eBooks are great assets for your content marketing strategy as they help you generate leads and showcase your command over a topic or niche.
eBooks are becoming popular content for marketing teams across industries. When you let someone download an eBook from your blog or website, the user feels pride in possession. Secondly, search engines consider long-form content like eBooks authoritative over long-form articles or blogs.
Please continue reading to learn the basics of eBooks and their connection with marketing strategy, and start producing eBooks with some tips and tricks.
What Are eBooks?
eBooks are digital versions of any book. At the beginning of the journey of eBooks, people would buy text, non-fiction, fiction, etc., eBooks from online book libraries or marketplaces. Later on, content strategists and marketers found that eBooks could be a great tool to market products and services. At least, it will fetch some good leads.
Also, marketing experts came up with free eBooks to persuade the consumer to enter the sales or click funnel of the website because it is truly intriguing to download free eBooks when the netizens feel that eBooks are only paid content.
Nowadays, you will find eBooks on niche topics like cryptocurrencies, digital marketing, content marketing, blogging, writing, cooking, YouTube tools, etc.
Importance of eBooks in Marketing
eBooks give your brand a lot of exposure to the target audience. If you persuade the website traffic to download your eBooks, there is a high chance that an average percentage of those users will read the content too.
Users mostly go through your eBooks on digital readers like Kindles or tablets in leisure. Hence you can expect your content is getting better focus and attention than website blogs or articles.
You must ensure that the eBook contains high-quality content with detailed guidance, explanation, illustrations, etc. Also, you can embed your website’s product or service landing pages within the eBook. Many marketers have observed that such strategical placement of product or service suggestions increases conversion.
You can also place advertisements, product suggestions, service recommendations, and so on to earn a side income via affiliate programs.
eBook Marketing Strategies
Whether you want to market eBooks or your product/service via eBook, these are synonymous. You must follow the following strategies to market eBooks or market your brand through eBooks:
Target a Niche Audience
You can not just send out free or paid eBook download invitations to anyone. You must study your audience. Then, you need to personalize the content strategy to show select eBooks to a specific group.
For example, let most bloggers download free eBooks on general writing tips and tricks. But, persuade serious bloggers to buy premium eBooks on WordPress management, Cpanel management, Google Ads, etc.
Drive the Traffic Through a Marketing Funnel
You can use any conversion funnel that works for you. For example, if you are giving away free eBooks, you can embed the sales funnel directly in the eBook. Try not to forget to write relevant paragraphs or sections in the eBook to influence conversion.
If you sell eBooks, you can use the Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action (AIDA) marketing funnel.
Get a Website
For free eBooks, it is good to set up a website or blog and promote your eBooks. Create a small landing page to collect leads and let the traffic download free eBooks.
You can also set the context on a blog or website, and this should boost eBook downloads. More eBook downloads mean you can reach out to more users and convert them through your marketing strategy.
Offer Promos and Incentives
For paid eBooks, you can run some incentivization campaigns to attract customers. Such campaigns could be anything of the followings:
- Exclusive and premium content for preorders
- Author and reader engagement for the first 1000 buyers
- Signed copies for the first 2000 buyers
- Notifications for upcoming eBooks and other content
Make Your Brand Immutable
Blogs and articles are no doubt successful ways of marketing. But there is a good chance that the third-party website where you hosted your content may disappear, taking down your content.
Instead, offer free eBooks through several marketplaces. You can also become an Amazon eBook seller and offer low-cost or free eBooks for Kindles.
When users download your eBooks, they get a hold of your brand details like author name, website, email addresses, phone number, social media handles, product landing pages, and so on. Thus, your brand becomes immutable in an ever-changing digital ecosystem.
Position Yourself or Your Brand as an SME
High-quality eBooks allow you to position yourself as a subject matter expert (SME). You can start with short and free eBooks at the beginning. When there is a solid reader base, who is vocal for you, you can slowly phase out free eBooks and replace these with premium and paid ones.
There are endless marketing strategies for eBooks and eBook-based marketing. You can utilize the social media followers on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to promote the eBook or products you want to sell by offering free eBooks.
Elements to Include in eBook
You can use your creative imagination, but the followings are standard components for an eBooks:
Set the Tone
The tone in which you write an eBook determines its success to the most extent. Your tone should appeal to the readers so they feel interested in continuing to read it. The tone of your eBook will depend on factors such as your target audience, their buying journey and history, and your objective behind creating the eBook.
The tone should reflect your brand persona: you can set a serious or lighthearted tone.
Call-to-Actions (CTAs)
Of course, you want your readers hooked to the content until the end. But, to generate leads through eBooks, contextual call-to-actions should be spread throughout it.
CTA in an eBook means links to other useful resources or calls to purchase your service. However, make sure to place them in the right places and use language that goes with the content flow.
Choose a Format
For many publishers, PDF is the default file format for eBooks. Well, that does not have to be that way. You cannot optimize PDF for mobile devices, nor can it be tracked. Therefore, you can use other eBook formats that are mobile-friendly.
Marketers can also opt for platforms like SlideShare, iBooks Author, and Uberflip, where they can boost engagement, include more interactive elements in their books, and capture readers’ attention.
Measure Success
Randomly creating and distributing eBooks will not bring you desired success. Also, you must use tools to track the readers going through your eBook funnel effectively. If your eBook-publishing tool is sophisticated enough, it can track individual page views; links clicked, and average time on each page for better insights.
Moreover, using marketing automation and powerful content marketing tools, you can track crucial metrics such as how many people are accessing the book, their sources, the number of click-through rates, and many more.
Outline the Chapters
The chapter outline is a crucial element of your eBook where you clearly distinguish one chapter from another. Use one chapter to discuss one subtopic and smoothly lead to the next one to the readers can understand the continuity.
Landing Page
You need a strong landing page to promote your eBook to the right audience. This page should include the cover picture, content abstract, and all other info that can influence them to buy a paid eBook.
Moreover, a landing page helps generate leads, such as collecting email databases. You can also take help from Landing Page Builders to create attractive landing pages for your eBook.
Graphics
Back-to-back large text blocks can force the readers to lose interest and stop reading the book immediately. Hence, your eBook should include various visual graphic elements such as images, charts, graphs, and screenshots. Besides making your book attractive, these graphics can explain some points in a better way.
eBook Formatting
eBook formatting refers to the process of standard designing that converts the text and images of your eBook into an attractive and reader-friendly layout. Standard eBook formats focus on creating a reflowable and dynamic layout so the readers can view the content effortlessly regardless of the device type and screen size.
How to Choose the Right eBook Format
While it can be difficult, choosing the right file type is a mandatory step for eBook publishing. But to make things easy, you need to ask yourself the following questions:
- Who will read your eBook?
- What will be your eBook distribution channel?
- Which elements (text, image, graph) will you include in the eBook?
Once you have the answers to these, you can readily understand which eBook format to choose from below types.
Types of eBook Formats
There are five popular eBook formats, and these are as below:
EPUB (.epub)
EPUB is the most widely supported file type for eBooks that you can read on any device except Kindle. These files are DRM protected and offer strong protection against copying. You will find various free and paid EPUB readers online.
TXT (.txt)
TXT is the simplest file format that only contains the text. You can only add basic font types and styles to it, but no images or graphs.
AZW (.azw) and AZW3 (.azw3)
AZW and AZW3 are both Kindle eReader file formats. These files support elements like bookmarks and annotations. However, you can read them on Kindle devices or devices.
MOBI (.mobi)
Amazon launched MOBI file format with Kindle. It got discontinued in 2011 and got replaced by the AZW files. However, Kindle devices still use MOBI file structure, which is why these files are widely popular with devices with low bandwidth.
PDF (.pdf)
A portable document or PDF file is the most well-known format for eBooks, though a PDF file is not technically a real eBook since it is not reflowable. Its ability to maintain formatting and designs is the reason behind its popularity. However, reading these files on a small screen is impossible.
Create eBooks With These Tools
Find below some popular and handy platforms that let you create eBooks effortlessly:
Adobe InDesign
Adobe InDesign is the gold standard for page design and layout in the digital media and print industry. Globally renowned publishers use this tool to produce authentic and exclusive eBooks, physical books, posters, eMagazines, physical magazines, brochures, flyers, and PDFs.
The tool also lets you publish eBooks directly on websites and other platforms. Then, you can track the content performance using Adobe InDesign’s built-in content analytics tool. Other attractions are Adobe Stock Templates for eBooks and other digital media, fonts, colors, and collaborative eBook design.
Beacon
Beacon is a popular platform for opt-in forms, libraries of gated content, and highly converting lead magnets. It will help you to spread your eBook to the masses and collect massive lead data effortlessly.
For free eBooks, your first objective is to collect leads, increase email addresses for email marketing, get phone numbers for cold calls, etc. To run such projects successfully, you need lead magnets.
Visme
Visme is a full-service eBook creator that has been trending for a while. You can jump-start your eBook project by reusing its eBook templates. The Visme library contains numerous templates on popular eBook topics like annual fashion sales, case studies, WordPress, logo design, investment fundamentals, and more.
It showcases a drag-and-drop eBook creator with modern features like graphics, fonts, colors, shapes, vectors, data widgets, themes, and media.
FlipBuilder
FlipBuilder is your go-to destination for all things about flipbooks. You can download the app for Windows or Mac computers and start your interactive eBook production projects immediately.
Become creative and inject smart marketing funnels into your digital media, like eBooks, by converting them to flipbooks. These are interactive and engaging eBooks with reader-side actions, audio, hyperlinks, opt-in buttons, call-to-action buttons, quizzes, and shopping experiences to immerse the readers in a complete virtual ecosystem.
Final Words
So far, you have discovered the technical details of eBooks, their content, and how it relates to marketing strategy. Furthermore, you have found some online tools that help you to create great eBooks.
Incorporate the tips and tricks explained above and make eBooks that benefit your user’s life and marketing strategy.
You may also be interested in platforms to create online courses.
