Do you love movies?
These captivating stories fill theater seats with people eager to be immersed in every blockbuster film when it comes out.
Think about the last time you were dying to watch a movie, but you had no idea what it was about and you’d never heard anyone talking about.
Can’t remember a time like that?
That’s because it’s never happened!
Every single movie you’ve ever chomped at the bit to watch got you to that point because of the excitement that came from watching its previews.
When you watched the movie trailer, you were able to connect with the story through snippets of well-edited scenes brought together in an epic montage that showcased what to expect from the full-length film.
Even if you didn’t watch the previews, but a friend did and came back to tell you all about it, you heard and felt their excitement so deeply that you wanted to watch the movie simply based on their recommendation.
Why Give Previews?
Just about every movie theater shows a series of movie trailers before they get into the feature film.
Why do you think that is?
Because it works.
Without fail, every time a particularly gripping preview comes on you find yourself thinking, “Wow, I need to watch that”.
Your curiosity has been piqued.
The preview gave you just enough of the story so you could get the gist of it without giving away the entire plot.
In fact, really great previews leave you hanging. They make you feel like you must watch the movie in order to complete the loop that watching the trailer opened up.
Now think about this.
If a preview system works like gangbusters to fill seats at the movies, why couldn’t it work to fill online shopping carts with your books?
It actually can and it will, if you approach it the right way.
Here are some ideas for how you can give sneak peeks into your books to drive more sales.
Create a Book Trailer
One of the most effective ways to create a book preview is by making a book trailer for your next launch.
A book trailer is a short video that highlights aspects of your book that will interest and excite prospects and motivate them to find out more.
Book trailers have several options for format and delivery:
- Create a talking head video that features you speaking about your book and the inspiration behind it.
- Create a preview that showcases reviews from individuals who have read pre-release copies of your book.
- Take excerpts from the book and showcase those in your video.
- Create a montage of images and text that relate to the content of your book.
Book trailers are an effective and innovative way to promote your book because they bring it to life and create a sensory experience for prospects. This, as opposed to simply reading about how great the book is, tends to make readers more excited about and eager to buy your book.
Write a Descriptive Introduction
If you are into Kindle publishing, another great way to give your reader insight into your book is to create a very interesting and descriptive introduction.
Kindle offers readers a chance to “look inside” their books before they buy with limited content previews.
Use this opportunity to showcase the table of contents of your book (if it has one), and to present an enthralling introduction. This gives readers a hefty dose of what to expect from the rest of the book.
If your introduction is interesting enough you will hook your reader in and they automatically feel like they must purchase your book to satisfy their desire to know everything that it contains.
Give Away the First Chapter
Not too far outside the scope of the idea of drawing your reader in with your book’s introduction, you can also offer a sample of your book by giving away its first chapter for free.
Being this generous lets your prospect really sink their teeth into the content of your book so that they get a good feel for what the rest of the book has to offer.
The secret to ensuring that your prospect goes forward and buys your entire book is to make sure that along with starting the book off with a bang, you end your first chapter with a serious cliffhanger.
This is based on the soap opera model of content creation, where each chapter of a series ends on a note that leaves your audience on the edge of their seat dying to know what happens next.
Offer Previews in Your Blog Posts
If you think you’re limited to using your book itself to offer preview content to your audience you’d be wrong.
Another excellent way to give insight into the pages of your book and entice your prospects to buy is by using blog posts as a promotional tool.
Let’s say you’ve written a book about the Law of Attraction and how you can use it as a tool for manifesting greatness in your life.
You can take a single aspect of your book, like manifesting the perfect job, and take a deep dive into topic in your blog post. Then, in one or two instances within the post, casually mention that you have written a book that goes into greater detail about the overarching goal of manifesting and drop a link to your sales page.
That way, you’ve given your prospect loads of value upfront and you’ve asked for the sale without being salesy. That’s a win-win situation!
Give Sneak Peeks to Your List
Have an email list?
Everyone on your list raised their virtual hand to confirm that they like what have to offer and want to see more. So, make the most of it.
Along with your regular autoresponder sequence, you can regularly send out broadcast messages that are specific to your latest book offer.
You have many different options for offering preview content in your emailed messages. Most of which center around giving snippets of information, sharing interesting stories and explaining simple concepts contained in your full book, being careful not to give too much away.
Drip feeding your audience this way, piques their interest just enough to make them want to know more about the book in question. Click, off they go to your sales page!
Use Social Media to Give Insights
Social media is another tool you can use to effectively offer your audience insights into your book with interesting preview content that gently nudges them towards the sale.
- Post soundbites and quotes from your book in tweets. You can even develop specific hashtags to spur even more visibility.
- Post your book trailer on Facebook and YouTube. Optimize your video titles to get found in the search engines. Free traffic!
- Create memes and inspirational quotes based on your book content and share them on Pinterest and Instagram.
Remember, the whole concept of preview content is about offering your audience free samples of your work and preselling them every step of the way.
Just as you would offer a spoonful of ice cream to sell a cone, or a two-minute movie trailer to sell tickets to a blockbuster film, give your audience previews that highlight the best of what you have to offer and leave them clamoring for more.
Get into the habit of giving generously before you receive and watch your book sales soar.
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