Today on the Book More Show we're looking at the '7 Key Factors in Creating Compelling Ads' and how you can use that framework to help create or promote your book.
Whenever you come across a framework, it's a great opportunity to use it through the lens you want. This works for any framework out there, even if it's not directly applicable to your subject. By altering the words slight, or changing the context to better match yours, using a different framework can be a great way to prompt yourself to answer questions you may not have previously thought of.
This particular one comes from the Breakthrough Blueprint Online course (BreakthroughDNA.com) and is part of Profit Activator 2) Compelling Prospects to Call You.
You'll recognize a few of the step as they are some of the contributing thoughts to the Book Blueprint Scorecard, but this is a great illustration of the point. Asking questions in a different way helps expand the conversation, and that's where opportunity lies.
If you've had a book idea in your head for while, this is a great show to prompt you to get it out and on to paper.
Don't forget to check out the Breakthrough Blueprint slide below.
Links:
BreakthroughDNA.com
Book Blueprint Scorecard
Don't forget, you can see how your book idea stacks up against the Book Blueprint by going to BookBlueprintScore.com and, if you want to be a guest on the show to plan your successful book, just head over to 90MinuteBooks.com/guest
Links:
Ready to get started: 90MinuteBooks.com/get-started
Be a Guest: 90MinuteBooks.com/guest
Your Book Blueprint Score: BookBlueprintScore.com
Titles Workshop: 90MinuteBooks.com/Workshops
Interview Shows: 90-Minute Books Author Interviews
Questions/Feedback: Send us an email
Extra Credit Listening: MoreCheeseLessWhiskers.com
Transcript: Book More Show 075
Stuart: Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Book More Show, it's Stuart here with Betsey, Betsey Vaughn, how are you doing?
Betsey: Hey, Stuart Bell, I'm great! Good to be here.
Stuart: It is good to be here. We're just laughing because we jumped on the call a second ago to start recording, and realized that was 42 minutes ago, so I mean, don't worry, though, we saved the best bit for the last bit.
Betsey: It's a good thing we don't record those other conversations though.
Stuart: It probably is.
Betsey: They're kind of silly.
Stuart: Did I care after?
Betsey: Right.
Stuart: Okay, so let's get in the zone. Today, we are going to talk about something that cropped up in a conversation I had with Dean yesterday morning. We were talking about some ads that we are working with a consulting client for. Those ads are in print magazines. And the broad conversation reminded me a lot about the books, a lot about the certain elements to book blueprint score card. Reminded me of elements of conversations that I know we both have with people about what to do when they're thinking about creating a book in the first place, and then once it's created, what to do with it.
So, the conversation was around something that we have in the breakthrough DNA program. And it's an element in one of the early profit activators called the seven key factors in creating compelling ads. Which is surprisingly difficult to say.
But this is looking at the seven points of influence, I guess. Seven points of amplification that you've got. So, remind me of the book leaf and score cards, the eight factors that we've got there in designing the best book. So, I thought it was a good, super useful to turn through these.
I'm going to put a screenshot of the one particular slide from that program into the show notes. So, head across to 90minutebooks.com/podcast, and this is going to be episode 75. So, take a look at the image to play along at home. But there's seven of them. We'll read out the seven individually. So, don't worry too much if you're not on the show notes page. How does that sound? Sound good?
Betsey: Oh, I think it's great.
Stuart: Perfect. So, I guess the easiest way to start, I'll run through what the seven are just so we've got them all in one place, and then we'll dive into each of them individually. The first one starts as a lot of stuff that we do, starts by selecting a single target market, so whether we're creating a book, creating an ad, I mean almost having a conversation with people going to speak at an event, almost everything starts with that selecting a single target market.
The second one is an engaging headline. The third one is a compelling offer. The fourth one is looks like valuable information. Then we go into conversational language, crystal clear next steps. And the last one is a free recorded message and a compelling website, a place for people to go. So, we'll dive into those each individually.
That as a framework though, as you listen to this you'll probably recognize it from the book loop and school card from the puff activator school card and break through the eight profit activators framework. I think as a framework, as a set of building blocks, that before, during, and after unit type approach that what we're trying to do, how are we trying to do it ina most effective way, and what's the next steps is such a great way of thinking about almost anything that that's done, we'll translate this specifically into books. But it really is from, as I said, from conversations, to speaking on stage to designing ads, to putting the full campaign in place. It's just such a great, simple, easy to understand, not too complex structure to build things around.
When you're talking to people in the early stage of writing, does that model translate into the conversations that you have? Do you find it easy to frame things?
Betsey: Yeah.
Stuart: In that framework?
Betsey: Yeah. Definitely. I mean, I can see that whole conversation, which look at these sort of, these key factors we're talking about. That sort of exactly how my conversations go. So, definitely see that in that conversation we have. And it always, people are always taken aback by, and I don't know why, because if they'd listen to us at all, one time or not we're always going to start with that single target market.
Stuart: Right.
Betsey: And people still, when I say that to them, they still go, "Oh." There's a pause, like they've never thought that. I'm like, the conclusion-
Stuart: Right. The question's never cropped up before.
Betsey: Yeah. And I'm like, "Who's your audience?" Like it becomes that simple. And so, who are we, "Oh, okay well it's this group of people, but then it could be this group. But maybe that'll be the next book."
Stuart: Right.
Betsey: So, that's always interesting that when we start there I'm like, "Oh okay, well this is, this we should pinpoint first before we do anything else."
Stuart: It's interesting isn't it, because it always seems so repetitive, and there's a risk of almost thinking about it as being redundant in the sense of we'll surely everyone knows this, because we talk about it so often. It's the starting place for so many conversations. But you're absolutely right that it's not until people are, people can hear it and hear it and hear it, but it's not until they're forced to confront it almost and answer the question, they actually stop and thing at a conscious level. Kind of a subconscious level it goes in and the words make sense and it's not complicated. It's easy to conceptualize. So, it's almost like it's too simple. It passes people by because they think at a superficial level, they'll always have got an answer for that. I know who I'm trying to target.
But when you're actually trying to pin people down to a specific answer, which is really where the benefit comes through trying to be too generic or not having considered the answer as completely as you could means you're just missing opportunities because you're not leveraging or amplifying that one particular point in the program as much as you could.
And particularly the way it's structured, there is a somewhat linear element to these, and they start at the beginning and then the subsequent mindsets build on it that if you don't take time to dial in that same target market, it then has an impact on all of the other things. So, looking at the book bleeping scorecard again or that book bleeping framework, if you don't dial in the single target market, then it impacts the constraints that you've got on the book in terms of what you're creating. That can have problems.
Betsey: Oh yeah.
Stuart: It has an impact on the outline because you could go off topic or be too vague or not really have that clear taking people from a beginning to an end. So, it has an impact there. The call to action might not be as specific or valuable or relevant as it could be if you build on that. So, yeah it is super interesting that it seems to be something that's so obvious and fundamental and everyone has gone through. But some people are actually forced to. So, as you're listening to this, those seven mindsets or seven factors, I'll pull the elements out individually, put them in the show notes as well, not just have them on slide and the email that will go out when the podcast goes out at the weekend. I'll highlight them there so you don't have to, try and make it a little bit easier so you don't have to dig around for them. But really, I think this is a great opportunity to take those seven points and just with everything that you're creating, just have it as a post on the side of the desk, and just validate that particular piece of work back against these check-ins.
Betsey: That would…
Stuart: So, single target market. We've got many podcasts that talk about this, as we just talked about. It comes up a lot, but just to reemphasize it and if you have, I just talked about this before, but you're not able to articulate it very specifically who you're trying to target, then it really is the case that having something that is specific is going to resonate with that group better than having something that's generic. So, there's a couple of terms that we talk about: Ones the horoscope effect of as your eyes are scanning through a newspaper, you're flicking through, you come across the horoscope page, your eyes are going to recognize and be drawn to whatever horoscope, whatever star sign you are because your brain is great in pattern matching and it matches those words, those characters more so than it would for any of the other 11 astrological symbols that aren't you.
So, having a book that specifically targets the question that's in their mind already, the thing that's relevant to them. So, a couple of the examples we've got like the 2019 California Guide to Social Security. Two horoscope effects in that title. 2019 makes it stand out more than 2018, or having no date on it at all, there's an urgency or an immediacy related to the date. And then the California Social Security Guide stands out because the person's in California. One of the first books we did was to do at 62, talking abut retirement planning, and as you're getting closer to drawing down Social Security, there's certain aspects that you need to do.
That book was targeted at seniors reaching that particular age. And the horoscope effect of that is going to stand out even more as someone is 61 or 62, that title's going to stand out even more as it's passing by in a Facebook newsfeed or that postcard that arrived or in a print advert. The horoscope effect of those numbers being very specifically relevant to the person, it's going to stand out. We've used the example before of the from the breakthrough blueprint book that we shoot bottles, we shoot cans at for the photography company that have, that obviously do photography for many things, but their individual sites of we shoot bottles and we shoot cans that are really going to resonate with people who are looking for product shots of bottles or product shots of cans. Two different markets. One isn't necessarily interested in the other.
So, picking that single target market, not only does it help people identify themselves or resonate with the thing that you're offering, it also makes it more straightforward to create all of the other parts of the puzzle. So, the follow-up emails. The call to action. The content that should go in the book in the first place. When you have it dialed into a particular group, and that group is big enough to be an interesting market for you to work with, then all of the other steps become more straightforward and easy to create.
Betsey: That's a great place to start.
Stuart: It is. A second place to start is to take a drink of water, which I've remembered to bring with me today.
Betsey: Fantastic. And I'm over here playing with my ear bud. I'm only hearing you in one ear at this point, so.
Stuart: Okay.
Betsey: So yeah, it's a little off, but.
Stuart: I'll swap and keep up with the conversation.
Betsey: Right.
Stuart: The second one on the list then is an engaging headline. And so, as we're thinking about books, this obviously correlates with a title. So, the fact that it's engaging is kind of the key term. So, we're taking about kind of engaging and compelling. The horoscope effect we've already talked about and dialing in that single target market. Using words in the title that is, that carries that horoscope effect through so there's some recognition there. I think it's having a passionate element associated with it, having it based around outcomes rather than problems, around solution and success and the promise of what could be rather than just identifying or building on what the issue is, is a good way to go if you can. I mean it's not always, it's always possible but that thing that stands out, gets someone to recognize it, uses language that kind of answers the question that is in their mind already, answers the problem that they're trying to solve, and answers it in a positive way that gives hope. All of these little elements are what forms a great tale.
And we've got hundreds of tales now. So, if you're struggling to come up with one that's dialed in particular to what you're thinking about, then head over to the gallery on the website, and there's literally hundreds up there to look through and take some inspiration for.
Betsey: Yeah, I'm looking at them already. I went there and I was trying to think about some of our titles and how they capture you. But then there's some that are not quite specific. And you don't know just from taking the plunge, like what that would be until you have a strong subtitle that gives you that definition. And that is something that people come to me and they'll say, "Oh, I have this book that I want to do called Flowers."
Stuart: Right.
Betsey: "Okay, well then is it about flowers?" "Well no, it's not about flowers. It's just about how the blooming process of you business." I mean, like and so I'm like, "Okay, well you can call your book Flowers if you want." But that's not going to capture somebody and that, they're not going to know. And they're just going to keep going because it's not telling you anything about this book and the importance of, that's important. People want to be able to read it and say, "Part Time Personal Trainer."
Stuart: I have a-
Betsey: "Okay, this is a book about personal training. Got it." Right, this is a book-
Stuart: Right. Yeah, it does what it says on the tin. We had a show a while ago where we were talking about titles. It was probably as we were going through the book blueprint score card and the, one of the early mindset is picking the single target market. It might have been in that episode. But we were saying that there is, its' very fashionable at the moment to have like a one word title that doesn't necessarily, it's a little bit ambiguous. And I think the problem is that that works to a certain degree. Works better in a traditional book printing, like a fiction book type scenario.
Betsey: Right.
Stuart: Where a book is on a shelf, it's competing against other books, and the product is the book. So, the cover of that book is trying to sell the book itself. And there is a certain amount of intrigue around one word titles that may be a little bit ambiguous, obviously amplified by the subheading, just as you said. So, it makes a little bit sense. But that cleverness, that cuteness around the titles in this scenario where we're talking about a lead-generating book and you finally start a conversation and identify people who have got a particular problem that you're trying to solve. That cuteness is just noise in the message.
Betsey: Yeah.
Stuart: It distracts from how can people self-select themselves as, "Yes, this is relevant to me." So, this is often the case. I mean, there's rarely a right or wrong answer, and even wrong answers are not necessarily always wrong. It's just less effective. So, it's having a book out there with a less good title is better than having no book out there.
Betsey: Sure.That's very true, exactly.
Stuart: But it definitely isn't as clear a message. And thinking about it as a headline on an ad, if you ran a headline, you would make that very clear and as unambiguous as possible. You wouldn't try to get all cutesy in the headline. Same with the cover of the book. It's there to do a job, and the job isn't necessarily to win you an award for the cleverest title. It's to do more business.
Betsey: Exactly. Yeah. I think we've had several people who've had that cutesy kind of, and I'm like, let's step back from that. Would you really be interested in a book? Would that draw you? It may be cute when you're playing with it on paper, and it may sound good and this, la la la. But yeah, when you're thinking about people actually picking up your book and using the advice or reaching out to you, that's not going to happen, so. Yeah.
Stuart: Yeah. I guess the times where it might work, again, there's never one size fits all answer. So, the times where it might work, I guess, is if you really engage, if someone had their heart set on a particular title and they thought it was the best thing in the world, and that was the thing that was preventing them from getting going, then just crack on and get it out there anyway.
Betsey: Yeah.
Stuart: A less good title is never worse than no book.
Betsey: Right.
Stuart: If it's that you're using the book entirely in a physical sense to known prospects, so you're not using it to help identify invisible leads, which is often the case that we talk about. But instead using it as part of almost like the profit activator three stage of educating, you're motivating people who you already know. So, if there were certain words or language that you use within the industry or within your framework that people would know and recognize so that they would get the internal jokes so that it would resonate with them, because they are part of a known audience, they're part of the tribe. In that situation, I guess it could work, or it would more successfully, then the less successful way of using it with cold prospects. Because there's some context around it.
Always interesting to tr and think of scenarios where it does work and when it doesn't work. And I think context is the key. How are you planning on using it? And again, that circles back to knowing who the single target market is. Knowing whether it's the group of insiders or outsiders because that really influences or contributes to the other stages.
Okay. So, the next one then is have a compelling offer. This for us in a book sense, is really the back cover copy and the next steps. So the whole purpose of the book that you're writing in the context that we're talking about is identifying invisible leads, and compelling them to take the next step. That next step is defined in the kind of closing chapter. The next step, the back of a copy. And we want to give people an easy unambiguous way of taking it to the next stage. We often say that the absolute best way of thinking about a book like this is to start a conversation, to answer one particular point as deeply as possible, but understanding that there's always other things to talk about. There's always more pieces of the puzzle. And allowing people to access that information as, "Here's what to do next," is the very best way to build it in.
So, rather than trying to have a book that covers in depth absolutely everything on a subject and trying to convince people or hammer home to people that they should work with you, instead answer the question in the most helpful way possible, that one narrow question that is the most important to them at the moment when they're starting their journey and then saying, now you've got yourself to stage one, you're in a great position to think about this in a way that you haven't thought about it before. A great way to start considering more of your options. And the next step is to dive a little bit deeper, and in order to do it a little bit deeper then take this next step.
The other option of trying to put in as much information as possible so that, and then say to them the only way is to work with me, or the next step is to sign up for a big ticket program. If the purpose of the book is to engage with new people at the top of the funnel, if this will lead to them coming across you for the first time, that's maybe a big step. It's difficult for them to take that. It's not very compelling. They'd have to be quite far down the path of wanting to work with you to know, like and trust you before they're likely to do that.
Again, looking at the flip side of it then, the context in which is does work, if you're using the book as more of the profit activator three tool to educate and motivate people over time, they already know, like and trust you. This is just compelling them to take a next step, then having that harder close, that bigger close for a bigger ticket item is going to be impossible because there's already a relationship there. You're not trying to go from zero to 100 miles an hour just within the pages of a book that's identifying them from scratch.
Betsey: So, that compelling author, a lot of our authors will usually it's like, go to my website and they've got either an assessment of something that, like you said, it's not that big ticket item that says, "I'm going to throw in $5,000 and start working with you," kind of thing. But it's that baby step of like, "Okay, I can do this." This is get a little more information, get a little more comfortable and just sort of see more what it has to offer.
Stuart: Yeah.
Betsey: That's what, and that's, I'm struggling. Our roles have changed a little bit around here now they're finding a lot of the back covers. And when you ask a client for their input, they completely forget about that.
Stuart: Right.
Betsey: I'm like, "Well, do you have like a 30-minute free consultation or a 15-minute call?" or, "Oh yeah, we can do that stuff." One I got the other day was lie these four or five steps of basically the same information that was in the book. But it's the same information. There was nothing that says like, "I should reach out to you. I want to come work with me," kind of thing. There was none of that. Even if it would make someone want to go to their website, it was just sort of more of the same. And so, when the person passed it back to me, I said, "Okay, we're going to tweak this up a little bit."
Stuart: Yeah.
Betsey: It's offering this, if you, "Oh yeah, no, I have this great thing that they can watch on website, tells them a little bit more and they can download it." And I'm like, "Oh, that's what we want to put on there." Not more of the same.
Stuart: I think, yeah exactly. It's not guiding them in a particular place to be. There's a line or quote, I forget who it's from, but "People are desperate to be led." And that's true right across the board no matter what you're doing, whether it's in a big world-changing type way or a small type way of it going into a restaurant. The worst situation is walking into a, maybe not the worst situation, but it's always not the best feeling of walking into a restaurant that's packed and busy. There's a lot of people there. You get the feeling that everyone can see you when you walk through the door. And it's ambiguous when you get in. It's unclear whether you're supposed to seat yourself or whether you need to wait for a server or a host to seat you. If you are, should you go up to the bar to get someone's attention, or is someone supposed to come across to you? That lack of clarity about what to do next is a huge turnoff and really slows the process down. It slows the boat down. It grinds the gears of commerce and stops people wanting to move forward as quick as they do.
And when you think about someone who's read the book, who's engaged enough to order a copy in the first place, to make it past the first page, to have consumed the content and then be left hanging at the end, if there's nowhere for them to do, all of that momentum starts evaporating. From that second, every moment afterwards, it becomes less likely that I'll take a next step. Even if they're the most engaged to do so or the most inclined to do so, just because life happens and something else will come up and people will get distracted and the momentum goes and the enthusiasm wanes. So, having a very clear way that they can move forward is the single most important thing I think, after picking the title in the first place, the thing that gets them to raise their hand.
Betsey: Yeah.
Stuart: And it's super interesting what you said in that people I think have two mental blocks or frames that are holding up. One is that because the place where this text lives is physically on the back of the book, and in 99% of other circumstances, books that people read and pick up, the back copy's purpose is to sell the book, because the book is the product. So, that's why you have testimonials about how good the book is and a synopsis of what the book's about. Because all of the job of work of the back cover is to sell the book. It's not to give people a next step to learn more and take the conversation forward.
So, I think that's one problem, people are thinking about it in terms of not this is an ad and this is the call to action on an ad. They're instead thinking about it this is a book and this is the back cover of a book. So, I think that's the first thing.
And then the second thing which you alluded to, it is people forget and miss the fact that they've probably got all these things in place already. If you had a customer come in and walk through the door, all of these steps you would probably do. You'd ask them a little bit about themselves. You'd start the conversation slowly to kind of tart bringing out some of that information. If they were new to the process or the concept, you'd start them off with the more obvious stuff and maybe give them something to watch or something to read or something that introduces them a little bit further. You wouldn't necessarily lock the door behind them and say, "That's great. You need to give me five grand for a consultation." So, all of these things, the majority of these things people already had in place. They just maybe don't name them or they haven't got them packaged up as a particular thing. It's just some knowledge they've gotten in their head of a framework that they use.
So again, as you're listening to this, you want to go through and make your book the most effective possible. Take that time and just a moment to think okay, back of the copy, the job of work is to give them an easy next step. What would I say to someone if they walked through the door of the office at the moment? What would we do to bring on board the people who are the earliest in the process, and the people who are a little bit further down the track, and the people who just want it absolutely done for them? And what are the offers or one of the things that we can put in place to help each of those people at that point?
Betsey: That's great. I think, I hate to say it, many people sound like they just aren't thinking, but like you said, they got this information already, and what would that, I'm going to use that, what would you do if somebody walked in the door?
Stuart: Yeah.
Betsey: What would be your, and I'm actually going to use that exact line. I just wrote it down because when I'm explaining to someone like, it shouldn't be that hard to say, "What is it that you offer somebody," and people go, "Oh well I don't, well, I'll give them an assessment or they can come," like they forget those are things, that's a great compelling offer.
Stuart: Yeah. I think it's the, well disclosure number one, I'd like to take credit for that line, but I just stole it off Dean, because he was so full credit where that's due.
Betsey: I say things all the time, and they sound really great and then I'm like, "Oh, I think Dean said that."
Stuart: Right.
Betsey: I don't give him credit.
Stuart: So, the other point is I think it's, like I say, it's not a problem that people have got. It's not that they can't, they're not intelligent enough to come up with good back cover copy or that they're not doing this job already. I think it all comes down to context. So, my background people might have heard me talk about before is financial services. In that environment, people are hugely confused by financial products, when in reality, at least for most people, it really comes down to, either you'll get a loan for something and that loan might be called a mortgage or it might be called a personal loan, or it might be called refi or, but at the end of the borrowing money, you need to give more money back.
Or people have got a savings account and hopefully you're putting money in and you're getting more money back. But that might be called a pension or 401K or IRA or these other things. It's the language around it and the fact that there's all these things laid on top of what fundamentally is, that just confuses people and then they switch off.
So, that context about talking a pension on the one hand, sorry 401K, switching languages, a 401K on one hand and savings account on the other hand. There are differences obviously, but fundamentally it's broadly the same thing. People would be quite happy to talk about a savings account because there's a familiarity, there's a context that they understand. And all of the things that they've gotten ahead, the mental models around their own money and what they do with it make sense. But as soon as you introduce the word 401K, people switch off because they think it's too difficult or confusing or the language that's used by industry professionals is intentionally confusing. It's exactly the same product, at least for the sake of the illustration. It's exactly the same product, but just the context is witched, and that's what throws people off.
And I think it's the same for the back cover because it's positioned in a slightly different way, the context is different. People don't make that connection. Whereas really, you've got all of this stuff already. Pretty much I would say, for everyone, I mean I would say without exception, everyone that writes with us has everything that they need already. None of this is anything that you need to invent or make up. The whole purpose of it is to take the knowledge that you've already got and package it in a way that's compelling and accessible to someone.
So, all the way through the title, the subheading, the outline, the content, the back cover copy, the design, all of these things you've already got. The benefit that we bring to it really is just helping people extract that from their heads and get it down onto the page. But if you're listening to this, and you're not working directly with us or considering working directly with us, then that's the thing. Think about it as this isn't new. This isn't some difficult rocket science. All of this is in your head already. Just try and think about the context of the question. Maybe change the context of the question so maybe it's more familiar. Get something down on the page and then tweak from there.
Betsey: Right, that's great.
Stuart: So, that's ended. Okay. So, where did we get to? We got to compelling. Okay. So, the next one on the list is looks like valuable information. This is in the context of an ad. So, for the ads we often talk about the advertorial type content of writing an ad that gives something valuable there and then. So, we've used before the email mastery example a few times. The ad that we ran in Success Magazine talking about the nine word email. That ad as a standalone ad was completely valuable because it contained everything on the one page that answered that one particular question. It was a great illustration of a nine word email, and then again, it was an opportunity to learn more by grabbing a copy of the book. In this situation, we're saying looks like valuable information. To me that correlates nicely with the book blueprint school mindset of creating the content that's all about them, thus answering the question completely, giving as much as possible within the narrow scope of answering the question.
So, we don't want it just to loo lik valuable information, we want it to be valuable information. So, sometimes we'll be talking to people and they'll want to hold some information back, or they'll want to give a the indication that there's more information. But in order to get that answer, you need to work with me to find out what it is. The much better way of doing it is to put the complete answer, as much as possible into the content so that the reader has the promise of the title is completely delivered by the book. There's no concept of holding back.
We on the consulting side of things, some of the ads that we've been running for people are making offers. So, typically people will put an offer out there of 10% off, or with this coupon code get 10% off this particular service that we're offering. What we suggest pretty much across the board is that instead of saying 10% off, position it as a $100 gift card. So the monetary value is the same. You know how much the 10% equates to in terms of money. But by positioning I as $100 gift card, that mental model is you're absolutely giving someone $100.
Betsey: Yeah.
Stuart: Exactly the same math as saying this 10% off, the mental model there is still got 90% to pay. It's positioning one as 100% giving and the other as 10% giving, where the math is actually the same. So, from the content of the book perspective, same deal. If you know all of the answers to a question, what example have we used before? We've used like the outdoor wedding guide for the florists before. Now, I you were writing that and said, "Okay, well here's three venues, but actually I'm not going to tell you all of the details about these. If you want to know the full details, then reach out to me and I'll give you them." Or, "Here are three venues. But there's actually five more that are better. But reach out to me and I'll give you them."
Or if it was a financial planning around 401Ks and said, "Okay, for 2019, the 2019 tax guidelines have changed. Here are three things that you need to know, but actually reach out to me for the other two." Then all of that is holding something back. Or if you start saying, "Here's some information but I can't go into it in depth, but I'll tell you it later." All that's holding back.
Now you might be listening to this and saying, ah but you were saying answer one question deeply, and there's always more information that could be relevant. So, how do I know the difference between not overwhelming in trying to create a monster of a book that never gets complete, versus not wanting to hold back and make it seem like I'm not giving the answers to the questions. And that to a certain degree is more than science. But again, think about the context. It very much comes back to how something's positioned in a context in which it's delivered. So, if you know that there are things that are answers to the specific questions, then they should be included.
As soon as you start drifting into that next ring out, that next level, be very careful about how you word that, and don't word it in terms of holding some information back. Instead turn it like as in obviously there's a second stage now, so here's all the one-on-one information, and the two-on-one information is available elsewhere. Does that make sense? It's definitely more complex than that.
Betsey: Yeah. I'm kind of processing all that. But yeah, I definitely, it does make sense. And-
Stuart: I think with the book, so if we look at the 90-minute book and the book blueprint scorecard, people who are listening to this are obviously interested in writing a book as a lead generation tool. There are 1,000 things that we could talk about around the details of the printing process and publishing and ISBNs and websites and funnels and all of those other things. But the book blueprint scorecard, the eight elements that are listed in there, we answer those pretty comprehensively. So, it's not like we're saying, "Okay, here's a light touch on four of the eight and you can find out some more information elsewhere." We answer those eight things as comprehensively as possible. And there are other things. And I think it's just that trying to get at it as best as possible, going back to the promise of the title and reevaluating the words that you include to make sure that it definitely delivers on that promise. As I say, more than science about where the line is, but think about it from that context. That position is going to be the most valuable.
Betsey: That's there. Okay.
Stuart: Okay. Right. Three more. Hopefully these should be quite quick, and we've actually covered all of these already in the other points.
Betsey: Okay.
Stuart: So, the next one is conversational language. This one is such a key different, and once that I've personally struggled with for quite a while because coming from a corporate background, it's never conversational language that we deal with, it's always caveats, it's language that we deal-
Betsey: Right.
Stuart: This is where the difference in the way that Dean writes and the way that I write really comes through. So, then in conversational language, if you look at, when you think about the podcast that Dean does, there's no preparation for them in the sense that it's not, they're picking up the phone and start recording there and then. There's a lot of history and experience and he's bringing all of the expertise to it because it's a framework. All of the podcasts are in a frame you're very familiar with.
But the language that he uses is very conversational. All the examples that are given, he very rarely caveats things in the way that I far too often do. It's conversation and it's moving forward.
The same with the writing. If you look in the 90 Minute book, so I'm guessing that everyone that's listening has seen the copy and a name in the book. If not, head over to 90minutebooks.com and download it from the top there. But that book is very, and intentionally, very, very lightly edited because we wanted to make a point with it that the content is less important than the subject and the call to action. But even with it being very-
Betsey: Oh, I hope people listen to that. Say that again.
Stuart: So the, yeah, exactly. The point isn't the, or the important, the point, tripping over my words, the important part of the book isn't the content, it's the title and the call to action. Because realistically, I mean, the funny thing is we know that the 90-Minute Book as an example, I mean, in fact, we actually updated it last year sometime and just tweaked it a little bit because it really was pretty rough in places from an editing point of view. Because we'd intentionally left it that way to make the point. The point is that very few people read the content, because they just want the outcome by osmosis of having the book in their hand.
Betsey: Right. Yeah.
Stuart: The answer to, or the outcome to magically manifest in the world. So anyway, the point I was making from the conversational language is the editing on that is intentionally very light. But the conversational nature of it is pretty much there from the first take, no recording, no second edits, no cutting bits of content in and out. That book was recorded from just in one take straight through and what you read is almost what was I mean, pretty much identical to what was actually said. And the conversational nature of that flow, the accessibility of the language, the fact that it's, the narrative or the journey runs through it in a pretty clear way. Much cleverer than I'm doing now, even.
That conversational language is compelling. It makes it more accessible. People resonate with it more. The nature of the typical 90 Minute book being a shorter book, a book that's to the point, a book that's answering a question. The whole premise is that this is an opportunity to get inviting a kind of behind the scenes conversation with an expert, someone that knows more about the subject than you do. It wold be like a, imagine that you were listening in on a conversation that as happening at around a kitchen table at home where an expert friend is sharing with the hosts the answer, different than a lot of people writing, which makes it stand out and stand out in an accessible, compelling way.
Comparing it to the financial services model I was just talking about, I mean typically that industry is renowned for having unaccessible language and being somewhat standoffish at times. Maybe not so much these days, but.
Betsey: Right.
Stuart: Historically that was definitely different, so.
Betsey: I think conversational language, people, there's a comfort there it seems, because that's how we are in our everyday lives.
Stuart: Yeah.
Betsey: And we're not, and I think we're getting even more so away from this, there's not that formality. People are very laid back and very, that this is sort of how people are speaking. And I'm seeing even writing, in emails and stuff from different people, you're like the emails are just not as formal, like you said, in that financially kind of way, if you will.
Stuart: Yeah. That's a great example, isn't it? The kind of social mediarization of interactions generally. When you think about 20 years ago, all of the communications that you saw from corporate bodies came through coms or PR been signed off by 10 people before they made it out the door. That is absolutely not the case now. And the objective is to work with people, building rapport with people over time so they know I can trust you. I want to do business. And the best way of doing that is that authentic voice that comes through a conversational tone. Yeah.
Betsey: Mm-hmm (affirmative), I see. I totally agree with that. What's interesting whenever I'm talking to people who are coming on board from a talking about the process of people, particularly I will say our financial clients. And I get it because there is sort of a mindset behind those people there has to be this sort of professionalism and stuff. So, they probably struggle more with the conversational language than anyone. But I said to people you were talking about sitting around the neighbor's table and answering your questions. And that's what I say to people is when you're having this conversation with the person who's recording your call with you and asking you questions, that's what it is.
Stuart: Yeah.
Betsey: It's like talking to a colleague, talking to a client. It is that, and people are more comfortable with it except our financial clients.
Stuart: Right.
Betsey: They're still caught up in like oh, because they are so concerned with every word that comes out of their mouth.
Stuart: Yeah. And I mean, maybe it's industry specific as well, that regulated industries with heavier compliance are more problematic. Bu then again, I think that depends on the context of what you're writing. If you think that you're trying to writ a compliance heavy, fact heavy, math heavy book that becomes a reference material for someone, then that's different from writing a book that is and introductory piece to a subject that is just a conversation. It's a kind of physical, we were talking with, who'd we do the podcast with a while ago? I'm blanking on names this morning. Oh, this is making for a good bit of the show, we did a show with, and I'm talking slow because I'm trying to look on the website at the same time.
Betsey: I think-
Stuart: Okay. Talk amongst yourselves for a second, be this is being a page away. It wasn't Mike. It wasn't David Kurz. It was Kevin Craig. Can't think why I blanked on Kevin's name so much. And recently with Kevin Craig, there's an episode, back episode 18, the episode is called Helping Launch a Coaching Business with Kevin Craig. So, the book that Kevin wrote was specifically because he was having a lot of coffee meetings with people who were just coming into town and asking if they could buy him a coffee talking about his business. And he found himself talking about the same thing over and over again. So, he just encapsulated that into a book that A, he could give to people who asked those same questions, at least start the conversation, and to give internally to his staff, because it was good as a benchmark or a baseline because they were growing quite rapidly, so they had people that didn't have the legacy culture. They didn't have the experience with the company.
But the premise for that book is exactly what you said. It as a conversation that Kevin was having time after time after time where people were asking similar questions because they had similar interests. They were trying to achieve the same outcome. So, that behind the scenes friendly, accessible, an expert answering your question because you as the non-expert don't have that level of history or expertise positions it in the perfect way to start the conversation in a way that then logically moves onto the next part in the process. Writing in a conversational way takes so much of the pressure off as well because you're not trying to be, it's like the difference between writing a tweet versus a blog post versus a YouTube video versus a podcast versus a traditionally published book versus a peered reviewed Y paper. The headache, the amount of work, the overhead starts ramping up exponentially as it becomes more official.
Keeping it conversational, people are very forgiving of if there happened to be a mistake in there or if you put an opinion in there rather than fact, or if you talk about something anecdotally rather than specifically. All of that is much more forgiving in a conversational format which mans it's much more straightforward to do and it's much more accessible and resonates with people at a personal level, rather than trying to think of it, as you were talking about, very compliance heavy, official tone.
Betsey: Yeah, I think that's, you said all that very well. That was, that's good stuff, and people really can, I think it goes back to just that comfort level too. People-
Stuart: Yeah.
Betsey: It's not as intimidating as that.
Stuart: Yeah. It's more likely that it will get done. Yeah.
Betsey: Yeah. Exactly.
Stuart: Okay. So we've got two more, then. Let's, we should get this knocked out before the hour. The last two, I'll actually combine these together because we've mentioned them a little bit already and they're two sides of the same coin. So, the two steps are, or the two elements are crystal clear next step and a free recorded message and compelling website. The crystal clear next steps, we've talked about that already. It's the back of a copy. It's the compelling offer. I think the reason this is highlighted slightly separately is the crystal clear element of it. So, quite often you've kind of got a grade of how much people, how quickly people get all of these elements, I guess. One is the compelling offer, the fact that there should be a compelling offer at all.
The second one there is making sure that's crystal clear, because that's still possible to be a little too ambiguous in your next steps if you're not explicitly telling yourself or validating that this next step is crystal clear. So, oftentimes when we're working on back cover copy with people, we have a couple of defaults or a couple of templates that we'll try and work through people with. And one of the most popular is a statement at the top just kind of recapping the problem and the solution, kind of just in 50 words or so restating what the problem was that was solved within the book. And the fact that there is a path to resolution. And then step one, step two, step three. And then general contact details at the bottom.
Because what that does is at a glance, it very easily kind of enumerates the next steps for people, and because it's step one, step two, step three, there's also a kind of mental model of, one is the beginning and thee is the more advanced. So, you got the opportunity of putting the zero commitment one at step one, and the middle commitment one in the middle, and the higher commitment one at the end. In the book blueprint scorecard, we go into this in a lot more detail. So, check out the chapter that talks about the back cover, the call to action, in the book blueprint scorecard that goes a lot deeper. But at a high level, we're really talking about presenting ways for all of the readers and knowing who those readers are because you picked a single target market, a way for all of those readers to take the next logical step for them.
So, we'll often say that step one should be something, as you said before, visit a website for more information. So, if you've got more PDF type materials or videos or audios or blogposts, all those things where people can learn more. And no commitment, so they dot have to phone up, they don't have to give an email address, they don't have to jump through any hoops. It's just there and available. And the aim of that first step is really just to increase and amplify that kind of know, like and trust. It's a way for people to lean more and understand more about you and the process that you're talking about.
Step two then is often the assessment type thing. So, you've introduced the idea, the concept in the book. How can people validate for themselves what the next thing to do is? So, a scorecard, an assessment, a checklist. Something that they can download. Something that you can identify that this person's now a hotter prospect than just the person that requested it. Something that they can evidence for themselves that they're moving in the right direction, that working with you is the logical way of going, that they're answering the question.
I often use Jim Aking as the example and the immigration attorney, so the Visa checklists that they've got for certain procedures. They're doing a lot of sudden immigration delay cases, and there's again, another checklist there that they can go to to see if their case falls into this category. That second step is a way of identifying those hotter leads. And people who've got copies of the book physically where they haven't necessarily opted in, or if the book's been shared, it's a way of capturing email address details of people that you wouldn't necessarily have captured the details of before.
And then number three that the clear next step, the number three, is for those people who do want to start working with you, and that is as you said before, that kind of Mafia offer, that easy to do, relatively low commitment offer, but usually involves some physical contact. So, a call for a consulting overview or come into the office for a starter type call, a review, an assessment. Those things that require that first level of commitment. And then at the bottom usually I ask for that if there's, if you want to ask me any questions about this, then reach out to me, a phone number and an email address is usually a good way of capturing everything else.
The compelling website and the last free recorded message, I'm on the fence about how successful free recorded messages are, where we are in technology at the moment. And I don't know about you, but usually I rarely use the phone apart from-
Betsey: Yeah. From texting.
Stuart: Yeah. Exactly. In anything outside of this work type context. So dealing with new companies, it's not typically going to be the phone. If you've got a lot of technological solutions around that will deliver that, that will allow you to give a free recorded message that shares more information, potentially fielding with the older community, thy might be more inclined to do that. So, context relevant. But yeah, I'll skip by free recorded message because it's the same as the website.
Betsey: Right.
Stuart: Just delivered in a different way. But compelling website on the ad example is then specifically for that one funnel. So, rather than driving people to your generic page, go to coporatedomain.com and you'll find that other information. This particular example is driving people to a dedicated landing page. So, for your book, this is less about the back cover copy because they're kind of in the funnel already. But oftentimes we think about these in terms of a landing page for the book itself.
So, bookblueprintscore.com, 90minutebook.com. I suppose the 90 Minute Books is the book opt-in page, the single purpose book opt-in page that we've got. So, having that compelling, obvious website, the kind of, the words of the domain amplify the solution and the book itself. Again, that's that last element that kind of ties it all together.
Okay, I'm very croaky voiced now.
Betsey: Yeah, this is a lot of great information, and I think it can obviously this, what we're looking at in front of us is, it has to do with compelling ads, but we've been able to incorporate it into the book and the story as well. So, I think it was sort of a valuable-
Stuart: We were talking about what to talk about in this show, anticipating this being a pretty quick run-through. But just as you said when we started the conversation, even now after doing this for five years and repeating the same message over and over again, we're still talking to people when some of these elements, there aren't answers to some of these elements. So, it's surprising how much just changing the context of the list of things that we're going through helps share things in a different way. And hopefully as you're listening to this, some of these elements will have resonated perhaps in a way that they haven't resonated before.
I think taking the framework, whether it's the profit activator score framework, whether it's the book blueprint framework, whether it's using these seven steps as a framework, all of these things just act as a way of a check and balance or a validation that you're heading in the right direction.
So, certainly encourage anyone to head over to the show notes on the website. So, this is going to be episode 75. And grab this framework. I'll put links to the frameworks in there as well. I'll include the slide from the breakthrough DNA. It's the online workshop that this came from. So, I'll included this image, and then there's the book blueprint scorecard framework up there as well. So, all of those things, whether or not you're working with us or whether you're doing this yourself, that should give some, a great guideline, really a roadmap to really amplifying each of the elements.
Betsey: Yeah. I think it was very valuable.
Stuart: Fantastic. Okay, so let's wrap it there. I'm going to go and drink some more water.
Betsey: And I'm not going to drink any more water. I drank two hours' worth of water in this last hour. So, I will slow my roll on the water.
Stuart: So no more, so just bathroom. No drinking.
Betsey: Can't do that when you're recording.
Stuart: Right. I don't know. Just wait for me to go off on a tangent, and then you've got 10 minutes. It'll be fine.
Betsey: There you go.
Stuart: Okay, so I'll put the show notes up, make sure that all links from the show notes, so that's going to be over at 90minutebooks.com/podcast, and this is episode 75. As always, if you want to ask us about anything or a subject that we can talk about in a future show, then just drop us an email to podcasts@90minutebooks. Always suggest the best thing you can do is just get started. I mean, there's 1001 reasons why you could delay it, but just head over to 90minutebooks.com/start or follow the get started links on the website and we'll be able to get you up and running, and really walk you through and hold your hand through all of these elements to make sure that your book is out there in the most effective way.
Betsey: Awesome. Handholding is my specialty.
Stuart: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And we've held lots of hands before.
Betsey: We have.
Stuart: And looking forward to holding yours.
Betsey: Yeah.
Stuart: If that doesn't sound weird.
Betsey: Not at all.
Stuart: Okay. So on that note, we'll catch everyone next time. Thanks a lot for your time as always, Betsy.
Betsey: My pleasure.
Stuart: And looking forward to the next one.
Betsey: Take care.
Stuart: Cheers, bye.