With so many media channels both on and offline, it’s easier than ever to find ways to get in front of prospects and customers, but more difficult than ever to engage with them in a meaningful way.
Finding the right marketing mix means finding ways to first grab a prospect’s attention, and then getting them to give some time to your message. Content marketing can be a great way to do this, especially long-form content that requires a bit of time investment on the prospect’s part. Of course to make this work, the content must be engaging, useful and convenient. One of the most useful formats that checks all of those boxes is the eBook.
While many content pieces and formats have been branded as eBooks, the most effective in the dental marketplace are nicely designed, fast reads that address a common problem dentists face and position your product as a viable solution.
Why eBooks Work
There are many ways to showcase your solutions and your brand, but eBooks stand out as a malleable format that can fit just about any product and corporate style. Because they are an all-digital format, they can be any length with any number of pictures and graphics and it’s even possible to include embedded interactive elements.
The content can cover a specific product, or a clinical topic, or really any aspect of dentistry and running a dental practice. Because the format is so flexible topics that require great depth can be covered just as readily as topics that are more process and less theory. Regardless of the content, the digital format means the eBook is portable, accessible from anywhere on any device and easy to bookmark or download.
The key to a successful eBook campaign is making sure your subject and graphic style is inviting enough to grab your prospect’s attention, engaging enough to get interested people to complete a registration before accessing the content, and then useful enough to make them feel the eBook was worth their time. When all of that comes together prospects will be excited to learn what you have to share.
The digital nature of an eBook also makes them a marketing tool that generates a lot more than just a bunch of leads. Yes, those leads are critical and eBooks can be a great way to gauge how close a prospect is to make a purchase. But like all digital media, they also generate a whole lot of data that can be used to fine-tune your marketing efforts.
An eBook provides you with information about that downloads it, but also how many people get to the download page, but do not complete your form. You can track how many people visit the page more than once, and if the book includes embedded links or multi-media content, you can track how those are used. All of this data can help you learn what parts of your marketing efforts are working, and what aspects of your plans need a bit of improvement.
No matter how great your eBook might be, no one will read it if they don’t know it exists. The promotional aspects of an eBook campaign can add a robust dose of branding along with the invitation to download your content. This will depend on the tone of the book. Some eBooks are brand driven vehicles to showcase your products and company. These should match your corporate branding and style.
Other eBooks can be helpful guides that feature your sponsorship, but feature a unique style that sets them apart from the usual messaging you deliver to prospects. The benefit of this approach is that the focus is on the information you are providing and not on who is providing that information.
How to make your eBook campaign successful
Any successful eBook campaign starts with the book itself. A quality eBook will attract prospects, be read by them and leave those prospects feeling validated and informed. This means you need to create an eBook that imparts useful information and you need to make sure that your information, and the way you present it is unique.
Presenting solid and useful information should be somewhat straightforward. Your company offers solutions to problems dental professionals face, and your eBook can provide insight into the what, how and why of your solution so readers understand not just the problem but their roadmap to overcoming it.
Making your eBook unique is a bit more of a challenge as there are numerous eBooks targeting dentists right now. To stand out from the pack you need a subject that is specific enough to stand out from the crowd, but not so specific that your project only interests a small number of prospects. A good title and description are keys to bringing people to your eBook, but a visually appealing design is also extremely helpful. Whether the eBook is connected to your corporate identity or it’s own standalone piece, it should be cleanly designed in a way draws readers into your content.
The eBook needs to offer solutions, and when possible actionable advice. If you’re using the book to promote a specific product, then you will most likely be positioning that product as the solution to the problem you’re covering, but that doesn’t mean you can’t provide some easy to implement advice that helps prospects before they become customers. Providing this type of helpful information positions your company and product not just as solutions, but also as partners in your customers’ success.
While some eBooks feature an author byline attaching a person to the words and pictures, many are presented anonymously with no author attached to the content. In either case, it’s possible to leverage the name recognition and trust dental professionals put in advice from Key Opinion Leaders when publishing an eBook. If you can have the book authored by a KOL, that can be a great way to promote the book and bring people to your download page. Another way to get KOLs involved in an eBook is to interview one or more trusted KOLs and build the content around their advice. In either case, including KOLs in your eBook project gives you additional ways to promote your content and get people to take notice.
If you are going to succeed with your eBook marketing project you need to spread the word about the content as far and wide as possible. This should include a coordinated media push when the book launches. Email, social media, banner ads, paid search and other digital media strategies can all be leveraged to promote your project. But a well-crafted eBook can have a life long after its initial publication, so be sure to schedule out additional promotions in the months after you launch the project to prolong the effectiveness of your campaign.
Regardless of how great your eBook is, some prospects will simply not engage with it. No content format is ideal for every single prospect; so don’t package all of your content in a single format. In fact, don’t limit any of your content to just one format. Once you have the information in the eBook written out, you can use it to craft a webinar presentation, script a video, write a blog post, or any other content format you can think of.
If an eBook seems like it would make sense for your company, find a partner who can help you create and promote it the right way. With an experienced in-house design team and years of dental industry expertise, the Dentalcompare team is ready to help you create and promote an eBook that will connect with customers and prospects.
For more information, contact us at [email protected].