3 Ways a Cover Image Can Promote Your Ebook

Online marketing0 comments

As I’ve mentioned in my previous blog, 5 Steps to Building Your Email List, offering  a giveaway such as an Ebook on your website is a great way to encourage people to sign up to your mailing list.

When creating your Ebook, content is key – that’s the reason why people are downloading the guide.  However in order to encourage people to download it, you need to make the offer compelling and one way to do that is to add a cover image.

Now you may think that having a front cover is just cosmetic.  But it’s essential if you want to make your Ebook look professional and promote it effectively to your online contacts. 

So here are 3 ways a cover image can promote your Ebook.

Increases value.  You may be only offering a short article or guide to your subscribers, but you want to make them think that they’re getting something of value.  This will be visible in the content but you can increase the perceived value of the Ebook by ensuring that it looks high quality.  One of the best ways of doing this is to add a front cover image.

Promotes brand.  You are obviously using giveaways to promote your brand. You can design the cover so that it matches your company colour scheme and includes your logo. This helps to raise brand awareness with your subscribers and they will be more likely to come back to your website if they’re looking for further information related to your Ebook.

Marketing tool. You want to encourage people to sign up on your website by drawing their attention to the giveaway. As most people are visual, a great way to do this is to add an image of the Ebook on to the sign up form.  You will need to have a cover image first and then create the book image from that using software such as eCover Software Pro. You can then use this book image on any materials you use to market your Ebooks.

So if you’re planning to use Ebooks as an incentive for people to sign up to your mailing list then make them stand out by creating a professional cover image.

And if you don’t have the time or skills to design and format your ebooks yourself, then check out our Ebook Marketing service.  We can format and design your Ebook content and cover image so that it looks professional and matches your company branding.  We can also create a thumbnail book cover image which you can use to promote the Ebook on your website. Click on the arrow to find out more.
 

How to Design an Ebook: The Basics

How to, Online marketing0 comments

If you’re someone who’s been writing blogs for a while now, you’ve probably got to the point where you want to start collating your information into a format that you can promote on a regular basis, or even monetise to get a residual income.

Well, the best way to do this is via Ebooks.  They are a great way to share your expertise and knowledge to a wider audience as well as provide valuable information to your contacts that they can take away and use.

However, you need to make sure that yours look professional and stand out from the crowd.  You don’t have to hire a graphic designer to do this; it can be done with the design tools in Word.

When thinking about Ebook design, here are some basics that you need to consider:

• Consistent design.  The design of the Ebook should match the same colour scheme as your website and any other marketing materials.  This includes headers/footers, and headings and links within the text itself.
• Make it eye-catching.  Create a professional looking front cover image for the Ebook.  You can easily create this in Photoshop if you have it or using free design tools such as Gimp, and again, this should match your company branding.
• Easy to read.  Choose a clear and easy to read font such as Arial or Verdana.  Keep the same font throughout the main text, but use a different font for the headings if you want to make them stand out.
• Keep paragraphs short.  If you put too much text in one big block, then you make it difficult for people to read.   Use headings and images to create sections within the Ebook and break up the text.  You may also want to add a Table of Contents at the beginning so people can easily navigate to each section.
• Keep it simple.  Don’t use lots of industry jargon or acronyms; make the language easy to read.  If you’re explaining how to do something, then ensure that the content flows in the right order and doesn’t jump about from one subject to another, as this will confuse readers.
• Make it legal.  Only use content that you have created; don’t copy and paste from other Ebooks that you’ve downloaded as you will be breaking copyright law.  In fact, put a copyright notice at the front of your Ebook to remind people that they must not use share or use the content in any way.  You can prevent this from happening by converting the Word document into a secure PDF so that people can’t copy and paste content directly.
• Add call to actions.  You can put a profile of yourself as the author at the end of the document, with links to your website or other online profiles.  Alternatively you can add compelling call to actions throughout the text leading to articles or special offers on your website.

Once you’ve got the Ebook designed in Word then you need to convert it into a secure and fully functional PDF document to upload on to your website.  You can then start to build your email list and market to your contacts on a regular basis.

And if you don’t have the time or skills to design and format your ebooks yourself, then check out our Ebook Marketing service.  We can format and design your Ebook content and cover image so that it looks professional and matches your company branding.  We can also create a thumbnail book cover image which you can use to promote the Ebook on your website. Click on the arrow to find out more.