In 1985, I enrolled in an Introduction to Public Relations course at UC San Diego. That was a course that changed the trajectory of my life. Henry DeVries was the instructor, and I still remember that first class as if it was yesterday. There must have been 40 students in that classroom. By the end of the session, he knew each of our names and something personal about each of us. And Henry was able to demonstrate that, right then and there, by introducing us all to each other.
Not long after that, there was this assignment to write a press release about the unusual sex habits of the Komodo Dragons at the San Diego Zoo. You could say I hit the ball out of the park because Henry wrote a “teacher’s note” on my graded paper that said, “This is very well done. You will go far.” I saved that graded paper and considered it powerful fuel to catapult my dream to first create my boutique publicity company and later to create the publicity tools and training company I run today. Here I am, still a fan of Henry DeVries as a teacher, mentor and friend. I am proud to share a guest blog post from Henry DeVries to guide you to attract clients with books and speaking. Henry, Mark LeBlanc, Bill Stainton, and me will be hosting our own Marketing with a Book and a Speech live event in Seattle on Feb. 2. I hope you’ll consider coming. All details are noted in the link, and a short application is required.
Take it away Henry!
“With a book, you’re able to demonstrate that you understand like no one else the specific nature of the problems that your prospects face,” best-selling author Michael Levin recently told the New York Times. “I always recommend targeting a niche with a book instead of writing for the general public,” added the noted ghostwriter. “Write exactly for the people you’re trying to sell to. Show them that you understand their problems and that you offer solutions. In a book, you can lay out everything that you do to solve these problems. The goal is that if your book is generous enough with information, they’ll say, ‘I could do this on my own, but I would be much better off hiring the author to solve this problem for me.’ That’s the result we’re looking for. That’s why you want a book.”
What groundwork should you lay before you write a book? There is a proven process for marketing with integrity and getting an up to 400% to 2000% return on your marketing investment. At the Marketing With a Book and Speech Summit we call it the Educating Expert Model, and the most successful professional service and consulting firms use it to get more clients than they can handle. The findings of our 8-year, $2 million research study about how the most successful professional and consulting firms use this model were published in our book, Client Seduction.
Here is the Reader’s Digest version. Before you can begin attracting clients, you need to create a marketing genetic code that is attractive to clients. All of your marketing messages, from networking discussions to speeches, will contain the elements of this marketing DNA that positions you as the Educating Expert.
Here are 10 steps that will help you create these all-important marketing genes.
1. Create a business name or a website name that gives potential clients a hint at the results you can produce for them. The worst possible business name or website name is your name. I know, I know, McKinsey and Price Waterhouse are named after the founders. But you are not them. Sorry to say, clients don’t want us, they want results.
2. Write a headline for your website and marketing materials that describes your audience and the results you produce for them. Do this in no more than 10 words. Mine is “We help professionals and consultants attract all the clients they want.”
3. Name your client’s pain. What are your client’s worries, frustrations and concerns that you help solve? This is also called the FUD factor: fear, uncertainty and doubt.
4. Describe your solution or methodology for solving these pains. What process do you follow to produce results? Offering a proprietary problem-solving process that you name and trademark is best. This answers the all-important question in their minds: “Why should I do business with you instead of one of your competitors?”
5. State the common misperception that holds many back from getting results. Why doesn’t everybody do what you named in step 4?
6. Tell your clients what they need to do in general to solve their problem. Pretend they weren’t hiring you and you had to describe the steps they should take for success.
7. List any other benefits they get from following your methods. What other good things do people get when they do what you advise?
8. Elaborate on your track record of providing measurable results for clients. Be specific as much as possible. Use numbers, percentages and time factors.
9. Create a website with free tips articles on how to solve these pains. Each article should be about 300 to 600 words. What’s a good format? Consider the numbered tips approach you are reading right now (easy to write, easy to read).
10. Make prospects an offer of a free special report on your website. You are offering to trade them a valuable piece of information for their email address. Tell them they will also receive a tips enewsletter from you. Assure them you will maintain their privacy and they can easily opt off your list any time they want.
Henry DeVries, marketing scientist and ghostwriter, is an expert on typing and talking: how to maximize revenues by writing books and making speeches. He speaks to thousands of consultants and service professionals each year, teaching them proven tactics that bring them new clients. Along with his best-selling books — How to Close a Deal Like Warren Buffett, Self-Marketing Secrets, Client Seduction, and Pain Killer Marketing — the buzz building tools of Henry DeVries have been used to dramatically increase revenues and leverage marketing budgets for two decades. In addition to authoring his own books, he ghostwrites at least four books a year. His goal is to win the Nobel Prize in Marketing. As a ghostwriter and editor for professionals and consultants, he has worked on 43 book projects in the last six years. His proposals have earned five-figure advances for clients. His latest best-selling book, How to Close A Deal Like Warren Buffett, co-authored with Vistage speaker Tom Searcy, was published by McGraw-Hill in November of 2012 and was the #1 sales and marketing book on Amazon.com. He has published with the top five publishers, privately published, independently published and association published, and personally knows the dos and don’ts of all current publishing options. He also has relationships with some of the most respected agents in the business and has launched and supported columns in Forbes.com, Inc.com, metro daily newspapers and CBS MoneyWatch helping clients to gain credibility, free publicity and larger reach. To apply for a no-cost seat at his private, invitation-only “Marketing With a Book and Speech Summit” on February 2, 2013 in Seattle, please go to /marketingsummitfeb22013/.
