How to Make an Ebook for Lead Generation
The Ebook has been one of the most used tactics in inbound marketing to attract leads. By proposing a fair exchange, where the brand offers rich content and receives information from the lead, the ebook serves as a useful bait in digital marketing strategies.
But, After All, What is an Ebook?
In literal translation, ebook means electronic book. Therefore, we understand that they are books transferred to digital media. Modern literature has already absorbed the concept and today we have large virtual bookstores that sell text content to be read-only digitally, on smartphones, tablets or even devices focused on reading, such as the Kindle.
In contrast, when we talk about ebooks for digital marketing, the characteristics are a little different. In inbound marketing, the ebook is created in order to educate your leads on important topics in the segment and demonstrate how much your company is an expert on the subject. In other words: the ebook appears to demonstrate to the personas, according to the stage of the funnel that they are in, what you do, how you do it and how you will do it for them.
In addition, we also took advantage of the strong value proposition that this type of rich content has, to convince the lead to provide information that will be useful for both the marketing team and the sales team.
So, how about learning how the process of creating an ebook works to leverage the lead generation of your business? We prepared a very detailed step by step, come on?
1) Brainstorm and validate ideas
To start with, there's nothing like raising ideas! And to raise ideas, there is nothing like beautiful brainstorming with team members. So get the team together and put your heads together to think about issues and approaches that are related to the company. It is time to raise suggestions. In addition, it is important to observe what the competition has produced with rich content, either to be inspired or to do something even better.
At the same time, raise the contents already produced and that can be used. For example, you have already launched an ebook on a subject that has a lot of news. So why not do version 2.0 of this ebook, with new information? It is also recommended to use data collected by the company itself as a source of information, such as a market report made internally, for example.
At the same time, be sure to think about your personas and the recurring problems they face. Your ebook has much more value when the public sees the difference it will bring in practice.
Finally, validate the ideas raised with sectors of the company that have direct contact with the public: they have a property to measure the relevance of the content you want to produce. Depending on the company, it is possible to validate even with the public, through surveys via form or on social media, such as a poll on Instagram.
2) Outline the topic and gather information
With the ideas listed, it's time to outline the subject that will be addressed. Therefore, it is time to answer some questions such as:
- What is my theme?
- What stage of the purchase journey do they enter?
- Who is the persona to whom the theme is addressed?
- What problem does my ebook solve?
- What is my goal with this content?
- Can I enjoy the content that we already have?
- Has the competition already addressed this issue? If so, how do I do it better?
Try to answer each one and talk to other team members when you don't know the exact answer. At the same time, collect the data and search for all the information that will be necessary for the construction of the text.
Finally, also think about whether it is advantageous to co-market with a professional or company in your area. This tactic can be very useful, as it gathers forces to increase the relevance and audience of the content.
Information in hand, it's time to put together a complete briefing and outline the content, that is, the “skeleton” of the ebook: titles and topics that will make it up, subjects covered in each part, data and so on. Therefore, the deadlines must also be set at this time.
3) And now, can I write now?
Yes, yes and yes! Let's say that at this stage of the process you have already defined everything so well that it is time to just write. It becomes simple when everything is already defined: objective, subject, persona, a moment of the funnel. Still, pay attention to everything you have defined before and write accordingly.
As a tip, we recommend dividing into chapters, making short paragraphs and taking advantage of features such as bold or italics. All of this to make reading as dynamic as possible!
Tip: Sqribble ebook creator is the best-automated tool to produce an ebook.
4) Do the review!
With the first version of the ebook ready, you can start reviewing the content. After all, you don't want your personas to consume content with errors, do you?
Check the data presented, as well as the grammar. The review must pay attention to these two aspects, as both are fundamental to achieve our goal: qualify leads.
5) Create a visual identity and diagram!
With the textual content ready, you should turn to the visual. After all, how will the ebook present itself? Opt for a layout that is related to the company, to facilitate the user's understanding. Also, bet on images throughout the text!
6) Plan and launch
Even if the textual content is ready and the visual identity is ready, there is still work to be done! First of all, plan where and how you will launch the ebook. A landing page can be a good option for a good conversion rate (link to the conversion rate text).
For the launch, bet on an email marketing campaign and social media posts. Also, check with the team on whether or not paid campaigns are required for launch. Now just relax and wait for the results, right? Calm down! There's still one more step ahead!
7) Analyze and optimize!
After all this process of creation and dissemination, we still have the grand finale: the analysis of the results. In order to become more and more assertive in marketing strategies, choose which metrics are important to observe. For example conversion rate, email open rate, email click rate.
By analyzing the metrics, you can see which points of contact with the lead need to be improved. Finally, bring the team together in an optimization brainstorming, that is, to think about how to further improve the strategies for creating, disseminating and converting ebooks!
So, are you ready to put this step-by-step and lead conversion lead into practice? Tell us your experience in comments.