Marketing items are often standalone products, and a lot of times efforts at integration are a little unwieldy because the switch from one medium to another is not intuitive. In a time where consumers increasingly seek educational value from marketing materials, two marketing vehicles are more easily integrated than ever before: the e-Book and the presentation.
Anytime you’re trying to make marketing materials play nice with one another, it’s important to determine the role of each individual piece in the broader strategy. Since e-Books and presentations both fall under the “in-depth and educational” umbrella, it’s often easy for both to be repetitive rather than supplemental. There is not a right or wrong answer here, as it all depends on the point of engagement. If the consumer encounters the presentation first, the e-Book should be produced in the knowledge that the presentation content has already been consumed. If the opposite is true, you’ll bore your audience if you cover the same information in the same detail and context. (That said, remember that both readers and audiences often need refreshers with any content they consume.)
As with all Content Marketing items, there are a few keys to making it all work as planned:
1. Mind your entries and exits: The tit-for-tat in Content Marketing assumes that if you make the effort to educate your audience, they can expect to voluntarily become a “lead”. If you’re going to do all the research and work to explain your industry or market to them and offer them strategies and best practices, you should always get a name, phone number and/or email address for following up with them after they consume the content. Whether your e-Book comes first or second, factoring this lead capture in will help you and your team follow up in a more relevant way.
2. Always provide a next step: It’s the #1 error in both sales and marketing: we do a great job of laying it all out there and building a case for what we do, then we forget to ask for the next meeting, or for the sale. If the next logical step isn’t a transaction, find a way to leave them with a clear idea of where they go from here. From presentation to e-Book or e-Book to presentation, make it easy for them to request the demo, download the book, join the webinar, or whatever else you’ve got going. If it’s hard, confusing or depends on their initiative, you’ll probably lose them somewhere along the way.
3. Avoid overt selling in the book: Remember that e-Books are not e-Brochures. You’re not really selling your specific product here; you’re providing an in-depth explanation of what you do, what your competitors do, why it’s necessary and maybe some case studies or examples. While presentations are often an overt selling tool, e-Books really should not be.
Regardless of which comes first, e-Books and presentations are natural complements to each other in both sales and marketing processes. If you aren’t using them in tandem, give it a shot. You’ll capture more leads and have a next step for consumers that can only enhance your efforts.
Questions: How have you used e-Books to aid your presentation efforts?
