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- Categories: Industrial Marketing, Marketing Tips
eBooks are informative, digital documents, generally given away in exchange for the recipient’s contact information. They have been a fantastic lead-generating tool for every industry since they first appeared on the scene in the early 2000s. eBooks provide something of value to the recipient before the sales pitch comes in or any calls to action. Similar to a free sample or trial offer. Giving something of value to customers or prospective customers increases your chances of gaining their business and loyalty. So, why aren’t more job shops making and utilizing eBooks as part of their overall marketing strategy? Odds are good it is because they don’t know how beneficial they can be or how easy it is to make them. Here are 8 reasons why your industrial job shop needs to start creating eBooks.
1.) They Help You Stand Out From Your Competition
Your customers need to know that by doing business with your company you will come up with a viable solution for their problem, that you can handle their specifications, and that they won’t need to worry in any way when they choose you as their industrial partner. That is the essence of what every job shop and industrial manufacturer is selling and you gain that reputation by demonstrating that you are an expert in your field. Utilizing up-to-date marketing techniques and offering something of value in thoughtful and engaging ways before soliciting business helps boost how your company is seen by your prospects and customers – and how you compare directly to your competitors in their eyes. Most job shops are not utilizing eBooks as a marketing tool, which means that you can tap into a large pool of prospects that your competition is simply ignoring.
2.) They Help You Increase Your Credibility
As an industrial job shop, your primary objective is to be the optimized solution provider for your customers. You are selling your ability to solve a specific problem for an engineer using your particular products, manufacturing methods, and expertise. However, pushy sales will only get you so far in today’s world. To really drive home your message and gain business interest you need to build influence around you and your company, product, or service offering. Adding eBooks to your overall marketing strategy, and producing more than one, will really make your company stand out as a leader in your field, much like multiple books do for a best-selling novel author.
Another way eBooks add credibility is by boosting the SEO for your website and/or your eBook landing page. Google and other search engines place a much higher value on content from sources with authority, which means that they place a high value on items such as eBooks in their search algorithms. You can link to your eBook in business directories, social media posts, other blog posts, etc. All help establish your company as the overall authority in your specific niche.
3.) They Give You An Opportunity To Educate
As an expert in your field, you have the ability to educate others and solve their pain points. Producing valuable content is one of the very best ways to attract your prospects and retain your current customers. People will not hesitate to read an eBook covering a topic that they care about. eBooks give you a fantastic platform to go over different ways of looking at particular issues faced by your prospects and customers, ones your company has already found solutions to, and showcase exactly how your company can solve their problems.
4.) They Help You Engage With Your Preferred Customer
Let’s face it, if you help an engineer save time by solving a design issue more quickly or giving them content that will help them produce their product or part in the easiest and most efficient way possible, then you will substantially increase your value to that prospect. An eBook offers you that opportunity plus it also opens a door for you to start a conversation and gain valuable feedback.
5.) They Help You Get More High-Quality Leads
In today’s hyper-connected world it can be difficult to get your message in front of your prospects and find quality new leads for your offerings. eBooks are perfect for increasing valuable quality leads coming into your job shop. Why? Your prospects are much more likely to give away their contact information in exchange for something of value to them.
6.) They Offer a Large Return on Your Investment
Unlike many other forms of content marketing, such as social media, when you compare the value of the eBook with the time and effort required to produce one you will find that eBooks retain their value long after they have been published. Once the eBook is live on the web, if it is valuable to your prospects, it will continue to generate leads for as long as it remains on the web.
7.) It Is Easy To Measure Their Success
Content marketing ROI (Return On Investment) can often be hard to truly pin down. However, if you take the time to properly put together a specific, optimized, landing page with calls to action for each of your eBooks, you can easily measure the success of the individual eBooks when you look at the leads you collect and compare those to your purchase records.
8.) Already Have a Blog? eBook Creation Just Got Easier
It can be challenging to select subjects for eBooks but if you already have an active company blog it can help guide your eBook topics. You can start by taking a good look at the most popular blog posts on your site, select the top topic and dive deeper into it. Add more detail, more technical information, more quality images/tables/graphs/drawings/etc, consolidate other smaller blogs that are relevant into it, and showcase how your specific offerings will solve the problem for your prospects. Your blog is a goldmine of information that you can easily repurpose and update for an eBook.
As we have stated, engineers want to work with a company that has the resources and technology to produce what they need efficiently, on-time, and with great communication and customer service. Therefore the more valuable content that you can produce and distribute in the marketplace (in the form of eBooks and other useful content) the more authority you’ll gain in your industry and amongst your prospects, which will cause them to reach out to your company to get to know you better and see if you’re a good fit for what they are looking for. So what are you waiting for? Get writing!
Need assistance? Let us help!
Start by downloading our free comprehensive digital marketing success guide to accelerate your Job Shop growth.
Grab your FREE copy now: https://www.thericogroup.com/industrial/
With over 30 years of experience, The Rico Group specializes in helping industrial manufacturers and job shops grow their business and diversify their customer base. We know how engineers think and what they are looking for. We know your processes, equipment, and materials. We also know that you have very little time to take away from your production and getting your customer’s orders delivered.
Grow your industrial business with better marketing with The Rico Group.
(805) 497-7401