5 Ways to Become a Local Celebrity with Your New Book

Even if you have built your business mainly online and that’s where you uncover the bulk of your clients, local marketing should not be overlooked. In addition to your online marketing strategy, promoting your new book in the local area can bring you “local celebrity” status while boosting your following.

Bear in mind, these tips may not bring in boatloads of book sales but they’ll go a long way to growing your name recognition within your local community. As well as book sales, you might attract some new clients and you’ll definitely gain more social media fans.

1. Hold local book signings at libraries or book stores. Don’t forget your hometown roots! Publishing a book is quite an achievement not everyone can claim, so blow your own trumpet to the people who know you best. Meet and greets at any location allow you to promote your book while also building your fan base.

2. Appear at Community events. Many local communities or towns hold Community events and festivals during the summer and autumn months. Review those calendars well in advance and be prepared to invest a small fee to set up a table with your book available for purchase. Print out bookmarks or other handouts that include your social media handles so they can connect with you after the event; I always found that raffles and prize draws offering your book as the prize gets the best types of leads.

3. Speak at local schools about your journey to becoming an author. Many schools hold career days so watch for those events or call the schools directly to volunteer. This isn’t so much a chance to sell your book but to talk about your path to becoming an author. Carry handouts with your name, book title, and social media handles so the kids can pass them along to their parents. This is also a great opportunity to leave information at the schools for the faculty. You just never know where your next client will come from!  It's all about visibility.

4. Volunteer locally with your Chamber of Commerce or other business networking groups. Many Chambers have different committees on which to serve and other business networking groups (such as Club Five55) have top table positions available every year. Again, these types of positions are not about selling books but offer you the chance to contribute to your community while expanding your name recognition.  Local business networking groups are bringing money into that community.

5. Use your book as a fundraiser. Choose a cause that’s dear to your heart and dedicate a percentage of sales to be donated. Donating to a local charity or hospice may stir more interest because of the hometown roots. Or donate a copy or two of your books to auction events held by local PTAs, scouting troops, or religious organisations. Very often these organisations will distribute a list of their benefactors, so that’s yet another way to increase your name recognition.

Marketing your book should be a continuous discipline, both online and offline. The more people you can reach through the differing avenues, the more likely you’ll see increases in sales, new clients, and social media fans.

At The Instant Edge we help authors whose books aren't the spectacular success they hoped they would be, and budding authors who want to get published and build a platform so they can get paid well to share a message and make a difference.  Learn more at http://www.instantedge.co.uk/

What's Your Goal For Your Networking?

 Well hello there, my name is Jonathan Clark and welcome to a quick article on how to maximise your return to GET THE MOST out of your business networking.

This is a quick how to article to help you get clear on why you’re there and the value of building your network, so you can reach your goals faster and more easily.

So you’ll make more valuable contacts who can introduce you to more potential clients, making your life easier.

Today’s topic is about setting an income goal for your networking.

Now that reminds me of a quick story...

I launched my own business in 1997 and I was a shy introvert who found it hard to say hello to people I knew.  I’ve been to a lot of networking events in that time and most of them didn’t work.  What I mean is, I didn’t get any business from them.  It took me a while to realise why – it wasn’t to do with the group or the people - it was that I just wasn’t doing it right.  And I certainly didn’t have any real goal or target in mind when I went.

So why is this whole goal setting thing so critical to your business?

You took time out of your day to get here and made the effort to chat to new people and introduce yourself.  That takes confidence and can be challenging.  Well, we’re here to make sure you get a good return on your investment for the time, money and energy you spend talking to people at networking events, so you should get more business and make more money.  We’re going to discuss how we’ll get you there.

So it’s essential that you have an outcome for being here.  You have to ask yourself “How much money do I want to make from networking? Now I know you probably haven’t been asked that question before, and that’s a good thing, because that means this is going to make an impact.
But just think about it - How can you hit a target you can’t see?

Every ambitious business owner sets goals, and must continually keep track of their progress towards that outcome.  If that little voice in your head isn’t telling you a clear figure, alarm bells should be ringing.  We’re all about generating income for our members, and the freedom and security that that offers you, so it’s vital you have a figure in mind.

Now, the world famous sales trainer and motivational speaker – the late Zig Ziglar – once said “You can’t be a wandering generality, you have to be a meaningful specific.”

We train our members to become very good at the process of networking effectively.  In fact, at the time of recording this video, 70% of my clients have been referred to me by members of my network.
Statistically the average business person knows about 1000 people – if you take your mobile phone contacts, your Facebook friends, your LinkedIn connections, your Christmas card list – you actually know about 1000 people.  But how many of them act as introducers and talk about you to their friends, family and colleagues?

So let’s get you to decide a specific amount of money you’d like to earn in the next 12 months
Just ask yourself - What would be a good target – how much money do you want to make from networking in year one?

You might want to write a number down.

Let’s get something concrete – tangible.
Do you want to add an extra £10,000 to your bottom line?  £25,000?  £100,000?
Get a figure on paper.  I’ll give you a moment to seriously get your head around that question.

Now, think about what an average client is worth.  In real terms.
How much is an average sale in your line of work?  What do you take home in cold, hard profit?

OK so now divide the big target figure by the average sale value = that will quickly give you the number of referrals you need in the next 12 months to smash your target.


You see, we’re not happy for you just to break even, so we want to be crystal clear on  exactly how much you want to make from this vast referral network you’re now part of.

Look at what the average referral is worth to you?  The bread and butter client?  Imagine how much a GOOD referral would be worth?   And what would a dream client look like?  Just suppose you focused on the big ticket clients…

Now paying clients is just one way to hit that target.  There are in fact 17 ways you can make money from networking – we’ll reveal what they are in a future article.

Picture yourself getting warm referrals from the members of this network, not having to search for new business so much and freeing up your time to focus on the things you want to do

So after 25 years of being in business, I now walk into a room with a plan, a target, I have a strategy and because I was also trained to keep track, I know that three quarters of my clients come from business networking events.  But I don’t just go networking, I USE networking. So I’d end with this question – are you just going to networking events or are you using networking events?

If you’re already a member, this is probably the first time you’ve thought about it like this.  You might want to look back at your membership and total up exactly how much money your business has earned as a direct result of networking.

If you’re a guest and you’d like to tap into the power of having a ready-made sales team acting as introducers for your business all year round, to help you accelerate towards that figure, then speak to us at the end of the meeting.