Across May and June 2020, I worked on three electronic books.

Don’t know what an e-book is? An e-book can help your business talk to your audience in a respectful, educational way. It’s like classy marketing that no one can diss.

Here’s everything you need to know:

• An electronic book is a digital publication, usually 10-30 pages in length.
• If set up correctly, an e-book can be given to customers via your website, or sent to your mailing list with a few clicks.
• An e-book can have a paywall and be exclusive, or it can be freely and cheaply given to your audience
• The most common and practical format to distribute an e-book is PDF (portable document format), because it’s searchable, copyable, readers can flip through the pages easily and it’ll display on most devices
• Need an e-book written, proofed or edited? Contact mike@kiwiwords.co.nz / 021 299 0984. 

The e-books I wrote in May and June included:

• A guide to an Auckland renovator/building company with personal messages from the founder and lots of case studies. The purpose: To give past, present and future customers detailed information and persuasive photos to demonstrate the thoughtful solutions offered by the company
• A guide from a Kaitaia realtor about how and why people can or should sell their own houses. The purpose: To let the reader know that our expert is available to provide sales services if, after having read the book, the reader is still finding the job too challenging
• A children’s book about evolutionary biology called My Animal Family. The purpose: education and entertainment (I’ll be trying to get an experienced publisher to put this book in front of children around the world, but until then, I need an easily-sendable document, created with Adobe, which can have its text easily updated.)

 

The e-books I created for clients this year had the following in common:

• Landscape orientation, white background
• Easy to print if the business wants to put a paper copy in a customer’s hands (high resolution photos; large headings)
• 2000-6000 words, meaning not so brief that the book doesn’t leave an impression, and not so long that the reader gets lost or bored.
• Drafted on Google Docs. Google Docs is perfect because it’s simple to set up, easily shareable and editable, and you can save your e-book as a PDF or Word doc any time you like.

 

The differences between these e-books were the following:

• The renovation expert’s e-book identified ten customer segments, and focused on visual proof with calls to action and bold, clear headings. The takeaway message: the renovator can provide the building work required to create a customer’s dreams
• The realtor’s e-book downplayed calls to action, with a more biographical storytelling approach, and a soft sell. The persuasive message: The realtor told the story of how he became a master expert real estate salesman, learning from his mistakes, letting the reader know that he/she could have the same learning journey

 

Typically, e-books are used to achieve the following:

• When a customer is sitting on the fence about using your services, an e-book which contains persuasive, carefully thought-out information should convince a prospective customer to say Yes
• An e-book sent out occasionally will remind a customer that you would like the customer’s business
• E-books build expertise – they tell the world you know your trade thoroughly enough to write a whole book about it
• E-books are intelligent advertising.
• E-books add thoughtfulness as one of your brand qualities, while your competition/opposition appear less intelligent than you if they haven’t published an e-book
• E-books are simple to share. A converted customer can easily share your book with a yet-to-be-converted customer.

 

In previous years, I’ve created the following for clients:

• A Northland property management company wanted ebooks persuading warm customers to rent out their houses
• Northland DHB asked for my input on creating a number of health publications, usually in PDF and printable layout
• I’ve helped a housing project in Te Kauwhata create PDF ebooks to help persuade warm customers to say Yes.
• I’ve turned a number of family memoirs into e-books and published these in print and on media such as Issuu, which is flippable and easy to share with a single click.

Want an e-book written? Want me to proofread your e-book?

Email mike@kiwiwords.co.nz / phone 021 299 0984.