From email marketing to content marketing, digital advertising is vital for businesses looking to expand their promotional efforts. While print advertisements may still have their place in a company’s advertising budget, today’s technologies have resulted in audiences who favour convenience above all else.
After rising in popularity, eBooks have become a mainstay in online marketing and show no signs of leaving anytime soon. When looking to expand your company’s influence and develop a more comprehensive digital marketing strategy, you should not overlook eBooks and the value they can bring to your organisation.
What is an eBook?
An eBook (or electronic book) is a digitised piece of text accessible through digital devices, such as mobile phones, computers, and tablets. In IT marketing, eBooks are considered non-fiction written by technical thought leaders looking to showcase their knowledge and educate their target audience for free.
While creating an eBook may consist of more work than designing a few Google Ads and plastering them across the internet, the information and perspective you provide can pique readers’ curiosities and encourage them to look into your services.
What is included in an eBook?
While the specific topics and the angles you use to approach information may differ from your competitors, there are several components eBooks need for increased legitimacy.
Without the following aspects, you risk publishing an eBook that may suffer from information gaps and appear amateurish rather than authoritative:
- An attractive cover – your eBook's cover needs to stand out and entice your audience to want to read it.
- A memorable title – your eBook's title needs to hook the viewer from the first glance and summarise your text.
- A table of contents – providing your readers with a table of contents can help them quickly navigate your text and locate information.
- Visuals – rather than forcing your readers to wade through slabs of text, compile certain information into graphs or charts to convey the same message with a lower word count. You should also include images to give the eye a break from reading.
- A call-to-action (CTA) – your eBook and its chapters should conclude with an enticing CTA that will inspire your readers to take the next step in your lead generation strategy.
Whether you choose to publish your eBook as the basis of your social media marketing strategy or use it as additional content to your website’s design, an eBook should conform to a specific format for synchronicity across devices.
The most common eBook formats are:
- MOBI
- EPUB
While eBooks may leverage present and emerging technologies for more innovative reading experiences, they are still books. Your audience expects your text to contain the same elements as a print book, and if they like what you have presented, you will solidify yourself as a legitimate resource in your field.
Why are eBooks important for IT marketers and B2B businesses?
Regardless if you choose to write a book using Microsoft Word or compile your website’s blog posts and expand upon them in Google Docs, an eBook is your chance to exercise thought leadership and establish yourself as a leading figure in your niche. Word counts for eBooks vary wildly, from as little as 3000 words upwards to 75,000 words or more for the average non-fiction book.
eBooks offer interested parties a portable source of information. If your reader derives value from your text and recommends it to others, you can effectively widen your organisation’s reach and connect your brand to others in your audience’s circles.
Suppose you keep your eBook behind a sign-up form requiring basic information and an email address for access. In that case, any information you gather can be used to build your mailing list and offer deeper insights into your marketing strategies and how they can be improved for more beneficial results.
5 tips for writing an eBook
The idea of writing and publishing a high-quality eBook can seem insurmountable. But, there are key practices you ought to be aware of that will quicken the entire process and help you connect with your audience.
When writing an eBook, keep the following tips in mind:
- Include an author page with a professional headshot – an author page gives readers more information about who you are, your career, and your organisation. It should also contain your social media accounts to make it easier for readers to connect with you.
- A list of references – a correctly formatted bibliography with credible sources helps legitimise your claims and demonstrates your deep understanding of IT and business.
- Embrace interactivity – from hyperlinks to embedded videos, making your eBook more engaging and usable will make it more accessible.
- Consider formatting – reading on digital screens is different to reading on physical pages. Format your eBook so it can be read on computers and mobile devices.
- Enquire for feedback – asking your staff and stakeholders for feedback on your work can lead to new ideas and critical revisions.
55% of consumers will turn away from your business if your thought leadership materials are not attention-grabbing from the first page. Digital technologies can often be a hard sell. However, if your eBook humanises IT, hooks your reader from the beginning, and shows how your expertise is the answer to their problems, then you have already won half the battle.
Enquire about eBooks from IT marketing experts
In IT today, everybody prides themselves on being experts. As the owner of an IT company, you must monitor your industry and the businesses looking for your services. Thought leadership is one of the best ways to define the conversation in your niche, but juggling writing, publishing, and managing your company can be overwhelming without comprehensive support
The content and digital marketing services at LeftLeads leverage incomparable IT knowledge and marketing expertise. Talk to the team today if you want to enhance your thought leadership efforts with inspiring content, achieve your business goals faster, and boost your conversion rates.
Carson
To me, it’s not as much about the number of words in an ebook as it is more about the quality. What has this ebook taught me? Even if I get a single idea that I can use right away, I’m good. An idea can turn into thousands or tens of thousands of dollars if not more.