Many of us have thought, at one time or another, about writing a book. However, even if you’ve thought about writing a book, you may not have thought about all the significant benefits that writing a book can offer you and your business, either working as an independent professional, such as a doctor or lawyer, or as the owner or manager of a business.
Consider the following fact: In 2006, the Massachusetts-based marketing consultancy firm Wellesley Hills Group released survey results regarding the impact writing a book can have on a person’s business or brand. Nearly 100% of the responding business-book authors stated that they recognized a noticeable positive impact on their business and strongly recommended authoring a book as a profitable venture for entrepreneurs and business owners.
Authoring a book can be an especially important business boost for professionals who market services, rather than goods, although of course writing a book can benefit owners of retail-type businesses as well.
Beyond the general findings of this survey, there are endless specific examples of success stories of business authors. I had a client, a financial advisor, who wrote a book on investing, one that I helped him launch. The launch was very successful, and the book became a #1 international bestseller. Soon afterward the former governor of New York joined my client’s company as a partner, and my client was interviewed on a television show about financial and investment options that were available under the new President.
My client didn’t intend to make any money from book sales. As a matter of fact, most of his prospective clients will not even have the time or patience to read the book, but just the fact that he is an author, and a bestselling one in this case, helps him sign a lot of new business quite easily.
Here are four of the primary potential benefits that you can garner for yourself and your business by writing a book.
Instant Credibility
Writing a book and having it published confers an amount of instant credibility – on both a personal and professional level. Anyone who publishes a book is almost immediately recognized as an expert in their chosen field, or at least whatever part of that field relates to the material contained in the book, to at least some extent. This is overwhelmingly advantageous if you own your own business or are an entrepreneur at the threshold of launching a new business enterprise.
When meeting with a potential high-level client for the first time, you can make a very strong positive impression and improve your chances of landing him as a client by handing him a “business card” in the form of your published book.
When a patient needs to choose a dentist to place dental implants in his mouth and will be paying $30,000 for the work, and one dentist hands him his book about dental implants, the patient is much more likely to trust that dentist to do this important procedure for him.
The same consideration applies to potential clients for a personal injury lawyer, a real estate agent or a business coach. Your credibility and the trust people have in you will soar after you are a published author.
Increased Exposure
Writing a book not only lends you - and by association, your business – greater credibility. It also provides you substantially more exposure, potentially levels of exposure that it would cost millions in advertising and marketing expenditures to obtain otherwise.
Publishing a book on your chosen field makes it exponentially more likely that you will be booked for speaking engagements or interviewed as an expert in your industry. Such increased, high profile exposure very simply results in more potential customers finding you and ultimately seeking out your services.
I have seen my clients getting interviewed by magazines, news outlets, on radio and television following the publication of their book. If you think about it, most authority figures you know (if not all of them) have a book to their name, a point that is typically announced in the introduction whenever they are interviewed.
Separating Yourself from the Competition
Virtually any business owner can tell you that establishing a strong brand identity for your business in the marketplace – a recognizable identity that makes your company stand out in a positive and unique way – gives you a huge edge over competitors. Writing a book is a very effective means of communicating and establishing your company’s desired image with potential customers.
By establishing a clear image of yourself and your business in the public’s mind by writing a book, potential clients will be more inclined to bring their business to you in preference over another company whose brand identity is less solidly established.
Increased Income
The cost of putting together and publishing a book pales in comparison to the additional income that can be generated for your business as a result of writing a book. The credibility and exposure a book confers on you and your business works to bring in more customers, and can also make those customers willing to pay more for your expertise. This means that you may be able to increase the amount you charge for your services, boosting your bottom line profit margin.
Simply by having written a book, your enhanced credibility makes it easier to close potential clients, and also opens doors for opportunities such as speaking engagements to bring in additional revenue. Being the author of a book makes you stand out from your competitors in a way that is not only distinctive but distinctively positive, providing you with a virtually unparalleled edge in the marketplace.
In Conclusion
I’ve talked about some specific benefits you can reap from writing a book. To sum up, writing a book offers several essential benefits:
- First, it vastly widens your exposure. Publishing a book is an effective way of reaching more people and thereby increasing your number of likely potential customers.
- Second, by conveying credibility and helping to establish you as a recognized expert in your field, it increases the likelihood that potential clients will be converted into actual clients.
- Finally, writing a book provides a means of establishing a personal connection with your readers (who are also your potential customers or clients). This is important because it's a well-established and basic fact of marketing that people are more likely to do business with someone they feel a personal connection with than they are to do business with a faceless, impersonal alternate supplier of goods or services. This is especially important for businesses that sell services that require clients to have a level of trust in your professional abilities.
How about it – Why not take a step toward vastly enhancing your personal and business presence in an increasingly competitive marketplace, and start outlining your first book today?