Here’s a question. If you had to create a book for your organisation, or yourself, how much would you pay?
A few months ago, whilst tendering, we stumbled onto a successful bid that content agency The Nutgraf put in for MFA’s (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) 60th Anniversary Book.
It was a cool $198,750.
You might think it’s an anomaly, but just look at what the National Library Board of Singapore paid for writing, interviewing and research services for their coffee table book.
What exactly are these agencies paying for?
Please don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying public agencies are misusing their funds. But clearly, there is a value in these books that we might not see. Especially as commercial entities, when your boss might throw you out of the room if you ask for $198k to spend on writing a book.
What for?!
Don’t we have better use for that 198k?
What does the book do?
Well, clearly it’s not just public agencies like NLB and MFA that have spent time and money trying to write a book.
In Singapore, famous personalities like Ho Kwon Ping and Kwek Leng Beng have also engaged The Nutgraf to write their biographies.
So what do these smart businessmen see, that we might not see?
A book still is the most premium marketing collateral an organization can put out
If someone gives you a pamphlet, you might chuck it. A newsletter, and you might leave it on your table for a bit, before tossing it.
But a book – that’s not thrown away that easily. Especially if it’s a good book.
Books have an authority that people automatically assign. Turn up at your next meeting, and pass them a copy of your book, and they go away, naturally impressed.
Wow! You all wrote a book?
If your book includes some good anecdotes about the company, the media picks up the story, and repeats it as truth. For example, in Strictly Business, before The Nutgraf broke the story of Kwek’s influence on the ship being at the top of the three towers in Marina Bay Sands, no one would have known that. But with Kwek revealing that through the book, everyone had a bigger respect for the elder Kwek.
A book can build your credibility like no other.
But can you really measure it?
Of course, when you’re a pure performance marketer or salesman, you’re going to ask the question,
what’s the ROI on this time and effort spent on the book?
When you don’t see the direct translation into sales, you might wonder if it’s just a waste of time.
But that’s not always the best way to look at it. A better way would be through brand.
A book builds a brand forever
Your organizational book, is for your brand. And it’s brand building that goes on forever.
Don’t believe me?
Just look at Singapore’s first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s book – From Third World to First.
One might wonder,
Why did Lee spend his best years writing not one, but two books?
As a pragmatic man, wouldn’t he have seen better value in continuing to lead the country?
Yes, and yet he also found value in leaving behind a treasure trove of material for future leaders to dig through and read.
And despite him passing away since 2015, his books continue to remain popular, and his aphorisms continue to be whispered from time to time in Parliament, despite him having passed on for 10 years.
If you’re still not convinced, let me perhaps share the last story from Ahrefs, the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) software company.
You might think that a tech company would put things online, and would hardly ever do anything on paper.
But in 2024, Ahrefs wrote a book, printed thousands of copies, and gave them out for free at their conferences, events, and wherever they could meet people. The legs for such a marketing book may be underestimated.
But think about it. If you were selling something, and instead of giving a name card, or a website with a flimsy discount code, you gave them a book about your subject expertise, or the problem that your business solves.
Sure, they might not buy from you. But they might pass your book around, and someone else would. And when that person has gotten enough value from you, they might remember that you’ve something that could help them.
And that’s where they will buy you.
So the old adage always seems stupid, but it works.
Give value first,
ask for money later.
And one of the best ways to do that still remains to be the book.