How to use these angles
Every good promotion starts with one angle: one reader, one feeling, one reason to click. Below are 11 angles that suit The Ultimate Diabetic Cookbook, each with who it is for, the idea behind it, ready-to-use hooks and headlines, and the swipes, articles and pages that carry it through. Pick the angle that fits your audience, use a hook as your subject line, post opener or ad headline, then send readers to the matching email or article.
- Every hook here is built only from what is in the cookbook and on the sales page. Please keep it that way: no invented numbers, quotes or reviews.
- Sell food, flavour and ease. Never write that the cookbook cures, treats, reverses or controls diabetes or blood sugar, and never suggest anyone changes their medicine.
- In paid ads, talk about the food rather than the reader's health. Ad networks such as Facebook do not allow lines like "Do you have diabetes?" that point at someone's medical condition.
- Keep your #ad or disclosure line on every post and email.
1Food that tastes like food againPeople with diabetes who have been eating the same plain, careful meals for years and are tired of them.
The idea: Most diabetic recipes start from a list of things to take out and put very little back, so the food is safe on paper and empty on the plate. Denise Campbell says most of them are "about as tasty as the paper they're printed on", and she built a whole cookbook to fix that. Sell the relief of looking forward to dinner again.
Carry it through with:
2The 20-year searchReaders who warm to a real person's story, and anyone who has bought cookbooks before and been let down.
The idea: Denise has lived with diabetes for 20 years. She searched the web, bookshops and libraries, and knocked on the doors of dieticians, chefs and restaurants, and she "was met with more closed doors than I care to remember". So she spent three years with a team of dieticians, chefs and food lovers making the cookbook she could not find. Let her story carry the message; the recipes are the payoff.
Carry it through with:
3Cooking for someone you loveHusbands, wives, parents, grown-up children and friends who do the cooking for someone with diabetes.
The idea: A lot of home cooks end up making two dinners, or play it so safe that the whole table eats something plain. In this cookbook the exchanges and conversions are already done and the recipes are made for the whole family, so one meal does the job. Speak to the cook, not to the person with diabetes.
Carry it through with:
4Dessert back on the tablePeople who miss sweet things the most, and readers who love baking.
The idea: Dessert is often the first thing to go after a diagnosis. The cookbook has more than 25 desserts, including Melting Peach Crumble, Apple Cranberry Pie and Grilled Angel Food Cake, plus rich chocolate soufflés and almond apricot biscotti. Lead with the names: they do the selling. Call them diabetic-friendly recipes, never sugar-free or "fine for everyone".
Carry it through with:
5Restaurant dinners at your own tablePeople who miss eating out and want proper, hearty dinners at home.
The idea: Over 80 meat, chicken and fish recipes that Denise says "will remind you of your favorite restaurant", more than 25 soups and stews such as the Fresh Garden Stew and the Morning Harvest Soup, and recipes with grains, legumes and pastas. Sell variety: a different good dinner most nights of the week.
Carry it through with:
6Being the host againReaders who love having people round, and anyone who has felt left out at a party or family get-together.
The idea: Gatherings are where people with diabetes most often feel left out. The cookbook covers the parts most diabetic cookbooks skip: dozens of drinks, hot and cold, with and without alcohol (mojitos included), a whole host of snacks, and more than 25 desserts. Sell being part of the party, and always mention the non-alcoholic drinks too.
Carry it through with:
7No sums at the stoveBusy people, and anyone who finds the exchanges, swaps and conversions more stressful than the cooking.
The idea: The hard part of cooking with diabetes is often everything around the cooking. In this cookbook the exchanges and conversions are already done, there is a list of staple ingredients to keep in, and the recipes are simple enough for anybody to follow, even if you rarely cook.
Carry it through with:
8Keep the family favouritesFamilies with recipes they don't want to lose: the birthday dinner, the Sunday roast, a grandmother's pie.
The idea: The cookbook shows you how to turn your favourite pre-diabetic dishes into ones you can still enjoy. Sell keeping the dishes that mean something, so a diagnosis doesn't wipe out a family's food history.
Carry it through with:
9Newly diagnosed: start in the kitchenPeople who were diagnosed recently, and the families cooking for them, who don't know where to start with food.
The idea: Denise writes that when you are newly diagnosed it is hard to even know where you are supposed to start. A cookbook with the conversions done, plus the 63-page Insiders Guide To Living With Diabetes, gives them a calm first step. Keep it about cooking, and point readers to their own doctor for anything medical.
Carry it through with:
10The bonus stackValue-minded buyers, and readers who like to know exactly what they get before they order.
The idea: $37, one payment, buys the 297-page cookbook plus three guides: "177 Ways To Burn Calories Safely For Diabetics", the 63-page "Insiders Guide To Living With Diabetes" and "The Diabetics Guide To Lowering Your Cholesterol". Everything is a download, ready minutes after ordering. Don't put a dollar value on the bonuses: there isn't one to quote.
Carry it through with:
1160 days to taste itCareful buyers, and anyone who owns a cookbook they only ever made one recipe from.
The idea: The order is covered by a 60-day, no-questions-asked, 100% satisfaction guarantee. That is two months of dinners to decide. Quote only that guarantee, in those words, and never promise a result.
Carry it through with:
