Top White Paper Marketing Tips That Will Boost Your Conversions by 400+%
After studying more than 1 million pieces of content, Moz and BuzzSumo had this to say: Crafting content from original results helps your piece significantly outperform others in terms of links, traffic, and shares. And such content is best delivered via whitepapers.
Whitepaper marketing allows you to take your target audience and clients deeper into a topic, especially if yours is a B2B company. Support it with holistic campaigns of infographics, keyword-rich blog posts, and press releases, and the number of downloads will shoot through the roof. Let’s dive deeper into some of the best tricks and tips that deliver results:
1. Use Whitepapers as Mid-Funnel Soldiers
Visitors are swarming to your website thanks to your viral content, interactive infographics, and other top-of-the-funnel (TOFU) content pieces. But it’s content like white papers and case studies that will make them want to stay and desire more.
White papers will work like a charm if you know where to use them in your sales funnel. They’re rarely viral gold, so don’t expect them to drive an avalanche of traffic to your website. Also, these pieces of content don’t work well in closing deals. This means you shouldn’t use them at the top or bottom of your sales funnel.
Instead, use them as mid-funnel content. It’s at the middle of the funnel (MOFU)here that you teach prospective customers about your brand and prove to them that you’re a thought-leader in your industry.
2. Deliver Golden Content
Even if a white paper tends to be long-form content, quality beats length hands down. So research your topic to ensure you create relevant content that dives deeper into the topic. If someone else has already covered the topic, take a different and more interesting angle. It’s all about enriching your customer journey by making your content a valuable and unique asset.
Struggling to come up with unique content strategies and ideas? Review your industry with an eye on these concepts:
- What news is worrying people in your industry? What fresh and intelligent perspectives can you offer?
- What data is missing in your industry? Can you fill this gap to help shed light on new trends?
- What industry ideas do you have that other industry experts haven't covered yet?
This is a sure-fire way of identifying a topic and creating a compelling piece. Strive to answer the above questions like a pro, and customers, workers, bloggers, and other people in your industry will consider you a thought-leader.
With a topic in mind, start to craft a valuable whitepaper. The work may include getting the perspectives of industry thought leaders and decision-makers by interviewing them or conducting a survey to get data.
Here's your ultimate guide on how to write and format your whitepapers.
3. Have a Promotion Plan in Place
The way you approach your white paper’s promotion should be different from how you approach your TOFU and BOFU contents’ promotion. Due to the virality goal of top-funnel pieces, some “shares” could balloon into thousands of shares as more people interact with the enticing piece.
Whitepapers rarely enjoy that virality. So your best bet is to laser-focus on industry-niche promotion. You may market it at a conference to help your target audience dive deeper into a concept. Bloggers in your industry might be interested in your valuable content, so remember to reach out to them.
Promoting Your Whitepaper
Here are the tricks that differentiate top-performing whitepapers from others:
1. Avoid Being “Salesy”
Many content marketers and companies tend to use white papers to garner more sales. They end up packing them with sales pitches that turn readers off. Don’t be like such content creators. Instead, focus on taking the readers down a topic to help them solve their pain points.
Studies reveal that whitepapers help more than 71% of B2B buyers to research their purchasing decisions. That means if your whitepaper portrays your expertise and give workable solutions to real issues, readers will naturally be more likely to check out your offers.
2. Design a Landing Page That Converts
This one is big. Readers are looking for value and solutions to their pain points. So clearly explain why visitors should give you their precious contact details and time. Also, be sure visitors can access the whitepaper from any device and download it easily.
Conversion rate optimization specialists and professional designers can help you improve the landing page’s design elements and conversion rate. Be sure to get in touch with them via services like Dribble and Concept Feedback.
Remember to A/B test your designs to know what works and what doesn’t. Tools like Optimizely and Visual Website Optimizer will come in handy here.
3. Leverage Conferences
Got a speaking opportunity at a conference? Show them your prowess by sharing new concepts, insights, and data in your whitepaper and case studies. But don’t drain all the juice. Just give them a taste of youcontent r and direct them to download the whole piece.
4. Forge Partnerships with Conferences and Industry Associations
Most if not all industries hold major and annual conferences. And since such events occur only a few times in a year, conferences use content marketing (like white papers, blogs, and video) to keep them on top of mind before the next event happens. You can grab these valuable partnership opportunities to get your piece in front of the participants.
In the same way, you can partner with an industry association like Content Marketing Institute to research or promote your content piece. These companies have been in the digital marketing space for a long time, so they know what should go into producing and distributing a whitepaper.
5. Leverage Your Email List
Email marketing and content marketing are bosom buddies. In fact, the email address list of your potential and existing customers is a gold mine that can propel your content. So consider sending your whitepaper to the contacts via a newsletter.
Looking to generate new leads? Don’t just let the receivers just download the whitepaper and relax. You may direct them to a landing page where they have to retweet or share the whitepaper to unlock the download button.
5. Feature Journalists
You can interview influential bloggers or journalists and include them in the whitepaper. These professionals will most likely help promote your piece or write about it.
After launching the whitepaper, craft a list of about 50 influential and relevant bloggers in your industry. Invite them to write about the data or insights in your whitepaper. Be sure you’ve personalized the message to each blogger.
6. Promote on LinkedIn
The professional nature of LinkedIn allows you to reach a wider target audience with your B2B marketing strategy. But play smart.
Are you in a relevant LinkedIn Group? Most members will gladly grab your white papers- just ensure you don’t come across as too self-promotional.
LinkedIn Groups work better than LinkedIn Advertising. Thanks to the groups’ more personal touch, posts tend to enjoy more generous engagements and reach a wider audience.
7. Consider Syndication Services
Whitepaper syndication websites- like the Tech Republic, Find Whitepapers, and Tech Target - can boost your whitepaper marketing efforts significantly. You can choose either free or pay-per-lead plans. Be sure to consider your niche and test the free versions before paying anything.
8. Host a Webinar, Meetings, or Conference
Run a webinar or meeting and offer your piece of content as a gift or related material. Webinars and e-meetings are gaining speed, thanks to modern technologies. Unlike physical events, you don’t have to worry about geographic boundaries that inhibit physical attendance. That means you can connect with potential customers wherever they are worldwide.
9. Turn Your Insights Into a Video
Ever heard of people who prefer watching videos to reading texts? That’s why Google and other search engines are including more video results in its search results pages.
So don’t lock video lovers outside. That way, you'll tap into a wider audience and get more views from organic search as people look for a complete solution to their pain points. At the end, you can direct them to download the whole juice.
Sure, YouTube and other social media videos focus more on B2C audiences. But if you play your cards well, you’ll be surprised.
10. Turn Your Insights into Blog Posts and Guest Blogs
Provide a brief overview of your whitepaper in the form of a blog post. If it has several sections, consider writing a series of blog posts to cover everything. Promote the whitepaper in the blog’s sidebar and add a proper call to action.
Also, guest-blog generously (Don’t be selfish with your content). This tactic can promote your whitepaper passively for years to come if done well. Share those interesting data and insights on related industry blogs, and you’ll gain a new target audience that can turn into customers.
11. Upload to Slideshare
Many professionals use Slideshare to get insights, so you should be there too. Create a presentation version and upload it to Slideshare. Be sure it entices readers to flock onto your landing page to get the full content.
Zoey Writers, Your Top-in-Class Whitepaper Marketing Team
Researching and compiling a series of whitepapers needs time and work. But your plate is already full with crucial tasks, and you need time to unwind. That means you may not give the white paper content marketing task your best.
Don’t fret- leave the task to Zoey Writers and focus on your core business.
Every white paper we create will be yours to brand and own 100%. Expect the content to boost your thought leadership, lead generation, and content marketing.
Check out our whitepaper writing services today, and we will put pen to paper top-in-class ideas and weave your whitepaper like the pros that we are.
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