Ebooks are one of the best ways you can establish your authority and expertise in any niche. Chances are, you may have already published several blog posts or articles you can repurpose and include in your ebook. Or you’ve had several years of research and work experience to help you create something truly valuable.
Either way, these can be a great source of passive income for your business. But in order to sell your knowledge and make your ebook a hit, you’ll need the right marketing strategies in your arsenal.
Read on for 17 effective ebook marketing strategies (with examples) you’ll want to try in 2021.
Table Of Contents
17 ebook marketing strategies to try in 2021
1. Start with a quality ebook
Not all ebooks are created equal. If you want to succeed with yours, you’ll need to make sure it has great value for your readers. Not only will this help you build stronger relationships with your audience, but it also will make the ebook marketing process so much simpler.
Start by planning out the type of ebook you want to write, including the topic and the specific lessons and insights you want to impart to readers. Think of a way to present ideas in your own unique way: tap into your experiences and expertise, and make sure people have great takeaways after reading your book.
It would also help if your ebook looks good. If you’re not working with a designer and plan to create your ebook on your own, this list of free ebook template platforms will come in handy.
2. Set up your conversion funnel
After you’ve written the final draft, you’ll want to find a solution that’ll let you host, deliver, and sell your ebook.
In theory, this is something you could achieve by connecting several different platforms, like WordPress, WooCommerce, and an email marketing software provider. On top of that, you’d also probably need to set up Facebook or Google Ads to start driving people to your sales page.
As you can imagine, setting these up is quite complicated and time-consuming.
A better way is to build a marketing funnel using a tool like GetResponse Conversion Funnel that takes care of all these activities.
All you need to do is to pick a funnel template, upload your file, decide whether or not you want to use paid ads, customize the sales pages, and set up an email sequence.
The platform guides you step by step through the entire process and you don’t need to use any additional solutions to start marketing and selling your ebooks.
And you can build multiple types of funnels where you’re either collecting and nurturing your leads or driving them onto your sales page directly.
To learn more, check out our guide on how to sell digital products with GetResponse.
3. Craft a compelling sales page
One way to sell people on the value of your ebook is by telling them about it in a dedicated sales page.
In this sales page, be sure to include the main highlights from your ebook. What are the biggest takeaways your readers will pick up? What makes your ebook different from others? How will people benefit from your story and lessons in a major way?
After all, people form their opinion about your site and product in a fraction of a second. So if your ebook sales page doesn’t look clean and professional, visitors will likely turn away and never come back.
And don’t forget about a strong and clear call to action. Make the decision easy for your visitors, and convince them that buying your book is the right thing to do.
While it’s not necessarily about sales pages, this article shows some great examples of ebook landing pages and provides great tips on how you should design yours.
4. Tell everyone through social media
Social media can be a fantastic tool to make sure people know when your ebook is live.
Here are some ways you can do it:
- Schedule a series of posts informing your followers about the upcoming launch of your ebook
- Schedule individual posts (or Twitter storms) that discuss a particular topic covered in your book
- Host a Twitter chat and discuss a specific segment of your book
- Ask your followers for recommendations and ideas on how they’d solve a challenge you cover in your ebook
- Use ads to grab the attention of people who might not have about you
- Update your cover and background photos on your social media profiles
As a best practice, be sure to include visual mockups of your book. This adds a layer of tangibility for your audience, so they can imagine receiving something when they purchase.
Encourage others to share your ebook to their own networks as well, and stay active to answer any questions that may come up about your ebook.
Editor’s note: If you’re using GetResponse Conversion Funnel, creating social media posts and ads that match your template won’t be a challenge. All of the funnel templates come with ready-made designs you can use and edit with their Social Ads Creator app and Facebook ads.
5. Create a video about your ebook
A Wyzowl survey shows that more and more marketers are using video marketing to get more sales for their products each year. 92% of online marketers say that video is an important part of their marketing efforts, while 88% claim that video marketing has created a positive ROI for their business.
When creating a video about your ebook, talk about anything you might mention on your sales page. Use this as a chance to talk all about the main benefits and highlights from your ebook, including what you teach them by the end.
Videos can also be particularly helpful if you’re a first-time writer and haven’t got an established name. By posting your videos on social media, your sales page, email sequence, and in ads, your audience will familiarize themselves better and become more trusting of you.
6. Email your newsletter subscribers
The chances are you already have a list of engaged subscribers who value your content.
If these folks read your blog posts, join your webinars, or engage with you on social media – why not start promoting your ebook to them? They’re your perfect target audience.
Plus, they’re likely the ones who’ll spread the positive word of mouth and help you promote your ebook among their friends. You can further incentivize this behavior by offering them a special discount or early access to the book in exchange for their loyalty, engagement, and honest reviews.
Below, you’ll find two examples of what this approach could look like.
7. Repurpose sections of your ebook into other content formats
One way to increase interest in your ebook is by repurposing snippets and sneak peeks into other content formats. Perhaps you can create an infographic about any signature steps you tackle chapter by chapter. Or you can talk about your methodology in a webinar or slideshow.
How about a short newsletter promoted through a dedicated landing page? Writing a few blog posts about the book and the process of writing or promoting it wouldn’t hurt, too.
Could you perhaps do a reading of one section and publish them as soundbites? Quote images also perform well on social media, especially when audiences feel like they can resonate with whatever it is you’re saying.
Here are two examples that show you two ways to turn your ebook content into 1) a slideshow and 2) a YouTube video.
8. Partner up and co-promote your ebook
Another great ebook marketing strategy is to find a relevant partner in your niche and join forces with them.
Ideally, this would be someone that offers a similar type of service and has an audience that matches yours.
There are a few ways you could go about co-promoting your ebook.
The easiest one is to do the so-called lead magnet swap. You promote their ebook to your audience (e.g. via email) and they do the same for your content. Simple, effective, and very quick.
A slightly more complicated approach is to write the ebook together with your partner. You could agree to write half of the ebook each or have them write only a chapter or two. The challenging part is getting the tone and content quality right.
Naturally, in the latter scenario, you could even partner up with more than one brand. It makes the creation process a bit more complicated but having a few well-known brands on your cover will give you credibility. And that in turn will make the ebook marketing process simpler.
Here’s an example of a lead magnet swap campaign that GetResponse did with Visme.
9. Launch an email outreach campaign
Identify key people like bloggers, media personnel, and PR firms to help you get the word out about your ebook. Launch an outreach campaign that will get your ebook in front of your ideal audience via other people’s audiences.
Try doing a guest post on another blogger’s site, or get a press release published on a media publication. Either way, you can accomplish these by first reaching out via email – but be sure to do it right.
10. Build anticipation with a pre-launch
A pre-launch can help build hype by sharing sneak peeks and snippets while your ebook is in production. You can even offer a special pre-launch discount for anyone who orders the ebook in advance.
In your pre-launch, include mockups and snippets of your ebook. This way, you can build excitement around what’s coming, and how readers will get a load of new insights and ideas from your book.
Here’s one way to do it:
Celebrating 500 likes on Facebook:
Thank you so much for your support. To celebrate the crowd here is a cover reveal for the next short story for the Tales of Seann Àite!
Coming soon: Names of the Dead.
Catch the first entry on eBook and paperback:https://t.co/NYim2eyGPc pic.twitter.com/sBRFTHaqWv
— Tristan ❄️ (@TGrayWrites) September 30, 2020
All you need to do is set up a landing page (ideally under the same URL you’ll use later on to actually sell the ebook), communicate all the benefits of buying your book ahead of time, and start promoting it in your newsletter, social media, and ads.
What this approach could look like? Here’s one example, from a designer Mark Bowley:
Alternatively, if you already have a large following on social media or are active in relevant communities, consider using them to prelaunch your ebook. Asking fellow community members to leave a comment under your post to get notified when the ebook launches – or even get it before it’s live on the website – can generate the initial buzz that’ll help spread the word faster.
While not exactly for an ebook but an excel spreadsheet and a course, you can see what these types of posts look like.
11. Optimize your ebook for the search engines
You’ll want your ebook to get discovered organically, whether a user searches on an online store like Amazon or a search engine like Google. Because of this, you’ll want to optimize your ebook for SEO.
Include the right keywords in your title, meta-title, image ALT texts, and book description so users know that your ebook is something they’re looking for.
12. Get interviewed
If you can get yourself interviewed on a podcast or online show, that can be great mileage for your ebook. Reach out to publications and creators with a significant following, then offer to appear on the show to teach your expertise.
The topic you talk about on the show ought to relate to the content in your ebook, so viewers and listeners of these shows will be enticed to check out your ebook afterward.
The good thing is that podcast producers often place useful links in their show notes. This can also help your long-term marketing strategy, by increasing your website’s authority.
13. Write guest posts
This is a similar strategy but it’s often easier to achieve, especially if you’re just beginning to build a strong personal brand.
Identify blogs that are popular within your niche and serve the same audience as yours. Go through their previous blog posts and see if there are any gaps within their content that your expertise could help with.
When you do find something they may be interested in featuring, prepare an outline, and reach out to their editor. The chances are that if you’re not in a very competitive niche, they’ll be happy to accept your article free of charge. Plus, they’ll most likely promote it to their audience via social media and their newsletter.
This approach may be time-consuming but it has many benefits. It opens you up to new audiences, helps you build your personal brand, and helps you make important connections within your niche. Plus, the backlinks to your website will improve your domain authority, which in turn will help your SEO efforts.
14. Run paid ads
If you want to reach a broad audience in the shortest amount of time possible, then you’ll want to look into paid advertising.
Both Facebook and Google Ads offer interesting targeting options that let you reach people by their interests, location, behavior, the device they’re using, and more.
You can also choose from a range of types of ads, including text ads, display ads, and lead ads.
You’ll see that this strategy is incredibly popular among online marketers. That’s because it’s scalable, measurable, and you don’t need to have an existing audience to get started.
And if you’re using GetResponse, you’ll see that Facebook ads are built-into their platform, so you don’t need to be familiar with the Facebook Ads Manager dashboard.
You can learn more about paid advertising in their Facebook ads tutorial.
Read on to learn how InfoShare Academy gained 1200 high-quality contacts by creating and promoting their ebook developed for future IT developers.
15. Have a printed version
A printed version of your ebook can cater to a market of readers who prefer physical copies over digital. You don’t need to go all out with mass printing – even a limited edition of a printed version can be a compelling reason for someone to buy.
Consider keeping some physical copies as well to bring around at events you’re invited to speak at or use these as a way to build deeper relationships with other entrepreneurs. Another way to use them is to offer your newsletter subscribers the chance of winning a physical copy of your book in exchange for their engagement.
16. Offer it for free
An ebook can be a great lead magnet that you can offer for free to get people to sign up for your email list.
This way you’ll get their contact details first and will be able to nurture and convert them into paying customers later.
An ebook landing page can help you showcase your content and maximize conversions. For best results, consider creating a few chapters as a preview and include reviews from those who’ve already downloaded the ebook.
Giving your ebook away to any important influencers may also help you get more mileage. Or share it with a small group of people for free in exchange for testimonials and reviews that will later help you get more sales.
Offering your ebook for free and nurturing your leads is a long-term strategy but it can lead to great results.
17. Give a money-back guarantee
There are a few benefits to offering a money-back guarantee. First, people are more likely to want to purchase if they know they can return the product if they’re unhappy. Next, customers who are able to return the product and get a refund report more satisfaction in their overall experience, so they’re less likely to feel like transacting with your brand was a negative one.
Set a limit for about 7 or 14 days for your money-back guarantee, and state this clearly on your sales pages. Also show customers how they can request a refund if they were unhappy with the ebook, so the process is streamlined and simpler for everyone.
An ebook is a great way to not only get passive income but also to get more loyal customers and fans who believe in your authority.
Use the tips above to help you market your ebook in 2021 and beyond, so you can make more sales the productive way.
And if you’re looking for a set of tools that’ll help you sell knowledge, be sure to check out GetResponse.