eBook + email campaign question
Last Update: May 01, 2012

Does anyone have experience giving away ebooks as part of a email marketing/list building campaign?  I would like to offer this as an incentive to sign up to my list. The question is what is the best way to offer this.

  • Is a PDF best?
  • Should I have the book downloadable from a webpage or as a file in the email?

Any tips from anyone with experience is welcome.

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Sourabh
PDF is the best way to go. Just send the download link to the new subscriber follow up email. So you should have the PDF file downloadable from the web page.
nathaniell Premium
So if it's downloadable from a web page, what's stopping someone from listing the web page as a great way to get a free guide without signing up for the list. Anyone know how to lock a web page for this?
CCGAL
@nathaniell - there are two sides to the idea of locking down a free download.

One side of the fence would have you purchase a product that provides a short term download link that will expire.

However, on the other side of that fence is the idea that you want people to share the link and you leave it unlocked knowing that anyone who shares it is actually doing you a favor. Why? Because even if you don't capture that one email address, the free document will contain your contact information and enough links to your products, services, or web pages that the wider it circulates, the more traffic it can bring to you.

So ultimately, the decision on whether or not to protect and lock down that particular download depends on what you hope to accomplish by providing it.
spiritwriter Premium
Yup, downloadable link is what I have always heard.
CCGAL
I think .pdf is the only way to go when giving an incentive report, unless your niche is such that an audio, video, or other downloadable gift is preferable. How you deliver it should depend in part on how large a file you are providing. Many email programs still won't let you send extremely large files.

I can't recall, however, the last time I received an incentive that was a file attached to an email, so my guess would be that having a download link is probably the most popular way to deliver a bonus.
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