How to Create and Disseminate a Compelling eBook

It used to be that the closest most companies came to acting like publishers was the release of  their product catalog, sales one sheets, and snail mail newsletters.

That’s no longer the case. Today, forward thinking companies engage in content marketing initiatives that make them powerful publishing houses, producing quality content that’s relevant both to their target customer segments and industry influencers.

And while a lot of companies have jumped aboard the blogging bandwagon, far fewer have engaged in the more intensive — and sometimes more rewarding — publishing of an eBook.

It’s time for that to change. As part of your content development strategy, eBooks can aid in generating new leads, developing thought leadership, and building buzz about your company or brand. Best of all, they’re not as backbreaking to produce as most marketers think.

Just as important to marketers, eBooks have the potential to become viral sensations. They’re easy to share and if readers find them useful, they’ll likely tweet or blog about them, turning a few hundred views into a few thousand overnight.

One great example is marketing strategist David Meerman Scott’s eBook, The New Rules of Viral Marketing. To date, it’s been downloaded more than one million times and has led to hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking engagement revenue. That’s a significant return on investment from one eBook.

So how can you harness the power of an eBook? We’ve just completed our first one, so I have some fresh ideas in mind to share.

First, don’t be afraid to recruit guest contributors and industry experts to help out with creating content for the publication. We were fortunate enough to have content marketing aficionados Joe Pulizzi, Ann Handley, and Jonathan Kranz contribute to our eBook. Use your own network to leverage possible resources and assemble brainpower before you get started.

As you begin building the framework of the eBook and develop the content for it, here are the 10 most important things to keep in mind:

1. Understand your audience and their pain points to ensure a high level of customer engagement.
2. Find an experienced designer who has created eBooks in the past.
3. Hire an outstanding copywriter to finesse your draft copy.
4. Finalize all written content before entering the design phase.
5. Format in a landscape orientation.
6. Layout all of the content so that you can visualize the eBook before the design process commences.
7. Require multiple review steps and utilize checklists.
8. Ask for expert feedback.
9. Include quotes or unique content from industry thought leaders.
10. Document a release and promotion plan.

That’s a very basic checklist of steps you’ll want to follow. Producing an eBook can be a more labor intensive undertaking than some other forms of content, but it can also be one of the most rewarding. Pay attention to detail and do your homework — the effort will be worth it.

Propelling Your eBook Forward

If you need an all-encompassing resource for creating your first eBook — or producing better ones — I highly recommend checking out Jonathan Kranz’s The eBook Ebook.

Not only does Kranz specify why eBooks are important (access to positive press, sparking social media buzz, and acting as a pipeline accelerator), but he also includes key tips that address the creation, production, and dissemination of your eBook.

One of the highlights is Kranz’s list of 10 practical tips for truly successful eBooks. You can check out all of the great ideas by downloading the publication, but here are my four favorite:

• Get the PR team on board from the start: Your PR staff should have established relationships with the influential press that speaks to your market. With collaboration from that PR team, you can harvest ideas for eBooks that will appeal to those influencers and prepare a plan of action for marketing it to them when once it’s released.

• Break your brand standards: You don’t want your eBook to look like every other piece of marketing material you’ve produced in the past. Buck your brand standards and create something unique that will stand out to the reader.

• Reach out to guest contributors: Just because you’re the publisher doesn’t mean you have to be the sole author, too. Including sidebars from respected contributors, for example, is a great way to establish credibility and break up monotony.

• Consider incorporating multimedia: There’s a reason they’re called eBooks. Because you’re distributing them electronically, don’t be afraid to consider incorporating multimedia elements within your eBooks. That might include embedded video or flash.

So what are you waiting for? Once you’ve consumed all of Jonathan’s great advice and published your first eBook, get it out to as many people as possible. Promote it on your website and social media networks, send it to any media contacts you have developed, and share it on industry forums and blogs.

If you’ve published an eBook that explicitly and uniquely addresses a customer pain point (without pitching your product or company!), it just may become the next big viral hit.