Marketing your ebook or online course can be challenging, especially when you’re both the author and the marketer. To stay on track, it’s essential to approach marketing strategically. A crucial first step is the ‘benefits extraction’ – identifying and understanding the value your product offers to readers. Authors, deeply involved in their work, sometimes overlook the obvious benefits. Basic details like chapter count, page numbers, and ISBN are often forgotten but are vital for potential buyers.
The benefits extraction involves thoroughly reviewing your book or course from a marketing perspective. Print a copy, grab a coffee, and, putting on your marketing hat, analyze each paragraph. Extract every potential benefit for the reader, user, or learner who follows your advice. These benefits range from tangible outcomes to subtle advantages.
Consider factors such as readable font sizes, generous white space, logical information flow, thorough indexing, and helpful illustrations. As you delve into the content, look for hidden gems – a single sentence or paragraph might reveal a major benefit. Ask yourself repeatedly, ‘What benefits will the reader gain from this?’ Think short-term and long-term.
Instead of stating, ‘Reader will learn how to use the snarkometer,’ focus on the result: ‘Reader will be able to capture even well-hidden, rare, and elusive snarks.’ Then, extend it to future benefits: ‘Reader will become famous and rich from their snark sales.’
Properly executed, this process uncovers hundreds of benefits. Write them all down with corresponding page numbers and organize them. Identify the major benefits for headlines and bonus lists. With those in hand, your marketing strategy begins to take shape. Select the top ten benefits and then the next 20 for pitch pages or sales letters. Sort the remaining benefits to discover niche markets or create customer education content.
Benefits extraction yields ideas, headlines, taglines, and valuable advertising copy. Now, you’re equipped to write effective advertisements because you understand your product from a marketing perspective. This process also motivates and excites authors, boosting their confidence and enthusiasm to promote their work. The end result is more sales, increased income, and greater joy and freedom. So, if you haven’t done a word-by-word benefits extraction, start now. It’s the essential first step to all future marketing.