The traditional methods once used by businesses to generate leads are gradually evaporating, replaced by the tried and true tactics being employed by marketers in an increasingly digital world. Books have since emerged as one of the handiest tools entrepreneurs can use to gain new clients today, but you’ll need to know how to leverage them if you hope to ultimately see them boost your business. Here’s a basic breakdown of how to go about doing so, for those who aren’t necessarily marketing pros!
Provide incredible value
The reality is that nobody is going to crack open your book unless it’s of value to them. But how do you figure out which types of content packs the most punch within your niche? Turn to the stats! Comb through your recent blog or social posts and analyze the data. Did your audience engage more with one post versus others? Which article or update received the most comments, likes, shares, etc? This will give you a clear idea of what your audience will be interested in reading in terms of a book’s content. Don’t have an audience of your own? That’s perfectly alright. Just visit the websites and social pages of the top players in your niche and see what type of topics are popular with their audience. We’re about to get into a myriad of ways to generate leads with a book, but your very first step is to, of course, make sure people read it. The quickest way to do that is to make sure that what you’re about to tell them is unique, useful and tricky to find elsewhere.
Include bonuses
Once you win the love and trust of your readers through a value-packed book, it’s time to ask for a little extra- their email address! Packing bonuses into your book is an added incentive for readers to engage with it and provide their information as a result, generating leads for your business. Consider including links to one or more of the following bonuses in it:
- A free audiobook
- A workbook or action guide
- A resource guide
- A cheat sheet
- A short video course
- Access to a free webinar
- Access to a free call with you or a member of your business
Make your readers feel as though you’re being generous with your resources. Take the effort to make the bonus relevant and useful. Let it be a logical extension of the content provided in the book. Once you have their e-mail addresses, the reality of converting your readers to clients becomes a great deal easier!
Position your calls to action wisely
Once you’ve decided on which bonuses you’ll be giving away, they’ll need to be advertised accordingly within your book. Don’t hesitate to mention the bonus at the beginning, middle and even end of your book. Readers can easily skim over the first or second call to action, diminishing the potential number of leads you’ll accumulate – which is why you’re publishing content in the first place! Avoid using the same call to action text all three times, focusing instead on different wording to avoid seeming redundant. We recommend inserting your bonuses after a particularly valuable paragraph in order to make the call to action seem natural. For example: “Curious to learn more about how I paid off my mortgage in just three years? Click here to receive my FREE money saving cheat sheet”.
Direct readers to a landing page
Each call to action from the bonuses in your book will lead to an external landing page, where you’ll provide a form for readers to fill in their first (and/or last name) and e-mail address. We can’t stress this enough: your landing page is a crucial component in the process of converting your readers into clients. It has to invite people to want to interact and continue their relationship with you. Avoid coming across as needy or salesy: the landing page should make visitors feel like it’s all about THEM, not you. Make your audience feel as though you really wish to provide them with valuable information for free in order to help them out either personally or professionally. Once your landing page and form are successfully designed and ready to go live, connect your form with an e-mail marketing service.
Here are a few tools that can help you build your landing page:
Here are a couple of examples of high-converting opt-in pages used by authors inside their books. Click on the look inside feature in Amazon to check out the free bonuses:
- Nick Loper offers not one but four bonuses inside his latest book Buy Buttons
- Nick Stephenson offers an entire ebook for free which is a prequel to his Leopold Blake suspense thriller series
Once your landing page and form are successfully designed and ready to go live, connect your form with an e-mail marketing service to start building contact lists, delivering your book bonuses and SELLING!
Become familiar with email marketing
Once your readers fill in their name and e-mail addresses on your landing page’s form, their information will be sent to your e-mail marketing service of choice. Our top picks are:
From here, you’ll create an automation that will send your new contacts the bonus (or multiple bonuses) that they were promised in your e-book. But the process doesn’t end here! Now that you have a list of contacts, you can continue to send them e-mail campaigns. Of course, the objective is not to bombard them and turn them off – which will ultimately result in your new leads unsubscribing. Instead, come up with a content marketing plan that will further provide value to your e-mail marketing list. Examples could be a 5-7 email sequence to familiarize the subscriber to your brand, or a bi-weekly newsletter featuring helpful tips, resource guides and more. Check out Meera Kothand’s free video course on email marketing.
Would you rather have somebody else help out with your book’s landing page in order to generate more business leads? Happy Self Publishing offers this service for just $149. Find out more here and as always, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any questions.
