Everything You Need to Know About White Paper Leads

Are you looking for the best B2B lead generation strategy? Maybe it’s time to start writing since a white paper is one of the most effective ways to get leads for a business. In fact, 50% of B2B marketers stated that white papers are the best lead generation strategies over the past few years, according to the Demand Generation Report. That’s because a high-quality white paper has the ability to grab the attention of prospective customers, build brand’s credibility, gain their trust, and most of all, gradually move leads through the sales funnel.

Three things you need to know about white paper leads

If you’re interested in the benefits of white paper leads, check out these three things you need to know about white paper as a lead generation strategy and apply them to your content marketing strategy.

1. Choosing a topic to attract your prospects

One of the main purposes of white papers is to provide a solution to the problem of your target audience. This simply means you’ll have to do some research – beginning with who your target audience is. Once you have identified your prospects, make sure you write something about a topic of interest to the people you hope will become your loyal customers. Listed below are two important points to consider when choosing a topic to attract your target audience:

• Think about what would be on the mind of your target audience, how to catch their attention, how to choose the best product/service, which features they need in that product/service, and when is the right time to buy it.
• Give them the information they needed and you’ll have a chance to see them coming back to you when it’s time to buy.

2. Creating an informative, not sales-focused content

White papers are not the perfect vehicle to sell readers on your services. White Papers position your brand as a trusted resource and a thought-leader in your industry, which will in return, create a long-lasting relationship with your prospective customers. Moreover, you want to appeal to the readers who are in the early to middle stages of their customer journey. You have an opportunity to educate them by sharing information before they make a purchase. At this point, your primary goal is to offer them a valuable resource that is full of information that your target audience can use. Here are some of the pointers to consider when writing your white papers:

• Make sure your white papers contain clear, detailed information supported by facts such as charts, diagrams, and links to credible sources.
• Consider using case studies from your company as examples – this type of source not only supports your points but also shows what your business can do.
• White papers shouldn’t be too short if you expect to fit everything in, so strive for about 5 to 8 pages.

3. Promoting your white paper through different mediums

Now that you have created an informative white paper, it’s time to let your target audience know about it. Use every medium you have in order to promote your white papers and generate leads, such as the following:

– Email

White papers are used as assets for lead generation campaigns. Build your campaign around the topics of your white papers and distribute them to your opt-in email list. You can also provide some intriguing details, like presenting a shocking statistic or graph, followed by a link where they can download the white papers in their emails.

– Your Website

White papers should go live on your website, complete with its own landing page. Your email campaign can drive traffic to that landing page, which is where you want to provide them with a quick summary of the white paper and make it easy to download, with only a few required fields to fill out.

– Social Media

One of the best promotional tools for your white papers is social media channels. You have to devote the time and effort to build a following in the social media space for this to really pay off. For extensive attention and effectiveness, you can feature the white papers to the top of your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages.

– Blog Posts

Write a blog post on the topic covered in your white paper and publish it on the blog section of your website, as well as on your LinkedIn profile. It should boost the interest of your readers, and entice them to want to learn more. In fact, the copy used in your blog post or any other vehicle you’re using to promote and market the white paper is equally as important, and sometimes even harder to write, than the white paper resource itself.