You’re all set up for success as a health coach.

You’ve got your certification, you’ve set up your office, and you actually have some great clients. You’re doing great! Still, you can't help but wonder: can I do even better? The answer is, yes you can! Adding eBook writing to your work as a health coach can help you grow your business even more. Read on to find out the whys and hows of eBook writing for your health coaching business!

eBook writing can help you find more leads, scale your business, and earn money while you sleep, and it doesn't have to be complicated.

If you know a thing or two about writing (and you don’t have to be an expert by any means), you can easily write a short eBook, self-publish it online for free, and use it for both promoting your health coaching business as well as creating a secondary income stream. There are two main things you can do with an eBook after you write it: give it away or sell it.

You can certainly simply sell the eBook you wrote. But giving it away for free is even better. Wait, what? Yes, giving your first eBook away for free is even better. Here’s why.

If you do any work online at all, you must have heard by now that your “email list is your best asset.” And it’s true. Here’s the deal with email lists: the people who sign up for them are already interested in what you have to say. That means that when it comes time to sell, they’ll be more ready to buy than someone who’s never heard of you before. And they'll feel committed to you, because you've given them loads of value for no charge.

When you give away eBooks on a platform like Amazon, more people download them and leave reviews. If you get great reviews, more people will download your free eBook, and you’ll get more and more people to know your name and start recognizing your brand.

When you give away your book on your website in exchange for an email address, you get to communicate with people on a regular basis, and give them excellent advice about health. As people read more of your work, they begin to trust you more. And people who trust you make excellent buyers.

So now you’re convinced that giving away your work is a good idea. Great. What next? There’s more than one way to do this. You can certainly give your eBook away on Amazon or other platform where you’ll publish your eBook. You can also give it away on your own platform, such as your website.

Whichever one you choose, make sure that you provide a tonne of value, but have something of even greater value that the client will get if they sign up for your mailing list or visit your website. The beautiful thing about an eBook is that you can put in links leading back to your blog. Link back to helfpful and popular posts. And if you’re selling on someone else’s platform, be sure to link to a sign up form for your mailing list on that platform's eBook description, if allowed. You can also include links directly to the sales page for your course or other digital product.

"OK, I’m ready for eBook writing. What are the next steps?"

You might think that once you decide to write an eBook to promote your health coaching business, the first step is to start writing. But that’s not the case.

The first step is to find out who your target audience is. If you already have some clients, perfect! That’s your target audience. What do most of these clients have in common? That’ll tell you what your eBook should be about.

Ask yourself: what are the questions I get most often? What goals do my clients have in common? Use the answers to these questions as inspiration for your eBook topic. When a new prospective client asks you similar questions, you can tell them, "I have a great free eBook that covers this topic in detail. You can sign up for my mailing list and I'll send you the eBook for free!" You can do this both in online forums as well as in your in-person marketing efforts.

The client now signs up for your mailing list to get your free ebook, you grow your mailing list, provide it with a tonne of value, and your readers start to trust you. And when you send them that email asking for a sale, they’re that much more likely to buy, because they know who you are and have come to trust your advice. So make sure you have another eBook or program ready to sell (the free eBook is your investment of time. Selling your paid digital products is your return on that investment).

The nitty-gritty of eBook Writing

Once you know who your target audience is and what they’re interested in learning about, you’re ready to start writing. Google Docs, MS Word, or any other word processing software works fine for the beginning of this process. Start putting your thoughts into paper or screen, and don’t worry about editing for now. Just get it all down.

Once you’ve finished writing your first draft, make sure you leave it alone for at least 24 to 48 hours. It’s super hard to edit when you’ve been looking at the same words for hours on end. After 24-48 hours have passed, self-edit your work and then, if you’re able, have someone else look at it and edit it as well.

If you need to add any pictures or graphics, now’s the time to do it.

Once you’ve done your final edit, it’s time to decide how you’ll distribute your eBook. If you’re going to do it via your website, a PDF format should be sufficient, and it’s easy enough to convert your word processing file to a PDF format.

This article explains how to convert Windows 10 and Mac OS files into PDF. In Google Drive, it's pretty simple: just go to File, Download as, and then click on PDF. If you’re selling on Amazon, you can convert your file to eReader format right on their platform. But if your hope is to exchange your free eBook for email addresses, then "selling" it on your site is a better choice.

Create a landing page for your free eBook, and start capturing those email address in exchange for your free gift. Promote your free eBook across all your social platforms, especially the ones where you know your target market hangs out.

With some time and dedication, the eBook will bring you new readers and subscribers, who’ll then be ready to buy other eBooks and programs you write (and charge for).

If you enjoy the eBook writing process, you can start writing more in-depth eBooks that give further information about what you shared in the first one (or other related topics). This means that you'll be able to create a second, scalable, stream of income, which is not limited to the hours available in your schedule: write the eBook or other digital product once, sell it over and over again. You can also use software to make the process of selling digital products even easier.

Here's one final tip for using eBooks to grow your business: end each eBook (or at least one chapter in each eBook) with a call to action: whether it’s to sign up for your mailing list (if you're selling the book through Amazon) or to sign up for a course you’ve created that goes into the subject in even more depth.

Initially, you can use eBooks as  a promotional tool: give it away to get people interested in your business. Continue to provide your readers value with your mailing list, and eventually (preferably after at least 7 emails chock-full of awesome information and actionable steps), go ahead and ask for that sale. By this point, your readers have come to trust you. And readers who trust you make more likely buyers.

Have you ever used an eBook to grow your business? Let us know in the comments!

Ebooks, Client Engagement, growing your business, Getting Started

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