By Christine Taylor
Most of you have seen the studies - a majority of IT managers and decision makers use white papers to educate themselves on products and implementations, so a good white paper will land a vendor on a buyer’s short list. Why do most vendors dutifully write a white paper that ends up gathering online dust? How can you market your white paper so prospective buyers will read it?
Before you market, you need to do two things: write a good white paper and know your ideal audience. Once you’ve got those things in place, here are the 4 best practices for drawing attention to your white paper: catchy titles, effective promotion, customized microsites, and good contact information.
1. A catchy title is the name of the game
Compelling titles encourage readers to click and download your white paper. Direct mail geniuses John Caples and David Ogilvie report that a gripping headline is responsible for 50%-75% of advertising response rates. Take a hint from their extensive ad testing and give your white paper a title that makes people want to read more. Here is an example of the power of a compelling title:
Before (Not compelling, to say the least)
Title: Protecting Your Email Directory with Guardian Software from SecureLock
After (A whole lot better)
Title: How Spammers are Assaulting Your Critical Systems — and How to Stop Them
2. Effective promotion
Promote your white paper through syndication and mailings. A few top ways to reach your audience include:
Mailings: email and direct. Mailings, whether email or print, are a great way to reach your targeted audience. Use email to reach mid-level professionals and managers, and use direct mail with high-level executives. Consider leveraging in-house or highly targeted lists like VARBusiness.com to reach channel partners and partner prospects.
Newsletter sponsorship: Advertising in a newsletter targeted to your audience works very well with mid-level IT professionals. Since a popular newsletter can go to more than 10,000 subscribers, this is an excellent balancing technique to direct mailings.
Content syndication: Posting white papers on syndication sites like Bitpipe and TechTarget works especially well for white papers in hot categories. Ideally, links should point to a landing page or microsite that’s specific to your white paper.
Paid search: A cost-effective method of presenting your ads, paid search or pay-per-click advertising is based on user-entered keyword searches. Google Adwords is very popular and can extend paid search into business and IT sites.
3. Customized microsite
A great way to bring those registrations home is to have a customized landing page or microsite for the white paper. Create the Web pages with a registration form on the landing page and a benefit-laden abstract to encourage readers to fill out the registration form and download your paper. You can even develop a microsite with 2-3 supporting tabs for more information. Like “What’s in it for me?” which explains how the white paper will help them, and “Learn more” with further resources to download like case studies and positioning documents.
Resist the urge to use your main site template with all its navigational choices. The only thing on your landing page/microsite should be ways for them to a) download lots of good information, b) leave their name and contact information, and c) give permission for you to contact them with even more helpful information.
4. Contact information
I’m astonished at the number of companies who don’t list real people to talk to on their site. The infamous “info” email address (as in info@smallcompany.com) has its place with autoresponders. But you should list individuals to contact, not just “sales.” Why? In a recent TechTarget survey, 64% of the IT managers who contacted a vendor after downloading their white paper did so within one month of the download. And of that 64%, a good 44% did it within a week. These hot prospects viewed catch-all email addresses as black holes - they wanted to talk to knowledgeable individuals who could expand on the white paper’s points. They were also suspicious of contact information that lacked a phone number.
White papers are the centerpiece of integrated technology marketing campaigns. The better you connect leads with information that they want and value, the more likely readers are going to think of you when they’re ready to buy. So write a compelling white paper, craft catchy headlines and abstracts and actively market it - and watch your ROI improve and your sales rise.
About the Author: Christine Taylor is an expert technology marketing writer. Her white papers, case studies and bylined articles have helped many businesses capture steady streams of qualified leads. Contact Christine at christine@christinetaylorcompany.com.
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