How to Write an Ebook that Gets Results
Ebooks are a standard in the marketing world, especially in the B2B space. Despite all of the newer, quicker, shinier content formats, ebooks still get clicks, downloads, and lead creates for businesses, so they’re still an important part of your content arsenal. Creating them is a lot of work though, so it's important to make sure you have a smart strategy and process in place before you get started.
6 questions to answer when creating a new ebook
What’s the value people will get from reading this?
What’s the takeaway? Everyone’s busy right now, so if someone gives you their attention for as long as it takes to read or skim your ebook, you owe them real life value. There might be one big takeaway that helps the reader live or work more efficiently. Or there might be a few practical tips packed inside. If you have multiple takeaways, think about how you can package them under one umbrella theme to keep your ebook cohesive.
If you’re trying to cover too much ground, or speak to very different readers, it might be better to split the content into multiple ebooks.
How will this resource help you grow your business?
Now that you’ve considered how the ebook will help the reader, it’s time to turn it around and figure out how it’s going to help you. After all, you’re running a business, and this is ultimately a marketing tool. How can you position your solution as something the reader needs, or at least include an explanation of your services within the ebook?
Readers should know who you are and how they can work with you, even if they just lightly skim the ebook. Don’t miss this opportunity to share with your interested audience!
Where does this fit into the customer journey?
When people read this, how much do they already know about you, your solutions, or even the problems they’re experiencing (which this ebook and your business help solve)? After they read this ebook, what’s the best next step for them? Setting up a sales call? Signing up for your newsletter? Buying a product from your site?
How are you going to promote this ebook?
Ebooks, like most things in the world, are not a you-build-it-and-they-will-come situation. Before you invest your time and resources in creating a great ebook, you need to figure out how you’ll make sure people know about it. Will it be prominently featured on a website that already gets a lot of traffic? Will you run paid ads to it directly? Do you have a network of affiliates who’ll be sharing your work?
Knowing where this ebook fits in your customer journey can help you determine how much money you want to invest in promoting it, or which organic channels will be best for getting as many readers as possible.
To gate, or ungate?
This is a key dilemma for every marketer. If you are going to run ads to your ebook, you may feel the urge to gate your ebook so that you know who’s viewed it and can follow up with them. But if your ebook is very top-of-funnel, you may prefer the generosity of getting your ebook to readers with the least possible friction, and not worry as much about collecting their name and email address.
What’s your hook?
Now that you know where you’re promoting your ebook, what’s your promotional message going to be? People aren’t sitting around wishing for a pdf to read. You’ve got to come up with a snappy hook to get people interested in the value you’re providing. So circle back to question one and find a succinct way to talk about the value you’re offering. Then create your landing page.
Your landing page is the place where people download your ebook. Some marketers even suggest you write your landing page, complete with a strong hook and promise of value, before you write the ebook itself. That way, you write the ebook with the hook and marketing promise in mind. No matter which you write first, you’ll want to make sure your landing page is engaging and gives away enough hints of the goodness inside to get people to click the download button.
Here are a few good landing page examples:
More ebook planning tips
Invest in design
Ugly ebooks won’t get read, which means that while you may get the downloads and leads, you’re not going to be truly educating and connecting with your community. Don’t shrimp on design. Work with someone who can make pdfs look beautiful, and easily readable on screen.
Plan on the number of pages to be 30% greater than your Google doc pages
Sometimes when you’re passionate about a subject, you can get a little carried away with writing. If you find your page count mounting quickly, remember that your ebook will be even longer once it’s designed because a great designer will give your text room to breathe, adding illustrations, chapter dividers, and spacers that all expand your page count by up to 30% or more!
Think about a horizontal vs a vertical format
If you think your audience will read your ebook on their laptops, then it makes sense to use a horizontal layout, and this is what most B2B companies do. On the other hand, you may know that your audience is happy to print things out, in which case vertical is likely better. If you’re in a B2C space and think your readers are more likely to simply read on their phones, then make sure to communicate that to your designer, so they can create a vertical phone-friendly layout.
Examples of great ebooks to get you inspired
Here are some fabulous examples, all ungated as of this writing, to get you inspired with beautiful design for your own ebook:
Performance Meets User Experience
This vertically-formatted B2B ebook is a 12 page mix of text, charts, and all-outs on a specific topic. A great example of a very traditional style ebook.
This version of Bandwidth’s State of Messaging report is available as an ungated pdf. (If you follow me, you might know that I wrote this one as a part of my Content Strategist role at Bandwidth!)
The B2B Sales Process Handbook
Unlike the annual State of Messaging report, this vertical ebook from Cognism is an evergreen how-to guide that Cogism can share over and over again.
Ebook adjacent: related content types to consider
An online guide
Example: Guide to Connection in the Age of AI
Ebooks aren’t usually formatted for on-page scrolling. Instead of being a part of a website, they’re discrete files, usually saved as pdfs.
A shorter PDF
Example: Fortune/Deloitte CEO Pulse Survey Fall 2024
This is less of an ebook, and more a short report. If you’ve been wanting to create an ebook, but have a gut feeling that your audience just wants the stats with no commentary or explanatory text, then this might be a better format choice.
A full-length book ebook
Example: Unleashing the Ideavirus
Seth Godin shares the free ebook version of this book free online as a 219 page pdf. While this is likely much longer than necessary for a lead magnet, a full length book can be very appropriate as something to sell, or as a way to get bigger ideas out into the universe.
A photo-heavy brochure
Example: Subaru Forester 2025
Does your business lend itself to lookbooks or brochures? Take inspiration from Subaru and create one as a pdf on your site.