Using a Book to Grow Your Business

ByFrank Deardurff

Most people who write a book hope to make money from book sales. Most people who make money from a book don’t make it from book sales.

That’s not a knock on royalties. It’s just that for a business owner, consultant or expert, a book is worth far more as a tool than as a product. It’s the best business card you’ll ever hand out.

Why a book works

  • Authority. “I wrote the book on it” carries weight that a brochure or a website never will. People treat authors as experts.
  • Trust before the first call. Someone who has read your book already knows how you think, how you work, and whether they like you. By the time they reach out, the selling is mostly done.
  • It lasts. My first book, “The Biggest Website Mistakes That Are Killing Your Sales”, co-written with Bret Ridgway, came out in 2011. It’s still on Amazon and still introducing people to us more than a decade later. Try getting that from a social media post.
  • It opens doors. Podcast interviews, speaking gigs, workshops, guest articles and media interviews all come easier when you’re an author.

Write the book your customers need

A book that grows your business is built around your ideal client’s problem, not your life story.

  • Pick one problem your best customers have, and solve it (or most of it) in the book.
  • Teach generously. Don’t hold back the good stuff hoping they’ll pay for it. The people who can do it themselves were never going to hire you. The people who read it and think “I’d rather have them do this for me” are your clients.
  • Keep it short. A focused 100 to 150 pages that gets read beats a 400-page doorstop that gets saved for later.

When I wrote WordPress Security Made Simple, the goal was a plain-English guide a business owner could actually follow. Some readers will lock down their own sites. Others will realize they’d rather have someone handle it. Both are good outcomes.

Build the path from reader to client

Here’s where most authors drop the ball. They publish the book and wait. Instead, give readers a reason and a way to connect with you:

  • Put an offer inside the book. A free checklist, template, bonus chapter or assessment that readers get by visiting your website and signing up. Now you know who your readers are.
  • Give the book a home online. A simple book website gives readers a place to go, and gives you a place to send people. (Here’s how to build a one-page book website.)
  • Follow up by email. A short welcome series that delivers the bonus, shares a little more about how you help, and invites the right people to take the next step.
  • Make the next step clear. A consultation, an audit, a course, a service. Mention it in the book, in the bonus and in the emails.

If you’re not sure what to offer as that bonus, read Lead Magnets That Actually Work.

Use the book everywhere

  • Give it away. Hand a signed copy to prospects after a meeting. Mail one to a potential client instead of a sales letter. A $5 printed book is the cheapest marketing piece that never gets thrown away.
  • Use it to get booked. Pitch podcasts and local groups as an author with a topic, not a business with something to sell.
  • Build workshops and talks around the chapters.
  • Repurpose it. Each chapter can become blog posts, videos, emails and social posts.
  • Add it to your bio and your email signature: “Author of…”

What about the money?

Book sales are a nice bonus, and they do add up over time. But measure the book by what it brings in: clients, speaking invitations, partnerships, and the people who already trust you before you’ve said hello.

Ready to publish? Start with Self-Publishing on Amazon KDP. And if you’d like help turning your expertise into a book, a book website and a system that brings in clients, get in touch.

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