How to market an ebook: Advice from a successful launch

That’s exactly what this article is here to do: Pull back the curtain our own ebook marketing strategy for Leaving the Base Camp, a book written by MailerLite Co-Founder, Ilma Tiki.

We’ll share how our team put together the pre-launch, launch, and evergreen marketing strategy to build engagement and ensure the sales kept rolling in long after our official launch party. 

So if you’re bored of generic advice and ready to get an actionable plan from people who have actually marketed an ebook successfully then stick around! 

There are 3 marketing phases when it comes to promoting your ebook, skip one and the rest of your launch will fall like dominoes. Those phases are: 

• Pre-launch

• Launch 

• Evergreen 

Let’s look at each of these phases and how to nail them, using real-life examples from the launch of Leaving the Base Camp.

A common struggle for authors publishing ebooks is not seeing the sales they’d hoped for. The main culprit of this crushing blow is a lack of awareness building before launching your ebook—enter the pre-launch. 

The pre-launch phase is your opportunity to build hype and anticipation around your ebook and get your target audience excited to dive into its juicy contents. 

Decide if your ebook is “demand creation” or “demand capture” 

Is your book introducing a new idea or solving an existing problem people are already searching for? 

If it’s introducing a new idea then your ebook is in the demand creation category. If people are already aware of the topic and searching for it, then it's in the demand capture category. 

Knowing this is important because it can affect how you approach your content marketing strategy, especially during the pre-launch phase. Professional ebook writer, Annie Obergefell, expands on this. 

If your ebook is in the demand creation category then part of your job is giving a name to the struggles your audience is going through. Clari did a great job of this by building awareness around what they termed “revenue leak”—when bad processes and a lack of data visibility reduces a company’s potential revenue. 

Your content should also give a name to your audience’s pain points, introduce the solution to overcome them, and show how your upcoming book dives deeper into this topic.

Given that you’re creating awareness about a problem, you can focus less on producing search engine optimized (SEO) blog posts and focus more heavily on social media, speaking engagements, and podcast interviews to spread your message. This is because there won’t be many people searching for the topic as you're creating demand for it. 

If your ebook focuses on capturing demand for an already established topic, then you can focus more on differentiating your unique take on the topic. Why should people trust and listen to what you have to say compared to what everyone else is already saying about it? Once you’ve got the answer to that question you’ll find that your pre-launch content writes itself! 

Demand capture content also lends itself very well to creating SEO-optimized blogs or YouTube videos as people are actively searching for information on the topic.  

To prepare for your pre-launch phase, we recommend doing the following: 

• Build a landing page for your ebook 

• Build your email list with a lead magnet 

• Generate hype on social media 

• Give away some copies of your ebook strategically in exchange for reviews

Let’s expand on each of these. 

Build a landing page for your ebook 

A landing page is a webpage that’s dedicated to one offer, in this case, your ebook. You want it to be as focused as possible on that one thing which means you don’t want to include a navigation bar to other pages or include calls-to-action (CTAs) that aren’t related to your ebook. It can be daunting to write one though, even if you’ve just written an entire ebook! 

To help you overcome the blank page, here’s what your landing page should include. We’ve also included two great examples to get your creative cogs turning. 

Anatomy of a great ebook landing page 

A great landing page should include the following: 

• A clean design 

• An enticing hero section 

• Reviews from readers 

• A blurb about the book 

• An “about the author” section 

• An email sign-up form 

Here’s how to nail each of these elements. 

Hero section  

The hero section is the first part of your page that’s visible when someone visits. It should include: 

• The name of your ebook as a headline 

• A short, enticing description of your ebook

• A photo of the cover 

• A CTA button (buy, pre-order, or download a sample) 

Reviews 

Ideally, you want to have some reviews to share before the ebook has been officially released. We’ll dive into how to do this strategically below. 

A blurb 

A short description of your ebook that really sells the value someone will get by reading it.

About the author 

Add a photo and a short paragraph about yourself. The goal here is to help someone understand why you’re a trusted expert in this topic. To boost your credibility and authority you can add: 

• Awards you’ve won 

• How many years you’ve been working in your field 

• Previous publications 

• Any media appearances 

You don’t have to include all of these, but if you have some of them, add them to your About section. 

A free download 

When we launched Leaving the Base Camp we wanted to hook readers with a free chapter. We offered the free chapter in exchange for someone’s email and delivered it via a PDF. This helped us build a list of red-hot leads who were interested in reading the book and who we could market directly to, and it helped them see the value of reading the whole book. 

Now let's see two great ebook landing page examples from Leaving the Base Camp and Create Once, Distribute Forever, by Ross Simmonds to see these elements in practice.

Example 1: Leaving the Basecamp 

This landing page (built in MailerLite by the way) 😉 has an uncluttered design to help the reader focus on the content. One way we showcased Ilma’s authority and expertise as the author was by highlighting the awards and happy customers at MailerLite. This is a testament to the hard work she put in as co-founder of MailerLite. 

Example 2: Create Once, Distribute Forever 

Ross Simmond’s hero section does a great job of intriguing the reader by introducing the problem his book will solve: How to make sure your great content isn’t wasted thanks to using the right distribution strategies. 

He also makes excellent use of social proof with all the reviews on the landing page. What’s more, he’s been very strategic with these as they are all from creators and entrepreneurs that his target reader is likely to know already, making the reviews even more trustworthy and valuable. 

Grow and nurture an email list 

An email list gives you a direct line of communication with your audience away from the fickle nature of algorithms. 

There are a ton of ways to build your email list, but for an ebook, the easiest way to build a list of engaged potential readers is to give away a free chapter of your book. This strategy is known as a lead magnet. 

Doing this during the pre-launch phase is crucial because once your ebook comes out, you’ll have a list of eager beavers who are already excited about your release! 

Link to your landing page everywhere to drive traffic to your sign-up form. For example, if you are giving podcast interviews as part of your promotion strategy, ask the host to link out to your landing page so their listeners can download the first chapter for free. 

Generate hype on social media 

Your social media platforms are a great place to give your followers some sneak peeks into your book to boost interest. If you’re in need of some inspiration, here are some posts and campaigns our social media team created to generate hype during our pre-launch phase. 

• Created quote graphics from key insights from the book 

• Released the cover image of the book 

• Announced the  official release date so we could start the countdown to launch day 

• Shared reels and short videos featuring team members which showed how the culture at Mailerite helped them live a life they loved 

• Organized a giveaway where our followers shared one of our promotion posts to win a free copy of the printed book 

And don’t forget to engage! 

We seriously underestimate the value of replying to comments and DMs so don’t sacrifice engagement for content creation. Both posts and replies have a role to play when it comes to building engagement and increasing your reach. Here’s how we announced the official launch on LinkedIn. 

Give away copies strategically for reviews 

Before your ebook launches, you want to already have some reviews to help sell it. One great strategy is to give the ebook away ahead of the launch to influencers your audience will recognize (like Ross Simmonds did in the example above). Just make sure it’s with people you already have some type of relationship with, otherwise it can come across as overly self-promotional. 

You can also run a giveaway like we did with Leaving the Base Camp and ask winners to share their reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. Finally, you can use platforms like Story Origin or BookFunnel to give away review copies of your ebook and even sync up your audiences there with your email list on MailerLite! 

It’s here! The moment you’ve been dreaming (or agonizing?) about! It’s officially launch day, so fill up your coffee cup, get the confetti ready, and watch the sales pour in with these launch day strategies. 

Go live and host a Q&A 

Boost your visibility across your social media channels by going live. When you go live most platforms will send a notification to your followers, helping drive more attendees. It’s also a great way to show your excitement about the official release of your ebook. 

Not sure what to talk about when going live? Here are some talking points: 

• What didn’t make it into your book: Are there any strategies or stories you wanted to include but couldn’t? Talk about them now! 

• Field questions from your followers with a Q&A session 

• Share your top 3 insights from the book 

• Thank everyone who was involved in helping bring it to life 

• Tell your followers what top lessons writing, editing, and publishing an ebook has taught you 

Post across platforms that the day has come! 

Let the world know that they can officially buy your ebook. You can share a short video holding the book and telling people where they can buy it or use a static image of the cover. 

Remember to let people know: 

• Where they can buy your ebook 

• How much it costs 

• If there’s a special launch discount (and when it ends) 

As you’ve been a smart cookie and built your email list during the pre-launch phase (didn’t we tell you it would be worth it?) let your email list know with a special launch announcement newsletter. 

Want to boost your open rates? Use our automatic resend feature to resend the launch email to subscribers who didn’t open your email the first time around. This feature has helped one of our customers see a 45% boost in open rates. 

Consider an introductory discount to boost sales 

A great way to bolster sales and hit the ground running on launch day is to introduce a limited-time offer for your ebook. You can have a special discount that runs for the first 24 or 48 hours of your ebook’s release. Keeping the timeframe short and sweet will help ensure more sales. 

Add a banner on your site 

Add an announcement banner to your site so visitors know about your new ebook and link to your ebook’s landing page so they can learn more about it. 

Add a promotional pop-up 

A well-timed and respectful pop-up will drive more potential readers to your ebook’s landing page. Make sure you add a delay so it doesn’t appear the second someone lands on your site as this can cause a frustrating user experience. You can choose to show your pop-up when someone has been on your page for a certain amount of time (e.g. 20 seconds) or when they scroll to a certain depth on a page (e.g. 25%). 

With MailerLite you can also add a countdown timer to your pop-up to highlight when your launch offer discount is ending to add a bit of urgency. 

Once the hype and excitement of the official launch have died down, how do you keep momentum going? Here are some ideas and strategies that we’ve leveraged to help keep up our ebook sales of Leaving the Base Camp.  

Get your ebook ranking on Amazon 

We caught up with our SEO content specialist, Veronika, to get her wisdom on how to shoot an ebook to the top of Amazon’s Kindle rankings. Here’s how she approached optimizing Leaving the Base Camp to rank high on Amazon. 

“The most important ranking factors are purchases and reviews, those need to come in fast after the launch which is why a good pre-launch strategy is so important.” Next, she used an app called Publisher Rocket to help her optimize the ebook for Amazon’s search engine. 

Publisher Rocket helps optimize your ebook listing by: 

• Diving deep into Amazon’s 19,000+ categories to find the perfect fit for your book to maximize sales potential

• Uncovering high-performing Amazon keywords to optimize your book listings 

• Giving you insights into how similar authors are optimizing their own books for improved search results 

Using the data and insights from Publisher Rocket alongside a great strategy to gather reviews can help you get those coveted #1 Bestseller bragging rights. 

Create an automation 

Did someone new join your mailing list? Did a subscriber take you up on that offer of a free chapter? This isn’t just a good moment to promote your ebook. This is the moment to do it. Their interest is at its peak and you need to capitalize on it. 

Automations can sound a little scary, but with the right tech, they’re super easy to set up. Just choose a trigger, like joining a group, and then use our Drag and drop builder to add the emails you want to send while adding a time delay between each one.

Here’s how our own nurture sequence works for Leaving the Base Camp. 

1. Welcome email giving the subscriber the free chapter they asked for (Day 1).

2. Share the “upside down funnel”; a core concept in Ilma’s philosophy for growing a startup. (Day 2). 

3. Share a framework, the 4-point marketing checklist that’s explored in more detail in the book (Day 3). 

4. Talk about our philosophy when it comes to hiring and share the benefits this has had on our company culture (Day 4). 

5. Explore the challenge of communications in remote teams along with some tips to overcome them (Day 5). 

6. Final email with a call-to-action to read the book to dig deeper into all the insights we’ve shared over the past few days (Day 6). 

Don’t be afraid of sending too many emails. This type of cadence for the first week isn’t too much—they’ve specifically asked to hear from you and this is when they’re most receptive to your emails. So take advantage of having their attention! 

You can also remove subscribers from the sequence once they’ve purchased the ebook. A few weeks after they’ve purchased you could also add them to an automation that asks for a review. 

Share reviews and testimonials 

Continuously sharing reviews of your book on social media is a great way to remind people of how others are enjoying your book. You can also add a recent review to your regular newsletter using one of our social proof blocks. 

Create infographics and share them 

Create infographics summarizing key ideas from your book and share these on social media and in your newsletter. You can create these on Canva or napkin.ai. Napkin.ai is a nifty tool if you’re not especially visual because you can feed it some of your text and it will automatically generate a nice visual to summarize your points. 

Here’s an example of an infographic from Leaving the Base Camp which illustrates Ilma’s philosophy of the “upside-down funnel”. 

Find your niche community  

Find relevant communities where you can engage with your ideal reader. Reddit has some of the liveliest, most engaged, and passionate niche communities out there and there is a subreddit for everything. 

Leaving the Base Camp is of particular interest to people who are interested in the startup world. That means Ilma, the author, could join subreddits like r/SaaS (for software companies), r/entrepreneur, r/startup (and about a bajillion more). 

The idea here isn’t that you periodically spam these communities with promotions for your ebook. What you want to do is dedicate some time to reading through the community’s posts and providing helpful answers which you can naturally and respectfully relate back to your ebook. Reddit has a ton of potential to drive traffic to your ebook’s landing page, especially if the answers you provide people are high quality and relevant. 

Just always make sure to read the guidelines about any type of self-promotion. Reddit communities can be very protective and if you overdo the self-promotion it’s easy to get kicked by a moderator. 

Appear on relevant podcasts 

If you’ve got a good pair of AirPods, you’ve got all the tech you need to give a great podcast interview! Appearing on the right podcasts will expose you to more of your ideal readers while boosting your authority on the topic you’ve written about. 

Here’s how to send a brilliant pitch that hosts will love you for: 

• Research the podcast & host: Listen to the podcast and if you like what you hear then consider pitching 

• Build on & enrich past episodes:  If a past episode covered a topic you’d like to discuss, tell the host how your interview can build upon that content 

• Give an outline of 2-4 talking points

• Offer to include something for listeners like a free chapter of your ebook or an exclusive discount for them! 

Now what should you avoid when pitching a podcast? Azeem Ahmad, host of the Azeem Asks podcast, has this to say about being on the receiving end of pitches.

You’ve been warned! Remember to give the host a link to your landing page when providing information for them to share in the show notes. 

Add your ebook to your email signature 

Oh, how we forget about email signatures! This simple strategy means that every single time you send an email more people are hearing about your ebook. Add it to your regular email signature and the email signature you use in your newsletters. In MailerLite you can create a custom email signature block and reuse it again and again. 

With these tips, you’ll make sure your ebook still rakes in sales even after the hype has long died down. 

Now that we’ve explored all the different phases and tactics to promote your ebook don’t forget to pay attention to your metrics and adjust as you need to. For example, if you see that your automation emails are getting low open rates then it’s time to A/B test some new subject lines or try and switch up who you’re targeting to find better-fit readers. 

No two launches look the same so keep experimenting, testing and pivoting as necessary. 

We’ve focused heavily on how we supported our co-founder’s own book launch and we hope those real-life examples have inspired you. If they have and you’d like to dive even deeper into using email marketing as an author, check out these gems. 

Our webinar with 2 leading authors about how to leverage email marketing to sell more books. 

If you want more specific step-by-step advice about building automations then check out 7 advanced email automation strategies for authors. 

Did we miss out on any tips that you’d like to add? Share them in the comments below!