Marketing With eBooks – #13 of the 101 Marketing Ideas
Transcription of the Marketing With eBooks Video:
KERSTEN KLOSS: Hi, and welcome back to BizDev Weekly, the business development show. I’m here with marketing expert Chris Hamilton of SalesTipADay.com. Thanks very much for joining us, Chris.
CHRIS HAMILTON: Thanks for having me, Kersten.
KERSTEN KLOSS: Today’s subject is eBooks—those free tantalizing snippets and nuggets of information floating around the Internet. Tell us, Chris. How does someone use eBooks to market products and services?
CHRIS HAMILTON: Kersten, creating an eBook is quite simple. It doesn’t take a lot of effort. You’re not writing a novel. So many people think they have to write a book, so they hesitate to even start. Kersten, I have written eBooks that are between two and fifteen pages—not long at all. The purpose of an eBook is to convey information of interest to the reader. Once you’ve written or published something about your field of expertise, you are now formally an author, which potentially elevates you above your competition. It’s a great way to put yourself out there in order to be found.
How do I use eBooks? Well, eBooks are all over my website. If you want to see some examples, go to SalesTipADay.com. I’ve have between ten to fifteen of them posted there. My most popular eBook is in the upper right-hand corner of SalesTipADay.com, “25 Must Have Sales and Marketing Tips.” The tidbits of information are listed on four or five pages, and it took me about an hour to write.
To supplement that eBook, I took chunks of videos I had created and used them as a supplement to the eBook. That has created a steady stream of people sharing their names and their e-mails. Now I can market to them on a regular basis, bring them back to my website to buy content, or promote events like webcasts and interviews. That’s how I use an eBook.
If you’re concerned about the subject matter, just think about a problem that you can solve for a client or prospect. I am working with a mortgage broker in town right now. We pulled together a four-page eBook in literally one half hour called, “5 Secrets You Need to Know about Getting a Mortgage.” That entices people to leave their names and e-mails in order to get more information. Then an e-mail drip campaign starts, releasing a little bit more information at a time. Any mortgage broker will gladly leave his or her name and e-mail if they think that eBook will add to their knowledge base to be shared with their clients. Anyone seeking a mortgage will also be interested.
The power behind the eBook is that it leaves the reader with a small amount of great information, and they know they can connect with the author if they want or need more information. Once you have their e-mail address, you can contact them and offer them that additional information. Then it’s even easier to engage with that person and hopefully do business with them. Kersten, do you have any thoughts on this?
KERSTEN KLOSS: So many people think that in order to do a trade, you need currency.
Well, you should consider eBooks as currency. You’re trading your information (that the prospect needs or finds interesting) for their e-mail address. It’s a step in the sales process. As long as you give them information of value, they’re going to remember you. Once you drip a second or third e-mail, they’ll already know who you are, and that’s important for the follow-up process.
CHRIS HAMILTON: eBooks are simple to write. Contact us and we’ll show you how to create eBooks and start leveraging them to generate lots of sales leads for your organization.
KERSTEN KLOSS: And just one last thought. You don’t have to be a proficient writer to create eBooks. You can curate information online and combine that information with your own, as long as you’re not plagiarizing. You can short script it. The other thing you can do is record an audio on your cell phone or a recording device, and send it off to somebody to transcribe into a short article.
We can advise you on that, as well. Chris, thanks again for joining us on the show. It’s always great to get tips from a marketing expert. You interview many well-known authors and leaders in the field of marketing. You also spend a lot of time communicating with readers of your blog, and sharing their tips, as well. Thanks very much for that.
CHRIS HAMILTON: Thanks, Kersten, for having me, and thanks for the kind words.
KERSTEN KLOSS: And thank you all for joining us, once again, for BizDev Weekly. Have a great day.
Contact me at Chris@SalesTipADay.com or at 1-877-782-2864 (in North AmeMichaela) to see how I can help you with:
- Your marketing needs
- Increasing your sales
- Innovative ways to get your story heard
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