Saturday, August 26, 2006

Lead generation using white papers

How are B2B companies generating leads these days? There are many methods - trade shows, contact us forms, webinars, you name it. I found a great blog on of these lead generation methods that focuses on white papers.

If you're looking at creating a white paper or trying to spice up an existing one, check out Michael Stezlner's Writing White Papers blog. He has a number of resources that you can have a look at as well.

When it comes to blogging, more and more bloggers are offering white papers as they:
  • Demonstrate expertise in a subject
  • Provide opt-in subscribers that you can market to in the future
  • Begin and/or continue a relationship that may result in a sale (depending on the blog)
  • Allow people to read your material offline
It's funny though, I looked at some of the top blogs out there and I couldn't find a link to a white paper that was easily attainable.

Do you think that adding white papers to your business blog is a good idea? I know that Better Business Blogging has an easy to find sign up for their free white papers. That seems to be successful. This is something that I might experiment with.

Update 11/19/2006: Check out the blog: Marketing Interactions. It's a great example of how blogs can use white papers.

Chad H.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Chad - Thanks a bunch for mentioning my blog! White papers and blogs can be tied together nicely. I think not too many folks have caught onto this. However Stephanie Diamond uses one on here blog - see http://stephaniediamond.typepad.com/marketingmessage/

She calls it an ebook, but is really a white paper.

Keep up the good work!

Mike

Chad said...

Thanks for the tip. Stephanie has an interesting blog! I've added your blog to my blog roll.

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