Even if your business hasn’t been using eBooks as part of your content marketing strategy, there is a good chance that your competitors have. eBooks are growing in popularity. Whether you’re marketing a B2B or a B2C business, they are a useful, relevant way to build your brand and sell your services without an intense sales pitch. They also offer you the opportunity to convey information that doesn’t quite fit into a typical blog post. Plus, they help you keep your content fresh and varied. Is your business missing out by not offering an eBook to your customers? Here are just some of the reasons why you should consider using an eBook for content marketing.
eBooks cement your status as an industry leader.
One of the central goals of content marketing is to establish and maintain your business’ status as a leading voice in your industry. An eBook is extremely helpful in doing just that. Through an eBook, you can delve into an issue in your industry in detail. Explore a pain point for your customers in depth, demonstrating your understanding of their problems. Your eBook adds your voice to the conversation. The substantial nature of an eBook, as compared to a typical blog post, shows the depth of your knowledge and your competency in a way that a blog alone simply can’t. By establishing this kind of authority, you can ensure that customers feel confident about choosing your business.
Your business can use an eBook to sell in a palatable way.
Content marketing is designed to convert sales for you, but content that comes packed with an in-your-face sales pitch will turn off customers. Although quality content created should never aggressively sell, an eBook gives you an expanded opportunity to discuss your goods and services in a way that won’t feel pushy to your readers. Through an eBook, you can use parts of your story as a business, such as positive outcomes you’ve created for other customers or results from internal studies that show your brand off in a positive light.
Free eBooks bring traffic to your site—and generate leads.
Everyone expects to get blog posts, social media interactions, and short video content for free. They don’t expect to get free books. A free eBook is the perfect thing to advertise across your other content to attract people to your page. For example, promoting your eBook on social media is likely to attract clicks from people who may not usually engage with your posts. A free eBook feels like a substantial offering, so people are more excited to navigate to your page and see what you have to offer.
Once those people are on your site, you can leverage your eBook to get turn your visitors into new leads. By requiring people to enter at least an email address and perhaps some additional demographic information, you can generate a number of new leads for your brand. One caveat, however—don’t make people jump through too many hoops to get your free eBook. If they get the impression that downloading your eBook will lead to a barrage of unwanted sales pitches, they will click away. Collecting an email and a name may be enough to start your relationship with these potential new customers.
An eBook for content marketing is a low-risk, cost effective tool.
The return on investment you get from eBooks is dramatic. They don’t require a great deal of time to create. Plus, you can easily promote an eBook through the content and social pages you already have. However, their ability to establish your business’ credibility and generate new leads for you will likely outpace other pieces of content you have. As an added bonus, you can may have pieces of content already that can be repurposed in an eBook format with minimal tweaks, meaning a large portion of your book may already be written. In fact, eBooks are the perfect way to get even more life out of your evergreen content and to take blog posts that have been successful for you and put them in front of new customers.
Your brand identity can come into focus through an eBook.
What is your business’ story? What do you want customers to think of when they think of your brand? An eBook is the perfect place to bring your brand identity into focus for your customers. The voice you use in the book, the topics you decide to cover, and your book design all communicate important information to your customers about how to view your business. Although all of your content does this to some degree, the expanded nature of an eBook gives you more space to determine who you are as a brand and what customers should expect from you. If you haven’t taken the time yet to decide on the tone you want to maintain throughout your content marketing, do so before releasing your eBook, so you can ensure the book you publish showcases a voice that is in line with your identity.
Put the benefits of eBooks to work for your business with the help of Pennington Creative. Our digital marketers are experienced content creators. We can help you design an eBook for content marketing that sends the right message about your brand while bringing in new customers and generating motivated leads for your business. Whether you’re brand new to content marketing and need to start from scratch with a strategic plan or already have a carefully crafted voice and identity you need to take to the next level, we can work with you on customized solutions for your brand and your budget. Our digital marketing team in Tucson is waiting to talk to you. Call us at (520) 344-4672 today.
