Writing a book might sound like a huge endeavor—and one you don’t have time for while you’re running a home improvement business. And you certainly wouldn’t give it away for free after you did all that work, right?

Before you write off the idea of a free ebook for home improvement marketing, consider these facts:

• Free ebooks for marketing purposes can be as short as 2,000 words. At the high end, they top out around 10,000 words, but it’s rare to get that high.
• These books typically tackle one topic and provide some education and guidance for consumers. Examples might include an ebook explaining the options for window coverings or how to determine what type of window upgrade might work best in a home.
• You’re technically not going to give the book away for free. You’ll ask for something of value in return.

Using ebooks as lead generation tools
If you have an ebook with quality, helpful content that’s relevant to your target audience, you can offer it in exchange for:

• An email address that you can send marketing messages to
• Signing up for your business’s newsletter
• Entering a phone number in a contact form for a sales consult
• Sharing your content online
• Following your business on social media

Should you use an ebook for home improvement marketing?
As with any other marketing effort, ebooks aren’t right for everyone. Here are some reasons you might want to try ebook marketing:

• You have expertise to offer that won’t impact your ability to make a sale. For example, you might write an ebook about why someone needs new windows but not how they could install them on their own.
• Your audience is interested in educational content. If you get a lot of questions on social, via email, or in person about certain topics, they might be good subjects for marketing ebooks.
• You’ve already published a lot of educational content on your site. Your ebook doesn’t have to be completely original. You can gather various blog posts about one topic, add some new content to tie it together, and format it with visuals to add some extra engagement.

The good news is that you don’t have to be a great writer. You can get an ebook written by your marketing agency or a freelancer based on written content or interviews you provide.