Downloadable ebooks are an incredibly powerful marketing tool. They draw in qualified leads, demonstrate your expertise, and can be tailored to any point in your sales funnel. The key is to make sure your ebook is high-quality. And you’re the one who has to create it. That’s right, you need to take the knowledge you possess and get it down on (digital) paper. I’ve personally created hundreds of ebooks, and I can assure you, it requires effort, but the payoff is significant. Once you’ve mastered the process, it becomes a simple matter of repeating the steps and enjoying the rewards. Continue reading to discover my five-step process for crafting an ebook that will both fulfill you and help your business flourish.
Contents
How to write an ebook in 5 steps
Follow these five steps to write an ebook that educates and adds value for your audience, and that generates leads for your business.
1. Choose your topic
Firstly, you need to settle on a compelling topic. It doesn’t need to be groundbreaking or entirely original; it simply has to be engaging and pertinent to your audience. This ensures that you attract the right audience to download it. Here are some suggestions for determining a topic for your ebook:
- Keywords. Utilize a keyword research tool to discover words and phrases your target audience is searching for online. Ensure they have enough search volume without being too broad, which could lead to attracting the wrong customers.
- Popular blog posts. Review your content performance metrics and identify the topics that resonate most with your audience. Repurposing blog content into ebooks is a classic and effective strategy.
- Trending topics. Explore your social media feeds, delve into industry reports, converse with your customers, or check out Exploding Topics. See if there’s anything new and noteworthy you can cover or leverage to put a fresh spin on an evergreen topic.
- Ideation tools. Consider using AI for idea generation. This is just one of many ways you can use AI for small business marketing.
Pro tip: Craft blog posts with the intention of repurposing them into ebooks later. You can transform a single post into an ebook or combine several into a longer one. This saves a lot of time!
Explore more ways to generate leads beyond ebooks with our free, definitive guide to lead generation!
2. Structure your content
Once you’ve determined your ebook topic, it’s time to plan the content and copy. Here’s how:
- Determine the ideal format. Will your ebook be a how-to guide, a listicle, a beginner’s guide, or a report? Many formats exist, and any choice is acceptable. Simply identify it early on to outline accordingly.
- Define themes and messaging: Before outlining, consider the brand messages and key value propositions about your product or service you want this guide to support. This differs from the guide’s topic. The topic is central, but you can approach it to showcase your expertise and trustworthiness naturally, reinforcing your products or services’ value.
- Craft your title. With your topic and key messaging in place, develop a title for your ebook. You can adjust it later, but having the core concept solidified helps anchor your content. For compelling title tips, explore these headline examples and tips.
- Outline the content. Unless you’re repurposing a blog post, create an outline. Outlining the entire ebook ensures a cohesive flow from beginning to end. Pro tip: Stay true to the ebook title’s promise. It’s easy to stray—we get caught up in writing and end up with a final product that deviates from the initial title. This is where outlining proves essential, keeping you on track to deliver what your ebook promises!
Click here to make a copy of a handy template for writing your book!
3. Develop the content
The next step in writing your ebook is to, well, write! Repurposing existing content makes this easy. If you’re writing from scratch, ensure it’s:
- Concise and clear. Being an “ebook” doesn’t necessitate excessive length. As with any copywriting, avoid “fluff” and filler words, getting straight to the point.
- Actionable. Don’t just explain the “what” or “why”—provide the “how”! This is where your ebook delivers true value.
- Digestible. Break down complex ideas into simpler ones. Employ short paragraphs, lists, sections, and headings for easy information absorption.
- Visual. No one enjoys a wall of text! At a minimum, incorporate stock images. Ideally, your visuals should illustrate concepts and provide examples related to the text.
Pro tip: You can include case studies and examples of your product/services in the ebook, but keep it minimal. Adding value through educational content is more effective for promotion than direct pitching.
4. Add the design elements
Now, it’s time for the finishing touches that make your ebook unique to your brand’s style. Don’t worry; you don’t need to be a designer!
- Give it a polished appearance. Professionalize your ebook with a table of contents, an introduction, a conclusion, and consistent headers/footers containing the ebook title, page numbers, and your logo.
- Create an attention-grabbing cover. Seek inspiration from browsing Canva’s ebook cover template library, scrolling through LinkedIn, or even conducting a Google Image search.
- Add callouts. Use callouts to highlight key points throughout the ebook. These could be supporting statistics, links to supplementary resources, or crucial points you want to emphasize.
- Create a CTA page at the end. Your ebook’s final page should feature a description of your business with a clear CTA, such as scheduling a consultation, booking a demo, or starting a free trial. Pro tip: While Canva and Adobe are excellent ebook creation resources, consider Google Slides! It’s user-friendly, and you can customize the dimensions for a portrait layout. HubSpot has some templates you can use.
5. Promote and share
Finally, it’s time to publish, distribute, and promote your ebook. To generate leads, gate it behind a form. This involves uploading the ebook to your CRM, creating a dedicated landing page with a form, and setting up the form to trigger a thank-you page and/or delivery email. Once your workflow is ready, utilize these channels for promotion and distribution:
- Search: Create an SEO-optimized landing page for organic search visibility, or write a supporting blog post with “teaser” information and a link to the guide. You can also run Google Ads for it.
It’s true…gated content appears in paid search results frequently!
- Social: Promote your ebooks across social media platforms through paid or organic posts. These can directly promote the ebook or share snippets of information or visuals from it.
- Email: Send an email to your database with a link to the landing page. Employ effective email copywriting techniques to boost open and click-through rates.
- Influencers: If you have mutually beneficial relationships with influencers, ask them to promote your ebook. Consider co-branded ebooks or featuring their quotes/commentary, which they might naturally promote to their audience.
- Website: Integrate call-to-action buttons throughout your website—especially your blog—using sidebars, nano bars, in-line CTAs, and more. This boosts site engagement and conversions.
Pro tip: Repurpose your ebook! Turn it into a webinar, use it for ads, create social media posts with facts from it, or break it down into blog posts. This generates more content while allowing you to link back to the ebook, driving traffic and downloads. (Even if the ebook repurposes existing content, the final product is usually different enough to be considered new.)
Clearly convey the value of your ebook using our free guide to unique value propositions!
Ebook examples
Here are some excellent ebook examples to draw inspiration from. 1. Intercom’s How Customer Service Metrics Are Evolving in the Age of AI is a fantastic example of a data-driven report, featuring easily digestible visuals and strong branding.
2. Shopify’s Ultimate Guide to Launching Your Own Online Bookstore (2024) is an ungated ebook, making it a valuable piece of SEO content.
3. Mailchimp’s How to Turn Clustomers into Customers with Personalization boasts a unique title and an eye-catching cover, while its landing page is optimized for SEO.
4. LocaliQ’s Best Call to Action Phrases Ever (& Why They Work) stands out with its fun animal theme. Plus, people love examples!
5. Hatch’s Preparing Your Outbound Contact Center for the AI Revolution effectively combines thought leadership and data, but the main reason for its inclusion is that it was created using Google Slides!
Ebook template
Need help getting started writing your ebook? Copy and paste this handy Google sheet ebook template to simplify the process!
Click here to make a copy of this ebook template!
Start writing your ebook
With these steps, expert tips, and examples, you now possess all the tools to write an ebook that resonates with your audience and fulfills your marketing objectives. Get ready to start writing and experience the power of valuable content. One last tip: Regularly audit your content to maintain a fresh ebook library and maximize the impact of each one!