One of the strategies I encourage attendees of my workshops or programmes to adopt is the creation of audio tutorials, special reports, white papers or e-books which they can use on their business blog or website to attract people to register for their ezine or newsletter.

E-books continue to be a popular marketing tool to attract more leads and more clients as the investment you need to create them is minimal - you can use Word or PowerPoint (or the equivalent if you are using a Mac) to create the document and then use a PDF creator to create the copy you make available on your website or business blog.

Many people decide to create their e-book themselves without employing a designer to format the final version and create a professional layout and that’s not a problem.

 However if you are going to layout and format your ebook yourself here are five keys to remember to ensure that your e-book will look professional and be on-brand:

1. Colourful Pages - use colour sparingly when formatting your e-book. Absolutely make sure that the colours you use connect with your corporate brand so that it looks consistent.However your readers will not thank you when you have lots of colour in your e-book, and even worse if whole of the background of your ebook in a solid colour. Many people print e-books and they don’t like the expense or time that it takes to print a document in colour.
2. Let Your Copy Breath - as we continue to be bombarded with information, increasingly as readers and consumers of information we scan information.

   Format your e-book so that it is easy on the eye with lots of white space, perhaps using ‘call outs’ to focus your e-book readers on key points you want to make or quotes and use bulleted lists to help your copy breath.

3. Add Page Numbers - as your e-book streams off the printer, it’s easy for the pages to get muddled up.

   An often forgotten tip is the adding of page numbers to the header or footer of your e-book, making it easy for your reader to put them back in order when they drop the pages of your e-book.

4. Check Your Links - one of the benefits of writing an ebook versus a traditional book is that you can easily create active links to web pages in your e-book.Many e-book authors use this as an opportunity to include links to pages on their website or business blog for more information or even to affiliate programmes they participate in that provide resources and products or programmes the readers of their ebook will find of benefit.

   If you do decide to create links in your e-book, before you publish it online, be sure to check that the links still work to maximise the opportunity of people being able to click through to your links and eliminate the customer service emails you will receive from readers of your e-book advising you that your links in your e-book do not work.

5. Promote Your Brand - if your e-book is printed and then people come back to review it in several months or even years time, are you confident that they will know how to find you if they want to connect with you the ebook author for more information, advice or tips?

   Don’t forget to add your web address to the footer of your e-book and in the back pages of your e-book, use the opportunity to provide people with information on how to find our more about your programmes, products or services.

Apply these tips and your e-book will look professional and on-brand. Of course the copy in your e-book needs to be top class, expressing your expertise and thought leadership in your field. But remember that people often judge a book by it’s cover. Don’t let your e-book, special report or white paper readers be put off reading the quality content due to poor formatting of your e-book.

What tips do you have for others for formating e-books so they are professional and on-brand?

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

If you are an e-book author or an author of a traditional book, don’t forget to check out the details of the forthcoming workshop taking place in Dublin on the 7 June 2008, hosted by Font Literary Agency about Online Marketing, Publicity and Promotion for your book or e-book. Readers of Biz Growth News and my Biz Growth Community can register to access a discount - you can find all the details here.

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If you are writing articles online on your website or business blog, I am sure there are times that you want to link definitions of some of the words that you include in your articles.

Like many people you might be using Wikipedia, however despite their coverage of many terms and definitions, and their editing and approval policy, many people are concerned about how robust the definitions are.

On the other hand the Encylopaedia Britiannica has a reputation spanning back to 1768 when it was first published in Scotland - back then in three separate volumes. You might even recall growing up if you a a Gen X’er or Baby Boomer some friends who were lucky enough to have a set of Encylopaedia Britannica in their home study.

Well if you are a web publisher or a blogger, you can now apply for complementary access to their programme called WebShare, where you can link from your articles on line to the definition on Encyclopaedia Britannica.

You can apply for a free pass - be aware that this is a manual process as all applications will be approved and it took 5 working days for my account to be approved.

This is tremendous value as you can purchase the 32 volume Britannica, which has 65,000 articles and 44 million words, for US$1,400 or you can access it on the web for US$70 per year - and if you apply through the Webshare programme you can have FREE access for 12 months.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica Webshare programme has been supported by Shel Holtz who has been guiding the Encylopaedia Britannica team about how best to connect to bloggers about the programme. Encyclopaedia Britannica has even set up a Twitter account.

Not everyone has been complementary about the launch of the programme, however I do think it is worth considering if you are a web publisher or blogger.

Some suggestions I would have for Enclyclopaedia Britannica to further enhance the programme:

• Advise people at the time of registration that it may take a week for the account to be approved - in todays high speed world, that seemed so long to wait I had forgotten I had applied for access
• Review your website structure - it takes a while for the pages on Encyclopaedia Britannica to load and the frames for scrolling are definately not user friendly for those of us used to quick and easy access to information online
• Update your definitions especially relating to Web 2.0 - you have made the service available to bloggers and many of us may be writing articles about Web 2. I could not find definitions online authored by Encyclopaedia Britannica relating to word searches for social media, podcasting, widget - to name but a few. It seems to me that it would have been an astute online editor that would have ensured that definitions were available for these - and perhaps they might have collaborated with Wikipedia to come up with these terms.

However in summary a great programme to have access to and definatley one worth applying for registration if you are a web publisher or blogger.

And to support users, Encylopaedia Britannica has created a video about how to link your article online to the definition on Webshare. You can view it here:

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Most of the businesses I talk to are constantly striving to maximise the return of investment in their marketing spend.

In today’s competitive environment we need to make every cent work harder for us.

Yet how are we meant to be able to also build our brand at the same time?

Once you have clarity on your target market (who you serve) and your niche (what your field of expertise), your next role is to ensure hat you understand the products and services that your ideal clients not only need but will pay for (this is step 4 in our “Biz Growth Academy” programme).

Having developed those programmes and services you role is them to make sure that your ideal clients know about them - and this is all about being effective in your marketing.

Here are five great ways that you can express your brand, market your expertise and attract more clients without spending a fortune:

1. Express your brand in your email - email is virtually free and as you probably know your email is often forwarded to others. Have you made sure that your email is up to date with details of how people can connect with you and also has a compelling call to action about one of your products and services.

   You just never know where your email may end up and with who. That’s why I update my email signature at least twice a month with a link to something I am promoting - from a new podcast to workshops and teleseminars.

2. Your branded business card - an often under utilised element of marketing collateral is your business card. Remember the saying about a world famous credit card - “never leave home without it”. Well the same goes for your business card.
   And remember to make use of both sides of your business card.

   I have what I term a referral card with details about our key programmes and how to access no-cost branding and business development resources. You might consider it a mini brochure which can sell my business even when I am not around.

3. Express your expertise in your newsletter - an ezine or online news letter is an outstanding low cost marketing tool. I recommend sending out a news letter to your clients on a monthly basis or ideally twice a month.

   A newsletter enables you to stay in the mind of your clients so when they are ready to invest in your services such as you provide, they will have received information from you in the recent past and are therefore more likely to call you as you are top of mind versus the competition. Can you think if a better way to connect with thousands of prospects and customers with an investment of only a couple of hours a month?

4. Blog your business - as an avid business blogger I have seen the benefit of blogging in my business. Not only has it enhanced my search engine rankings of my website, my articles that I have written over the last 2 years act as y unpaid sales team.

   Just this month alone I have had approaches from several journalists, event organisers and potential business partners because of the articles I have written which they found when researching online.

5. Article marketing - expressing your expertise in articles online is a strategy that fewer than 3 percent of professional services firms implement. Writing articles and then submitting them to key online marketing sites or to sites who are looking for compelling and educational content extends your reach.

   Article marketing is less difficult and time consuming than your might think and if properly executed can support you in attracting more of your ideal clients. Package those articles together and you have an information product or perhaps even your business book.

YOUR ‘BIZ GROWTH’ ACTION STEPS:

• Consider the above five ways to express your brand.
• Which of these strategies present the biggest opportunity for you and could be implemented in the next 7 days?
• Put time in the calendar to move these ideas and strategies into action. That after all is what will ensure you stand our from the crowded market of seemingly similar companies.

NOTE: Every Monday on “Biz Growth News” I make available a full length branding and business development article.

If you enjoyed this article, you may be interested in accessing more articles about branding and business development strategies to grow your practice. If so you can register to join our weekly newsletter and weekly no-cost workshops at Biz Growth Live.

TERMS OF REPRINT: You are welcome to publish this article in your own online ezine or news letter, providing the article is printed in its entirety and is left unedited and you include the copyright notice and the following statement:

©Krishna De, Oneocean Ltd 2007. All rights reserved. Reprinted from ‘Biz Growth News’ (http://www.bizgrowthnews.com/), a Oneocean Ltd publication for leaders in professional services practices, featuring inspiration, strategies and tips to build your brand, attract your ideal clients and enjoy greater success with less stress.  Subscribe today at http://www.bizgrowthlive.com/.

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Many, many years ago I used to travel to Spain to support one of the European based businesses that I was accountable for. At that time I preferred to holiday to far away places - but that was before three little girls entered our life!

However with three babies under the age of 15 months back in 2002 we ventured for the first time to Spain for our vacation and have travelled back many times since.

So I was delighted to see a new site lauched recently - Spanglish - a social networking community all about learning Spanish - right here in our very own city of Dublin.

Spanglish are also offering workshops - unfortunately I was a little too late to book the girls in for the Children’s Saturday Club taking place tomorrow.

Spanglish have done what many professional services firms have not yet done - they have identified a very clear target market and niche so it is absolutely clear what their offering is.

What’s interesting about the Spanglish business model is that it is integrating many traditional and new media solutions including online networking with a membership community, offline networking with meetings and events, and for it’s premium members, podcasts in Spanish so you can learn or develop your Spanish language skills and blogs.

So if you have been wondering how you could create a model for a profitable podcast, Spanglish are a great business case.

It is a great site and has significant potential I am sure, but if they are reading this blog, I have three recommendations for Spanglish to further enhance their online business model and strengthen their brand: Continue reading

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