Updated Nov 2021: There’s no doubt about it. eBooks make powerful B2B SaaS lead magnets. They deliver actionable advice and real value to your readers, while also promoting your products and services. This is why ebooks receive 3 times more downloads than white papers do. But for your SaaS ebook to effectively attract new leads, you need to know how to promote your ebook online.
In this article, we’ll explore 8 ways to promote an ebook online so it gets noticed by your ideal customers. This is the last post in our 6-part series on how to write an ebook.
How to promote your ebook online for a B2B SaaS audience
Writing a SaaS ebook is a labor-intense process, which is why you need to leverage ebook marketing strategies to make sure your newly minted content doesn’t go unseen. Here are 8 ebook promotion strategies you can try:
1. Run a pre-launch
Generate interest in advance of the launch of your SaaS ebook by running a pre-launch digital marketing campaign. Promote your ebook online by sharing teasers of the content in your email newsletter and on social media. Include eye-catching graphics as well.
Make sure your teasers provide solid hints of the kinds of useful information your audience will find in the ebook—this will make them want to read the full ebook.
During your pre-launch, you can:
- ask questions on your social channels related to information in your ebook
- tease the juicy information your audience wants to get their hands on
- turn your pre-launch into a contest on social media
2. Create a compelling opt-in page
When promoting an ebook online, you need a place to send leads who want to download your ebook. Enter the opt-in page, your golden opportunity to paint a clear picture of your offer and the value it provides. A compelling opt-in page with the right elements can increase downloads of your B2B SaaS ebook.
Your opt-in page should include:
- powerful header written in active voice
- bulleted list with 3 to 5 benefits the reader will get from the ebook
- contact form to collect the reader’s email address
Find out the 6 elements you need to include for a high-converting opt-in page.
3. Showcase the ebook on your website
Knowing how to promote your ebook online includes considering where on your website to showcase the content. It’s important to make it easy for leads to find your B2B SaaS ebook.
You should promote your ebook:
- on relevant product or service pages
- in your resource section
- in your website footer menu
4. Promote the ebook in blog posts
Creating a B2B SaaS blog post strategy that funnels readers straight to your ebook is an essential part of your ebook promotion strategy. By optimizing your blog posts, you can get discovered through search results for topics you want to be known for.
You can also try guest blogging on a website that’s relevant to your target market. This extends your ebook’s reach by promoting it to an audience beyond your own. It also helps build your site’s domain authority—just don’t forget to include a backlink to your ebook opt-in page in the post.
Whether you’re writing posts for your own SaaS brand or for another company, your blog posts should include:
- information that relates to the content in your ebook
- preview of the value readers will get from your ebook
- strong call to action that drives traffic to your ebook landing page
5. Talk up the ebook via email
Your email subscribers are a captive audience. Promoting your ebook in your newsletters and nurture emails is an excellent way to target specific segments of your list with different promotional messages. This is a key component of knowing how to promote your ebook online.
Your emails should include:
- snippets of the ebook content
- exclusive offers, such as bonus chapters
- consistent promotion (don’t just include your ebook in one newsletter and call it a day)
6. Share the ebook on social media
Promoting your ebook online across your B2B SaaS company’s social media channels extends the reach of your content. You can also enable your ebook readers to promote the ebook on their own channels—for instance, by including social media share buttons in the ebook itself.
You can also go live on LinkedIn, which is where B2B professionals spend time. YouTube is another solid bet, given it’s the world’s second largest search engine after Google.
Your social posts should include:
- compelling image or graphic to capture your audience’s attention
- information on the benefits readers will get from the ebook
- link to your ebook opt-in page
7. Invest in paid advertising
Knowing how to promote your ebook online strategically and creatively is crucial. That said, sometimes you need to put some money behind your content to get eyeballs on it. Set aside a budget for paid advertising and run campaigns on LinkedIn, Google or Facebook.
The advertising strategy for promoting your ebook should include:
- specific targeting based on your ideal customer profile (as it relates to your ebook)
- monitoring your ad performance
- optimizing your ads as necessary
8. Forge partnerships
You can make use of another company’s audience by asking them to promote your ebook online to their email list or social media followers—just be sure to return the favor. Establishing partnerships of this nature is cost-effective and doesn’t require much heavy lifting from either party.
Your ebook partnership strategy should include:
- partnering with companies that share a similar audience
- avoiding partners that sell exactly the same products or services as you
- a plan for how you will reciprocate the favor of promoting your ebook online
You now have 8 ideas in your toolkit to promote your ebook online, generate excitement about the content and expand its reach.
Need a hand creating a compelling ebook?
We write ebooks for high-growth B2B SaaS companies like Okta, LeanData and Looker. Check out our B2B ebook writing services and start getting more leads.
