Question: How do you get your community to buy your book (and 10 copies for their friends) or spend hundreds of dollars to see you speak?

In other words, how do you get your community to do something big for you?

Answer: Start with something small.

Ramit’s 1, 2 Punch

This idea was first introduced to me by Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich. Whenever he wanted a big favor from someone, he would start by asking for a small one. Something like a quick question via email or getting them to respond on Twitter. He realized that if he could get them to do something small for him, they would be much more likely to say “yes” to a big favor in the future. He called it the “Ramit 1, 2 Punch”.

Self-herding

I saw this explained another way in Dan Ariely‘s fascinating first book, Predictably Irrational. Following a discussion on how we are more likely to do what other people are doing (e.g. Get in line at a busy restaurant and skip the empty restaurant), we are also more likely to assume a past decision we made was a good one and, therefore, continue making similar decisions. Here’s a short excerpt from his book:

[Self-herding] happens when we believe something is good (or bad) on the basis of our own previous behavior. Essentially, once we become the first person in line at the restaurant, we begin to line up behind ourself in subsequent experiences. Does that make sense? Let me explain.

Recall your first introduction to Starbucks, perhaps several years ago. You are sleepy and in desperate need of a liquid energy boost as you embark on an errand one afternoon. You glance through the windows at Starbucks and walk in. The prices of the coffee are a shock – you’ve been blissfully drinking the brew at Dunkin’ Donuts for years. But since you have walked in and now curious about what coffee at this price might taste like, you surprise yourself: you buy a small coffee, enjoy its taste and its effect on you, and walk out.

The following week you walk by Starbucks again. Should you go in? The ideal decision-making process should take into account the quality of the coffee (Starbucks versus Dunkin’ Donuts); the prices at the two places; and, of course, the cost (or value) of walking a few more blocks to get to Dunkin’ Donuts. This is a complex computation – so instead, you resort to the simple approach: “I went to Starbucks before, and I enjoyed myself and the coffee, so this must be a good decision for me.” So you walk in and get another small cup of coffee.

In doing so, you just became the second person in line, standing behind yourself. A few days later, you again walk by Starbucks and this time, you vividly remember your past decisions and act on them again – voila! You become the third person in line, standing behind yourself. As the weeks pass, you enter again and again and every time, you feel more strongly that you are acting on the basis of your preference. Buy coffee at Starbucks has become a habit with you.

[...]

If you stopped to think about this, it would not be clear whether you should be spending all this money on coffee at Starbucks instead of getting cheaper coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts or even free coffee at the office. But you don’t think about these trade-offs anymore. You’ve already made this decision many times in the past, so you now assume that this is the way you want to spend your money. You’ve herded yourself – lining up behind your initial experience at Starbucks – and now you’re part of the crowd.

So the key to getting your community to take big actions in the future is to start training them to take small actions for you now.

Here are a few guidelines for coming up with small, initial actions for your community to participate in:

1. Keep it Simple – Make sure there are not a lot of steps. Provide clear instructions.
2. Keep it short – Should take no more than five minutes. Two minutes is probably better.
3. Immediate action – Fill out a survey online. Reply to your email. Provide something they can do as soon as they read your request.
4. Thank them – Once they take the action you request, thank them in the biggest, most personalized way possible.

Here are a few things that are often touted as the new best thing:

RSS – If you don’t know what this is, then I’ve already proven my point. For those of you who use RSS extensively, including myself, you may be lulled into thinking this is the best way to engage your community. Unfortunately, most people that subscribe to RSS feeds don’t read them all. They subscribe to too many feeds and, at best, only scan through them. The other obvious downside is although RSS has been around for many years now, it is still a very small part of the online world that uses them.

Twitter – How many people do you follow on Twitter? Now, how many people do you actually follow on Twitter? By that I mean that you actually read their tweets. Fifty? One hundred? Certainly not the thousands that most people are “following”. Someone following you on Twitter is about the lowest bar you can set for engaging with them. The odds of someone actually reading your tweets even though they are following you is pretty low. If you don’t believe me, sign up for a service like bit.ly and start tracking how many people are actually clicking on those links you put out.

Facebook – Read the above point by replacing “Twitter” with “Facebook” and “follow” with “friend”.

The truth is, your email list is your #1 asset for community building. Here’s why:

1. When someone requests that you email them, it is a huge sign of trust. Everybody already gets too much email, so the fact that they are requesting that you be another inbox item is a huge commitment.

2. People won’t check your website every day (or week) but they check their email every five minutes.

3. It’s much easier to ignore a status update than a new inbox item.

4. The people making money online use email marketing. I follow several people online that are “internet marketing gurus”. Despite what you may personally feel about some of these people, they are the ones actually making a lot of money online. And you know what? Every one of them would trade Twitter, Facebook, their blog and any other online asset to keep their email list. They make money off their email list.

Social networking, blogging and all the other tools out there serve their purpose and can help grow your community, but your email list is, by far, your most important asset. Above all else, focus on growing your email list.

No matter how you go about building your online community, there is no way around the fact that you are going to have to produce more content. Whether it’s your email newsletter, blog, Twitter or anything else, you have come up with something to fill these mediums.

This is often the last thing our clients want to hear. For authors especially, there is already so much being asked of them in this area. Whether it’s their manuscript, a magazine article or writing a speech, their words are already tied up in plenty of other places.

So how do you get around this?

Use your leftovers and easy to produce stuff. Or, as I like to call them, your DVD extras.

What is in the “extras” menu on your DVD? It’s content like deleted scenes, interviews, behind the scenes footage, etc. In other words, it’s a bunch of stuff the studio had lying around that was really easy to repackage into an “extras” section of the DVD.

What are your DVD extras? Here are a few ways to come up with them:

1. What got cut from your book? When putting together your book you end up doing tons of research, interviews and writing that doesn’t make it into the final manuscript. This is content you’ve already put the hours into producing, so use it!
2. Q&As Every author, no matter the genre, gets peppered with questions about their book. “Where’d you get your inspiration?” “Does this apply to my business?” “How did you come up with the idea?” This is fantastic content. You already know people are interested (you’ve been asked the question a hundred times) and you already know what you can write (you’ve answered the question a hundred times).
3. Stories from your fans Ask people to submit stories about how they’ve used your book. How has it helped them become happier, make more money, etc.? Have them send you these stories and then turn them back around and publish them to the community. It is great social proof for your ideas, inspiring to the members of your community and, best of all, content you didn’t have to write!
4. Audio/video from speaking Whenever you can get the permission, release the audio and/or video of your various speaking engagements back to your whole community to enjoy.
5. Interviews with colleagues Ask other authors and experts in your industry to do short email or phone interviews. All you have to do is come up with a few thoughtful questions and they produce the rest.

Overall, think about the content you’re already producing (even if it’s just answering a fan’s question) and consider how you can repurpose it as a blog post, podcast, email newsletter or tweet. This will save you the long, arduous process that goes into producing new content from scratch and allow you to continue building your community.

I was first introduced to the mind of Sunni Brown at SXSW 2010 conference where she was on the Visual Note-taking 101 panel along with Mike Rhode, Dave Gray and Austin Kleon.  The most impressive thing about the panel was how engaged they were with the audience. Everyone in the room was following along, learning to draw, etc.  It was a lot of fun to watch.

While I did not get to meet Sunni at the conference, I tracked her down a couple weeks later and told her she needed to hire me, so she did.

We recently launched Sunni’s new website and made a lot of changes. Here’s a few:

We helped explain what she does

“Graphic Facilitation” is the technical term for what Sunni does.  Unfortunately, this means nothing to most people. We needed to break down the all encompassing phrase of “graphic facilitation” into bits that people can understand and clearly see the benefits of working with her team.  Here’s what we did to get over this hurdle:

• Added a tagline to the top of the site with a clear explanation.
  
• Instead of a typical “Services” page, we decided to called it “What We Do“.  We wanted people to easily find out what Sunni and her team does.  Since the launch of her new site, this is the second most visited page on the site.
  
• On the “What We Do” page, instead of focusing on words like “Infographics” and “Graphic Facilitation”, we broke it down into the problems she solves:
  • We visualize complex ideas
  • We help you tell your story
  • We facilitate groups using visual problem solving

  This helps break down the technical aspects of what Sunni does into things that most people can understand and identify with.

Here’s a few more things we did on Sunni’s new site:

• We had Sunni hand draw her logo and other elements of her site.  This gives a creative feel to the site without going overboard with distracting design.  It gives a visual representation of what she does while keeping her site clean and professional.
  
• Made her blog much easier to browse through while also keeping her images front and center.  The latest post is at the top, nice and big with her latest art piece prominently displayed.  When you scroll down or browse the archives, there is a thumbnail image with each post.
  
• Made it much easier to share her posts and art across Facebook, Twitter, etc.
  
• Made it much easier and more prominent to sign up for her email newsletter (every author’s most prized community building tool!)
  
• Added the three boxes at the top to highlight the three most important things Sunni is working on.
  
• Added social proof – all the great companies Sunni has worked with.
  

With these changes to Sunni’s website we were able to make it easier to see her artwork, understand what she does and stay in contact with her. Let us know what you think!

Have you noticed how most people have an incorrect view of their social status? They either consider themselves more important or less important than what is reality. I find authors are often skewed to not thinking highly enough of themselves.

In most cases, this isn’t a bad trait. Nobody likes someone that is too full of themself. However this will also hold you back. I’ll get to that in a minute but first let me offer some reasoning behind the bold title of this post.

Let’s take Brad Pitt for example. On one hand, he’s just a normal guy. Gets up the morning, feeds his cat, brushes his teeth, etc. On the other hand he’s freaking Brad Pitt. Movie star, millionaire, activist, etc. He probably won’t answer the phone if you call.

You, as a published author, are better than everyone else in a similar fashion.

Sure you’re just a normal person, but you’ve also convinced a publisher to spend money on your words. This automatically establishes you as an expert and puts you on a different playing field than most people. Even with a million books being published every year, you’re still a part of an extremely small community. A community most people dream of being in.

That said, until you get over selling yourself short, you’ll never be able to lead and grow your tribe.

What are people looking for in a leader?

• Authority in their ideas and beliefs
• Guts to go first and put themselves on the line
• Willingness to put their own skin in the game
• Confidence to give direction on where people should go and how they should act
• Create a culture around their movement. Establish who is “in” and “out”
• Effectively communicate their vision
• Challenge the status quo

All of this is much easier to do sitting behind a computer screen and turning in a manuscript to the editor. To truly lead your tribe you have to step out into mediums that are much more risky and takes the confidence of knowing you and your ideas are superior enough to call other people to join you.

—

What is that feeling you get when you get a book autographed or get an email from an industry icon you have huge respect for?

To lead your tribe, you must embrace the fact that this is how people will feel when they connect with you.

Photo by internets_dairy

1. The number of books being published in the U.S. has exploded.

   Bowker reports that over one million (1,052,803) books were published in the U.S. in 2009, which is more than triple the number of books published four years earlier (2005) in the U.S. (April 14, 2010 Bowker Report). More than two thirds of these books are self-published books, reprints of public domain works, and other print-on-demand books, which is where most of the growth in recent years has taken place. In addition, hundreds of thousands of English-language books are published each year in other countries.

2. Book industry sales are declining, despite the explosion of books published.

   Book sales in the U.S. peaked in 2007 and then fell by nearly five percent between 2007 and 2009, according to the Association of American Publishers (April 7, 2010 AAP Report). Similarly, bookstore sales peaked in 2007 and have fallen since, according to the U.S. Census Bureau (Publishers Weekly, February 22, 2010). The major bookstore chains have been especially hard hit, with a 12 percent sales decline between 2007 and 2009 (Publishers Weekly, April 12, 2010).

3. Average book sales are shockingly small, and falling fast.

Combine the explosion of books published with the declining total sales and you get shrinking sales of each new title. According to Nielsen BookScan – which tracks most bookstore, online, and other retail sales of books (including Amazon.com) – only 282 million books were sold in 2009 in the U.S. in all adult nonfiction categories combined (Publishers Weekly, January 11, 2010). The average U.S. nonfiction book is now selling less than 250 copies per year and less than 3,000 copies over its lifetime.

4. A book has less than a 1% chance of being stocked in an average bookstore.

For every available bookstore shelf space, there are 100 to 1,000 or more titles competing for that shelf space. For example, the number of business titles stocked ranges from less than 100 (smaller bookstores) to approximately 1,500 (superstores). Yet there are 250,000-plus business books in print that are fighting for that limited shelf space.

5. It is getting harder and harder every year to sell books.

   Many book categories have become entirely saturated, with many books on every topic. It is increasingly difficult to make any book stand out. New titles are not just competing with a million recently published books, they are also competing with more than seven million other books available for sale. And other media are claiming more and more of people’s time. Result: investing the same amount of effort today to market a book as was invested a few years ago will yield a fraction of the sales previously experienced.

6. Most books today are selling only to the authors’ and publishers’ communities.

   Everyone in the potential audiences for a book already knows of hundreds of interesting and useful books to read but has little time to read any. Therefore people are reading only books that their communities make important or even mandatory to read. There is no general audience for most nonfiction books, and chasing after such a mirage is usually far less effective than connecting with one’s communities.

7. Most book marketing today is done by authors, not by publishers.

   Publishers have managed to stay afloat in this worsening marketplace only by shifting more and more marketing responsibility to authors, to cut costs and prop up sales. In recognition of this reality, most book proposals from agents and experienced authors now have an extensive (usually many pages) section on the author’s marketing platform and what the author will do to market the book. Publishers still fulfill important roles in helping craft books to succeed and making books available in sales channels, but whether the books move in those channels depends primarily on the authors.

8. No other industry has so many new product introductions.

   Every new book is a new product, needing to be acquired, developed, reworked, designed, produced, named, manufactured, packaged, priced, introduced, marketed, warehoused, and sold. Yet the average new book generates only $100,000 to $200,000 in sales, which needs to cover all of these expenses, leaving only small amounts available for each area of expense. This more than anything limits how much publishers can invest in any one new book and in its marketing campaign.

9. The digital revolution is expanding the number of products and sales channels but not increasing book sales.

   We are in the early stages of an explosion in digital versions of books and digital sales channels for books and portions of books. However, early indications are that the digital revenues are replacing traditional book revenues rather than adding to overall book revenues. The total book publishing pie is not growing, but it is now being divided among even more products and markets, thus further crowding and saturating the marketplace. And although some digital costs are lower, other costs are higher while price points are lower – making digital profits even slimmer than print profits thus far.

10. The book publishing world is in a never-ending state of turmoil.

    The thin margins in the industry, high complexities of the business, intense competition in a small industry, rapid growth of new technologies, and expanding competition from other media lead to constant turmoil in book publishing. Translation: expect even more changes and challenges in coming months and years.

    STRATEGIES FOR RESPONDING TO “THE 10 AWFUL TRUTHS”

    1. The game is now pass-along sales.
    2. Events/immersion experiences replace traditional publicity in moving the needle.
    3. Leverage the authors’ and publishers’ communities.
    4. In a crowded market, brands stand out.
    5. Master new sales and marketing channels.
    6. Build books around a big new idea.
    7. Front-load the main ideas in books and keep books short.
    ]]> http://outthinkgroup.com/insights/10-awful-truths-about-book-publishing/feed/ 0 http://outthinkgroup.com/doing-it-right/doing-it-right-effective-marketing-by-orbit-books/ http://outthinkgroup.com/doing-it-right/doing-it-right-effective-marketing-by-orbit-books/#comments Thu, 24 Jun 2010 22:06:40 +0000 Tim Grahl http://outthinkgroup.com/?p=733

    Up until last year I had never read a fantasy novel. I firmly believed all of the stereotypes that go along with avid readers of this genre. That was until I haphazardly fell into reading a fantasy novel and got sucked in before I new what had hit me.

    Assassin’s Creed is a video game that was released on the Xbox and Playstation 3 platforms at the end 2007. The plot centers around an assassin in the middle ages. It was a wildly popular game that I played through in late 2008, and afterwards had the thought that it would be interesting to read a novel around the games overall setting. Middle ages, assassin, etc.

    A few months later I was walking through my local Barnes and Noble and a book caught my eye. On the cover of The Way of Shadows was a figure dressed very similar to the protagonist of Assassin’s Creed.

    Exactly what I was looking for.

    I purchased and read the novel, along with the subsequent two books released by the author, which launched me into purchasing several other fantasy novels, many by the same publisher.

    The reason I tell you this story is because I always assumed this was a pretty random set of events that played out. Playing a video game which stuck in my head long enough for me to happen upon a book with a similar cover which caught my attention enough to buy.

    I recently met a publishing director from Orbit Books, the publisher behind The Way of Shadows. I told him about this story and how I have now purchased seven of their titles.

    Here’s what he told me…

    “It was all planned.”

    When Orbit was designing the cover for the trilogy, they thought the title would be something fans of Assassin’s Creed might be interested in. As a result, the cover was designed specifically to catch the eye of fans of the video game.

    And thus, a story of effective book marketing is born.

    ]]> http://outthinkgroup.com/doing-it-right/doing-it-right-effective-marketing-by-orbit-books/feed/ 0 http://outthinkgroup.com/tips/doing-it-right-hugh-macleod-and-his-email-newsletter/ http://outthinkgroup.com/tips/doing-it-right-hugh-macleod-and-his-email-newsletter/#comments Fri, 21 May 2010 01:58:42 +0000 Tim Grahl http://outthinkgroup.com/?p=719

    Hugh MacLeod is the man behind gapingvoid.com and gapingvoidgallery.com. He draws on the back of business cards and sells fine art prints. Over the last ten years he’s grown quite the following for very good reason. His cartoons are funny, poignant and irreverent in all the right ways.

    Last year he began heavily promoting his newsletter, originally naming it the list for “Crazy Deranged Fools”. He sent out regular updates with information, print offers and other content that could not be found on his blog. In January he announced gapingvoid 2.0 with the launch of “Hugh’s Daily Cartoon” newsletter. He now sends out a new cartoon every business day with a little riff about his inspiration behind the day’s image and a link to buy the print in his store.

    It has been a very successful move for his business. Here’s a few reasons why:

    1. Easy to share – Having a new cartoon show up in your mailbox every day makes it extremely easy to pass along. You can forward it to a friend or click one of the embedded social media links.
    2. Keeps Hugh top of mind – As a newsletter subscriber, you now hear from Hugh five days a week. This keeps him at the forefront of your mind and makes it easier for you to think of him when it’s time to buy a gift for that special someone.
    3. Fun – I look forward to my daily email and immediately open it on arrival. It’s fun to see the new cartoon every day and read about Hugh’s inspiration behind his art.
    4. Interesting to the receiver – Most email newsletters are too word dense and self-serving for the author. Hugh’s email gives something enjoyable and interesting to the subscriber before trying to sell anything.

    When you’re thinking through the content of your email newsletter, see if you can infuse it with some of these ideas from Hugh MacLeod’s approach to engaging his tribe.

    Bonus Tip: If you’re not an artist, search Flickr.com’s creative commons images for pictures you’re allowed to use for free.

    ]]> http://outthinkgroup.com/tips/doing-it-right-hugh-macleod-and-his-email-newsletter/feed/ 0 http://outthinkgroup.com/tips/16-principles-for-building-and-leading-a-tribe/ http://outthinkgroup.com/tips/16-principles-for-building-and-leading-a-tribe/#comments Tue, 13 Apr 2010 14:52:34 +0000 Tim Grahl http://outthinkgroup.com/?p=696 We have put together a new PDF for you to download. The title is 16 Principles for Building and Leading a Tribe and was heavily inspired by Seth Godin’s Tribes.

    My goal was to take the ideas presented in his amazing book and distill them down into a few easily consumable principles that will be a great reminder of what your roll is as a leader.

    You can download it by clicking the picture below or signup for our newsletter to have it and many more PDFs and case studies delivered directly to your inbox.

    Signup for the Out:think newsletter and immediately get our 16 Principles for Building and Leading a Tribe in your inbox! Name: Email:

    ]]> http://outthinkgroup.com/tips/16-principles-for-building-and-leading-a-tribe/feed/ 2 http://outthinkgroup.com/tips/your-calling-comes-from-god-and-we-arent-him/ http://outthinkgroup.com/tips/your-calling-comes-from-god-and-we-arent-him/#comments Mon, 12 Apr 2010 02:30:10 +0000 Tim Grahl http://outthinkgroup.com/?p=677

    I recently spoke with an author whose book is being published this coming fall. The really interesting thing about him is the fact that the topic of his book has absolutely nothing to do with the expertise and renown he is known for as being a leader of his particular industry.  In speaking with him about building his online platform, I began questioning him on what his message is and what tribe he would like to lead.  He had not yet thought this question through and could not articulate it at all.

    This is a problem.

    Our job is to help you build a community around your idea.  Answer questions like “What do I blog about?” and “What is a Twitter?”.  Build  your website, setup your email list, plan your book tour, etc.  And everything in between.  We build the megaphone and hand it to you.  But if you have no idea what you are going to say, none of it matters.  We can not provide your calling in life.

    The exciting thing is that you do have a message.  You have a life full of experiences and choices that can help other people.  But what is your message?  What is your idea?  Who are you trying to lead?

    If you are stuck and need some help figuring out the answers to these questions, grab a piece of paper and work through the below questions to give yourself a kick start:

    • What makes you unique? What knowledge and experience do you have that other people do not?  What have you seen and done that no one else has?
    • Who do you want to be in 10 years? 20 years?  On your death bed?  I am not asking what you want to be doing.  That is a different question.
    • Who are you trying to help? I am not much help to new mothers or people learning to rock climb because I have never been there and never plan to do either of those.  But if you are in your 20s and trying to figure out how to start a business, I have been there and have something helpful to say on the subject.
    • How would you like to make the world a better place? This does not have to be something grand like “ending world hunger” (although it can).  But maybe you just want to teach people how to market their online business better.  Or put a bit of humor into people’s lives.  Where do you want to leave your mark?

    Work through these questions and you will see your message start forming and be well on the way to changing the world.

    By the way, for extra bonus points and to give you a head start on building your community, read Tribes by Seth Godin.

    Photo by katielips

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