Your B2B content marketing strategy consists of content for every stage of the buyer’s journey. You have content for brand awareness, lead generation, nurturing, and conversion.
Yet, one eBook can encompass all stages of the buyer’s journey in one valuable investment. Additionally, it lasts longer than many other strategies, increasing your ROI.
Learn the many benefits of eBooks for B2B marketing and why you should start creating quality eBooks for lead generation, nurturing, and conversion.
Key Takeaways:
- eBooks are long-form content in a downloadable format.
- Gating eBooks helps you capture leads and track what content leads consume for more accurate lead qualification.
- eBooks offer a flexible format to share across your platforms and channels.
- eBooks build authority to increase your chances of conversion.
How Is an eBook Different from Other Content Types?
About 51% of brands use eBooks for marketing. They differ from other website copies because of their usual PDF format, which allows your readers to download and read offline. They also differ from whitepapers because eBooks are more in-depth.
While eBooks are typically longer than blog content and whitepapers, the most effective eBooks for lead generation should remain clear and concise. Ideally, aim for length readers can consume in one sitting. This ranges from 1,500-2,500 words, keeping the read time under 10 minutes.
7 Benefits of Creating eBooks for Your B2B Content Marketing Strategy
Why should you add eBooks to your B2B content marketing strategy? Here are seven benefits to consider before you create a marketing eBook.
1. Generates Quality Leads
Lead generation is a top marketing goal for 91% of marketers. However, 37% of marketers also say it’s their biggest challenge.
eBooks help address this challenge by offering another way to target and generate quality leads.
Gated eBooks provide another valuable asset on your website that might entice buyers to exchange their contact information for access. You can also gather data for your database from current leads.
Ebooks allow you to target your audience by offering several assets written for a specific audience. Then, you can use the data you gather from the download to personalize your digital marketing.
For example, a marketing agency might have an eBook about marketing in the financial industry, while another eBook is about marketing in the legal industry. When leads download these eBooks, marketers can better segment those leads based on the eBooks they download, which helps them personalize B2B marketing strategies like account-based marketing.
Image from Ruler Analytics
2. Increases Brand Awareness
Websites, blog posts, and even social media have become mainstream in business. If marketers want to stand out for greater brand awareness, they must go beyond the expected content.
Because eBooks take longer to create, fewer brand and content creators publish them. This provides an opportunity for your brand to publish eBooks, distinguishing itself in a less saturated field.
Ebooks are also easier to share across dozens of online and offline platforms without the need for a constant internet connection and browser. This advantage enhances your brand’s potential reach, boosting your brand’s visibility.
3. Diversifies Your Content
B2B buyers typically consume three to five pieces of content before talking to a salesperson, with a significant 30% consuming over five.
The type of content you create can impact readers as much as how much content you create. A variety of content reaches your buyers across different channels. Some places to share your eBook PDF include:
- Blog posts
- Website resources
- Third-party sites
- Social media
- During online events like webinars
4. Builds Brand Authority
Quality eBooks add another layer of authority to your brand name. What constitutes a quality eBook? It’s content that’s well-researched, data-backed, and solves your buyers’ pain points, demonstrating your expertise in your field. Regularly publishing such content shows you’re a reliable brand, which increases your chance of a sale.
Image from Marketing Charts
To address topics that will position you as an authority, perform keyword research using tools like SEMrush and Buzzsumo. These platforms provide you with insights into trending topics and commonly asked questions your buyers ask online. Addressing these questions and topics provide you with an endless supply of eBook themes. Data mining tools also help you understand your customers’ pain points, which you can address through eBooks.
5. Digs Deeper into Industry Topics
Ebooks pair well with website content by digging deeper into blog posts or summarizing content series.
Blog posts are quick glimpses at topics, ranging from 500 to 1,500 words. Some brands with complex topics will even publish blog posts of up to 3,000 words.
If your topic is too extensive for a quick blog post, consider creating a companion eBook. This eBook can expand on the blog post topic, and you can promote it at the end of the blog post to generate leads.
Ebooks don’t need to include new information. Often, companies will publish a blog post series because the topic is too broad to include in one post. At the end of the series, you can compile those blog posts as chapters in an eBook so your readers can easily access all the information in one place.
6. Nurtures More Customers
Beyond lead generation, eBooks play a vital role in lead nurturing.
Collecting lead information from each eBook download helps you determine how much content your leads consume. This is harder to track with blog posts as readers can use different devices to access the content.
By monitoring content consumption, you can accurately determine when your leads become sales-qualified. Attaching eBooks to your email campaigns can also help you track the effectiveness of your emails.
7. Stays Relevant Longer
Blog posts have a short lifespan. Many businesses publish one or more posts a week to remain relevant. Even if your content remains relevant longer, many writers won’t cite a source unless the source is less than two years old.
Social media has an even shorter lifespan, with some posts losing relevancy within a day or two.
However, eBooks retain their value over a longer period, and some evergreen topics may remain relevant for several years. While some topics, like statistic-heavy content, might need annual updates, the enduring relevance of eBooks ensures you get a higher return on your investment, generating and nurturing leads for years.
Create Quality eBooks to Boost Your B2B Content Marketing
With a quality eBook, you can enhance your reach, facilitate lead nurturing and conversion, and generate higher quality leads, which you can segment more accurately.
Do you not have time to create eBooks?
No problem! Hiring a content marketing agency helps you keep up with your content marketing demands. Then, you can focus on your in-house marketing strategies and nurture the leads you generate from your eBooks.
