eBooks are gaining traction in the business world as a marketing tool. You must have considered eBook publishing to extend your reach beyond your prevailing clientele at one point or another. If you are on the fence about deciding on this marketing tool, read this post. It will tell you the potential benefits of utilizing it as a marketing tool.
What Businesses Benefit from eBook Marketing?
Before exploring the benefits of publishing eBooks, let’s discuss the most common question entrepreneurs ask about this tool: Will eBook marketing work for me? Interestingly, eBooks work for almost any business that the world has known. From agriculture to teaching to hi-tech businesses, everyone has the potential to benefit from publishing their books.
Although the benefits are universal, the process of achieving these benefits differs from organization to organization. Some organizations write and publish eBooks from the viewpoint of the whole organization. Others present the expertise and dedication of their research and development department through this marketing front. Many organizations promote their executives and leaders as thought leaders and gain traction through it.
Interestingly, you don’t have to be in a highly research-dependent or developing industry to use eBooks as your marketing tool. You can use it in any modern industry and create awareness.
Benefits of Publishing eBooks for Your Business
eBooks are surefire marketing tools for businesses in the twenty-first century. Here are all the related ways to utilize it in your business:
Create Awareness
Conventionally, businesses used to publish books as larger pamphlets. They would print beautiful multipage pamphlets to share their work and services with their customers and other stakeholders. eBooks have replaced those fancy pamphlets and brochures these days. Businesses now create and distribute these books to present the collection of products and services they will offer.
Build Credibility
While creating awareness is a major purpose of writing and publishing eBooks, many businesses rely on ads and websites for it. The most common reason behind this switch from books and eBooks as awareness creation tools is that books aren’t read by all customers and stakeholders. On the contrary, almost everyone reads smaller pamphlets and brochures.
So, if books aren’t the most common tool for awareness creation, how can you use them in your marketing strategy? For most businesses, the answer is building credibility and authority. You see, books are larger documents that contain deep knowledge and oftentimes focus on technical and advanced topics. A business will only publish books on topics that are popular among their clients.
Because the topic is popular among stakeholders, they will be inclined to buy or receive it to read it. They will take time to read the book and if it resonates with their question and reasoning, they will consider the book publisher – aka the business – an expert on the subject.
This way, the business can ensure that it appears as an author within its circle using its published book. Interestingly, you don’t have to stop after publishing just one book. Remain in the hearts and minds of your ideal customers by sharing knowledge on their burning questions and easing their problems.
Lead Generation
Many businesses take eBook publishing as a lead generation tool. They start by answering the most pressing questions for the customers. The question should be so crucial to customers’ lives that they want an immediate solution and want to invest in the book. However, in such cases, the businesses demand their email addresses in exchange for these insights.
In short, these books act as lead magnets for the business. When a person downloads a book from their landing page, the business will understand that they are interested in solving this particular issue. As a consequence, these businesses will start sending them relevant marketing material and building their business relationship.
Increase Visibility
These books are a powerful tool because they increase the size of your target audience. While traditional marketing tools are attractive to some people, they leave out those people who don’t pay attention to widespread channels of information. Books, on the other hand, appeal to those folks who have tuned out of the most commonly used digital and mass communication channels.
At the same time, book-based marketing increases the number of information sources where a business is visible to its customers. They can now witness it in scholarly platforms and it is mentioned in educational communities. Depending on the technicality of its insights, the book may get included in specific industrial circles and gain the attention of scholarly authorities in that industry.
Builds Revenue Stream
Many businesses take book publishing tactics as a part of their marketing efforts. Others consider it as a separate business unit. The e-learning industry is known for using books and eBooks as their revenue stream as well as their marketing tool. In this industry, the businesses build different sets of intellectual properties including books, lectures, journal articles, and podcasts.
Even if you are not located in the e-learning business, you can still venture into this industry by trying the eBook publishing route. You will have to start by addressing the burning questions of your customers that relate to your product or service. The aim of this book should be to educate the readers on how to easily solve or tackle their problems.
After publishing the book, you must ask for feedback from your readers. If they benefit from the book, they may ask for more guidance. Follow this feedback and soon you will build a second income stream by helping your customers solve their issues by using your products or services. Eventually, these educational experiences will also build trust in you leading your business to become the market leader.
Wrap Up
eBook publishing has become a commonly used marketing tool among businesses. The unique nature of books and eBooks allows them to position a business as an authority and a dedicated, intellectual leader of a particular industry. At the same time, many businesses use this tool to grow their income or to communicate with their customers. If you are considering this tool of marketing for your business, start by detecting the core problems of your clients and offer solutions to those. Start early and stay ahead of your competition.