How to use e-books to increase sales?

 

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E-books have been known to be quite useful in allowing companies to engage with   their target audience most effectively and thereby drive leads in a major way. This is especially true of B2B businesses, who are known to make e-books the spearhead of their content marketing strategy. The thing with e-books is that these can be useful tools of engagement right through the sales process and not just at the time of lead generation. This is because e-books provide you with the wherewithal to address buyer pain points by way of delving into the myriad issues that matter to your prospects.

Let us look at the various ways an e-book may help provide extremely useful information about matters that concern them to your prospects:

-Guides for beginners

-Industry trends to watch out for

-Strategies for scaling up

-Case studies

-Features and benefits

-Onboarding guides

-FAQs

-Troubleshooting tips

-Driving ROI

-Stories of customer service

Promotion and Distribution

The creation of a stellar e-book is only an important first step. Equally importantly, if not more is promoting and distributing it in a strategic manner allowing you to catch the attention of the right target audience, thereby, letting you drive leads and sales. Here’s how you might achieve that-

1. Integrating it with your website

The e-book in question needs to be integrated into your website in a prominent manner. It needs to be present on the landing pages, mentioned in the blog posts and also made available in the resource libraries. It would also be a good idea to use striking visuals and descriptions to promote the e-book effectively.

2. Social media marketing

Promoting your e-book via social media marketing is a proven way of getting your target audience to notice it. Sharing important excerpts and takeaways along with a link to download the e-book on all your social media channels is a good way to attract the attention of your target audience. You may also consider using targeted advertising to connect with them.

3. Participating in webinars and events

Webinars and events are great platforms for plugging your e-book by offering it as an exclusive download for those attending the webinar or event in question.

4. Email marketing

Your email list can be very effectively used to promote your e-book to those who you think might be interested in getting it. This is a highly effective way of promoting your e-book to those who have opted to receive your emails.

5. Enter into partnerships

Collaborating with other businesses from the same industry to promote each other’s e-books is also a great way of reaching across to one another's target audience.

6. Lead generation forms

Make the download of your content subject to the sharing of contact information to enable the capturing of leads. You would do well to use forms that are to the point and ask only for information that is of use to you.

Implementing the above tactics on a consistent basis can help you leverage your e-books as potent sales driving tools. If you haven't made e-books an essential part of your content marketing strategy, it is definitely time that you did.

How can a solopreneur leverage storytelling to grow their business?

Most solopreneurs become solopreneurs for a reason. There is the urge to prove that you can earn your living on your own without the infrastructural, moral and financial support provided by a regular job. There can also be the incentive of being left alone to follow your passion or dream and try and turn it into a thriving business. It could also be driven out of your desire to not have to deal with office politics or the pressures and tensions associated with a regular 9 to 5 job. What helps is that advancements in technology have made it person for a single person to easily and effectively carry out tasks and functions that would require a team of people to accomplish in the past.  The fact that there are many examples of solopreneurs finding fabulous success and even creating one person unicorns makes solopreneurship stand out as a doable and viable business and self-employment option.

However, the most challenging part of a solopreneur’s journey is that of scaling up or achieving substantial growth. Business growth is almost always driven by the size of a business enterprise’s network and this is where a solopreneur might find himself or herself hamstrung in comparison to regular businesses.  One of the most effective ways for a solopreneur to grow their network is by leveraging the ancient art of storytelling. Story telling has been used by mankind since the time of cave dwellers, who whispered tales around camp fires and drew paintings on cave walls depicting things like hunting scenes with the intent of teaching others to acquire the skills necessary to get along and survive in life.

Every solopreneur has a deeply personal tale about what motivated them to embark on their entrepreneurial journey which they can use  to forge a connection with their target audience and, thereby grow their network.  Let us look at how a solopreneur can leverage storytelling to scale up their business in a major way by expanding their network of connections-

Use Story Telling to Forge Authentic Bonds and Generate Trust

Share your unique origin story in an open and sincere manner with those you think constitute your target audience. Let them, for instance, know what drove you to chuck the security of a regular job and dive into the uncertain and highly challenging world of solopreneurship. Let them, for sure, know of the primary reason that made you start your business. It could be anything ranging from your passionate belief in your business idea to your utter disillusionment with conventional jobs. Share both your frustration with your old job and the fact that you think that you would be much better off using your considerable skills to resolve client issues or problems in the most effective manner working as your own boss rather than as part of an organised hierarchy.  This will help give your brand a human face. By sharing your vulnerability you will come across as both relatable and authentic, which in turn will help you forge a long term bond with your likely business prospects.

Expand Your Reach and Build a Community

The best way for a solopreneur to expand their network is by going beyond listing the features of one’s product or service and actually sharing the tale behind how they positively impacted the clients’ lives. Even better, you could invite your audience to share their own stories pertaining to a brand or service (not necessarily yours) in that niche. This will help forge a sense of community that goes beyond mere commercial considerations. Another thing that you could do is to share stories pertaining to your collaborations with other solopreneurs and businesses. This will help your brand connect with an ever larger audience.

Differentiate Your Brand

You can use storytelling to effectively craft a narrative around your brand that is less about selling your wares and more about connecting emotionally with your clients. Let them know what your mission and core values are with regard to your brand so that they can get emotionally invested in it. Creating an emotional resonance allows you to craft a compelling brand story that differentiates your brand from the competition.

Ensure that your storytelling happens across platforms-social media posts, long form blogs, videos, podcasts, case studies, e-books and emails. What is important is that the messaging be uniform and consistent across the platforms enabling you to firm up your brand identity.

Call-to-action

You should leave scope for inviting a call to action from the consumers of your stories. Story driven content marketing in the shape of blog posts, videos, podcasts and social media content allows you to advocate for your brand and product or service without sounding the least bit salesy.

Storytelling is more than sharing an interesting tale for a solopreneur. It is, in fact, strategic asset to be leveraged for building relationships and expanding your network in an organic manner. It helps you distinguish your brand in a highly cluttered marketplace in a very authentic and, therefore, impactful way. Solopreneurs can use storytelling to find growth and success all on their own by growing and cultivating a loyal group of followers who become instrumental in their scaling up substantially.

The Growing Importance of Content Marketing in the Age of Influencers

 

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The growing importance of influencers in leveraging content to promote goods, services and brands cannot be underestimated. In fact influencer marketing is a sub-genre of content marketing which involves using the services of influencers by way of their creating myriad kinds of content in order to persuade their loyal audience of followers to engage with the brand in question.

What does using influencer created content do for a brand?

Content created by influencers helps a brand find a voice in a market that is highly cluttered in terms of brands vying for consumer attention. This kind of content has an immense advantage over other kinds of content in that its target audience is highly engaged with their brand. The latter love to consume such content as it speaks to their interest. This makes it easy for brands to piggy ride on such attention and draw attention to their products and services.

Influencer created content is very good at

(i)                 Generating brand credibility.

(ii)                Real time engagement with target audience.

(iii)               Establishing brand authenticity.

(iv)              Reducing spending on outreach when compared with traditional means.

(v)                Increasing product sales.

(vi)              Enhancing customer loyalty.

Content Marketing via Influencers-The Way to Go

The thing that makes influencer marketing outreach stand apart from other forms of marketing outreach is that it helps promote brands, products and services without being overtly promotional. The other thing about influencer created content is the fact that there is a much greater chance of it being discovered by people who search for specific hashtags. This translates to a much enhanced reach for the brand in question.

Influencer created content can help with a business’s SEO rankings as well. This is on account of the fact that such content often finds mention at several places in the online universe. Many these could then possibly link back to the business website in question leading to higher organic traffic received by it.

Besides, influencers are the right medium to engage with a brand’s users across popular social media channels like YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram with the added advantage of having the influencer in question become one’s spokesperson and advocate. This is by far one of the most effective ways of active outreach to a brand's target audience in a highly competitive market scenario. If done right influencer outreach cuts through the clutter and delivers quick and big results delivering big bang for every buck spent.

The Era of Solopreneurship is coming

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The way we look at jobs and employment is going to fundamentally change in the years ahead on account of the rise and rise of artificial intelligence or AI. With more and more job roles and functions typical of large organisations employing large numbers of people being taken over by AI, there will be fewer and fewer jobs and occupations that we have known in the traditional sense available to people of employable age.

They will perforce have to turn to solopreneurship in order to keep themselves gainfully employed. In this AI dominated and driven future, people will need to learn to develop skills that are in sync with AI and can, thereby, effectively leverage the technology and obtain optimal benefits from it. The idea would be to make an ally of AI and not a rival.

 

What will be the skills in demand in this new age era of solopreneurship?

 

1.       Superior Cognitive Skills

While AI can process humongous amounts of data and discern patters, it does not possess the ability to take a nuanced and out of the box view of intractable and highly complex problems and situations. This is where a human brain can step up to the plate and help make strategic decisions even when there is incomplete or inadequate information available. The ability to be both creative and innovative can help humans think about ever new possibilities and scenarios leading to the development of whole new original concepts.

Solopreneurs with the ability to come up with a clear and farsighted vision for their business ventures and adapt their strategies to an environment that has been shaped by rapid and incremental advancements in AI will thrive.

 

 

2.       Interpersonal and Emotional Skills

AI for all its abilities and capabilities will never be able to foster genuine connections with clients, vendors. suppliers and others thereby hampering the building of trust and the likelihood of meaningful collaborations. Active listening, empathy and the ability to engage in persuasive communication will give solopreneurs a leg up in terms of building long term relationships and managing complex collaborations.

Humans, unlike AI possess EQ which will give them the edge over the latter when it comes to things like rapport building and conflict resolution.

 

3.       Leadership

Even though solopreneurship will likely be the norm in the not so distant future, individuals will need to be self-motivated and to that extent will need to learn to lead themselves effectively in order to perform effectively. At the same time, they will need to learn to be excellent at motivating and inspiring the people they need to deal with. These range from collaborators and clients to their AI powered virtual assistants!

 

4.       AI Skills

Don’t walk into the rain without an umbrella! That does not mean that everybody has to become an AI nerd. One does, however, need to understand how one can leverage AI for better business opportunities and growth. It would, also make eminent sense to become proficient at using AI tools that can help automate processes, carry out data analysis, and help with marketing as well as customer service.

 

Look out for the future-it is solopreneurship in era of AI

 

Most jobs and professions that we see around us like those of teachers, lawyers, engineers, coders, writers, architects, accountants and even doctors are going to see a gradual and incremental takeover by AI. This may be good for society or bad- we don’t know yet. But the movement in that direction is inevitable and inexorable.

In a scenario like that solopreneurship is likely to take the place of the jobs that form the bulk of the middle class white collar employment that a large number of us aspire to. We need to make our young people prepare themselves for the future that is coming.