When the idea first had taken root in my mind, I couldn't get it out of my head. Tequila. Tequila and Adobe FrameMaker…
Small Business Cases
When Adobe communicates the benefits of using Adobe FrameMaker and RoboHelp, they are mostly bringing in business cases from big companies. There's no mystery in that. Big companies have the staff and money to make big solutions.
However, small companies and smaller budgets do exist, and they are also using FrameMaker, but their exploits are rarely documented for a wider audience.
I would like to change that. Which is why, am writing this three part blogpost on how I utilized Adobe FrameMaker as a Content Marketing tool for a webshop in a practical, cheap and doable manner.
Connecting Adobe FrameMaker and Tequila
I own FrameMaker.dk, which is my graphic design company and the main source of my income. From there, I offer services in all sorts of industrial, graphic design. I mostly work with technical documentation, design of User Guides, HTML5 etc. and everything, mostly, within the sphere of Adobe TechComm tools.
I also happen to own Tequila.dk, which is a scandinavian webshop specializing in quality tequila and mezcal. ...and yes, I know it is an unlikely combination :-)
Tequila is the pride of Mexico. It is sofisticated spirit made from Blue Agave. Blue Agave is one of the worlds most expensive raw materials for spirits production, because it spends some 6-8 years, before reaching maturity where it can be harvested. Tequila and mezcal have culturual roots going way back in pre-columbian times and agave spirits are the worlds fastest growing spirits category!
Content Marketing with Adobe FrameMaker
Thing is… I have written a book on tequila. And being a FrameMaker expert, I wrote it using Adobe FrameMaker.
So I figured… why not make a small business, Content Marketing case out of my tequila book and the webshop? And I did, and this is how!
The book
I have written the only book on tequila in danish. It has been typeset in Adobe FrameMaker 2019. It was to form the content base for my marketing efforts.
The book holds three main sections: a reference book part, a glossary on tequila terminology and a bunch of tequila and mezcal cocktail recipes. These three sections were to form the content for my Content Marketing efforts.
As for marketing goals, I made these:
- More signups for my newsletter with an interactive pdf version of the book
- Improving customers knowledge with a glossary of tequila industry terminology in the shape of a free ePub book
- Better organic visibility on search engines with a collection of Mezcal cocktail recipes in HTML5 format.
Signups
All webshop owners want signups for the newsletter!
While many people think newsletters are an annoyance, they are still a good and efficient way to communicate with your customers and generate sales. In order to persuade visitors of your site to sign up for the newsletters, using a "lead magnet" is a common practise. A "lead magnet" is usually free stuff. I may be free consultancy, free advise or a free ebook. I wanted to use a free copy of my book as my "lead magnet".
Format of the tequila ebook
PDF is a widely used file format for ebooks. A good many sites offer a free ebook, so I felt I had to put in a little extra, which is why I embedded some videos in my tequila ebook! One can embed almost anything in PDF, and embedding video using FrameMaker is easy!
Measuring lead generation
It is also possible insert active hyperlinks in the PDF using FrameMakers "Hypertext tool". FrameMaker generates internal hyperlinks like Table of Content, Index and Cross References automatically, but links pointing OUT of the book have to be created manually.
A section of the book describes agings, and I inserted hyperlinks from them pointing into the webshop. Customers clicking on these hyperlinks in order get the specific tequilas, not only generates sales, they also generate inbound webtraffic, which may be measured in the shops Google Analytics.
Distributing the ebook
Making sure the customers got the ebook, required some setup. I used MailChimp, which is a popular mailservice. Mailchimp delivers a signup form, allowing the customers to recieve a link to my ebook, upon signup. Hosting the file was another matter though. An ebook with embedded video is large, but fortunately was it possible to host the ebook myself on Dropbox.
Mailchimp is free to use below a certain amount of subscribers, and so is Dropbox. So for this "pdf ebook" part of the project, expenses were nil but with a high amount of added value to the shop!