BK Workshop July 2014
BK Authors Co-op Marketing Workshop This Is How You Do It! July 17-18, 2014 Marine’s Memorial Club & Hotel 609 Sutter Street (at Mason) Day 1 8:00-8:30 a.m. Start 8:30 a.m.
Registration and Breakfast Marcia Reynolds, Bill Treasurer, and Jennifer Kahnweiler Break Kristen Frantz Alexandra Watkins
11:45-12:30 p.m.
Welcome and Opening Jennifer Kahnweiler: A Case Study of Building a Brand
Building a Franchise, Not Just Selling a Book The Power of Pre-Marketing to Help You Sell, Sell, Sell!
Lunch Becky Robinson
The Social Media Landscape: What's New and What You Can Do
Break Kat Engh
Best Blogging Tips
Break
End 4:45 p.m. 5:00-6:30 p.m.
Beverly Kaye Dennis Reina Bill Treasurer Marcia Reynolds and Bill Treasurer Cocktail Reception at Hotel Rex, 562 Sutter
Learn from the Pros Panel End of Day Sharing Sponsored by Berrett-Koehler Publishers and Weaving Influence
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BK Authors Co-op Marketing Workshop This Is How You Do It! July 17-18, 2014 Marine’s Memorial Club & Hotel, 609 Sutter Street (at Mason) Day 2 8:00-8:30 a.m.
Breakfast
Start 8:30 a.m.
Marcia Reynolds
Welcome and Plan for the Day
Hayley Foster
Finding Your Essential Message: The Focus and Creativity Needed to Create a TED talk
Break
12:00-12:45 p.m.
Eileen McDargh and Marcia Reynolds
Building Your Speaking Business
David Marshall
Diving into the Digital World
Lunch Bev Kaye Dick Axelrod Bill Treasurer Mark Clare
Author video demos Distilling Your Message into Apps and Card Decks
Break Jennifer Kahnweiler, Eileen McDargh, Marcia Reynolds, Bill Treasuer, Jesse Stoner, Mark Levy, Becky Robinson, Haley Foster Same as above Same as above
Meet the Pros I Table Topics
Meet the Pros II Table Topics Meet the Pros III Table Topics
Break
End 4:45 p.m.
Dave Basarab and Rusty Shelton Marcia Reynolds and Bill Treasurer
Creating Your Marketing Plan End of Workshop Sharing
BK Workshop July 2014 Workshop with 35-40 people, mostly Berrett-Koehler (BK) published authors and some BK staff. Branding Questions to Consider – www.JenniferKanweiler.com 1. Should I change course? If not, why not? 2. How can I start moving and preparing? 3. How do I find my niche? Five key niching questions: a. What are my core strengths? b. Who is my favorite audience/client? c. What work brings me great satisfaction? d. Who and what are my sources of support? e. What are current and future needs in the market? 4. How can I work on my craft? 5. Who are potential partners to help me expand my brand? 6. How can I be a giver? 7. How can I repurpose and create new quality content? 8. What missteps can I avoid? How? Building a Franchise – Not Just Selling a Book – Kristen Franz, Director of Sales & Marketing, Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc. 1. The 10 Awful Truths about Book Publishing (http://www.bkconnection.com/static/10Awful-Truths-about-Book-Publishing_4-15-14.pdf) – example: the average sales of a non-fiction book = 250 copies. 2. Useful: Tim Grahl’s book, “Your First 1000 Copies” (I’ve got this book – will study!) a. Build a platform (e.g., “I’m the Purpose Guy”, or “I’m the Courage Guy”) around you first. Another reference: Michael Hyatt’s “Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World”. i. Build a platform around YOU first, where YOU want to go. ii. A platform: Your overall reach and influence. The number of people you are touching who could buy books. The number of people you can reach with a click: build direct connections. iii. Publicists have relationships with media – use them. iv. Be in touch with your publisher – they need to know everything you’re doing: interviews, media contacts, publications, etc. b. The book is a business card c. Build your online profile d. Ten Berrett-Koehler marketing strategies (attached) – example: #8, be generous – get your ideas out there. i. Author questions: What about your Amazon rankings? And your Bookscan critiques? e. Decide your measures of success (for building your franchise). It’s the number of books sold, but it’s also about what you are really up to. 3
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Form partnerships. The BK book “Life Reimagined” was done in partnership with AARP, and 30,000 books were sold. g. Create a strong Launch campaign (several references to “Launch Week” later in the day). i. Build – and use – your high-profile contacts. h. After Launch – keep the momentum going: do 2 things every week: Blog, promotion-giveaway, etc.) i. Keep networking to expand your platform and reach new audiences. Pre-Marketing Buzz – Alexandra Watkins, www.eatmywords.com – Book: “Hello My Name is Awesome” Naming: a good name, like “baconator” (which she’s not allowed to say she invented”) is a name that should make you smile instead of scratch your head. • SMILE: Suggestive, Meaningful, Imagery, Legs, Emotional connection • SCRATCH: Spelling challenge, Copycat, Restrictive, Annoying, Tame, Curse of knowledge (foreign language or engineering), Hard to pronounce. She has a “smile and scratch test” on her website. 1. Early Bird Specials a. Announce the book deal on Facebook and solicit titles. Then: i. Do a Survey Monkey to ask which subtitles are best or what suggestions people have. ii. Pay attention to who is participating. iii. Keep people posted on your progress and on publisher activity and marketing activity. b. Put your Author Bio everywhere: LinkedIn & Facebook profiles. c. Twitter – i. Choose people and companies that you are going to reference in your book as resources. Google/research: what experts have the most Twitter followers that relate to your message? Find out about them, and choose the ones that you want to refer to as being useful/valuable resources (in your opinion) that you would be willing to refer to in your book. ii. Tell those people and companies that you are referring to them in your book, and give them a link to your website’s book page. They will help spread the word about your book. iii. Take pictures of you holding the books of the resource people you are referencing, and post it on Twitter. 2. Blurb Bait a. Get one really big fish – like the author of “Made to Stick”, or Daniel Pink – and tell them how they inspired your work, with specifics on what they inspired. b. Be a shameless self-promoter. Ask for their endorsement. c. Find out who my favorite authors acknowledge as being valuable to them. Let them know your Big Fish has endorsed you and ask them for their endorsement. (“X has endorsed my book and I thought you might want to as well”).
BK Workshop July 2014 d. These people have newsletters too. Send them something they would like to use or pass along to their audiences. e. EXERCISE: What is my “Big Ask”? How will I do it? (Alexandra asked Twitter “Does anyone play golf with Richard Branson?”) 3. Cheap Tricks a. Bookmark this site: www.fiverr.com – Everything costs $5, even though some of it is a loss-leader for other stuff. Look at their star-ratings, number of days to do the job, and how many jobs are in the queue. b. People will transcribe a 20-minute audio for $5; photo-shop a picture, design an email signature (see agastaya on fiverr); and professionally design a book cover (for your temporary book cover – get your publisher’s permission to use on your site and in your email signature. The temporary cover helps you set up for preorder information on your book page, which will also include advanced praise for the book). c. Put links to your site, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. in your signatures. d. Send email updates to all your peeps. 4. Bloggers BFF a. Super-bloggers need content all the time, so send them content. b. Learn about super-bloggers (Jeff Bullas) with a huge number of Twitter followers. c. Trade/offer to do what you do for them, and ask them for an endorsement (etc) for your book. (Alexandra asked Jeff Bullas to blog about the experience of going through her process to find a name for his company, which she provided for free) d. EXERCISE: What trade can I offer to bloggers? e. Twitter tip: Bloggers will take 140-character tips taken right from your book and re-tweet them to their followers. Send them the tips. 5. Marketing can be fun. a. Start early (people are busy – give them advance notice). b. Tell everyone. c. Think Big Fish. d. Use Fiverr.com for all your marketing needs. e. Make some superblogger your BFF. Balance self-promotion with self-deprecation. It’s OK to talk about yourself in a good way and have a sense of humor. Personalize those emails. Get people involved, like in title ideas. Build real relationships – you’re not manipulating people. “Weaving Influence” – Becky Robinson 1. Influence congruence: Do you show up online as powerfully as your real-world expertise? a. Promoting your message and the difference you want to make in the world is about relationships first. b. Content is important – articles, books, blogposts, interviews. Graphics, videos, podcasts. Twitter and other social media.
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2. Craft a social media strategy. The purpose of social media is to find and develop relationships. On your website. a. Create a ‘content library’ of all your content (articles, books, blogs, interviews, etc.). b. Your website is the center of it all – it’s most important because you control it. i. How many people come there? ii. What do they do there? Do they leave an email address? iii. Where do they come from? iv. What did they look at or take away? c. Social channels drive traffic back to your website. Build a big platform on lots of channels. Don’t share the same thing on all channels – customize it to who’s listening. Choose where to invest yourself. i. Twitter drives traffic – more than Facebook. ii. LinkedIn is a virtual rolodex, plus you publish your content there. iii. Facebook – have the profile be both personal and professional. iv. Amazon – book reviews, and they have an Author Central profile – have it represent you using tweet-size statements and graphics too. v. Goodreads – book reviews (not much on business books) vi. Pinterest is for images, graphics (book covers, photos) vii. Google+, use it to send people to where they can find you. viii. You-tube – video d. Post content that is rich with keywords that people might be looking up. i. When you blog, search on Google Adwords / Keyword Planner. e. For email, use Mail Chimp, but only for contacts who have subscribed to you. i. Decide how often they want to hear from you: A regular schedule (weekly, monthly, quarterly)? Or just whenever you have something to say? ii. Email them and ask them to buy your book. In Launch Week, email them every day for that week to ask them. f. Your website must be mobile-responsive. RapidWeaver is good for Macs. 3. Platforms that help you creatively differentiate your content and get it into the world and drive traffic to your site: a. AhaAmplifier.com – a free tool. To be a thought-leader, share 80% of other people’s material. Get your quotes here. b. CredSpark.com – do short target-tests on your ideas. Think buzz-feed quizzes on your most important ideas. Social testing – it’s free. 4. Traditional media: a. Fast Company b. INC c. CNBC d. Forbes e. Harvard Business Review f. Smartbrief
BK Workshop July 2014 g. Entrepreneur h. USA Today i. Fox 5. Blogposts and articles – create sexy titles. Tie your content into today’s hottest topics and stories. (“news-jacking”).
Best Blogging Tips – Kat Engh, Social Communications Manager for BK 1. Content is #1. People want to Learn, be Entertained, and have a Problem Solved. 2. Headlines matter. Make it about the reader. A big hit headline recently was “Marriage Isn’t for You”, which makes it about the reader. 3. Blog length: KISS. Shorter is better. Don’t lose people. 200-300 words. 4. Give people stories – about you, clients, conversations you’re having. Personal stories stick with people. How provocative should we be? a. Being controversial requires vulnerability and guts: organize around yourself and have people around you who will review and comment on your work before you publish it. 5. Give people new content – be a live wire. Other ideas: a. Guest-blog on other blogs. Host guest topics. b. Give how-to’s. c. Ask people what they want to know and use that to provide answers. d. Give a case study (brief). e. Do a book excerpt with comments. f. Give advice on something. g. Share a You-Tube video that relates to what you do. h. Give a quote of the day. 6. You’ll get media hits where an article refers to other experts. 7. Blog consistency is key. a. Comments on other blogs are good, but be clear what you want out of it: a connection with the blogger? Or to spur more discussion? Know why you want to weigh in. 8. Build your brand around your name/business. Have all your content there – even if you have more than one book. OK to have several landing pages. a. Google: Hubspot, Blog topic generator PANEL OF EXPERTS: Bill Treasurer (the Courage Guy); Bev Kaye (career development legend on talent loss: “Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em”, changed “acceptable turnover” into “employee engagement”): Dennis Reine (the Trust Guy). • Stay close to your humility. Now I’m more confident and more giving than I was when I was beginning. • Getting a book out is a marathon, not a sprint. Take care of yourselves: pause and take room for yourself. You’ll make mistakes with time, energy, and relationships. Stay well. 7
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I’ve built a machine: 20+ full-time people and 20+ part-time people. It’s a headache to have a business, especially since 2008. We are 70% product, 30% training and consulting. Managing salespeople – wow. I’m now turning over the business on a 6-year plan. A book is an expensive brochure, but we built products around them. We moved into micro-learning – 1 hour modules. Over time, you redefine success and temper your expectations. I’ve got a great life and I’ve clarified my voice and values. I have been around the world, worked with great companies. I’ve learned to be authentic, and to follow my inner voice. Authors need to support other authors. My consulting practice uses assessments, discussion questions, and white papers. I traded the honorarium for everyone’s email addresses. I did a roundtable with leaders from different companies. They all see that they have the same problems. We used a placemat they could take home. I made a training program into an intellectual discussion – using 140-character bites that people tweeted. You’re a thought leader when the public agrees you’re a thought leader. They decide. I’m still figuring out blogging. I’ve been approaching it like a writer, so it takes too long (2 hours) and I think I have to drop my standards for that kind of writing and just do it. Even if I think that only 6 people read it. How do you measure success? o Being the man my kids think I am. o When I “reach the room”. o The feedback on what I contributed to the audience members. o The size of my reach and the originality of my work. Advice: o Every book I publish adds more credibility and adds creative disruption to my business. o To stay relevant, keep reinventing yourself. o Reflection and insight and looking forward: that’s the thinking work to do. o Honor the work: do your homework. o Help each other. Amplify their voices too. o Be grateful for the opportunity to make a difference for others.
Short Talk, Big Impact: TED, TEDx, and TED-style talks – Hayley Foster, www.shorttalkexpert.com 1. Authors need to know about how to do this – deliver core messages that matter. Remember: authors who speak sell more books! TED: Technology, Entertainment, Design – talks given in 6, 12, or 18 minutes. A TEDx is an independently licensed TEDtalk location (now more than 10,000 of them). a. TED talks are a powerful way to do that. b. Google on your topics to find TED talks – good way to research. c. What TED looks for: (1) New research, (2) Master story-telling, (3) Passionate local with a global message, (4) Talks that are amusing, and (5) Self-help talks based on research.
BK Workshop July 2014
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i. Talks / messages with a twist, a hook. Length: 15 minutes and under. Hayley attended VidCon – she says, “I have seen the future”. It’s WAY less than 15 minutes, and it’s video. a. Doing a promo is no more than 6-7 minutes. b. Nobody has a 20-minute attention span for a video. It’s got to be very short. c. And captivating. So do some original research, and offer good stories. Livestream: Live on line. Then video. Then post it online. People can watch it and/or download it. Putting things on the creative commons (like YouTube) is great, but you don’t control it. a. Create your own YouTube channel – it’s the future. Talk on your video like you’re talking to your friends. b. YouTube videos need to be no more than 3-4 minutes. And you have to tell people why to watch it – give a little note on why, and tell them where the good stuff is (e.g., at 1 minute 26 seconds). c. Today’s kids (under 16) find someone they like, and they notice the number of the video. If it’s your 26th video posted, and they like you, they will go back and look at ALL the other ones. d. You don’t think you can say something meaningful in less than 5 minutes? Watch the TED talk on “3 things I learned while my plane crashed”. Go to TED.com – you’ll see how to speak at TED events, how to nominate speakers. You can go to events near you – and watch web events. a. Notice: they lead with an idea. b. Start strong, with an immediate twist/hook – something that makes the audience want to listen to you. If you’re invited to speak at a TEDx event – especially if it’s a new TEDx location – do some research. You need high production value – a good AV company, an organizer who’s good at business and management. Short Talk vs. TED-style talk: a. A “short talk”: i. Top Ten List ii. CEO communicating vision to a Board of Directors iii. Demo of a new product iv. Author on a book tour v. An abbreviated keynote b. A “TED-style talk”: i. Communicates a single new idea worth spreading ii. With support and resources for it iii. In the TED style: 1. Original content 2. Visuals 3. Great delivery 4. Passion – authentically addressed (rather than well-rehearsed) 9
7. EXERCISE: What is your passion today – at this moment? (Passion before preparation.) 8. EXERCISE: Tell me what your book is about in 2 sentences. 9. EXERCISE: Do you have – or want/need – a “signature story”? Or do you have lots of stories you can use? Building Your Speaking Business – Eileen McDargy & Marcia Reynolds. 1. www.postupstand.com – get a table stand that looks like your book cover. 2. The title is important. What is your audience looking for? 3. Speaking business: Keynotes? Training? Facilitation? 4. EXERCISE: Who is your audience that would pay to hear you? Where are they? 5. Tips: a. Have your Bio rock. b. Frame your language for the age and interests of your audience. c. Get away from the pigeon-holing of what they THINK your book is about. d. Tailor it to their needs – have the conversation in advance with the people who are booking you: What does the audience really need? e. Have different titles for different talks from the same book. Take some talks from different chapters. f. Help the audience figure out why they need the book! 6. Do you want to create a business? Or do you want to sell “You Inc”? These would be two very different websites. 7. Stories – mostly we make stories out of events we have seen or experienced. a. Create a list of your stories – you need an inventory. b. Use the list – check off which ones you told at each talk you give, so you don’t repeat them to the same audience. Diving into the Digital World – David Marshall, BK Editorial and Digital VP. 1. Never stop evangelizing! a. Steve Jobs was a super evangelist who got people to love his products. b. David was on the Mac development team (he wore the T-shirt to this presentation!), and overheard a shouting match between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Steve was livid, accusing Bill of stealing his stuff to create Windows. Bill said no, you stole it from Xerox – I just repurposed it. c. IF you increase interactive products and services, THEN you will increase your customers, customer knowledge and use, and your reach and depth in the market. 2. New business model for non-fiction authors: Text + Video/Audio/Interaction = $$$. a. Lifelong learning retention model: Passive learning (reading) has 10% retention; Listen-and-watch learning hast a 50% retention; Do-and-Hands-on is active learning and has 90% retention. 3. David is sending me his PPT diagram 4. YouTube – Animation. You can tell the whole story of a book in 3 minutes. See Mark Albion’s “More than Money” story.
BK Workshop July 2014 5. Enhanced e-books on iPods: click on a video in a book. It’s great for doing audio and visual exercises or explaining something that requires audio or visual demo. 6. Self-assessments – 30 questions that people can answer, and use to track their progress over time. See Diana Booher’s “Look-Talk-Think-Act” assessment. 7. Mobile apps – free products, paid apps. 8. Online Learning paths – take slices of multiple books that fit into one topic, e.g., teamwork, and create your own content: Slice, Remix, Publish. 9. New BK website a. BK bookstore – selling e-pubs, new book categories b. BK magazine – Articles & musings, News & reviews, Change toolkit, Just for fun c. BK community building – Authors, Staff, Readers, Media partners, Experts d. BK Expert Directory – experts who sell consulting, training – connect to executives (BK’s matchmaking service) Increased income + Executive employees deepen learning and relate to big ideas and develop skills. Author Video Demo’s: • A 1-minute video on www.axelrodgroup.com summarizes book • www.odesk.com just acquired www.elance.com – they can help with your videos.
PRO-TABLES: 1. Big sexy idea – Mark Levy 2. Super blog – Jesse Stoner 3. Success with video – Rick Gilbert 4. The truth about PR – Jennifer 5. Speaking business – Eileen 6. Twitter – Becky 7. Core message TEDx – Hayley 8. From book to consulting – Bill Treasurer
Success with Video – Rick Gilbert (note: all Mac products used here) 1. Take a class in video – or arrange for iMovie one-on-one sessions at the Apple store to learn to use video equipment. 2. Have a QR code that links to a video in your book – people can access it and watch a video in your book. 3. Do video interviews, post them on your website 4. Equipment needed (attached) a. You have to mic the interviewee – plug the mic into headphone jack b. Have audio input in the camera 5. Interviews: a. The first 1/3 is to build rapport, get them – and you – comfortable. 11
b. The second 1/3 is to get whatever information/conversation you want from them – the meat of the interview.. c. The final 1/3 is to ask what else they’d like to say and wrap it up. d. Total, usually about 30 minutes. e. Don’t film the interviewer unless you use a splitter and mic them both. f. Use lighting and have a camera person + a lighting person if possible. g. Be sure to test your audio before you start. h. Post-production – boost sound, edit video, and edit out the interviewer as needed.
Super-blogging, Jesse Stoner 1. Twitter is the engine that drives people to your blog. It’s a way of establishing relationships. Social media is social. Make connections. Notice who is re-tweeting you and support them. a. Facebook is good for family and friend contacts b. Jesse does 20 minutes in the morning setting up Twitter communications. Different people at the table do 1 tweet every hour, or 1/day, or 1/week. c. Re-tweet people who support you and/or who have relevant content. d. Promote yourself in no more than 1 out of every 3 tweets. e. Twitter Blog Your website. 2. Blog: Check Google Analytics to see where your subscribers come from – for Jesse, 85% come from Twitter. a. Blog - Know what you want out of your blog. b. Care about your message c. Keep your book alive d. Drive people to your website 3. Blogging tips: a. Throw out the first paragraph. Throw out the conclusion. If you nail it, there is nothing for people to interact with. b. You want comments. Google’s search engine picks up on that. c. Post good blogs on Fast Company and other sites. d. Post blogs on Monday mornings or Tuesdays.
Big Sexy Idea – Mark Levy (he consults to increase author’s speaking fees, and to position them, gives coaching in writing books and book proposals) 1. Don’t start by looking at your market – look at your subject. a. What is fascinating, scary, enraging, or worrisome about it? b. Look within, your own emotions. 2. Your market has pre-conceived ideas – stereotypes – about your topic. If you tell them your topic, they think they already know what you’ll say. a. Identify those pre-conceived ideas.
BK Workshop July 2014 b. Then identify all the ways in which your message is different from those ideas.
Your Marketing Plan – Dave Basarab & Rusty Shelton, the Mobile Business Academy 1. Audit your audience a. Direct audience – everyone you now connect with: 1) Media – journalists and bloggers 2) Influencers – individual influencers for your audience 3) Groups, organizations, associations, businesses with large influence over your audience 4) Your email list 5) Colleagues, friends and family 6) Audiences you’ll be speaking to b. Indirect audience – people you have no connection with but who would benefit from your message: PUT YOUR FOCUS HERE 7) Media – journalists and bloggers 8) Influencers – individual influencers for your audience 9) Groups, organizations, associations, businesses with large influence over your audience. 2. Audit your online presence: a. How does page 1 of Google look for your name? b. Does your website give people any reason to stick around? c. How many “on-ramps” do you have to your site? Facebook and LinkedIn are good relationship sustainers to keep in touch with people you already know. Twitter and Blogging are relationship builders. d. Do you have free downloads? e. Are you giving them a compelling reason to subscribe? f. Do you have a press-room on your site to make it easy for journalists to contact you – by phone and email? 4 parts of marketing
Sample Goal #1
Discovery & GoalSetting
Email List
Strategy
Personalize
Sample Goal #2 Business Development
News-jack: use current topics in your blog titles and relate the blog to today’s news (journalists notice)
Process to follow up
Send email with thank-you’s
Value
PR integration
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Public Relations
Data mining
Freebies
Tactics
Sample Goal #3
Offer to send book Quick response to blog posts Information monitoring
Give people something first, before asking for anything.
Track where leads are coming from.
3. Marketing Plan format: a. Discovery questions: i. Who is my direct audience? ii. How big is my direct audience? iii. What are my existing assets? b. Treasure questions: i. How much time do I have to contribute? ii. How much will I need to hire out? iii. What is my annual budget? c. Marketing goals: i. Goal 1 – ii. Goal 2 – d. Strategy questions: i. What story am I trying to tell? ii. What problem am I trying to solve for our target audience? iii. Where is my audience looking for information now? iv. How can I creatively get this solution in front of them? e. Tactical plan: i. Break it out by month ii. Start 6 months before your Launch Week iii. Plan the 6 months after Launch Week too
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