Book Publicity - Use a Benefit Funnel to Write Compelling Copy

In today’s guest post, veteran author and book marketing consultant Shel Horowitz shares a great tip for writing book publicity copy that grabs attention. I just love the example he uses to illustrate his point.

If you've studied some of the big-name direct marketers, you may have heard of a "customer funnel" or "product funnel." That's *not* what this column is about, so don't skip it because you think you already know. (If you don't know, I explain in the last paragraph.)

The benefit funnel is different, and as far as I know, I'm the only one using that term (though I didn't invent the concept, which has been around for at least 100 years). It's the idea that that you put yourself in your prospect's mind, and keep asking the things your prospect would ask, until you have an answer so compelling that you just have to make the sale.

What would they ask? * "So what?" * "Why should I care?" * "What's in it for me?" Let's take a real-life example: my very favorite press release I wrote for a client (which is featured in my book, Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers, incidentally).

The assignment: write a book publicity press release promoting a book on electronic privacy. Not a very compelling topic, at first glance. Most PR books will tell you to write a headline like "Electronic Privacy Expert Releases New Book"--and reporters will hit the mental snooze button, and the physical delete key/recycle bin. There's no news in this headline! No reason for anyone to care, except perhaps the author's mother. In the US alone, several hundred thousand books are published each year. Big yawn.

But let's go back to our reader's concerns and see where they bring us: A book was published--so what? It's about electronic privacy. Why should I care--what does electronic privacy mean to me? It tells you how to protect yourself from electronic snoopers. I don't know what you mean. What's in it for me? Your personal records are floating around, where big corporate marketers can lay traps for you or unscrupulous people can grab them and use them to steal your identity or learn information you'd rather keep to yourself. Ooh, that sounds scary--now I get it!  Except that back then, I didn't know about identity theft. But by asking those kinds of questions, I arrived at this headline and lead:

It's 10 O'Clock-Do You Know Where Your Credit History Is?

How about your employment records? Your confidential medical information?

How would you feel if you found out this sensitive and should-be-private material is "vacationing" in computer databanks around the world--accessible to corporate interests who can afford to track down and purchase it, but not necessarily open to your own inspection.

According to electronic privacy journalist and technology consultant (name), this scenario is all-too-common. In a groundbreaking but highly readable new book...

Do you think a press release like that will get noticed by reporters? It's "grabber" copywriting--and you can use this technique to liven up any marketing piece. If it works in press releases, think about the impact in ad or direct mail copy.

PS: Those other funnels in the first paragraph have to do with the idea that you bring a lot of customers in with an inexpensive product, deliver more than you promised, and then sell progressively more expensive items to those who want them...until you've gone from, say, a $15 e-book all the way up to a $15,000 weekend bootcamp. You sell fewer of each item as you go down the funnel, but you make more on each one. Consider that a bonus tip--it's the method that a lot of well-known Internet marketers (not me) have used to create seven-figure incomes.

Shel Horowitz is an internationally known copywriter and marketing consultant, author of Grassroots Marketing Getting Noticed in a Noisy World, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First and several other books, and creator of the Frugal Marketing web site.