell thy story!
If vision starts at the top of a company, so does its story. I've never once seen a company whose CEO, COO or some integral member of the C-Suite hasn't personally influenced the culture of a company. How this person or set of persons operates as a leadership unit is extraordinarily important. If your CEO is blase, your management will be even more blase, and don't even hope for enthusiasm from your employees. But when your CEO or C-Suite is full to overflowing with dynamic, interesting, been-in-the-trenches leadership, I firmly believe that story matters to your target audience. Whether you're trying to attract investors, employees or clients -- the unique story of how and why you've sacrificed your life for this company is your largest asset.
This book would likely fit best in most companies' bottom of the funnel, and we'd love to publish it for you.
Tradeshow coming up in 2016? Print your story.
Give people something to hold in their hands that they want to pick back up again. With no malice intent, I almost instinctually throw away every business card I receive at networking events. This is a sad day for business card printers. But a book, at the very least, would stand a chance of making it home in my suitcase.
Well, I can't just throw away a book, can I?
Nope, most people can't.
So make sure the book you publish is worth them picking up while they're unpacking their suitcases.
Wherever technology is bombarding your target audience
Send these people a book. Make it memorable, make it different, make it count. The point of marketing is to never, ever blend in. If your target audience is consumed or bombarded with technology 24/7 -- give them something shiny to catch their attention. In the case of technology folks, something sturdy like a book with bright visuals and compelling messages might just do the trick.
Closing thoughts on self-publishing a book for your sales funnel
It's not cheap. Most custom, professional self-published books start around $10,000.
The good news is, if you work with us, we'll get you set up on Amazon so you can drive sales to your book as well as use it in a sales/marketing capacity.
They take some time to produce and publish, but not tons of time. If you've got a good story you're ready to publish for your company, it takes about 10 to 15 weeks.
The fun part is we operate more like advocates than rigid publishers. We've got the big guns to publish you, but you're ultimately in charge of your end product. We'll make recommendations, design custom book covers, copyedit to make you sound great on the page -- and you'll sign off on it every step of the way.
Take a look at our work, or fill out this form below if you have questions about self publishing for 2016. We'd love to hear from you.
