Does your book marketing strategy include the use of all your digital content?

It's a fact that ebook sales spike following the holidays and into the new year. Just think how many people will receive electronic reading devices for holiday gifts! Recipients of those devices will be looking for ebooks and may even have gift cards to help them load up on reading material after the holidays.

You can take advantage of this trend with specific ebook marketing strategies that can increase sales of your ebooks. Whether you have a long backlist or are getting ready for your first book launch, check out these ebook promotion ideas to get you started.

Promote Your Ebooks with a Look-Inside Preview from Aerio

What's an Aerio ebook preview? It's an online sample of your ebook that has been customized to engage readers, capture leads and drive book sales.

Aerio makes it easy to create peek-inside previews for all your digital content. Simply choose which pages or chapters to include, and with just a few clicks your preview is ready to host and share to any online audience.

Here are a few benefits of Aerio ebook previews:

• They can improve your conversion rate. Let readers sample visually engaging peek-inside previews, including your polished, attractive book cover or illustrations. Select cliff-hanger content that compels readers to want to find out what happens, driving lead capture and book sales.

• They can generate leads with email capture. Make your previews gated content by offering them in exchange for email addresses. Build your consumer email marketing list, to continue to nurture and build upon your relationship with readers.

• They can be shared anywhere online. Each Aerio preview acts as it’s own unique landing page. This makes it incredibly easy to drive traffic to that page by sharing the unique URL via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any other social site.

You can also share your preview link in relevant Facebook groups or online discussions, digital ads, through email marketing and newsletters – basically any online platform!

• They can be embedded into websites and blogs. In addition to sharing your unique preview page, each preview comes with a unique embed code. This means you can easily host your preview on your website or blog.

• They can drive book sales. Each Aerio preview can be purchase-enabled, meaning you can include a way for readers who are enjoying your sample to purchase the ebook. You can capture the sale directly through the Aerio platform, or drive sales to your favorite retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, etc.

Benefits of Selling Your Book Direct-to-Consumer

Additional Ebook Marketing Ideas to Boost Sales

Your overall marketing strategy should include the use of ebook previews. Sharing your digital content or even giving some of it away can go a long way toward boosting your book sales and increasing your profit margin.

You should also consider making the most of your ebooks to increase sales of your paperbacks, audiobooks, special editions, and hard cover books. Here are some additional tips on how to make the most of your ebooks:

• Use ebooks with contests and giveaways. Promote a free ebook as the prize to be awarded in an online contest, or as a giveaway when readers purchase a hard copy of your book.

Aerio makes ebook giveaways easy, with customizable settings allowing your ebooks to be downloaded free-of-charge. You can also create unique promo codes to share with your audience, which when applied at checkout will zero out the cost of the ebook.

Be thoughtful when considering what content to give away. New authors might want to offer a free special edition of their first book to gain a reading audience, while publishers trying to promote a new book in an established series might simply give away a free chapter.

Tips on Running a Successful Book Giveaway Campaign

• Use ebooks to create a flash sale on social media. Send notices to your email marketing lists alerting readers to your flash sale. Share links via social media leading consumers directly to a point of sale, emphasizing the limited time window to buy your ebook at a discounted price.

Aerio allows you to discount ebooks down to $2.99 and make up to 85% off of every ebook sale! In today's ever-evolving sales markets, flash sales should be part of your overall marketing strategy.

Tips on Using Social Media to Drive Sales

• Use ebooks in your paid ads. At some point, you may consider taking out some paid ads on Facebook and other social media sites, or through Google ads and other websites. One way to add ROI to your digital ads is to include a link to your ebook preview.

Remember, your peek-inside previews are purchase-enabled; when readers see your visually dynamic content, they’ll be more likely to make a purchase at that moment!

Social Media Advertising: A Basic Overview

• Use ebooks to promote and sell other formats. Ebook previews are a great way to whet readers' appetites, but you can go even further than that. Book marketing tools like Aerio make it easy for you to offer a few free chapters or deeply discounted ebooks that link to the print and audio versions of the same book.

With Aerio, you can link your ebooks to other available formats within the Aerio catalog, allowing you to sell each format direct-to-consumer. You can also link to your print books and audiobooks available through outside retailers like Amazon, IndieBound, Barnes & Noble, etc. By offering your book in as many formats as possible, you can maximize exposure and increase sales!

• Use ebooks to entice pre-orders. Did you know Aerio allows you to capture a sale even if your entire book is not published yet? Just upload an .epub file of the first few chapters and share as a preview to drum up excitement and pique the interest of readers, retailers, and others. Then, use Aerio to capture the pre-order sale!

Pre-orders are a great way to garner interest in your book as well as your author brand. Plus, pre-orders count toward release-date sales which can increase your sales ranking when you do finish and publish your book.

Use Content Marketing to Lead Readers to Your Ebooks

Now that you know how to use ebooks and ebook previews to increase book sales, you might be wondering how to promote ebooks themselves. That brings us back to your initial sales and book marketing strategy, which includes:

• Understanding how books sell
• Being realistic with your sales expectations
• Evaluating your marketing plan
• Knowing how readers shop

Another strategy you can use to drive readers to your ebook previews and other books is to utilize content marketing.

Content marketing involves maintaining your author brand and promoting your books by publishing ancillary content that is related to your books. It's that simple. Anything you publish about yourself and your work enhances your brand and inadvertently promotes your books. A few examples:

• Participate in guest blogging and online discussion about topics related to your book.
• Write book reviews for books in the same genre as yours.
• Collaborate with other authors online anywhere you can.

Add Fireworks to Your Digital Marketing Campaigns with Great Content

Your marketing efforts should lead to sales; use your ebooks to further those efforts and increase sales. After all, ebook previews and promotions lead to ebook sales, which can lead to sales of print books and audiobooks.

If you don't know how to promote ebooks, take advantage of the free advice and tools offered by the Aerio Blog. Ring in the new year with ebook promotion ideas and sell more books!