Before we delve into how hiring e-book writing services and e-book writers for your e-book can help your business, let’s first talk about brand awareness and why you should give it due importance.
What Is Brand Awareness?
Brand awareness is more than a concept. It’s a gauge that tells you just how much your audience or patrons know about you as a business and as a brand entity. Building upon the same, it is a measure of how familiar people are with your offerings, whatever they may be.
Businesses tend to make a mistake when it comes to understanding this idea. They feel that brand awareness is inherently baked into how they deal with customers and how they engage via different platforms. What’s more is that by delivering quality products and services, businesses feel their job is done.
While this isn’t a complete departure from the ethos, it is certainly not a complete definition. When it comes to brand awareness, companies must step out of the limiting parameters of the traditional “create and sell” business model. It is now dated at best, as brands realize the importance of permeating the lives of their customers, both current and prospective, by engaging with them through other means.
Some brands, for instance, partake in on-ground activities such as sponsored events. Others use social media to keep followers engaged. Separate budgets are set aside and allocated in order to run paid advertisements. This includes influencer marketing, where bloggers and vloggers with huge followings are paid to run campaigns. All this adds to what we call the brand voice.
When we talk of businesses, especially entrepreneurial ventures, creating brand awareness can be quite intimidating. It’s like a whole new territory to conquer, and you might not know where to begin.
One of doing this is through e-books. Here are the reasons why.
E-Books Lend Credibility
E-books immediately make you credible in your customers’ eyes. Even if someone isn’t a current patron, there is a high chance that after coming across an e-book written by you, they will see you in a completely different light.
You might think this statement borders on hyperbole, but e-books are to brand awareness what research papers are to medical professionals. Each adds value to either profession, affording the writer much-deserved credibility.
Of course, we must not ignore the fact that we live in a time where self-publishing is rampant. While self-publishing itself is not the problem, businesses do make the mistake of either writing an e-book in-house or not doing their due diligence when it comes to hiring an e-book writer. This is precisely why it’s important to outsource this task to a professional e-book writing service to help meet your goal.
Furthermore, your current and prospective clients need to know exactly why you’re an authority in your field. Consider this example. If you’re running a business that offers proofreading and editing services, you’re going to be one among thousands of others who offer the same. Some businesses might even offer a whole lot more for cheaper. How can you possibly compete in such a saturated market? What can you do to set yourself apart? How can you prove to clients that you are the one to approach for their proofreading and editing tasks? How can you go about eliminating any doubts from their minds as to how you have the final say when it comes to everything pertaining to the written word?
You guessed it. Write an e-book on the subject.
Another solid reason to hire a professional e-book writing service for the job is so that they can make sure you dot all the i’s and cross the t’s. There are many professionals who simply don’t have the time to write an e-book, let alone make sure it’s ready to be published. You want your final offering to be error-free and polished. And if you happen to have a writing and editing business, your e-book can also serve as a sample of what clients can expect. Talk about killing two birds with one stone.
E-Books Make Room for Collaborations
It goes without saying that if you’re business owner, it is highly probable that you’ve done more than a fair bit of research in identifying your target market. You are also likely to have tons of information pertaining to your direct and indirect competitors and the products and services that they offer. Additionally, you may also make an effort to stay on top of current trends within the industry as well as what relevant influential personalities are saying.
While running your business is a priority, you must also dedicate enough time to stay connected with authority figures within the domain in which you operate. This is not difficult at all, given the easy access granted to us by social media.
Following such personalities is not enough. You must reach out to them, engage with their posts, and re-tweet and share their content. Do all this with the intention to capitalize on this professional relationship of sorts in the future.
When you get down to writing an e-book, you can reach out to these authority figures and formally request them to add to it. Remember to be polite, professional, and respectful if they say no. Even if they choose not to collaborate, you can consider making a backup request asking them to perhaps add to the blurb or write the foreword.
Don’t be apprehensive to do so. Unless you ask, the answer will always be no. You really have nothing to lose in this situation. More often than not, the individual you’re asking is going to feel incredibly honored and accept your proposal.
At this point, you should thank your lucky stars. Your e-book now has even more credibility by way of this collaboration. In terms of brand awareness, you will be well on the way to becoming a thought leader within the industry. Furthermore, by associating a renowned name with your e-book, consumers will immediately hold you and your business in high regard. After all, a person is known by the company they keep.
That’s not all. This collaboration will let other industry leaders know who you are and what you do, thus paving the way for more fruitful collaborations in the future.
And finally, your collaborator will also market the e-book on their social media platforms. Don’t forget to factor in the increased engagement and awarenessthat will then trickle down to your brand.
E-Books Help Repurpose Content
Let’s talk about this by opening with an example.
Humans of New York. There are very few people who are clueless about HONY, which is how it’s known across social media.
When Brandon Stanton started this photoblog in November 2010, he began with one simple idea. To tell people’s stories using his camera, the gift of gab, and the art of storytelling. Fast forward to the present day and HONY has become a brand in itself. So much so that it now has several coffee-table books available for purchase.While they’re not e-books, the example is nevertheless a study of how you can repurpose existing content that has done well with your consumers.
In this example, the HONY brand reached a level of popularity that prompted publishers to push coffee-table books. Whether or not Stanton had this set as a long-term goal is irrelevant. The real takeaway is that his idea had the legs to move forward,and there has been no looking back since. It had what it takes to attract people’s attention, and the brand has even famously run successful crowd-funding campaigns for individuals and businesses alike. The point being, Stanton is a trusted figure who believed in his idea.
When it comes to repurposing content, sift through all your digital content to see what posts garnered the most engagement, which ones were shared more, and what kind of content got the most comments. This will serve as a good starting point to determine the style, voice, and language of your e-book.
Furthermore, this exercise will also help you figure out what topics you should touch upon in your e-book. This rough outline is what you should share with your e-book writer or the e-book writing service you’ve hired for the task.
Most importantly, this will also extend the currency of your content, and convert readers into customers.
E-Books Help Expand Your Email List
Everyone knows just how important this is. Getting access to genuine email addresses and customer contact information is key for any brand. E-books are a surefire way to go about this.
There are businesses that offer free content as part of an opt-in strategy. It is not uncommon for them to offer e-books and newsletters. No matter what you’re offering, you have to make sure it’s something of great value. It has to be attractive enough for people not to pass on it.
Customers are generally able to download the content in question upon entering their email address. Some companies email a download link to customers once they enter it. The latter is a better option because customers then have the answer to why they’re being asked to type in their email address. And yes, some people are averse to doing so, so make sure you go in with a valid reason that invites few questions, if at all.
You can then start using these emails for targeted advertising and promotional campaigns. Make sure not to go overboard with it because your customers will have the option to unsubscribe. Plan out a strategic campaign to build brand awareness that does more to inform and build curiosity in the minds of your consumers. Don’t make them feel cornered and run the risk of having them unsubscribe to your emails.
How Can an E-Book Writing Service Help?
Let’s now look at some of the ways professional e-book writing services can help up your ante in the corporate world.
Original Content
E-book writing services come with the guarantee that they will provide original, unique content for your e-book. Not only are they skilled at using and extrapolating any research you share with them, but they are also adept at carrying out their own research should you request it.
E-book writers are in the business of using words to get their point across, and it is a skill they have mastered across diverse writing projects and subjects.
Of course, there are plenty of e-book writing services that claim to do the same, so it’s best to ask for writing samples prior to confirming an order with them. The last thing you need is a marred reputation due to plagiarized content that misses the mark in more ways than one.
Editing and Proofreading
Even though pretty much all e-book writing services offer this as a standalone, it comes as part of any writing package you sign up for.
This also applies to any content that you’ve written for the e-book. E-book writers will not plug it in without a round of proofreading and editing, and will make sure the language, tone, and voice are consistent with the rest of the content.
Formatting
E-book writing services will make sure your e-book is ready to be published. You can discuss where you intend to publish your e-book, and not only will they format it according to your preferences, they will also come forward with helpful suggestions and advice.
They are generally well versed with different publishing platforms and the formatting specifications of each, so you should find yourself in capable hands.
Conclusion
If you were of the opinion that e-books can’t help build brand awareness, this article has hopefully done enough to put your misguided assumptions to rest.
If you’re a business owner, it will serve you well to consider the many ways in which e-books can help you rope in more business, build brand recall, and retain customers.
In a world that is getting more competitive by the second, you need to do all you can to stay ahead.
A Sr. Editor at Ghost eBook Writers, a professional writing agency that provides quality eBook proofreading, editing, and writing services to a wide range of businesses. They have a team of experts who provide well-researched and written content for businesses.