The Number One Lead Generation Trick That You’re Missing Out On

I’m pretty sure you know the feeling.

That pang of guilt you feel every time you see a competitor boasting about their latest eBook. Which one is it now, third? Or maybe they’ve gone beyond 5 already? They’re certainly busy generating one lead asset after another.

All while you’re still unsure about whether to even start creating eBooks at all.

But with today’s heavy competition, overlooking even a slightest marketing opportunity can cost your company thousands of dollars in lost sales and opportunities.

So if you’re wondering whether eBooks could help you grow your business, reach new audiences and convince prospects to engage with you, keep on reading. I’ll show you why and how you could effortlessly start creating eBooks to generate more leads for your business.

The Power of eBooks

In case if you aren’t sure what’s an eBook, let me go over that really quickly.

eBooks are longer pieces of content educating prospective buyers about topics important to them or their work. eBooks range in length from a couple of pages to longer publications and generally cover one topic, typically a problem of the target audience.

eBooks are mainly used as lead magnets – resources that help attract potential clients and entice them to sign up for a mailing list.

And they work. 55% of B2B marketers for instance consider eBooks as highly effective lead generation assets.

So to sum it up:

An eBook is a long form lead generation asset, typically published as a PDF that helps you target a specific audience’s need with high quality and educational content to attract them to your brand.

What Makes eBooks the Best Lead Generation Assets?

For one, eBooks are effective because they rarely seem like actual marketing tools

One reason for that is that eBooks exist outside of the marketing space. Almost everyone I know, for instance, has Kindle or another eBook reader or reads electronic novels and other publications on their computers, tablets or smartphones.

They’re convenient

These days downloading and reading an eBook is hardly challenging. Our computers and mobile devices are equipped with everything a person needs to consume the content.

Their performance is easy to measure

No matter what kind of eBooks you produce, you’re likely to include links that could help convert a reader into a lead or paying customer. This gives you a unique opportunity to measure and track your eBook’s the performance.

In many cases you can even track how many pages a person has viewed and which ones engaged them the most.

All this information can help you establish the likelihood of a person becoming a client and tailor your sales interactions with them to that.

eBooks are also more engaging than many other content types

Unlike many other content types, eBooks allow you to include more than just text. Most eBook generation software (like Beacon, for instance. Disclaimer: this is my company) allows you to add video, audio or interactive graphics to pages, making the publication more engaging.

How Companies Benefit From Creating Marketing eBooks?

Lead generation isn’t the only reason to create eBooks:

They also help establish your company as a thought-leader

FACT: Reputation is what drives customers to your brand.

And gaining a though-leader status by publishing authoritative eBooks that help your audience overcome their problems is one of the best ways to achieve it.

eBooks help customers sample your expertise too

If you provide consulting services, for instance, it’s only natural that many clients will be skeptical about hiring you without being able to at least get an indication of your expertise.

Publishing eBooks and other long form content gives you an opportunity to showcase your knowledge and expertise in the best way possible – by already providing value to clients.

They increase your visibility

A good eBook will always get shared, discussed and mentioned online increasing the likelihood of a person coming in contact with your brands.

They help capture prospects at the time they’re the most susceptible to buying from you

eBooks attract prospects at one of those two stages of the buying cycle:

• Information or Solution Research, when prospects are beginning to search for available solutions to their problem.
• Evaluation, when prospects begin to evaluate solutions alternatives to select the one to buy.

How to Produce eBooks Quickly and Effortlessly?

Here’s one myth I need to dispel:

In most cases you have everything you need to start producing straight away.

Existing Content

eBooks don’t have to comprise of original content. In fact, a lot of them are based on repurposed content - old blog posts, email newsletters, e-zines, whitepapers or sales presentations.

So, to create your eBook, simply gather all blog posts on a specific topic or dealing with a particular problem, add an introduction and a call to action to move users further down the sales funnel and, you’re done.

You can create a simple eBook even in Microsoft Word or use dedicated eBook software like Beacon to convert existing blog posts into eBook directly.

Images

If you’ve been using images in blog posts, then you already have graphical elements you need to include in your eBook. And even if that’s not the case, you can find plenty of images with a creative commons license on Flickr, Pixabay or Pexels.

And so, all it takes to create an eBook is to bring it all together and compile into a publication you could use to generate leads for your brand.

And I bet that’s exactly what your competitor is doing too. So why the feeling of guilt?

About the Author

Kevin McGrath is the CEO of Beacon, the simplest tool to convert existing blog posts into professional looking eBooks without a need for a designer. Check it out at Beacon.by.