Ebooks are popular for several reasons — they generate interest, attract new customers, establish the author as an industry leader, and lead to “conversions”. For healthcare providers, including dentists, this translates as appointment bookings.
These guidelines will get you started in developing an ebook. Is 2022 the year you ramp up your marketing with an ebook?
Steps in creating an ebook:
Choose a topic wisely. The topic must match your patients’ needs — since your goal is to generate new appointments. Your ebook should focus on a treatment or health condition that is complex and requires explanation to help the patient make good choices. Also, if the treatment is costly, your patient will want to see value in your services.
Look at your patient demographics; if you’re a dentist with a significant number of seniors, you may want to create an ebook about tooth replacement, including dental implants, dentures, and implant-supported dentures and bridges.
If you’re a pediatrician, you may want an ebook on children and sports safety — focusing on sports physicals, concussions, helmets, training, heat stroke, and other issues.
Outline each chapter: Your introduction should be engaging, so the reader wants to keep reading. Explain briefly what you will cover in your ebook. Explain how the reader will benefit from your ebook.
Some people create an ebook by batching a series of blog posts together. And that’s a valid strategy; you can treat each chapter as an individual blog post. However, the chapters of the ebook show flow well in sequence. In developing your outline, think of your ebook as a crash course in your topic.
Start writing: If you approach each chapter as a long blog post, you can create smaller sections with bullet points. When condense related information into bullet points, you will write more clearly. This is the best way to educate readers on the new material you’re presenting.
Create structure: Each chapter/blog post should have a structure that’s similar to the others. This will help the reader digest the information. And this will help create natural flow between the chapters.
Incorporate visuals: Your visuals should highlight the important points you are making in each chapter. They can help to illustrate the meaning of a concept so readers can better understand what you’re explaining.
Add calls-to-action (CTA): A call-to-action is a button or a link that entices the reader to click. They will arrive at a landing page that will further “sell” and explain your practice/treatment. You will want multiple CTAs at various points in your ebook to push readers to take the next action — booking an appointment.
Create a PDF of your ebook. Then promote it!
The landing page is a “sales page” that helps market your ebook. The landing page will have a URL you can use in multiple places to promote your ebook — in your blog, an email, paid advertising, social media posts.
When you’ve put your ebook “out there”, you then must track it’s success in your marketing and social media. Are readers taking that all-important next step to book the appointment?
Your 2022 Goal: Write an Ebook
An ebook can be a very effective marketing tool, helping you draw more patients to your doorstep. If you’ve already got a blog, you’ve got a good start toward creating good content for your ebook. Stay focused on your topic, create an outline of chapters/blogs, and start writing! You may find this writing practice improves your ongoing blog as well. You could create an ebook every year, with the right planning!
Learn more:
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-create-an-ebook-free-templates
