Welcome to Boostly Podcast Episode 444. This episode is to give you an update on my Best-Selling book, ‘The Book Direct Playbook' and how it's going 2 months on from the release.
Here's the audio for this episode:
Here's the video for this episode:
Timestamps
00:39 The goals of the book
03:27 Trust is the way forward
04:20 IPRAC Partnership
06:32 Encouraging people to interact
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Transcript from the Episode
Welcome back to the boostly podcast. My name is Mark Simpson. I give hosts just like you, the tools, the tactics to train, and most importantly, the confidence to go and get those lovely direct bookings. And today I want give you a book update after two months. From the release of the book, direct playbook, and I've got some amazing little stats and things to share with you.
So if you haven't picked one up, if you're watching on the video, I'm holding up on the screen, it's called the book direct playbook written by myself, edited by the amazing nearly con it's available on Amazon. Right now you can go get it on the Kindle, the print and the audible, and the whole goal of the book was to make sure that when somebody's a host or a property manager or someone who's looking to get into this hospitality game is on Amazon. I'm looking for inspiration. I wanted to make sure that the book direct movement, the book direct message was above all of the Airbnb books, because there's some amazing Airbnb books, but there isn't any books in the top of the charts that talk about direct bookings.
The Goals of The Book
So I wanted to make sure that it is available. And we achieved that. Um, the first goal was to make sure that we could get to the number one spot in the hospitality. To get a top of the hospitality section. You only need to sell a couple of books to be honest, because it was a very niche category. It got there within less than 30 minutes, which was unreal.
And then the next goal was the bed and breakfast category. It was much more competitive. There's a lot of really good books in that. Um, again, not always for hosts. It's also for guests who are looking for bed and breakfast. So again, re-educate in the guests, it got there and then what happened next? I didn't really expect.
So the way that Amazon works, you've got the books category, which will literally have every single genre in there, fiction nonfiction. You know, you've got your likely to be a Harry Potter's all of those you name, your favorite book is in there. Okay. I was never going to rank that. The closest I got to breaking in was I got to 1010, which is insane if you think about it, but 1000.
We've managed to get into there, but then you've got sub-categories. So when it goes fiction nonfiction, and you've got the business. Okay. So business is then broken down and you've got entrepreneurship. You've got the likes of Steven Bartlett. You know, you've got, um, Tim Ferris, Mike McCullough, it's Simon Sineck amazing people. Um, the book. Managed to get within a few hours to the top of those charts, not just in hot releases, but the top of those charts, which again, this is starting to get a little bit crazy. This is where I'm starting to get messages. When people, when I'm getting messages from people over offers, people who've released books and no one was on well, that's when I know it started to get crazy.
And then it went one step further, the business category, which is so hard to run. It got into the top three of that. I think at the peak, it was top two. And again, I was looking at the chart and I could see Donald Miller. I could see Simon Sineck again, these people that me personally, they're on my audible.
They're in my Amazon wishlist that have books that I've devoured over the years. And my little book, the book direct playbook was sat in amongst them. Um, and again, it is all down to the community. So if you purchased a book, if you left a review, I just want to thank you so much. I want to take a quick break from today's show to talk about some of it's been on my mind for a while now, and why it's important that everybody acts on this as soon as possible.
In 2016, Joe gabbier, who was the co-founder of Airbnb spoke on a Ted talk stage about how Airbnb designs for trust as a company, their main focus on the early years of their growth was. They had to convince both guests and hosts to be on their platform. Now they wanted the biggest OTA providers in the world and they have based everything on trust.
Trust is the way forward
The core focus for every host and property manager who wants to increase their direct bookings this year should be on trust. When you try and take a guest off the OTAs, the trust is. If you can make a future potential guest trust a booking of you directly, then you are going to come out the end of this year.
Winning the question is how do you build that trust? Iprac is a globally recognized accreditation and certification service operating with thousands of members around the globe, including some of the biggest brands. When Iprac reached out and said that they wanted to partner with Boostly it was a nightmare.
IPRAC Partnership
I asked if they could offer something never been done before for the community. They were kind enough to go away and think of it, an amazing offer. And here's what I've got for you today. When you go to I -prac.com, you can see I've got yearly memberships and average membership is roundabout 200 pounds, which is $250.
They have said that for every boostly member that wants to sign up to IPRAC, they will get two years for the price of one that works out just under $10 a month, which is a bargain to get this offer. You have to email. So you're going to email [email protected]. I'll spell that for you. S a N D R [email protected].
When you email, make sure you include the code boostly 2022. I want to say thank you to Chris MANOV at iprac for making this happen, please make sure that you reach out to IPRAC directly and get the trust factor back into your business. Now let's get back on track. And now a couple of weeks later, as this has all died down, the goal is to keep it there because any book can get up to the charts, but then it'll just slowly disappear and vanish.
But right now the book is steadily maintaining to be at the top of the charts. Uh, right now we're ranking, um, in the real estate category, which is really good, which again is really competitive. But again, to have the book direct book and amongst them, anybody who's looking to get into the world of short-stay accommodation, um, hospitality, etc, to book, is there.
But most importantly, those are already established and a look in the book is there, the book direct movement. The book direct message is present and visible and all to see. So if you haven't yet picked up a copy, please do so head over to Amazon, just type in the book there. The book direct playbook Mark Simpson. It will come up.
You can get it in audible. Like I say, you can get it in print, or Kindle. It's totally up to you, whatever you prefer. Uh, and again, please go leave a review if you've already picked up, you haven't done so yet. My favourite thing since releasing the book for anybody that has read it, you'll know that I've made it very interactive.
Encouraging People to Interact
So what do I mean by that is that I encourage loads of people to reach out to me via Instagram and share with me their business driver customer avatar. It's so amazing every single day, literally every day. Uh, I get at least one message. Somebody sending me a message saying I'm reading a book. This is my customer avatar, or they are sending me a couple of matches and notes it's been lovely.
So for all of you that have reached out to me, amazing, um, the more popular this gets, it's going to be a lot longer for me to reply, but I promise I will reply and respond to everybody, whether it's Instagram or email super quick update. Thank you so much to the whole community team booster. Thank you.
Thank you, let's keep going. Let's keep sharing the word, spreading the word and, uh, yeah, that's all from me today. Thank you so much for the sponsor. Thank you so much to everybody for tuning in and I'll be back again very soon for another episode of the Boostly podcast, trying to make sure that you can increase your direct bookings.
Cut down on the overlaps on the OTAs. So let's be proactive. Let's not be reactive and let's go get some direct bookings.
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