Booklet Tips - Info Vs Problem Solving by Paulette Ensign

Your tips booklet has good or maybe even great how-to information in it. It seems a reasonable assumption that your information leads to solving problems for the reader, the buyer, or both (since they may not be the same person). Sometimes the information does solve one or more problems, yet that is not always true. Your booklet could a ctually be causing problems rather than solving them.

There are several things you as the booklet author can do to increase the likelihood of your information being the problem solver you intended it to be.

1. Write your tips to be as powerful as possible. That means telling the reader what to do AND succinctly adding another sentence or two explaining how to do what you told them or why you are telling them what you told them. The additional 1 or 2 sentences connect the dots beyond simply saying what to do.

1. Title your booklet so it truly represents the content in a simple, clear, and obvious way. Getting cutsie, esoteric, cryptic, or obscure runs a huge risk of mistaken expectation when it comes to what is in the booklet, immediately creating an unnecessary problem.

1. Expect your reader to have no experience or knowledge of your topic. Providing the most basic information you can means the reader will either have new information, a reminder of something they knew and forgot, or confirmation about what they do know. Each function has value and can solve a problem because of its simplicity.

1. Determine to the best of your ability the problem the reader or buyer wants to solve. You can provide information you think addresses the challenge, and while it's great content, it misses the mark in dealing with the problem itself in some way.

1. Simplify your process by directly asking the reader or buyer what problem(s) they want to solve. They may or may not have an answer at all. Or they may think the problem is one thing yet it turns out to be something else. Not enough storage space might seem to be the problem when the issue is really learning to make better decisions about letting go of things or pixels.

ACTION - Revisit your booklet content, the feedback you've had from readers and buyers, and the sales results you've had. Each of those activities gives you data to consider, to analyze, to act upon. It is also the process your readers and buyers go through with the information you provide them, though they may do it less consciously and less formally than the suggestion you just read here. Only you can decide if the information you have is a problem solver or merely information. What will you do with what you discover? You can take action on some or all of it. You can simply notice what you've found. Or you can do nothing further. Those choices are also available to each of your readers and buyers.