White paper is a formal document with a purpose to reach out to its target audience to provide them information either about a company’s products and services or to discuss solutions to any problem. It is not necessary that a value content or the catchy title will attract the reader to read it. It must be promoted in an effective way that it generates good leads and fulfill the purpose of white paper. Therefore, a white paper must be marketed through various ways to reach out to a greater audience.
1 – Create a proper landing page
It is the most important feature to gather your audience and to generate leads. It should be well-convertible and easily accessible. Your landing page should properly address why it needs your reader’s information and few minutes of their lives to read your white paper. It should not require one’s life history, the information required should be short and to the point. A landing page should look attractive, accessible to all devices and easily downloadable. Help must be taken from professional designers and conversion rate optimization specialists to make it an attractive and high-conversion landing page.
2 – Promote through social media platforms
Social media advertising is an influential marketing tool nowadays. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are used to promote your product and services. Use Facebook sponsored Ads and stories to reach to greater audience and also promote your white paper on your Facebook’s official company page. You can host a Facebook Live video session to announce its release and also to convince your audience about it.
Through Twitter, start a campaign with Twitter series using the title of your white paper as a hashtag and write the series of tweets to explain what your white paper is about in the form of story. You can also advertise on twitter with the help of images and can host a Twitter Chat where an analyst could talk about your white paper.
3 – Start Google AdWords campaign
Use keywords in your paper which are familiar to your audience and those keywords which they search to find solutions to their problems which are being discussed in your white paper. Run Google Ads campaign on these words that will direct your audience towards the landing page of your white paper.
4 – Promote your paper on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a platform where professionals are under the one hub. It is the top B2B social network platform where people have the mutual interest in business. Promoting your white paper will attract the professionals, experts and your partners to get to know about your company or the problem you have discussed in your white paper. Post the link on your company’s page and also promote it through your personal account. You can also pay for the ads and sponsored content to reach out to greater audience.
5 – Share your paper on SlideShare
SlideShare is a platform where presentations are uploaded. Presentations are the convenient and presentable way to display your work. Converting your white paper into presentation will attract the audience to easily read it and understand it. But this should only be used as a marketing tactic by posting link on the presentation which will direct the reader to the landing page of your white paper to view the full paper and download it.
6 – Write Guest blog posts
Guest blogging is a credible and best way to reach out to the targeted audience to read your white paper. This type of blogging means to write a blog which is related to your white paper, on a related blogging website. For example, if you have written a white paper on technology related topic, you must write a blog on tech-focused websites and share a link to your white paper on your blog.
7 – White paper syndication service
To attract more leads, you can upload your white paper to a syndication service where they will share your white paper to their lists. These syndication services also provide free and pay-per lead service. Just make sure your syndication service is targeting the right audience and gathering the good leads not bad ones.
8 – Feature journalists and bloggers in your paper
If you interview any influential blogger or any journalists for your paper, this will add value to your content and as well as a way to promote your white paper. When your white paper is released, you will send a copy and link of it to that journalist or blogger with whom you interviewed and you may ask their help to promote your paper or write about it.
9 – Distribution of handouts at different platforms
After releasing your white paper, you must send its handout to your professional partners and also share it in your meetings. You can also host a seminar, conference or an event to a topic related to it and distribute your white paper to the attendees. You must also distribute its handout at the trade shows to your potential customers.
10 – Create an attractive cover page
Just like a book is judged by its cover, similarly to attract a reader to read handful of pages, you must design your cover page creatively and appropriately. Cover page must represent the content and topic of your white paper. It should be designed on professional software such as Photoshop with a help of an expert. Having a good cover page will automatically capture the attention of your audience.
11 – Create your email list
At first, you must create email lists of your potential customers, your professional partners, your existing clients and anyone who may find white paper related to them. After creating a list, send out your white paper to them through the email. It would be much better if you send them a link so that they are directed towards the landing page of your white paper to give out their information. This information will be beneficial to you in data gathering for future use.