How to use ebooks in your marketing strategy
Great content can come in many formats and it's one of the prime ways to engage prospects and convert leads. Unlike blog posts and videos, eBooks are downloadable, increasing their perceived value. This makes Ebooks a worthy lead generation tool, enticing users to opt in with their contact information in return for your content. The information contained in an eBook tends to delve into greater detail than other content formats, allowing you to demonstrate your scope of knowledge in your company’s area of expertise.
While eBooks used to be the modern, go-to marketers tool, 20 years on and many people are questioning it’s pertinence in the contemporary world of content marketing. Have we evovled? Of course, but just as email was deemed dead, eBooks shouldn’t to be left in the past either. Many companies are still creating educational content that informs their target audience on pain points and solutions, successfully converting them into leads.
Let’s take a look at how to correctly use eBooks in your content marketing strategy and how maximise their impact...
▶︎ Use eBooks to strengthen your brand
In the bid to make your brand stand out, establishing trust with your audience is vital. According to Adweek, 63% of customers prefer to purchase from an authentic brand. A great way of showcasing your expertise is creating an eBook on a topic that your users care about. By addressing their problems in an informative manner you will gain their trust and nurture your relationship from the outset. As a starting point for ideas, consult your ideal buyers to identify painpoints and desires.
▶︎ Educate your customers at the early stage of the buyers journey
Sales cycles are different depending on your product or service offering, but the beginning of the buyer's journey usually presents a great opportunity to use eBooks. At the “awareness” stage, customers haven’t recognised that they have a problem, so it’s up to marketers to make them aware of the painpoint and initiate desire. Most customers don’t even know they want a product or service until the issue it solves is laid out in front of them.
eBooks in the awareness stage shouldn’t be based on the product or service itself, but rather the painpoints your offer will be able to solve for customers. Basically, you’re using a soft approach to discuss a subject within your expertise without pushing your product or service. The aim is to target and educate those people you’d like to convert to customers and drive them to your website. Before now, they might have known very little about your company. By publishing a gated, but free content offer on your website, you require users to provide an email address to receive the content, all the while establishing awareness around your brand.
▶︎ Offer solutions in the consideration stage of the buyers journey
When prospects are aware that they have a problem, you can begin to introduce the solutions available to address their painpoints. eBooks are the perfect form of content to offer, particularly, detailed “how to” guides on overcoming each challenge.
At this consideration stage of the buyer's journey, users will be weighing up the options available. Using a soft approach, you can familiarise your audience with your companies solution, amongst the other options available in the market.
▶︎ Capture emails
Building targeted email lists is an effective approach to communicating with your prospects, but it can be difficult. Marketers generally want to gather emails to nurture leads through the buyers journey to a point where they are ready to purchase. People are often reluctant to give up personal details, however the perceived high value of an eBook entices prospects to do so, knowing they will receive high quality content in return.
So, when your eBook is designed, build a landing page optimised for search engines, including a call to action where users can enter their details in return for your eBook. When the landing page is live, make sure to promote your content on social media to encourage your audience to opt in.
With 4 clever ways to use ebooks in your content strategy, what’s not to love?
Have you tried and tested ebook creation to engage with your target audience? Were your efforts successful? Let us know by dropping a comment below!
