Content marketing isn't just about short, search-friendly blogs. Learn how one Brafton client generated larger deals with long-form eBooks.

Industry: Marketing
Content: eBooks
Highlights: Produced eBooks that influenced customers’ buying decisions

When it comes to conversions, more is more. You want leads that are extremely interested in your products so they’re more likely to close deals and buy bigger packages. To get people interested in your brand, you may think you have to keep things small – providing information in bite-sized pieces because no one has time to read these days.

But shorter isn’t always better for website content, and long pieces that dive deeper into information give prospects the confidence they need to convert.

There’s a growing case for long-form content, and one Brafton client in the marketing field saw that customers were more likely to buy – and to purchase more – after they downloaded the company’s eBooks.

Information-rich content helps convert leads

Brafton worked with the client to develop a series of longer assets (1,000 words or more) that addressed specific customer pain points. Each written document was turned into a visual eBook with info-stats, custom images and formatted text features. The completed versions were hosted behind a download wall on landing pages in the site’s resource section.

10 percent of prospects who became customers in a single business quarter downloaded eBooks before buying

Looking at analytics data for the series altogether, Brafton’s strategists saw that leads were engaging with the content before converting, even though it was longer than client’s regular blog posts. About 10 percent of prospects who became customers in a single business quarter downloaded eBooks before buying.

eBook readers spend more than average customers

Visitors who read eBooks were not only converting, but they were also spending more than the average customer. The typical deal size of people who interacted with the client’s eBooks was 16 percent higher average deal size overall – a finding that suggested two things:

  1. These prospects were engaged with the brand and the products it was selling
  2. They were paying attention to the information in the assets

On average, people who interacted with the client’s eBooks bought 16 percent more

The eBook readers had digested the insights in the downloadable resources and, as a result, were educated about the company’s offerings when it came time to discuss proposals. A newsworthy blog post might have been the bait that gets the target audience to the site in the first place, but prospects also look for longer pieces that answer their complex questions, especially when they’re making a large investment.

This is what content marketing is all about – empowering prospects with the information they need to make intelligent purchase decisions. The brand built trust with leads by offering a transparent look into the value of the products or services, and the process nurtured those prospects until they were ready to convert.

 

Lauren Kaye is a Marketing Editor at Brafton Inc. She studied creative and technical writing at Virginia Tech before pursuing the digital frontier and finding content marketing was the best place to put her passions to work. Lauren also writes creative short fiction, hikes in New England and appreciates a good book recommendation.