Are you confused how you sell content-based information products like non-fiction ebooks, training programs, courses, webinars, membership sites, etc…through content marketing?
It is confusing…what information do you give away that will simultaneously attract and entice your prospect to trust and believe you have the answers they need while still having even better content to sell them as part of your information product.
Inside of The Information Marketing Success Package you get the complete system for selecting, creating and then launching your own high-profit information product (ebook, home study course, book, workshop) – when it comes time to market a key decision needs to be made about how much you give away.
In other words, where is the line between free and paid content when you use content marketing to sell digital content products?
4 Ways To Use Content Marketing To Sell Your Ebook
1. Useful but incomplete information.
One of the things you learn as an information marketer is how to attract your customers by giving useful, yet incomplete information – useful enough to gain their attention, interest and trust but incomplete such that they desperately want more of what you have to offer.
Let’s use an example of a health-related topic like arthritis. Let’s say that you have a 5-step solution to lower the pain and perhaps even overcome the debilitating symptoms of arthritis.
The question then is, what can you give your prospects that will be useful, but that is not the same as giving your entire solution away for nothing?
Making the assumption that your complete solution for arthritis involves a combination of recommendations around diet, exercise, natural medicine, stress relief and mental methods – we can now draw a demarcation around what we will give away as free content versus the paid solution you deliver in your ebook or course.
For instance, your content can outline the 5 areas that must be attended to in order to manage arthritis – one can imagine a range of content around simply outlining the different areas and why they must be considered as part of the overall solution WITHOUT giving away the entire solution.
Useful but incomplete….
So people read your article, see that you know what you are talking about, are curious as you outline the critical areas and now want the full solution where they will click through and buy your ebook.
2. Case Studies, Examples of Before And After –
Another example of content that attracts prospects to you rabidly but does not give away your valuable content are case studies. You create content that outline the experiences of those that have suffered with the condition, then interview them on what areas they focused on to finally cure themselves…again without having them give away the entire solution.
You can focus on both the cases that did NOT work (systems that others have tried before yours that did not lead to the results they wanted as well as successes from people who did accomplish relief using your system or parts of it.
Again, useful but incomplete…
3. Partial But Incomplete
Another method is to drill heavily into 1 or 2 stages of your overall solution, but not giving away the entire solution. In a case where there are multiple steps to the solution, you can dig into one in detail, then share the fact that this one step only works if you take steps 2, 3 and 4 (which are in your ebook)
This method allows people to see the depth of your knowledge while gaining a substantial trust level for you…and when combined with information from the other content marketing methods can really cause your prospect intense desire to buy your complete solution.
Useful but incomplete…
4. Creating & Publishing Content Around Buzz
You can publish content around news stories or common cures that do NOT work – and why that is, then guide them to your ebook for the system that does work.
Keep an eye on Google News, authority blogs or forums for daily news releases, new research, breakthroughs, popular news stories – then bring those to your prospect’s attention, giving an opinion and tying them back to your complete solution can be tremendous way to attract attention and gain new customers.
Remember, Content Marketing Works Because…
Always keep in mind that your content marketing (article writing, blogging, free videos, webinars, etc…) should be focused around 3 main objectives…
a) Rank in search engines that will allow people find you when they look for solutions or answers that you provide
b) Attract interest and credibility so that your reader believes you can really help them where others have not in the past
c) Create interest and curiosity to make clicking through to your sales page irresistible
To accomplish successful content marketing you need a deep understanding of your target market, their key frustrations, desires, anxieties and hopes – when you have these factors in your mind you can easily tap into their desires and provide them the content that will help transition them to customers who buy your ebook.
Have a question or comment around content marketing? Leave us a comment and let us know.
