Today on the show we're looking at mindset 4 of the Book Blueprint Scorecard: A Minimum Viable Commitment, call to action.
The job of the back cover of a 'traditional' book is to sell the book... The job of your back cover is to deliver a compelling call to action in a way that allow new people to identify themselves and make it possible for you to know who your 'hotter' prospects are.
We dive into this today and look at the offers you can make to keep the conversation moving.
You can find out your Book Blueprint Score at BookBlueprintScore.com
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Transcript: Book More Show 050
Stuart Bell:
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Book More Show. It's Stuart here with Betsey Vaughn. Betsey, how doing?
Betsey Vaughn:
I'm very good. Happy Friday, Stuart.
Stuart Bell:
Happy Friday. We were just saying before we started recording, it feels a little bit more like a Monday than a Friday, but-
Betsey Vaughn:
It does. It really does. How's the weather over there?
Stuart Bell:
I am down ... Lucy's parents. Lucky came over yesterday so we're having a family stay. It's a bit of a low-bar recording set up at the moment. We're just north of London and it's actually pretty blue skies. It's fine.
Betsey Vaughn:
Yeah. Very good. Yes. We were talking here. It's gotten up into the 80's, high 80's yesterday-
Stuart Bell:
Wow.
Betsey Vaughn:
Yeah. I'm not prepared for that in February. Yeah. It's one of those mornings.
Stuart Bell:
On the real estate side of business, we've got the Go Go Academy next week and we've got a lot of realtors heading down for that. They're going to be bringing notepads and bathing costumes.
Betsey Vaughn:
Right? Bathing costumes.
Stuart Bell:
Although, hopefully, not for the meetings rooms. Save it for the pool afterwards.
Betsey Vaughn:
Right. Very good. Good.
Stuart Bell:
Okay.
Betsey Vaughn:
I hope you have a good weekend with Lucy.
Stuart Bell:
Yes. Yeah. Looking forward to it. We're staying probably this weekend and then back up to mine next week and, then, we're actually coming back out at the end of next week. Should be a good week.
Betsey Vaughn:
Super. All right. What are we going to talk about today?
Stuart Bell:
Yeah. Today, we're going to follow up on the-. We'll follow up on the book blueprint scorecard and head into some of things that move away from the front cover.
I just wanted to quickly follow up with last week's show. We were talking about the listing agent life style book and its subheading as an amplifier. We talked about that campaign that we'd set up. Also, in a week, we're doing a webinar with some of the marketing guys at our coach and greet , which is kind of like their online coaching group and their 25K Group, which is where those guys typically meet up. I'm doing a webinar for those guys, talking about book campaigns and, again, use the listing agent lifestyle one as the example.
When you talk about the leads that were generated from that, the campaign started on the 28th of January. We're now recording on the 16th of February so I think I recorded on the 14th so, a bit over two weeks in, their campaign pulled up about 1,200 leads, which just is an example of how effective of an option it is.
Leads coming from Facebook ads, I think we bowed into the details a little bit afterwards. I would listen to this, if you haven't checked out last week's show, which is episode 49. Head back to that because we begin the first ten, fifteen, minutes with talking specifically about that listening agent lifestyle campaign.
There's lots of examples. We've got, internally, going back over the last couple of years and, then, externally, obviously, with all the guys that were helping to write books. Just to be able to see that campaign, start to finish, it really is a great example of the idea, the seed of the book, which really resonates with the audience.
I like the way it's specific and useful as Facebook lead adverts. It's demographically targeted. In this case, it's at realtors. They're finding people that work for or have a connection with those realtor companies, offering the book as the opt in, which, again, remember back to last week or check out last week's show notes where we show the actual leads that the ads copy. All it is offering a copy of the book and, then, people request it. No further action needed.
They get a copy of the book. We know who they are. They've raised their hand and now we, obviously, continue that conversation with them by email and putting them into the broadcast message list so they're regularly getting communications from us. We regularly give them the opportunity to raise their hands and take the next step. To go, really, from concept just before Christmas to getting that executed and created over the Christmas holiday and into the first week of the new year, to get their Facebook ad campaigns up and refined slightly, to them pulling 1,200 leads.
As we go in, the turn around or the conversion of those people into customers from the tour we've got, this is the first time that we're doing ads like this. Historically, we've pulled people from existing lists that we've got so it'll be interesting to see what sort of conversion we get on those and the time in which it takes people to convert. Then, we'll feed back over the next shows kind of later on in the year, just to close that loop a little bit.
As far as we've said a number of times before and, obviously, earlier, we were looking at the scorecard ... I keep mixing the name of our book. We were saying that the job at work is to get people to raise their hand and this has been effective to the tune of well ... just under a couple of days ago but now, it's just over 1,200 people. I think it's an interesting campaign-
Betsey Vaughn:
That's fantastic. Yeah.
Stuart Bell:
Yeah. Yeah.
Betsey Vaughn:
I'm excited to see the conversion rate as well. Like you said, how long it's going to take for them to convert, you know?
Stuart Bell:
Yeah.
Betsey Vaughn:
That's great. Yeah. Those are great numbers.
Stuart Bell:
We talk so hypothetically about things or talk in the round because, obviously, everyone's situation is different but I think it's really useful to ... Like we have the interviews in the podcast series with the authors, people that we've written with. It's interesting to see that from practical execution point of view. I think it's really interesting to see these numbers and to see the campaign set up and how it's all brought together because, hopefully, as you're listening to this, people are getting ideas of what they can do and, obviously, change the industry to their own but ...
I agree. It adds a bit of fuel to the fire and gives people some more examples to show how simple and straight forward it can be. I would just encourage people to get it done.
Betsey Vaughn:
Right. Right. Very good.
Stuart Bell:
Perfect. Okay. This week, we're going to dive into mindset number four of eight. Mindset number four, then, starts moving on to look at a minimum viable commitment call-to-action-
Betsey Vaughn:
Five. "Mindset five." Five?
Stuart Bell:
Mine's at four. No. One, two, three, four. Yeah.
Betsey Vaughn:
Four? Okay.
Stuart Bell:
Sorry. Are we looking at the same list?
Betsey Vaughn:
I don't know. Yeah. I see where it is. Yeah. I'll explain to you later what I'm looking at. I don't know why I did that. Okay. I see it. Yeah. I'm having some technology issues here today and I don't know how something shifts on the table in front of me but it sure did because it says, "five." "A minimal viable commitment, call-to-action." It says that. Yes. Weird.
Stuart Bell:
Did we start off by saying that this is Friday, that's the day of the week, but it seems like Monday, the first of the week? Let's just slow down-
I didn't check. I questioned that myself. Interesting enough, I was thinking, after you were saying that, as I'm talking, I'm kind of on a mobile recorder, sitting at my computer with a static mic in front of the screen, as I usually am. I have headphones on so I'm walking around as I'm talking so I've wandered away from the screen.
Just as I was saying, "Okay. Let's get on with it and talk about the next mindset, I had to walk back because, as we're going to in a second, four and five, if you look at them in a logical order, going from the front of the book to the back or how most people start thinking, toward finishing it, this mindset, number four, start with a ... It almost falls into the category of "Start with the ending lines."
We've jumped. The last few weeks, we were talking about the cover, the beautiful reading parts. Logically, you think about, then, going into mindset number five, which is a purposeful outline. We'll do that one next time. You always think about the internal and then, the back cover, you tend to think about the back cover being the last thing that's read but, really, the way you need to think about it is, as I just mentioned before, start with the ending line so that you know where you're leading to. That's why we have it ordered in this way.
We go from the title, picking a single target market of the audience that you're talking to, then picking the title and the subheading because you need to know what question you're answering that will resonate with them the most. Rather than just, "Start writing because you know some stuff and then, hopefully, a headline will come from it." Start with that headline, the same as the back cover copy. You need to know what the call-to-action is, where you're leading people towards and, then, in the next stage, we can start to think about the content. Turns out, where they're starting, back cover copy, where you're leading them to, what you want them to do and, then, think about the content and how you get from A to Z in that perspective.
It's interesting if you happen to reflect on what's happened as well. I have to go back and double check. That sets the-
Betsey Vaughn:
You know? It's interesting. People come in and come on board and have questions and they're consumed by the content.
Stuart Bell:
Yeah.
Betsey Vaughn:
I always try to say that. "Start with the end in mind. Let's talk about what your goal is, then, the call-to-action." "No. No. No. I just need to tell you what I'm going to put in the book." I'm just like ... This is a legitimate conversation I probably have at least once a week with someone. I'll say, "Think about what your ultimate goal is. Let's think backwards, if you will," you know?
Stuart Bell:
Yeah.
Betsey Vaughn:
It's a good reminder. It's a nice way to think about things and kind of ... It really does help, when you think about it, like, "Okay. My call-to-action is I want them to come to my website and take this assessment," or, "I want them to reach out to me." You know? Whatever.
Stuart Bell:
It's almost like thinking about how much we get for this recording here in a little while. We're heading out from Lucy's parents to a friend in London.
It's almost like saying, "I really need to show you how well I can drive. Let's jump in and talk about the driving," rather than thinking, "Okay. Where are we going and what direction do we need to be. Then, I'll show you how well I'm driving as we're going along." It's really thinking not ... "The whole exercise of this is to encourage an outcome." The whole exercise isn't to write a book. We're not talking about fiction. We're not talking about the book being the product. It really is all about orchestrating that journey through to a customer by creating a relationship and giving them some value and evidence to people, the things they need to know in order to make the decision to take that step.
The call for action, the thing that you're leading people towards is kind of evidenced in two places. The most obvious is the back cover because that's the seconds to the front cover. The back cover is the next page that gets read the most. A hundred percent of the front cover or a hundred percent of front covers get read because that's, obviously, the thing that people pick up or the thing that people see in order to know that they want it. The back cover copy, particularly for physical books, slightly more so than for digital books and Kindle ones especially ... In fact, back covers get read in Kindle because no one ever makes it past the end of the content but, for a physical book, pick the copy up, turn it over in your hand, look at the back cover and then kind of pick through and a decent number of pages in the middle get read.
The back cover as a tool, as a thing to really put a stake in the ground about what you want people to do next is important because not only is it the one page that gets read the most but it's guiding the whole ... whatever you're writing, it's leading people towards that call-to-action. It gives you a little bit of scope, constraints, as far as the writing goes. It helps.
A lot of people, as we've said in the past, get stuck in writing themselves into a hole because there's no clear direction. Lots of words start getting ... Without some constraints around it, it's really difficult to keep those focused. That kind of copy is super important. You think about writing a book but it's also important from the perspective of the reader and where it's guiding them to.
The other place that message, that back cover copy, is exposed is the last chapter of the book of, "Here's what to do next." As people are going through the content, it's just those words in the narrative, on the page, that lead to the same outcomes. One of the things to think about is, as you're leading people through the content, starting with a proper thing that you want to share with them, leading to the answers, towards the end of the book, that end needs to be the next step.
The next step really needs to be the opportunity for the people to learn more. As you listen to this and think, "Okay. What is the call-to-action?", it's easy for people to think about, "The call-to-action is just what I want them to do is to call me for an appointment or come in for an assessment." The mindset is a minimum viable call-to-action. It's thinking about what the smallest thing is that they can do to progress the conversation, both in terms of you being aware of them, so you know which people are hotter than others, and also, them being able to give up that fault in their thinking and their understanding, without jumping straight on them and trying to convert them immediately.
We've said in a lot of the shows before that the job of the book is just to start the conversation and identify, not to convince them or try and convert them on the spot. That's super unlikely but give them enough information so that it answers ... I can give you an example of answering one question very deeply but also giving them an opportunity to go, "Here's where you can go to find out more. The next step in the process or the next thing you need to know or, now, you know this. Here's how you can expand even deeper on that knowledge in a different environment, in a different form." Just helping them really develop that. Develop their understanding by helping them develop an understanding and see if they'll start to understand that they may well need help and support with this. As they develop, they may need further help and support and, then, presenting ways that you can fill that need. Makes sense so far?
Betsey Vaughn:
Okay, good. Yes. It made sense. It does. I'm just looking. I think about people who say, "Well, I don't have a call-to-action." How do you expect someone to get in touch with you? You know?
Stuart Bell:
Right.
Betsey Vaughn:
You have a telephone so we can use that but I'm very surprised by the amount of people who don't have a website in 2018. "No. No. No. Some smaller businesses starting out," kind of thing, that haven't done that. There's no place to reach. I always say to people, "We got to create something."
Stuart Bell:
Yeah.
Betsey Vaughn:
Either an email address or some way for people to get in touch with you. Otherwise, I think, when you're doing a book, and someone doesn't know how to get in touch with you, you're defeating the purpose. Nobody can raise their hand. You're not giving anybody that option to do that, you know?
On the flip side of that, is there too much? Now, I looked at some of the books that we do and some of our back covers and people give the three steps but, sometimes, in those three steps, there's multiple steps-
Stuart Bell:
Seven or some steps?
Betsey Vaughn:
Yeah. Exactly. You think, "Okay. Are we offering too much at that point?" You know? "Yeah. You can call me. Yes, you can email me. You can go to my website. You can download this free book or you can take this assessment," or whatever.
Stuart Bell:
Yeah.
Betsey Vaughn:
At some point, is it too much? You know?
Stuart Bell:
Yeah. I think all of those elements on both sides of the spectrum come from not putting enough thought around the execution and the flow and the job of work, of what you're trying to do.
I think, on the one hand, where people have nothing or very little, the risk there is that all of this effort to collect leads goes to waste because, if you're unable to talk to them, if they're unable to express a further interest, then, what you're hoping to do is the job to do some conversion and the book being so compelling, your writing being so persuasive, that the reader's only thought is, "I definitely need to talk to this person. I'll do whatever it takes in order to get them now." Said slightly sarcastically but-
Betsey Vaughn:
Right. Right.
Stuart Bell:
That expectation that, "I need to do something. I need to write a book. Everyone's talking about writing a book. I need to know. I know I need to do it, therefore, now I've written something. Thank God for that. It came out and did its job."
Without thinking about it in an orchestrated way, about how it fits and how people, how the readers, can kind of receive it and then have the opportunity to do something, like you said, it's a little bit of wasted effort because, unless they are that super-charged to do something now, then it's kind of wasted effort because those other people, which are probably there ... 90% of people on day one, those people are just going to vanish into the background.
Setting it up, thinking about what the next step, what the best likely outcome is. Dean talked about it, when he's writing copy, he thinks about if the person was in the room in front of them and he has a great knack for being able to write in a way that resonates or talks to one person. My natural tendency is to, with a corporate background, it's more to write in a contract-based permission, with lots of "it depends," and caveats and lots of why's in it, which really doesn't resonate to anyone near as well.
Taking Dean's approach, thinking about your book, rather than thinking about a book that's going to get broadcast to many people, think about that one reader that receives and, if that one person was reading the back cover copy, and knowing that that one person came to it from a campaign targeting people with the knowledge end of your funnel ... You've got one customer. They're interested in the subject that you are writing about so they wanted to know information on that. That information is probably relatively basic or ... I don't want to say, "simple," but it's the introduction to that conversation. You don't dump everything on them in the pages.
Now, you know that they've read that, what would are you most likely to do next? What's the most logical next step for them? It's not, "Here are fifty different things you can do," or, "Fifty different things you should do." They may need fifty different things by the end of the process but the trick isn't to try and dump all of that of at once. It's just that one thing that they can do next.
The mindset is the minimum viable commitment, call-to-action. What's the smallest thing that they can do to keep expressing themselves as an interested person, to keep moving that conversation one step forward, one step forward, not trying to jump straight to the end?
I think the risk people have in trying to include too much is that it comes back to that scarcity thing of, "I'm trying to provide everything," because there might be one person that resonates here, one person might resonate there and another resonates somewhere else. That's an issue with, again, not thinking about the funnel and not thinking about what that next step is for most readers.
It might be a symptom of trying to write a book that's too broad. If you are trying to write and cover ten different things, then it might well make sense that you need ten different call-to-action's because they might be that separate but, again, that's not the way we suggest writing this. The suggestion there would be, "Write ten different books," and, then, through email, through further conversation or ads, develop the relationship. Give them an opportunity to the other nine things that people are interested in.
Betsey Vaughn:
Great. Thank you for that.
Stuart Bell:
Thank you, Betsey, again. I think those two sides of the fence ... I think, for people who've got too much on there, that's almost easier to dial people back in because they're trying to do too many things or they just haven't quite thought about it enough to think about what that one step is.
I think, for the people who have nothing or say they have nothing, that's a bit more of a not challenging conversation but that takes a little bit more thinking and dialing in because part of trick in setting up a funnel or a touch-point campaign or the way that you resonate with people is thinking about it like a chess player and knowing what the next moves are.
If you haven't yet got to the point where you know what the next moves are and then you've got a selection or a suite of next moves you can pick from, again, think of the chess analogy. If you've barely played and you already know a couple of moves, then, your toolbox is pretty limited in what you can do.
If you're a grandmaster and you know all the moves, then, whatever moves that person makes, you can immediately think of five possibilities and then you just pick the best one of those five. I think some people who say they have ... "All I've got is people getting emails and that's it." It's a little more difficult.
I was having a conversation with someone the day before yesterday, I think? They actually have quite a bit but they were struggling to dial in what it should be because, the way they were thinking about the tools that they have or the things that they could offer to people, they were thinking about more in terms of, "Well, these are calls since I've already gotten people come by," or, "These are things that we do in person." They were having problems translating it. Not problems but the conversation was more on translating it into how it might fit into the book funnel.
There, we were talking about, "Look at all the things you do. You do quite a bit already. What can you take from those and put those in as the next steps?" If you've got coursework, courses that you deliver in person, is there any of the material within that? When you first get to present to these people, these are two-day events, do you have any ... ? The first module that you go through, is that a baselining module so you know peoples' understanding of it or to get everyone on the same page? Is there a way that you can make that a link that's available to readers and give to them that valuable next step to increase their understanding?
An example I used on the call was Jim Hacking, who I've mentioned before, who's written a couple of immigration-based books, for their podcast that they have regularly stared now, it's called, "The Immigration Answers Show," and they broadcast three times a week or publish shows three times a week. Its only about five minutes long because they take one immigration-based question that's been sent in and answer that one question as thoroughly as they can in the confines of every case being different but that's something that they're doing already.
This is something that I was saying to the guy I was on the phone with on Thursday. Take something that you're doing already and just see how you can leverage that, see how you can use that in this funnel because you're trying to create something from scratch. Like, "Okay. I'm not doing a podcast," or I go, "I don't want to do a podcast." Goes from zero to a sixty minute show with guests? That's a tall order. But going from nothing to a ten minute show where you just answer a question or going through certain points within the module coursework that you've already got, that is much more achievable than just trying to go right in at the top end, to begin with.
I think the same goes for back cover copy. Everyone who's been in business for a year has got a whole load of things that will progress the conversation from the initial stage to the stage of someone expressing an interest. It might just be taking things that you've already got and repositioning them a bit or it might be taking things that you don't already have but you kind of already do in a different way, like answering customer questions. Then, just bumbling those together into something that is the logical next step.
Customer question actually is a really great one because the question that you've got, if you've got a support desk or support mailbox, or even in the conversations that we've had, we regularly get the same questions that come up time and time again. Knowing what they are and writing something that answers those questions or going just a little bit more detailed, this is why we did the titles workshop and the book outline workshop because those are two of the most regular questions that we get coming through from people who are just finding out about all the conversations that we're having, when we're on-boarding. They're the pain points that need a little bit more diving into because people aren't as familiar with that.
All of those things are something that people can create. They already exist in the business but it might just need to be repackaged or repositioned into a slightly different format. Okay.
Betsey Vaughn:
All right.
Stuart Bell:
I had to take another long breath after all of that paragraph. Sorry. I came up without a glass of water. I'm thinking I probably should've done that.
Betsey Vaughn:
Okay.
Stuart Bell:
Let's jump back into the mindset. I think we've done a pretty good job there of positioning why it's important and talking about a couple of ways one should think about it if they're coming to it for the first time. In the real world, back cover copies, 99% of the time, it's designed to sell the book because a book is on the shelf in the bookstore so, when they pick it up, they see the cover, they're compelled to pick it up, they read the back and the back cover's job at work is to sell the content. That's how most people think about back cover copy.
For us, because we're pushing this in a slightly differently way, it's got a different job at work. We actually know that the majority of people who use books like this, they're using them in a digital sense, so we're getting people to opt in through a landing page, in which case there's some copy on the page and the copy's job is to sell it slightly.
The back cover has all of this space on the most important or the second most important real estate so we know we can do something else. That's why we talk about doing it in a slightly different way.
On the scorecards, in the mindset, as we talked about before, there's four stages as you progress through, going from not really having done this before, through to a fully realized, fully orchestrated, way to implement each individual mindset. When we're looking, specifically, at the mindset number four, the minimum viable commitment call-to-action, the four stages, beginning with ... The back cover talks about you and your service with no clear next step for the reader.
The next level is, you talk about steps in terms of getting started now or, "Visit our office for a meeting." But the challenge there is it's a big commitment before you've really established a relationship with the reader. Better than nothing but, still, it's not minimum. It's a bit of a big step.
The third level, this is really where we're starting to resonate before we get into the fourth level, which is really amplifying it. The third level is you give people the next steps, assuming everyone's having a copy of the book from an updated list so ... you're assuming that you know them and they know you.
the fourth level, the highest level of mindset, is you present a simple minimum viable commitment next step, allowing for people who have a digital copy of the book ... Therefore, they've got a copy without necessarily coming through a list. Allowing people who have that to opt in and giving a way for people who are warm but not yet ready to identify themselves as getting started, you give them a way to raise their hands and identify themselves as being warmer from all of the other prospects.
That last one's a bit of a mouthful. I'm going to quickly over the three steps and then we'll come back to the last one and just dive into that-
Betsey Vaughn:
Okay.
Stuart Bell:
A little bit more because that's really where you're making the most of that real estate on the back page. For the first one, the first level, back cover copy talks about you in your sentences but no clear next steps. Sometimes people do treat a back cover like a traditional book and do a recap of what's in the book and then say, "Who's ready to get started? Give me a call at 555," whatever. "Come into the office and we'll arrange a meeting." There's some conflicting details on that but it's very passive. It's just putting some details there. It's not giving you the next step. It's not necessarily saying, "Hey, you can learn more by doing this." It's just saying, "Come into the office and we'll sign you up as a customer." Better than nothing but it's not great.
The next level, you're talking in terms of getting started now but, still, it's that big commitment of, "Come into the office for a meeting." Maybe it's not even coming into the office or a free assessment but, if the only next step is for them to come in, then, again, it's all a big step, if you haven't yet established a relationship at all.
Some of the scenarios, again, going back to my tendencies, it depends. There are some scenarios where that might be fine. You see now that you've got a big list already and the job and work of this book is specifically going out to those people so you do have a relationship, then maybe just have one call-to-action, which is, "Come into the office for any particular thing, particular assessment." Then, there's the contacting details. That might be fine.
If you're speaking from stage and you know that this book is only being used in terms of going to that audience and the audience on that day and that audience in all the times to come, so it's worthwhile writing, then, having just that one next step might be okay as well because, to a certain degree, that narrows their options to do that one thing and you've already done a lot of the work of building the relationship offline and in the scenario before they get to the book. Again, with everything we've said, this is the general approach but, really, when I introduce the strategies and the way of thinking about it, not telling people to blindly do this, because it does slightly depend on the use case.
Really, the benefit of everything that we talk about on the show is really trying to get people to take action and write and create their book and get it out there, whether or not people do it themselves. If more people could do it themselves, that would be great, too, but the real benefit of, obviously, working with others is that we've done this five hundred times now and helping people with their, "It depends," questions, to narrow it down and get the best out of it, that's obviously where it's most beneficial at working with someone.
Okay. That was number two. The third level, then, is you give people the next steps, assuming that everyone has got a copy of it, by opting in, therefore, you know all these people are ready. Level three and level four is really where we're getting into dialing it up and making it the most effective. We've got a back cover that talks about in terms of next steps, giving people the opportunity to get those next steps in a way that doesn't just mean coming to the office. You give people a minimum viable commitment way of getting those next steps in expressing an interest.
There's a couple of options in there but they're all specifically aligned to the same goal, same outcome. It's not six different options. Thinking about it in terms of the funnel, getting people on that path moving forward. But there's risk in assuming everyone sees that back cover copy, obviously, in this context, everyone needs to see it because, if they haven't seen it, it doesn't matter anyway.
You see everyone's opted in and they've got a book and you've had a chance to capture their details. There are scenarios like ... Amazon is a classic example. People talk about getting a book on Amazon but you don't know who any of those contacts are because Amazon never shares those details. One person has bought the book but you don't know which person. On the back cover copy including options where people can opt in and request the next thing is a way of capturing the details without frustrating people too much who have already opted in but it gives people a way of opting who have just got a physical copy of the book or have been passed a PDF by someone else. Those are the ways of capturing details.
Rather than just assuming that you've captured all their details already and then the job of working the book is just to move people forward, if you can include a way of capturing further details of people that aren't on the list, that's going to be great benefit as well.
Things like that are great in terms of ... or when the scenarios are if you're giving the book to a complimentary non-competing business. I've used the example before of pet vitamins and giving their books to allow people to give away and best practices. Or if you were a makeup stylist and you were giving the books away in a local hair salon. All these things, we can physically get the books in front of people, having this minimum viable commitment step where people can opt in through another list in order to get another thing is a great way of capturing those leads and being able to start a conversation with people you don't know. Does that make sense?
Betsey Vaughn:
Yeah.
Stuart Bell:
It sounds kind of-
Betsey Vaughn:
Yeah.
Stuart Bell:
Again, you've got that scenario in the line but it does jump around a little bit so, hopefully, that-
Betsey Vaughn:
No. No.
Stuart Bell:
That makes sense.
Betsey Vaughn:
It does. It makes sense. For sure.
Stuart Bell:
Perfect. The last one, and I'll just ask you this so we can wrap up, but I'll finish with an example so people can clearly get an understanding of what we're talking about.
Stuart Bell:
The highest level on this particular mindset is, "Presenting a minimum viable commitment next step and allow people who just own physical copies of the book to opt in to raise their hands and allowing people who have opted in already to identify themselves as warmer, as hotter prospects."
Again, we went into that, just in the last option but, if you think about it in terms of how you're actually using your book or predominately how you're using it, what are the options you've got in all of these scenarios you're thinking about to, A, capture more details, if people haven't opted into anything in the first place, B, for those people who have opted in already, to identify themselves as hotter and, then, C, definitely do include an option. "By the way, if you're ready to get started now or if you have any additional questions, then, please, reach out to me at Stewart@90minutebooks.com."
Definitely give people who, or if you've read on the 90-minute book, "If you're ready to get started now, then, head over to Stewart@90minutebooks, forward slash, "start," and then, that's a way to execute and take action now. But, if you think about how you're going to use them, there are opportunities to collect the names of the rest of people who haven't opted in. For those who have, to show themselves would be more of a hotter prospect. Then, to allow them to take the next step as well.
Each one of those levels, still being within the same funnel, so it's kind of an escalating level of commitment but within the same funnel, then that's the perfect use of that back cover real estate.
One of the examples I want to share was on the back of the scorecard Breakthrough score card book and the situation in which that's used, that's probably going to be taken on by someone that uses a warm lead because we don't market that book externally or we haven't yet, at the moment. But what we do do is use it in the funnel for people who've expressed an interest and expressed a preference to be on the entrepreneur list. These are people who you probably already know but don't necessarily always know.
However, on the back cover of that book it says, "This is the score. It's the scorecard book that's associated with the breakthrough DNA," so, on the back of the book, it says ... Sorry. "Here are three ways we can help you take your thinking to the next level. Number one: head over to breakthrough DNA and download a copy of the companion book to this scorecard book." This is for people who've ended up with a copy of the scorecard but haven't necessarily opted in to anything. We just point them back to opt in to request a copy of the breakthrough DNA book. That's their very low commitment option.
Number two. Actually, if I was writing this, in this scenario, I'd keep them in this order but, sometimes, I'd swap these around. Number two on this list is, "head over to breakthrough DNA and watch the introductory video, where we talked about the mindsets in more detail." On that site, there's an hour-long recording from one of the "I Love Marketing" Episodes where Dean and Joe just run through the eight top ad spaces. Again, exactly the same subject but it just dives into it a little bit deeper.
Betsey Vaughn:
That's cool.
Stuart Bell:
This book, because the breakthrough DNA scorecard is the exact ... Sorry. Because the breakthrough DNA book is the exact companion to the scorecard book, I keep these in this order because, really, the minimum viable commitment thing isn't at all interested in the scorecard. It's to grab a copy of the book and read it in more detail.
Talking to the majority of other people, I might be tempted to swap those two around so that the second one, "Head over to the site and watch the video," kind of reels their commitment to the next step and I may be tempted to put that first.
Here's the back cover copy. "Number one: if you want to develop your thinking first, just head over to the website where we've got ... " In fact, we did this on the most recent immigration book. Step number one was, "Head over to the website where we've got over a hundred hours of other videos talking about immigration questions." Minimum commitment. They can head over there, learn more about it.
Number two, on Jim's book, is, "Download a free copy of the ... " I forget exactly how we word it but, basically, they've got an assessment or a checklist. Sorry. A checklist because the book talks about a lot of the problems come from rejected Visa applications because of administrative errors so, a great way to get people to raise their hand, the minimum viable commitment thing, is to get them to request a copy of the checklist.
That does two things: For all the people who are hot, who are really interested in taking it further, it identifies them because they're opting in to a checklist about the Visa process, which is absolutely the people that he can work with. For the people that have got a physical copy of the book, it's saying, "Okay. You've got a physical copy of the book. We don't know who you are. If you head over here, again, if you're a hot prospect, head over here with a small cost of doing your name and email address and then we've got those guys on the list." Also, they've identified themselves as being hotter.
For the third one, the number three on the back of the scorecard, the breakthrough DNA scorecard is, "Join our online program, where we go through each of the steps in detail and help you create the breakthroughs you need to take in your business to get to the next level." That's a bit of a strong call-to-action. Are all those programs in that space more around coaching so that there's multi-thousand dollar levels? This is a thousand-dollar introduction to the program but you need a strong call-to-action to say, "Here's where you take it next. Here's the steps that you take next if you're really ready to execute." It also kind of sows the seed that that's the path that should be taken through, down the track, even if today's not the day.
Going back to Jim's example, I don't have it in front of me at the moment so I forget what the next step was but I think the next step was probably, "Call in for a free fifteen minute Visa assessment," or an applicability assessment. Something like that. It was, again, a small, free commitment but one that meant they needed to call. Then, we had some text at the end saying, of course, "If you've got any other questions or you know what? The quickest route is to go to Immigration, then give us a call and we would be happy to get you on board and do what the next steps are."
Does that make sense, to kind of stage it for the person and how to make the best use of that back cover real estate?
Betsey Vaughn:
Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. It's all pretty simple. You have a scope here of doing nothing to really doing something that's valuable. You know?
Stuart Bell:
Yeah. That's a good point as well. We talk about all these things and it can be a bit overwhelming. I was aiming for this to be half an hour but I think it's going to be nearly 45 minutes.
Betsey Vaughn:
Right.
Stuart Bell:
It can be a bit overwhelming and people can get ... What I ought to do is show people what we've talked about and really dialing in. It's something that you can refine over two, three, four attempts. You don't need to hit the ground running on the first one. It needs to be good enough to get out there and start collecting leads because, at the end of the day, that's the primary job.
If you do just start off with a phone number on the back and that's it, it can really, legitimately ... That's all you got? Then, that's fine. Version one. Get it out there. At least you're collecting leads. For version two, then, the whole process that we're talking about is super simple , making updates as things go on.
If you're just throwing up some back cover copy and you're not thinking about it, then that's probably pretty rubbish-y. You better think about it a bit more but, if you have considered it and considered options, because of availability is only the lowest option rather than the highest option, then, that's still a good enough answer, particularly to start with.
There we go.
Betsey Vaughn:
Yeah. That was great.
Stuart Bell:
Perfect. Can you think of anything there that we go through that's missed or any closing thoughts?
Betsey Vaughn:
Not really. I'm always concerned about the person who has nothing to offer somewhere on that back cover because, if you do have something, then, that's pretty easy. We can figure that out but that person who comes in and says, "Yeah. I don't know. I don't have it," that takes a little more work on our part but we can do it and we help them along with that. That's always something I'm thinking about with people who come on board, who've started a new business. It's always my concern.
Stuart Bell:
I think, after listening to this, if you're listening to this you're obviously engaged in it so, I was going to say, if you can't be bothered to think about anything and you don't want to put the work in, then, hey, we can't help you but, if you've listened to these last three, you're pretty engaged in making it as effective as possible.
If anyone's in that position, they're thinking to themselves, "Look, I'm really struggling to come up with ... I'd love to but I'm really struggling to come up with what can go on the back," then, shoot me an email to Stewart@90minutebooks and give me a little bit of background and I'm more than happy to ... We can even get people on the show going forward and do a quick session to run through it or, if people just want to ask a question-
Betsey Vaughn:
Yeah.
Stuart Bell:
And do it offline, then ... I was going to say, if you listened this far, you're definitely committed and-
Betsey Vaughn:
Right.
Stuart Bell:
And making the most of it.
Betsey Vaughn:
Right. Right.
Stuart Bell:
Shoot me an email to Stewart@90minutebooks with what the challenge is and a couple of ideas of what you've got and we can really help get that dialed in.
Betsey Vaughn:
I would say, "Don't be afraid." Don't let that be something that's stopping you.
Stuart Bell:
Yeah.
Betsey Vaughn:
For sure. We're happy to figure that out.
Stuart Bell:
Definitely. I think, even worst case scenario, if this is the thing that's holding you back, crack on. Just put your phone number on the back and say, "Hey, hopefully by the time you've read this, you'll understand that here are the three most important points and the thing you want to do next is such and such." Give them something of value, like a brief, "If I could only tell you one thing-"
Betsey Vaughn:
Right.
Stuart Bell:
"Then, do this."
Betsey Vaughn:
Right.
Stuart Bell:
If we could only do that on the back of the 90-minute book, again, its slightly different but, if we only had space for one thing and we couldn't think of anything, then, it would be, "Hey, hopefully by reading this you've got a good understanding of how to create a book from doing an outline and then recording the narrative and getting that edited and transcribed."
If I could give you one piece of advice, I'd say I'd concentrate on just really dialing in that title for the audience that you want to engage. Once you're ready to get started, give us a call at ... Or reach out to 90-minute book and buy now. Even if we could only do that, it would be, "Pick one thing and then call us." Just do that for this version and then see what kind of response, see what the questions are that come back. Give it six months to collect that feedback and, by that point, I think you'll have more than enough ideas to dial in and make a future update so that it's even more refined.
Betsey Vaughn:
Very good. Awesome. Good information.
Stuart Bell:
Excellent. Yeah. That was a good show. That is probably one of those things we get asked about a lot and it is one of the things that is not necessarily a straight forward answer. Titles, people get that pretty ...
Betsey Vaughn:
Yeah.
Stuart Bell:
Although, we have had classes on that as well.
Betsey Vaughn:
Yeah.
Stuart Bell:
People do get it. Sometimes they forget to get it. Back cover copy is one that's a little bit different. This is show number 50 so dive into the show notes. There's obviously the transcript there, which, I think, for this one, it'll be quite useful because you can skip around the transcript, so head over to 90minutebooks.com forward slash "podcast," and this is episode 50 so, "zero-five-zero."
If you do have any questions or, I was going to say, if you wanted to just reach out to me about the back cover copy ideas, then just shoot me an email to Stuart@90minutebooks or, if you've got some questions generally or recommendations or suggestions for the podcast or future shows that you want, reach out to podcast@90minutebooks and we'll pick that up and, I was going to say, this is what we do day-in and day-out, helping people follow these ideas. When you're ready to get started, then, just head across to 90minutebooks.com forward slash "start," and all details about our various programs are up on there. We'll be able to help you get this dialed in on a one-on-one basis.
Betsey Vaughn:
We can do it.
Stuart Bell:
Perfect.
Betsey Vaughn:
Thank you. All right.
Stuart Bell:
No problem. Enjoy the weekend.
Betsey Vaughn:
You too.
Stuart Bell:
Catch up with you next time.
Betsey Vaughn:
Sounds good. Take care.
Stuart Bell:
Perfect. Take care. Bye.
Betsey Vaughn:
Bye-bye.