In recognition of Clearpoint Agency’s 10 year anniversary, our content will be featuring posts all year long about the number 10. So here are 10 steps to getting paid for your marketing materials. Have a tenacious idea for a blog post? Let us know!
How often have you heard yourself say the same sound bites when speaking to and advising clients, colleagues, prospects, and other audiences?
Imagine generating money directly and indirectly from those sound bites, those pearls of wisdom that effortlessly trip off your tongue, ideas that seem so basic to you yet are crucial and eye-opening to people around you. It is completely possible to do all that – in a tips booklet. Here’s how.
1. Capture your information tidbits immediately. Recording them on paper or electronically lets you grab them as they surface. Raw format is fine, jogging your thinking to refine later.
2. Let some time pass after most gems bubble up. Rarely does everything come up in that two hours on Thursday afternoon. You may get most out in one sit-down, but even more later.
3. Refine and organize the tips. Your tips usually go into categories. Editing for grammar, consistency, clarity, and flow happens later.
4. Include contact details. Your readers may want more from you beyond the basics. Making it easy to connect with you helps them and you. A brief “backgrounder” section identifies your qualifications.
5. Hire a graphic designer so your words look good. The finished printed product is a 3½” x 8½” tips booklet. The designer’s output is a PDF. You can sell and/or strategically give it away.
6. Send the PDF to a printing company. A first printing of 100-1,000 copies provides samples to hand out and inventory to sell. It minimizes angst over a missed typo or valuable tip, fixed in the next print run.
7. Think of who can use the booklet to promote their product, service, or cause. Your list grows as you ponder it. Your contacts are your clients (current and past), prospects, colleagues, vendors, audiences, and even friends.
8. Consider corporations, associations, publications, and groups appropriate for your topic. There are more prospects than you realize. Some prospects prefer printed copies. Others want to review the PDF.
9. Realize large-quantity buyers promote you while promoting themselves. Many bulk buyers want your contact details added to theirs. A sample booklet or PDF and cover letter with ways to increase their sales starts it all.
10. Expand your customer base and your checking account. You now reach a larger audience than you can single-handedly, thanks to your large-quantity booklet buyers. They pay you to market you as they distribute your booklet with their marketing message.
Those sound bites you have said for years now help your buyers, their clients, and your business. You get paid directly for your information product. You also get paid indirectly by generating new client sales from your booklet’s promotional activities. Yes, you are getting paid for your marketing materials, directly and indirectly from a single activity. Keep those sound bites coming as they improve your bottom line.
This post was contributed by Paulette Ensign. Paulette is an author and speaker who has sold well over a million copies of her own tips booklet and its content in four languages and various formats without spending a penny on advertising. Paulette and her company have helped thousands of people, worldwide, create solo-authored and collaborative co-authored tips booklets since 1991. Contact Tips Products International at 858-481-0890, San Diego, CA, or www.tipsbooklets.com; www.CollectionOfExperts.com; www.AssociationBooklets.com