Are You Missing the Boat?
By Mary Starr Carter
This week I had the opportunity to meet and talk with 2 authors. In my experience with these 2 authors, I realized some important communication tips and tools we all can learn from. This is not to pick on them or to say I do things so much better, but rather to point out things from this experience that can help us all.
Let’s start with the 2 authors signing of the book. Author #1 after learning a bit about me wrote a beautiful message which I will very much cherish inside the book I bought from her. Author #2 wrote, “enjoy the great read”. Now let’s think about this. Author #1 message was heartfelt. Author #2 message was… well he does write good books but…
Communication: Several years ago we met Author #2 for the first time at a kiosk in the mall selling his first book. We enjoyed the book and him so much we asked him to come speak to a group of 75 associates we work with about writing and the discipline of working from home.
We also had him share on a biz conference call the same message with several hundred associates. When we recently saw Author #2 this past Saturday at the same mall kiosk promoting his new book, he didn’t remember us.
No big deal but besides a promotion mailer for his new book, we have not received any form of communication from Stan not email, phone, or card. (Now of course I have not stayed in touch either.)
When we talked to him about how he is promoting himself he still had not started his email mailing list, or done anything with Social Media. Instead he was choosing to do this mall kiosk spending several thousands of dollars.
In addition he doesn’t take credit or debit cards for his 27 dollar book. And when he sells the book he is not collecting people’s information. What’s wrong with this?
1) Lack of communication
2) Lack of consistent communication
3) Not using tools of communication, Blog, Email Newsletter, Social Media
4) Only communicating when he wants to sell something
5) Not having what his prospective clients need ie. a $10 plug in for his phone to accept credit cards
6) No relationship building with his customers
Now let’s talk about Author #2’s book and experience. Author #2 was immediately friendly and interested in what I had to say. She learned some things about me and wrote a heart felt message in my book.
She not only started developing a relationship with me. When I started reading the book I posted a picture on Facebook and several people who knew Author #2 or the book commented on how great she was and her book.
Lastly Author #2 came over to my Facebook page and became a fan of me. Does Author #2 have a blog, an email list, or a page for her writing? No, but she does know how to create relationship, and is using her personal Facebook page to encourage and stay connected with more than 400 friends, family and acquaintances.
So what can we learn from these authors and how can they and we help spread their message, connect with more people and as a result sell more books?
1) Facebook Page: As authors they can create a page and post regularly words of encouragement, updates on their writing and speaking engagements, as well as learn more about their audience and what they are looking for.
2) A Blog: A WordPress blog would be ideal for both these authors because they are already writers or speakers and could take short clips of their speeches, writings, or tips and techniques for their specific audience. This again could grow their audience all over the world.
3) Email Newsletter: Keeping their audience up to date and sharing information from their blog etc. again keeps the author in the front of the audiences’ brain. Similarly letting everyone know when and where they are giving a speech, selling their books, sharing information etc. will improve relationship and retention.
4) Learning about their audience and niche on a daily or even weekly basis through Twitter searches and follows, Facebook, comments posts on blogs and emails will improve the quality of the authors work and communications.
5) It’s okay to care about your clients. Not all of us were born all warm and fuzzy but we can learn to open our hearts and encourage others. Whether it’s a message in a book or a message on Facebook.
I hope this has been helpful to you. It’s not to pick on the authors but to help you understand that like author #1 if you wait until you have developed more products without developing relationships and consistent connection you will only be doing a small fraction in business that you could be.
Let me know what you think of today’s post in the comment section below.
