Are You Using Ebooks in Your Company’s Marketing Plan?
If you are not yet using this valuable marketing strategy, now is a good time to start.
Here is why:
Publishing ebooks on topics related to your company’s services or products is a very good strategy for demonstrating your company’s expertise.
While at first glance this may not appear applicable to your company, let’s pick a random imaginary company and I’ll show you what I mean.
As it is hot in Los Angeles while I am writing this guest post, I’ll pick an imaginary company that manufactures in-window air conditioning units.
What ebook from this company would be possible?
How about “Tips for Keeping Cool When You Are Away From Your Air Conditioning”?
Now this ebook does not have to be long – eliminating the need to meet length requirements is one of the benefits of ebooks for example PC power supply.
It does need to have good tips in a well-formatted ebook.
Then if you publish your ebook via Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing and put the ebook on Amazon’s KDP Select program – requires a 90-day exclusive period in exchange for benefits – you can enlist the power of Amazon to help you get the book noticed.
After one 90-day exclusive period you can remove the ebook from the KDP Select program (the ebook remains on Amazon) and give the ebook away for free to current and prospective customers. This free ebook will have more value if people can check it out on Amazon and see good reviews for the ebook.
(These reviews must be legitimate. There is currently a scandal in the book world over bestselling authors faking good reviews for their books and writing bad reviews for what these authors perceive as books of competitors. For more information, see my post.)
Note: While not everyone has a Kindle, Amazon has very cleverly made available free Kindle apps for PC, Mac, iPad, etc. at http://amzn.to/NBoSGU
Other benefits of an ebook:
1) Inclusion of links that can be hot links when someone is reading the ebook on a device connected to the Internet
2) Ability to instantly make changes in the ebook content (let’s say if you think of a new idea for keeping cool or you want to add a link for a new product)
3) Opportunity to be found on Amazon in searches in the Kindle store, especially if you have good keywords
4) Low cost to entry
About the cost of an ebook after it is written (and proofread!):
You need a good cover – one that can be easily “read” in a very small size online. Therefore you may need a cover designer. (Do remember that designers think in terms of design and you want to think in terms of “sales” – attracting people to want your ebook.)
Unless you can do this yourself, you need an ebook converter who will ensure your ebook’s formatting is good. Simply using the conversion option on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing is not necessarily the best decision.
Most importantly, you want the ebook uploaded in your own KDP account and NOT in the account of the ebook converter. If you allow the ebook converter to upload in the converter’s account, you will not have the ability to make instant changes in the prices, categories, etc. of your ebook. You want to keep this control for yourself.
If you like the idea of using ebooks as part of your marketing strategy, start brainstorming what kinds of information you can share with your target markets. You may be surprised at what you come up with!
Phyllis Zimbler Miller has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com
She is also the author of fiction and nonfiction ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF KINDLE. Her Amazon Author Central Profile is at www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller
