One big turnoff to book customers in the Christian and Reformed market is price. Many may find it difficult to purchase a book for more than their average used book store price. And they have good reasons:
I have bunches of other books I haven’t read yet
I can get another book cheaper at the used book store
I’ll wait til I can borrow it from a friend or buy it used
In the case of Christian and Reformed books, readers can’t usually expect a financial return on the lessons they learn. That can make it harder to justify a high (which is a relative term) price.
But alas, there is a way to help people see the value of the book and consequently see the price as lower than what they receive in the end. And in the end, value will always beat out price in a buying decision.
I have heard multiple people refer to this as making the price a drop in the bucket compared to the value the customer receives.
And so, I will naturally call this the “Drop in the Bucket Approach”. Drop for short.
Dropping makes the price irrelevant to your customers because it makes a purchase a no-brainer. Of course, this only works if your offer is a no-brainer. If it’s not, this article is worthless to you.
But for those who have great books and great offers, I have compiled a list of ways to make your prices seem like a drop in the bucket.
Book Lesson Bullet Lists
Making bullet lists are a great way to make sure that many different types of customers will know the benefits of your book. Skimmers will tend to read bullet points and “entire ad readers” will read them anyway.
Bullets are short, simple statements of one lesson that a customer will get out of the book. But a bullet point must be a lesson that justifies the price of the book all on its own.
When a customer sees one potential benefit of buying and reading your book that is worth the asking price, they may be convinced to buy. But in the end, they aren’t really getting a deal…or they don’t feel like they are.
But when they see 2, 3, or 10 of them, they feel like they are missing out on a great bargain.
If you charge $14.99 for a book and the customer sees eight $15 dollar lessons, it all of a sudden becomes silly not to buy.
Use Story to Create a Vision of the Problem
This one can be more difficult to pull off, but if done correctly can help customers see the value a book brings to the table instead of the price.
One of the best far-fetched examples of this is infomercials.
I remember seeing the Snuggie commercials. A lady is sitting on her couch settling in for the evening with a bowl of popcorn.
But when she goes to get some popcorn her arm catches on the blanket and plop! down goes the popcorn.
Of course the all happens rather violently and the lady throws a hissy fit that rivals even the most skilled two year olds.
The point of the ad is not that ladies throw hissy fits when they drop their popcorn.
The point is that blankets without sleeves will make your quiet evening at home absolutely, positively uncomfortable, terrible, and unrelaxing.
And of course, the Snuggie fixes all that.
A book that does this really well in its title is The Bridezilla of Christ: What to do When God’s People Hurt God’s People by Ted Kluck and Ronnie Martin. The title instantly makes people connect the most recent bridezilla they encountered with church horror stories.
One of the most beautiful things God has instituted among us is turned into a horrid, horrid day.
The purpose of using story is that it turns facts into experiences. People can see a problem rather than merely read it.
And the vision of the problem is created.
The bigger the vision of the problem is, the more irrelevant the price will seem.
Don’t Use Ad Space to Talk Up Your Great Price
This one might seem obvious. Outta sight, outta mind, as the saying goes.
But there is something about talking up our great prices that makes marketers get all fuzzy inside.
In reality, when you talk up your prices, you really talk them down.
At some point, there might be a good time to talk about your price, but if it becomes your sales message it makes the book seem poor in quality.
Talking about price makes customers consider the opportunity cost of their purchase. They subconsciously begin to think about what they could buy instead. And since you haven’t been talking about your offer’s value, they haven’t found any good reasons to buy.
Talking about all the lessons and life benefits your book will bring takes the focus off their wallet and puts it onto the book.
Have a new or existing project and trying to figure out how to boost sales so you have a good report for the next big meeting? Click the contact tab above to talk to me about powerful, customer-focused sales copy for that project.
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