How do you maximize the effectiveness of a white paper?
You might have nurtured a list of quality leads, but then what? How else can you use your white paper in your marketing campaigns?
If you don’t find other channels to promote your white paper, you lose a huge chunk of your potential clients. It would be like baking a big cake, eating one slice, and throwing the leftovers away.
Imagine spending countless hours spent distilling research into an educational report.
And only a fraction of your potential audience reads it.
That is not good enough.
In addition to promoting your white paper to your list, you need to maximize your white paper’s reach.
Leverage Content Multiplication
I was at a photoshoot with my photographer Darvell. While we were talking, we spoke about famous people who inspire us.
Before he revealed his greatest source of inspiration, he started to smile ear to ear.
“You ready for this, bro?” He said to build suspense.
I smiled back and casually said, “Yeah man, who inspires you the most?”
“You ever heard of Gary Vee?”
“Gary Vaynerchuk?” I smiled to myself.
Darvell’s eyes lit up. It sounded like his friend circle wasn’t familiar with Gary Vee.
“Brooooooo, I listen to him like every day dawg, no joke! His content is so good bro and it just builds this kind of energy inside and – ”
“Reminds you that you can achieve anything you set your mind to,” I said, finishing his sentence.
“Yes, exactly man.” Darvell was beaming. He shared how he started watching Gary Vaynerchuk’s video content when he began his photography career. I smiled to myself as I listened. Early in my writing career, I also sought out influencers. I wanted to find people who would help me build an entrepreneurial mindset.
Later in our conversation, I asked Darvell, “Do you know how he (Gary) can produce so many videos?”
Piquing his curiosity, Darvell leans in with an eyebrow raised.
“Gary does two things. He will record all of his speeches, podcasts, and Q&As. He gets so much bulk content which leads to the second part. He slices it up.”
Darvell was starting to piece it all together, but I continued.
“Since he documents everything, he just has his team sift through everything. All they need to find are the golden nuggets. Then he schedules all his content to post on social media automatically. And since there are so many different videos and interviews, he can give the impression that he is everywhere.”
This is how you multiply content.
I explained to Darvell that this is a tactic used by marketing professionals in every field. Content multiplication increases the volume of your content. And it also increases the efficiency of producing that content.
There are only 24 hours in a day. To make the most of your time, you need to implement a content multiplication strategy.
So, where how do you leverage this tactic with your white paper?
Most white papers are at the top of your funnel or in the middle. Your white paper can be repurposed and sliced up to bring awareness to your brand and nurture your leads.
There are five common ways to repurpose your white paper to build a greater audience.
Turn Your White Paper into a Lead Magnet
Begin by using your white paper as a lead magnet.
Your white paper will be structured to educate your reader, so you can build an entire landing page for your white paper.
Giving your white paper a separate landing page provides several advantages.
First, you can provide a central location for readers to visit your website to download your white paper. You can track how many visitors come to your landing page. Then, analyze how many people download your white paper. This information will provide you with feedback on the quality of the webpage. The data can help you make improvements to improve conversions.
Second, your landing page can be used as an internal link to improve your search engine rankings. Any blog posts related to your white paper can include a hyperlink in the content. Hyperlinks can direct interested readers to your white paper.
Lastly, a separate landing page provides data to cross-examine with other white papers. Presumably, your B2B company will produce multiple white papers. With a specific landing page for each white paper, you can analyze the performance for each one. This analysis will allow you to optimize your web pages and your future white papers.
Boost Your White Paper’s Reach Via Email Marketing
If you have an email list, there is a strong likelihood that they will be interested in your white paper.
Since a white paper is best for building brand awareness, you could integrate your white paper into your nurture email sequences. This can include but is not limited to:
- A free download in your welcome sequence
- An email campaign to build the relationship with your clients
- A segmentation campaign to filter quality leads from your list
- A Joint Venture Campaign to tap into other company’s email lists
Track who downloads your white paper. Then, build a segmented list of qualified leads through email.
Repurpose the White Paper into Blog Posts
You can also repurpose a white paper into multiple blog posts.
Typically a white paper will have:
- Executive Summary
- Problem Section
- Currently Used Methodologies Section
- Proposed Solution
You could easily repurpose each section into more blog posts. In addition, you can point your reader towards your white paper at the end of each related post.
Repurpose White Paper into a Slide Deck
A slide deck (also known as a pitch deck) is a series of slides to present information.
Since a white paper is written to educate, you can adapt the structure of the report to build a slide deck. With your slide deck, you can easily host webinars or other business presentations. You save yourself the trouble of conjuring a new set of slides. Instead, you can use the same data and graphs from your white paper to engage your audience without extra effort.
You can use your slide deck as a backdrop for your video content. Here you can present your information and engage your audience through another powerful medium. These videos can be used on social media or be put on your website. Additionally, you could take the transcription of the video and turn that into a blog post.
Send A Press Release With Your White Paper to Journalists
If your white paper presents an innovative solution, you can build awareness by sending it to journalists.
But before you send it, make sure you include a press release. The press release will ensure that the journalist adequately explains how your white paper will benefit your readers. Journalists will likely feature it in editorials, podcasts, and other news publications.
Having your white paper broadcasted is a considerable achievement. This strategy does involve more relationship-building to get somewhere. However, the benefits are extraordinary. Having your white paper promoted on multiple news platforms exponentially increases your brand awareness.
You get more leads and more closed deals.
Getting The Most From Your White Paper
Don’t get me wrong; it can seem like a lot of work.
But the reality is that many marketing managers are missing opportunities to add more content.
Why work so hard building your content from the ground up?
When you implement these marketing strategies, you might have a simple funnel similar to the photo below.
In this example, your white paper has created four channels to engage more with your brand and become buyers.
Content multiplication is all about creating leverage.
And when you have more leverage, you can grow your B2B sales.