One of the fastest ways to build authority for your brand is by writing a book.
A book gives you instant credibility in the business world. A book can be used in many ways, including: print, a PDF (Portable Document Format), or as a Kindle book.
You can use the book to make money but a better approach is to create the book for the Kindle format, create multiple calls to action within the text and give your book away for free.
This allows you to use your book as a lead generator to help you build your list, which should be your number one objective. Once you have a list of hungry customers who like and trust you, you can sell to them over and over again for years to come.
Millionaire author Gerry Robert created a book and used it as a lead generator. When I found it some years ago it was in a free PDF which I downloaded. I later discovered it was also available as a print version which you could buy, too.
Here’s the cover of the book.
Gerry provided a lot of valuable knowledge in the book and set up multiple calls to action with an email address, website and phone number.
The first call to action is in the introduction and is not a call to action for Gerry, but for Bob Proctor, who wrote the foreword for the book. You can see it on page 5.
On page 118 in the book is another call to action which comes with the subject of eliminating debt. In the paragraph above Gerry asks users to email him but uses an asterisk to refer to his email address at the bottom of the page.
This is a mistake for several reasons:
· The email address should be in the copy
· It is small on the page, making it difficult to read
· It makes the reader look for it
All of which make it likely the email address might be missed entirely.
Another call to action is on page 299, in the “About the Author” section.
Here is a part of that text.
The last section with several calls to action is at the end of the book, beginning on page 310 with the title “Want More Income?” Here, you see multiple images and text for various programs.
The first one is for Gerry Robert, as you would expect.
Major Mistakes in the Book
From a marketing perspective, creating a PDF was a wise approach because it allows readers to quickly distribute the book through multiple channels.
That said, there are a few major mistakes with the calls to action. None of the email or web addresses have been hyperlinked, which would have allowed the reader to click on the link and be taken to an email page or website. This was crucial and the publishers missed it.
Also, as mentioned earlier, the email address was not included in the copy of the call to action on pages 118, making it likely readers would miss it entirely, nor was it hyperlinked.
Conclusion
When you create a book with the goal of building your list or establishing authority, it’s essential you make it easy for your audience to get in touch with you. Not doing so means lost opportunities and sales.
Do You Want to Write a Book?
At Identity Mentor we have a strong team who will help you write your book, format it, create a cover and distribute it to multiple publishing channels including: Amazon Create Space, Kindle, Lightning Source, and many others.
