In a previous blog entry I introduced you to the power of a white paper.
Today we will look at two powerful and very different examples of white papers. As you'll see, white papers can be used for almost every industry, from security providers to industrial waste pumps to professional services.
(Note: If you didn't have the chance to read the previous blog entry, click here and read it first. There are subtle distinctions on how to write a white paper that you will not pick up in this blog entry.)
Example 1#: Small newcomer takes on big established brands
Watchdog Security Group is an established and successful business in their ‘local patch’ in New Zealand. But when they decided to expand their market, and venture into new locations, leads were hard to come by.
The big players in the security industry had all but tied up the market. Being a 'newcomer' made sales tough.
We created two special reports (white papers) that would educate the market and position them as a true authority on security issues. One targeted business security and one residential security. It was a 'soft sell strategy' to get a foot in the door AND importantly, to build a database.
Today we will look at two powerful and very different examples of white papers. As you'll see, white papers can be used for almost every industry, from security providers to industrial waste pumps to professional services.
(Note: If you didn't have the chance to read the previous blog entry, click here and read it first. There are subtle distinctions on how to write a white paper that you will not pick up in this blog entry.)
Example 1#: Small newcomer takes on big established brands
Watchdog Security Group is an established and successful business in their ‘local patch’ in New Zealand. But when they decided to expand their market, and venture into new locations, leads were hard to come by.
The big players in the security industry had all but tied up the market. Being a 'newcomer' made sales tough.
We created two special reports (white papers) that would educate the market and position them as a true authority on security issues. One targeted business security and one residential security. It was a 'soft sell strategy' to get a foot in the door AND importantly, to build a database.
In the document, we highlighted the various security weak points that are well known within the industry, but little known to the marketplace. And of course, in highlighting the weak points and how to overcome them, we had a great opportunity to showcase Watchdog Security's range of solutions WITHOUT coming across like just another brochure.
Early feedback on the success of these white papers is very encouraging. The response from the marketplace is exactly as we predicted, with the company being seen as doing a valuable educative service to the community, while establishing themselves as a trusted supplier. We’ve also crafted some advertisements to trial to endeavour to actively generate qualified leads through the media, as well as having the white papers featured on the Watchdog website as yet another lead generator opportunity.
Example 2#: 'Zeroing in' on a niche target market
What happens when you have a very specific market with only a relative handful of high end, high value prospects?
That was the case when we were approached by a supplier of heavy duty industrial waste water pumps. While they could actually identify a number of potential prospects ... municipalities, mines, manufacturers, they knew that there would be many more ‘out there’ that were as yet unidentified.
A white paper strategy was the perfect solution here. Their prospects were typically engineers and specifiers who had a strong technical understanding of their operational requirements, but often DID NOT know of the special unique features of these particular pumps.
Consequently, although we still used a me-to-you approach, it was more appropriate to use fairly technical industry languaging, supported by technical diagrams and photos.
Promoting the white papers was a fairly straight forward exercise, with half page horizontal ads appearing in various industry specific magazines, as well as ‘pay-per-click’ advertising and SEO strategies.
'Squeeze Page'
To maximise the requests, and therefore to build a substantial database, we designed what is called a ‘squeeze page’. In essence, this means that visitors are ‘squeezed’ into one action step. Requesting the reports. We also secured a new URL to enhance search engine results – www.pumpfacts.com.au.
And while I can’t give you the actual dollar sales potential of this strategy, I CAN say that with 91 requests for the various reports coming in from specifiers and engineers from all over the country, at $50,000 to $250,000 and beyond per sale, THIS is a very powerful strategy for this application.
In a future blog article we'll look at two more powerful examples, so be sure to subscribe to the blog to make sure you don't miss them!
Until then, start penciling down some ideas for your own white paper. If you'd like us to help you create a white paper and build a promotional strategy around it, give us a call on +617 3300 6909.
Or go to our advertising and marketing website and use the contact form to contact us (don't forget to put 'help with white paper' in the comments section).
You might also want to include a brief summary of your business, a backgrounding of your industry and marketplace, and what you are hoping to specifically achieve with your white paper.
