Long-form content remains a powerful way to reach new targets or engage prospective customers. But the most effective ebooks don’t just talk at the audience. They participate in a conversation with them. You want your reader to walk away having learned something new, understanding your business, and thinking about how your business can work for them. But how do you achieve this? You need to create an engaging, thought-provoking ebook.
At MarketSmiths, we’ve written an ebook or two (or dozens)—and we know what sparks curiosity and what converts. To engage, educate, and inspire prospective customers, look no further than the following tips.
Know who you’re speaking to
The first step to making your ebook relevant and useful is to identify a target segment. Are you targeting customers at the top, middle, or bottom of the funnel? Customers at the bottom of your funnel won’t want to receive introductory materials on why your business is relevant to them, just as new or unengaged targets won’t want to receive a full sales pitch from you.
Identify the needs of this audience, their pain points, and what they need to hear. This helps your copywriters directly address this segment. By tailoring your content to the needs of a specified audience, you can hone in on a purpose that speaks directly to them and lead to greater conversions down the line.
Root content in research
When you release an ebook, you’re automatically labeling your company as experts in the topic. Those reading your ebook expect you to be an authority. To build credibility, you need facts—especially when it comes to positioning your business. The more internal statistics you can present, the better: this helps establish you as a leader in the category, with hard evidence to fortify what you say.
If you can plan a few months ahead of your ebook release date, aim to collect data. This could be anything from crafting a survey that speaks to the issues customers may be facing or sending out an email to collect open-ended responses from your email database.
Make it interactive
The most successful ebooks offer tangible tools, tips, and pullout activities that draw the reader in to use their imagination or participate on a deeper level. This goes back to the idea of having a conversation with your audience: get them involved, and they’ll be paying attention.
Interactive tools can also help make the information you’re presenting more accessible and clear. Perhaps you’re teaching business owners how to calculate their ad spend. Why not add a calculator to the page and walk them through how to do it? Or maybe you’re helping restaurant owners pin down a location. Try offering fun multiple-choice quizzes to help them decide what features are important.
Use copy to guide visual design
Think of words as brushstrokes and the design as a canvas: copy should come first to guide the direction of the ebook. Your copywriters may not be designers—but they know about user experience. Let them create copy that guides the user’s eye and takes them on a visual journey.
The design is critically important but it is structured by the roadmap that is the content within. This is an opportunity to highlight interactive elements, make the content clickable, and create a three-dimensional experience.
Remember that less can be more—sometimes it’s better to use simple illustrations and visuals to communicate your point. Don’t load too much onto the page; let the words jump out at your reader with ease.
Bringing long-form to life
At MarketSmiths, we’re a motley crew—former journalists, playwrights, marketing executives, professors, lawyers, and more—who have chosen to focus all our expertise on helping you create exceptional long-form content. From research rigor to storytelling finesse, from investigative insight to a touch of wit, we bring every skill to bear to help you build trust and deliver genuinely valuable, informative, and engaging content that resonates with your audience. Let’s talk.
