E-books: the hip and stylish younger sister to the nerdy white paper

Update October 24, 2007 - My ebook The New Rules of PR has now been downloaded 300,000 times.

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Web content sells. An effective content strategy, artfully executed, drives action. Organizations that use online content have a clearly defined goal—to sell products, generate leads, secure contributions, or get people to join and deploy a content strategy that directly contributes to reaching that goal. Content takes many forms including an effective content-centric Web site, blogs, podcasts, and e-books.

I've been fascinated recently by the power of e-books. My own e-book The new rules of PR: How to create a press release strategy for reaching buyers directly has been downloaded a remarkable 75,000 times since it was released in January. Imagine how much you would have to pay to get an equivalent number of people to pay attention to an advertisement?

As a resource for buyers to learn about answers to a market problem, e-books are a valuable resource. But for many people and organizations, an e-book also has a less tangible effect. E-books do much more than just sell product. E-books directly contribute to an organization's positive reputation by showing thought leadership in the marketplace of ideas. This form of content brands a company, a consultant, or a non-profit as an expert and as a trusted resource to turn to again and again.

So what is an e-book? For the purposes of marketing using web content, I define an e-book as a PDF-formatted document that identifies a market problem and supplies an answer to the problem. The best e-books don't sell a product, but rather brand an organization as thoughtful in a defined market space.

In the B2B world, e-books are like the hip and stylish younger sister to the nerdy white paper.

I recommend that e-books be presented in a landscape format, rather than the white paper's portrait format. The e-book has more white space, more graphics and images and is written in a lighter style than the typically dense white paper. E-books (as marketing tools) are free and I strongly suggest that there is no registration requirement.

Here are some examples of e-books:

The new rules of PR: How to create a press release strategy for reaching buyers directly by David Meerman Scott

Tom Rants: Summer 04 by Tom Peters

Flipping the Funnel by Seth Godin

The Balanced Life by Clay Nelson

Search Engine Marketing for Publishers by Pam Springer, CEO, ECNext

To develop an e-book, follow these steps:

1. Understand your audience. Consider what market problems your audience has and develop a topic that appeals to your readers.

2. Define your goals for the e-book. Do you want to drive leads? Get people to donate money to your organization? Buy something?

3. Write for your audience. Use examples and stories. Make it interesting.

4. Hire a professional editor to do a second draft and a proofreader to finalize the copy.

5. Have the e-book professionally designed.

6. Offer the e-book on your site. Have easy-to-find links. If you have a blog, write about it there. Add a link to employees e-mail signatures.

7. Drive people into your company's sales process. Have landing pages or calls to action (but do NOT sell anything in the copy of the e-book itself!)

8. To drive viral marketing, alert media and bloggers that the e-book is available and send them a download link. (Don't send the PDF directly).

Done well, e-books deliver authentic thought leadership, branding an organization as one to do business with.

Oh, one more thing. If you create an ebook, please let me know so I can add it to my reading list!

Comments

[Jordan]

Well said, David.

I was having a discussion about this very topic with a client yesterday. I have forwarded this link to him, and encouraged him to download both yours and Seth's from your links.

Cheers!

[Wil]

A big yes to Ebooks

Peoples time and attention span have to be fought for. The Ebook addresses this challenge. They are visually appealing and the interactivity they offer is a major plus.Tightly packed text out lots of white space,Pictures,useful hyperlinksand one click get your question answered in.

[Sandra Mendoza-Daly]

I love eBooks. I have purchased numerous ebooks on writing, marketing, how to start a _____ business.

As long as the person who wrote it knows what they are talking about, they are a great and quick source of education.

And David, I totally agree with you on the landscape layout. Your ebook was the first one I downloaded that was laid out in this format and it was so much easier to read. Thanks.

But what is your opinion on charging for eBooks. I've been thinking of a few eBooks I could write, but I don't know that I want to give them away for free.

[David Meerman Scott]

Hi Sandra,

It will all depend on your goals. If the goal is to spread your ideas, make it totally free with no registration required (that's what I did and got 250,000 downloads). If the goal is to build a list of names, consider adding a requirement that people submit an email to get the ebok. And if the goal is to make money, you *could* charge.

However, I would still give one thing away to build interest to charge for another. You could have "The ten tips to..." and give away the first two tips for free or something like that.

Dianna Huff has successfully published a paid ebook http://www.dhcommunications.com/seobook.htm

David

[Jason Bradford]

Great info! Thanks for stopping by my blog and I'll let you know as soon as the ebook is done!

Thanks again for the insight.

Jason

[Joseph Ratliff]

David,

A question...

I'm writing my first ebook as a free download on my main site...and I was wondering whom you used to format and "pretty up" your ebooks on your site?

[David Meerman Scott]

Joseph - A great designer is essential in an ebook. It makes the text come alive. I use Doug Eymer. www.eymer.com