Attention all business owners. You should be producing eBooks regularly as part of your content marketing strategy. If you aren’t, you are missing out on a massive business opportunity. Let me explain.
Over the last five years smartphone sales have soared. So have tablet and ereader sales. This makes eBooks easier than ever to consume.
Despite this trend, many businesses still aren’t creating eBooks. You understand the importance of blogging. And certainly the importance of social media too. So why is it that so many businesses seem to be blind to the the many benefits of creating an eBook.
In this post we will discuss 7 reasons why every business should create eBooks.
1. eBooks Attract Targeted Leads
Creating eBooks should be an integral part of your content marketing strategy. The objective of content marketing is simple: attract people who would be interested in buying what you are offering. An eBook is a great way to attract targeted leads than can eventually be converted into paying customers. To attract targeted leads via your eBooks, follow these steps:- Identify a target audience
- Brainstorm topics they would be interested in
- Create an eBook involving one or more of those topics
- Promote your eBook to your target audience
- Require an email in exchange for your eBook (more on this in a second)
2. eBooks Grow Your Email List
No online business can have sustainable, long-term growth without an email list. If your business relies heavily on the internet, you should be focused on consistently growing your email list.
Even if your business isn’t online, an email list gives you direct access to people interested in buying what you are offering. Every business owner loves the sound of that. That is the sound of money.
eBooks are hands down the best way to grow your email list. When you offer an eBook, you should always require an email address in order to gain access. This type of requirement is called “gated content” and will help you quickly grow your email list.
Since eBooks bought from your website will be delivered via email, asking for an email address in exchange for your free, or even paid, eBook is natural. Growing your email list via eBooks is much easier than via blog post subscription.
3. Ebooks Establish Authority
Every business owner knows how hard it is to actually get people to pay for whatever they are offering. Thanks to the internet, customers now have more options than ever. So, what will make them decide to pay you and not one of your competitors? The answer is simple: you must establish your business as an industry authority. When you become an industry authority, potential buyers begin to associate your brand with the entire category. They trust your business and are much more likely to buy what you are offering. When you become an authority in your industry, price even becomes less of a deciding factor. A great example of this is GoPro. There are plenty of other options in the action camera market, but GoPro completely dominates it. Their cameras aren’t the cheapest. Their cameras aren’t necessarily better from a technical standpoint either.
The reason GoPro has had so much success is that they have positioned themselves as the authority in their industry. They were able to do this by creating content to educate, entertain, and engage their market. People trust GoPro and are willing to pay a premium for the peace of mind that comes with that trust.
Your business can use eBooks to position your brand as the expert in your industry. If you can successfully gain the trust of your market, your sales will go through the roof.
4. eBooks Improve Your Content Marketing Strategy
Content marketing has become the largest marketing trend in the past 5 years. If you aren’t aware of exactly what content marketing is, let me explain. Forty years ago businesses like Coca Cola controlled the entire marketing process. They would hire large, Mad Men style, marketing firms that would devise large scale marketing campaigns that would then run via radio, newspaper, television, etc.
For the most part, these ads were how people learned about what to buy. This gave the large companies quite the advantage.
Then came the internet and everything changed. People now gather information about products and businesses on their own. We can go to Google and simply search for anything we need to know.
Content marketing takes advantage of this new trend. When businesses create content that potential buyers will be interested in, they increase their odds of being seen. That is why most businesses are active and blog on social media.
The problem with both of these methods is people expect small, consumable content. A 25,000 word blog post is overwhelming and most people won’t read it.
eBooks allow businesses to cover specific topics in extreme detail.
If your content marketing strategy is lacking depth, creating eBooks is the best way to fix this. Your target audience will consume longer content if it is in the form of an eBook that they can download and read when they have time.
Again, look through your most popular blog content to date and decide which topics your audience would benefit from a more in-depth look at.
5. Creating and Distributing an eBook Is Easy
Does your business have a blog? If so, you have more than enough technical skills to create and distribute an eBook. Here is what you will need to do:- Type your content and format it as a PDF or ePub file
- Create a book cover: Check out Canva for easy book cover design
- Use a tool like EditionGuard for effortless distribution
