So, you’re interested in putting an eBook together for your finance company. How can you ensure this marketing strategy is going to be a success with your target audience, and achieve your goals?
At MarketingAdviser, our team create compelling content for our financial clients on an almost daily basis. Needless to say, this has given us some insight into what works with potential clients, and what improves search engine rankings for financial websites.
In this post, we’re going to share the essential steps you need to create a great eBook in finance and marketing. The thought of creating content like this can be overwhelming. However, when you break the project down into manageable chunks, it can actually be rewarding as well as a lot of fun.
#1 Choose your topic
This might sound basic, but it is actually quite tricky to choose a subject which will be seen as interesting, fresh and valuable by your target audience. The key consideration you need to start with is just that, however. Think about your target readership, and what they would want and find interesting.
Keep in mind why you are putting this eBook together. It is to generate further brand awareness, and to ultimately fuel your sales funnel by providing more leads for your business.
With this in mind, try and make your eBook tie into your existing content; i.e. that which is already present and working well on your other finance marketing channels (e.g. Facebook posts, your company blog etc.). Look at the posts and topics in particular which have worked well in the past in terms of engagement, and see if there is a common topic or theme which could unite them into an eBook.
Also, try and make use of online tools in your finance marketing. Google Trends, for instance, will allow you to ascertain the volumes of keywords, over time, that your target audience use in the search engine. If you notice increasing interest in a particular topic over time (e.g. equipment finance), then that could be a good potential topic on which to base your eBook.
#2 Plan your eBook Chapters
If you’ve ever written an extended essay or dissertation at university, you’ll likely be familiar with this step. You are potentially going to be writing thousands of words for this eBook, so it’s important that you plan what you are going to say, and order your thoughts into an appropriate structure.
Once you have your topic for your eBook, sit down and think of the interesting, relevant sub-topics which could serve as chapters. For instance, if your overall topic is “equipment finance”, perhaps some of your chapters could be “Types of equipment finance”, “pros and cons of equipment finance” and “what to look our for in an equipment finance provider”.
Sometimes in finance and marketing, it is helpful to think of an eBook as a series of related blog posts, put together into one seamless document. It can work to take previous content and “stick it together” like this, but just be careful that it doesn’t come across as artificial. It should flow nicely together.
#3 Design the eBook
There are some great templates readily available on the internet for you to download, using that as a means to create an eBook design. Other routes include solutions like Beacon.by, which allow you to “drag and drop” design elements onto a page in order to create a downloadable, eBook PDF.
There are different approaches to designing eBooks in finance and marketing, but one nice way forward is to have a standard “Chapter template” as a point of familiarity between each section or chapter. From there, enjoy the process of designing each page in a manner which conveys your message, and reflects your branding.
Be careful not to clutter the pages with too many images. Also, try and avoid pages which are dense with text. Break your copy into paragraphs, sub headings and bullet points for visual ease.
#4 Use colours and visuals
In an ideal world, eBooks should always reflect the colours of your overall brand. Some programmes will allow you to do this. Certainly, if you use a professional financial copywriter like ourselves, we will have access to the software which allows this to happen for you.
If you really can’t use your own brand colours, then be careful to relate your eBook to your brand through other visual means.
For instance, are there particular images that your brand uses on its other content and collateral, that can be integrated into your eBook throughout its pages? Your logo is an obvious visual focal point that you should have easy access to, but you might have other imagery available to you within your brand guidelines as well. Be creative and strategic with your imagery.
#5 Finance and marketing “Call to Actions”
Remember the purpose of your eBook? It is to produce leads for your sales team, so make sure your eBook isn’t just providing information to the reader without any invitation for them to do something with that information.
For instance, your eBook on equipment finance should include Call to Actions throughout the flow of the content – such as “Interested in getting equipment finance? Apply for a free quote today!”
From this CTa (call to action), you can provide a link to your finance application page on your finance website, for instance. This turns an interested reader into a potential lead who is meaningfully-engaging with your company and its value proposition.
