Did you know that one of the best ways to generate qualified leads is to write ebooks?
Here at the Coaches’ Coach, ebooks are an important part of our business model. They help prospective clients get to know us, understand our process and philosophy, and gain value—even before meeting us or spending a dime.
Whether you’re in a specific market area or niche, you should do the same: write ebooks that are high-quality, high-value, engaging, and actionable. And it doesn’t have to take an excessive amount of time.
Here’s how to write your own ebook in two weeks or less.
Pull Together Articles You’ve Already Written
If you have a blog or newsletter, go back into your archives and pull together your best 15-20 pieces. Find the common thread that weaves throughout each of them (you’ll find it if you look) and give it a title. This is where I started with Secrets of a Business Coaching Rock Star, and it’s still one of the most popular pieces of content we have on this site!
Don’t have any articles in the archives? It’s time to start a blog! Commit to writing one post per week, and within a few months, you’ll have enough to get working on. If writing isn’t your thing, start a podcast where you brain-dump your business knowledge in 15 to 20-minute episodes. Get the episodes transcribed, and voila! You’ve got a starting place.
Hire a Ghostwriter
Even if you’re a decent writer, it helps to have an experienced professional comb through your work and improve it. I like to make sure anyone who writes for me also has sales copywriting experience. Remember: this isn’t an academic paper or even a self-help book—it’s a marketing piece that needs to both encourage prospective clients to go deeper and add legitimate value. You can find great talent on Upwork, if you don’t already have someone in your back pocket.
Remember: this isn't an academic paper or even a self-help book—it's a marketing piece that needs to both encourage prospective clients to go deeper and add legitimate value.
Include Social Proof
Liberally distribute testimonials and social proof throughout your ebook. You can do this by including case studies of clients who actually did what you’re teaching in the ebook, so that your readers can see that this stuff actually works. Provide quotes from satisfied customers. Don’t be afraid to tell your story!
Link to Other Resources
One of the great things about a digital format is that you can include links inside the PDF to other resources you have available. In our ebooks, we often send folks back to our free downloads page, our free trial page, or our complimentary coaching session page. Get folks to click, click, click!
Length Matters
Your ebook should be about 50 pages long. Twenty-five pages minimum, 75 pages maximum. Why? Much less than that and folks feel like they’re not getting value. Much more than that, and they won’t sit down and read it. It should be easy to consume in about an hour or less.
Design, Design, Design
Don’t just turn a Word doc into a PDF and call it a day. Invest in quality graphic design. Everyone judges a book by its cover (come on, you know you do, too), so be sure to get a nice cover design as well as a professional and engaging layout within.
Keep the Content Evergreen
Unlike more fleeting media, blog posts, podcasts, and social posts, your ebook content should be more or less evergreen. Stick to solid, universal business principles as opposed to fads. You might need to make updates every 18-24 months, just to keep things fresh, but the idea is to allow your ebook to help you generate leads and clients year after year—like ours have!
Want to see these principles in action? Download our most popular ebook of all time, Secrets of a Business Coaching Rock Star!
