You're a published author: you're walking around feeling rather giddy about your first ebook publication for your insurance business. Publishing that ebook feels like a huge step in your insurance marketing, and you know that your clients will appreciate it in the long term. You've just created an item of value that will build trust between you and your clients. What happens next? 

Expect Social Engagement, Not Profit 

If you're selling an ebook from your website, don't expect a huge profit from your ebook. If it's free, profit is out the window already. Instead, consider the softer marketing aspects of your ebook. Your ebook positions you as a thought leader in a specific field. It's there to build trust and to excite your readers about your future content. Ultimately, it draws people in to your business, and they see you as an organization to respect. 

Instead of monetary profit, be ready for these even more important results: 

• More people asking you for advice and becoming your clients because of that conversation 

• More requests for you to engage in your community, whether it's online through guest posts or in person through speaking events at local schools or community events

• More people looking for insurance topics related to your ebook. For example, if you published an ebook on insurance decisions that new parents need to make, expect to see more traffic from that audience. 

Connect Your Ebook to Ongoing Insurance Marketing 

If you haven't done so already, recognize that "an e-book packed full of valuable content makes a great incentive" for your site visitors, according to SmartBlogger. That ebook could be the key to getting more people to sign up for your email list so that you can send them further information about events, products, and content. You can use your ebook as an incentive: when you ask people to sign up for your promotional list, offer them a free ebook in return.

Following Up On Ebook Content  

Your ebook should not be a stand-alone document. It's not the ebook to end all ebooks - it's just the beginning of your conversation with your readers. As such, you need to ensure that the ebook doesn't try to cover every single topic that your insurance business works on. No one wants to read such a long treatise. Instead, give your clients bite-sized bits of information to follow up on your ebook content and lead into future longer blogs or ebooks as well. Consider it as a larger document of value in your content series. For instance, you could set up the following progression:

• Discover that families with young children make up a large part of your insurance market and have many questions about your products. 

• "Take the time to survey your core audience to ensure your book meets their needs." According to Hectorprenuer, many businesses forget to take this step and create an ebook that is not useful.

• Create a FAQ series for young families, culminating in an ebook that outlines some of what they need to know about their first insurance purchases. This ebook is short and used as an opt-in to an email marketing list that focuses on young families. 

• Follow up with community presentations and guest blogs, spreading out into new types of content as you establish yourself as a leader in the field. 

• Investigate how keyword searches have changed, look at customer questions, and find topics connected to your ebook so that you can expand on this content in future blog and social media posts.

At American Agents Alliance, we want to help you build value for your clients every day. From employee education to insurance marketing to networking that supports your growing insurance business, we're here to help. Contact us to learn more about our many membership benefits.