I tell my direct marketing clients to create Expert Proof Materials (usually books, but sometimes DVDs or CDs) and have them on hand to use as business cards. Didn’t follow my own advice today. Met a young lady today in a coffee shop to talk about teaching her clients – other entrepreneurs. Took a book – all cool, right? Nope. Turns out the coffee shop owner was one of her clients, and also wanted a book. I blew over an hour getting a book ready to ship, finding an open post office, and spending at least $5 on postage and gas. Keep a stack of EPM in your car, kids!
freebie
So You Don’t Have To
The beginning of that sentence is, “I do stupid things.” Well, silly anyway.
Amazon has this system where you can run a “giveaway.” I wanted to try it out. Now, the silly part isn’t what happened – I gained 132 followers to my twitter (@AhZhillAy) account. Nor the fact that I set the system to give an ebook to every 12th person.
Why Free Stuff Sux
I’ve been talking with a lot of people lately about ‘building your email list.” Rule #1, they say, is give something away for free. Okay, there’s merit in that suggestion I suppose. But quantity does not equal quality. If you want quality subscribers who are more likely to buy whatever it is you’re going to sell down the line, you want people who’ve already shown a willingness to buy from you. You want to charge people on your list for what they get.
Use High Quality Gimmees
I'm against the use of gimmees (freebies, give-aways, junk, etc) in trade show booths. If you don't start doing it, you'll never have to stop. Just like smoking cigarettes. Both can be bad for your health.
I've had a dozen conversations like this one, but it serves as a good example. I'd had a booth at several B2B trade shows where I was near the same printing company. During this one, they were giving away pads that looked like melon slices. At the top was printed "Honeydew List." They had stacks of other pads out on display, but this was the most popular by far. People were coming by and literally taking away half a dozen at a time, without asking or even being talked to by the booth staff. Word was getting around, apparently, as I heard people coming up the aisle saying, "Those honeydew lists are around here someplace." By the middle of the afternoon, those pads were all gone.
Give Them Free Rum
My wife and I just returned from St Martin in the Caribbean. We were staying on the French side (there's also a Dutch side to the island) in the town of Grand Case. Yes, it was a vacation, but I'm always on the lookout for new and unique marketing ideas. Sometimes, like on this trip, I get whacked over the head with how effective "the basics" are, and how time-tested techniques can – and should – be used.
Grand Case is the culinary capitol of the Caribbean. I don't know who first bestowed that sobriquet, but I'd say it fits. The Boulevard is narrow, with cars parked haphazardly on either side of the street, tourists walking along it and other cars and motorbikes zipping between them. The Boulevard, at less than a mile long, is also home to 20 or more restaurants. While some of these are barbecue joints, serving things like pork ribs, chicken and other "home cooked" specialties, most of the restaurants serve fancy French cuisine, mostly in open-air establishments. Half of these. the ones on the north side of the Boulevard, are right on the beach, and offer spectacular views.
Your Book As A Business Card
We have a number of clients who have published books, or put out instructional DVDs. Some of them have had a hard time grasping the fact that these products are not, in and of themselves, a profit generator. Rather, they are like keys that unlock doors to bigger and more lucrative sales. They should be given away like business cards.
Yes, I understand that one book – or DVD or CD or any similar product – costs a lot more than a business card. Even if you get the books or disks at wholesale. Just as you shouldn’t walk down the street passing out business cards to all and sundry, you need to be selective in giving out your Proof of Expertise.
Forget about selling this item. You need to selectively hand them out to individuals who can help you book speaking or training gigs. This is where the money is going to come from. Any incidental sales of this item are a bonus.
The product that is your Proof of Expertise is exactly that – proof that you have something to say, can present it in a socially viable medium, and are capable of carrying out a difficult procedure (the conception, completion, production and distribution of the Proof) from beginning to end.
Even in today’s market of self-published ebooks, where there’s little to no cost for creation, production or distribution, very few authors can make even a poor living off the sales of their products. Selling 25,000 copies in a year and earning a profit of $2 per copy only nets you $50k, and that’s before taxes and expenses. By selling a training session to a room full of attendees, you could earn that much in a weekend.
Once you have your Proof product, put your effort into using it as a key to unlock sales via personal presentations.