Content Marketing using Ebooks: A Guide

eBooks are an excellent content marketing tactic for businesses that need to communicate complex information in a visually appealing, easily digestible format. Infotainment eBooks raise the bar on "interesting" by incorporating practical, helpful, and even inspirational messages consistent with the brand.

Unlike many other content marketing tactics, eBooks are a longer form of content that can educate prospective buyers about topics important to buyers and the brand. It's a creative way to demonstrate expertise that's more visually appealing than a white paper but more serious than an infographic.

This longer-form content marketing strategy is gaining traction, particularly among B2B marketers. According to the 2014 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks Report, 34% of B2B users use eBooks as a content marketing tactic, while 57% believe eBooks are an effective tactic.

Benefits of eBook Content Marketing

Ebook marketing strategies offer several advantages that will strengthen your content marketing efforts.

One of the most significant advantages of eBook production is that, when compared to the wide range of marketing materials produced by a company, eBooks offer the best bang for the buck. Yes, time and resources are required to create the content, but the production costs are minimal. Consider an eBook in comparison to a full print media kit. It is also efficient to create and publish an eBook. From initial concept to content creation to publication, the total time can be as little as a few weeks.

While blog posts and articles provide valuable information to your customers, the posts themselves are of little interest to readers. In other words, they are unlikely to offer you much in exchange for the information.

An ebook, on the other hand, has a perceived value to your readers, and most will be willing to give you something in exchange for your book, usually contact information and permission to market. Readers believe it was a fair trade, and you provide instant gratification by providing a product that can be downloaded immediately.

Once you've created your ebook, you won't have to manage it regularly. After you've finished your ebook content marketing, created an effective ebook landing page to collect information, and have a few pages and posts pointing to your ebook, you can shift your focus to tracking the number of clicks and completed forms generated by your ebook.

Ebooks are also more convenient for readers. You can choose to publish your ebook content marketing in one of the standard ebook reader formats, or you can make them even simpler and distribute them as PDF files that your readers can easily read on their computers, tablets, and smartphones once the download is complete, without any special apps or even an internet connection.

A common marketing challenge is determining how to get your content into the hands of the right people. To get your eBook online, you have several delivery options. Most marketers offer eBooks for download on their websites in exchange for a user's name, email address, and other contact information. There are other options as well. You can also broaden your audience by distributing your eBook through Amazon.com or other large online digital self-publishing platforms. On CIO.com, James A. Martin wrote an excellent piece on the topic.

Readers expect to be able to download eBooks on the desktop, tablet, and smartphone devices, so link your eBook content marketing strategy to your email communications as well. Promote it as a bonus for people who sign up for your email marketing, and don't forget to draw attention to your social channels by promoting your eBook there.

The ability to provide clickable links is one of the reasons that blog posts and website articles are so useful to businesses. This can take the form of direct links to additional information or simple ways to share your content by incorporating social sharing buttons or tweetable quotes and statistics. These and other interactive elements can be easily added to your ebooks to improve the reader experience while increasing the reach of your content.

Implementing these ebook marketing tips into your content marketing strategies will provide your company and customers with something valuable that blog posts and articles alone cannot provide. Customers receive detailed information and solutions to their problems, while you receive hard-to-find contact information and qualified leads to help your marketing efforts succeed.

It is difficult to create marketing strategies that audiences not only accept but actively seek. This is one of the characteristics that distinguishes eBooks. People download eBooks to gain access to the information contained within them. In fact, by providing your eBook for free, you give readers a high perception of the value of the content. Then, after establishing credibility and potential problem-solving, you subtly direct the reader to your company and solutions. Companies that provide content marketing services, for example, would benefit from covering their real-world benefits in a free eBook about content marketing.

Ebook Marketing Strategies

Here's how eBooks can benefit your company in 2022:

A targeted email list can help you communicate effectively with your audience, but growing your list can be difficult.  Potential customers are more likely to provide their contact information in exchange for the information you have to offer because of the perceived value of an eBook.

According to a recent study, email marketing has the highest ROI of any marketing channel, so building a healthy list is a great way to gain more conversions. After you've finished writing your eBook, you can create an SEO-optimized landing page on your website with a call to action to sign up for your free eBook.

If your company has already been posting content to its blog, website, or social media accounts, an eBook is a great way to repurpose some of the content that was most popular with your audience. This means you won't have to write an entire book from scratch. However, the content you spent time and effort creating can be put to good use again.

For starters, approaching others to produce an eBook may result in a collaboration with industry movers and shakers. Second, once your eBook is published, the industry will recognize your company as a viable leader, opening the door to future collaborations. Finally, your brand can use your eBook to increase its visibility among other brands and audiences.

Creating eBooks about your industry shows website visitors that you know what you're talking about. You have a wealth of industry knowledge and are eager to share it with your audience. This distinguishes you from your competitors, which can be crucial depending on your industry.

Final Thoughts

The importance of eBooks in marketing cannot be overstated due to their powerful and distinct advantages over other content formats used in demand generation. Consider the types of questions or issues that your target buyers have that could lead to a longer content message.

If you use buyer personas, make sure to use them to help improve your target messaging for your content rather than a "one size fits all" approach. Your prospects want content that will assist them in making informed decisions. Create content that is appealing to your target audience, and incorporate your eBooks into a content syndication strategy that will assist you in meeting your demand generation objectives.