Your White Paper is More Important Than the Paper Itself!

In 1854, Henry David Thoreau said ‘Build A Better Mousetrap and the World Will Beat a Path to Your Door.’

Henry David Thoreau lived in a different century than you and me.

Henry David Thoreau never invented any mousetraps.

And the world never beat a path to his door.

I think that Henry David Thoreau was snorting cocaine.

That was then, Mr. Thoreau, but this is now.

Today, if you’ve got better mousetraps, new technology, or a superior solution to any kind of business problem, you’re faced with some very tough challenges.

Your customers and prospects are inundated with choices. They’re relentlessly pursued by salespeople.

They hide behind their computers and guard against unwanted pests with their voice mail.

You send them emails but they can vaporize your message with one touch of the delete button.

Your website is just one among millions.

The world is an unbelievably crowded place.

Nobody’s got time to read your white paper — unless the title and the promotion for it truly hit a nerve.

And nobody’s going to read it if they don’t know about it.

That’s why the *promotion* is vitally important.

The promotion of your white paper is kind of like a “Product Rollout.” It’s much like you’d do with a new product, except the white paper is the product. It’s not a physical product in the usual sense, but it is an information product. It’s the first step in selling your idea, your better mousetrap, to the world.

Here’s a list of steps I follow in “rolling out” a white paper when I’m working with consulting clients:

1) Buy web traffic on search engines (this is VERY effective)

2) Email blast to an at least ‘lukewarm’ customer list

3) Press Release to related publications

4) Send out Postcards

5) Advertise it in print

6) Joint venture advertising with compatible vendors

So when you create a white paper - even if it’s just a simple 1-page guide - right here you just got a list of SIX things you can do to get the word out.

*** By the way — very important point — if you use the right formula for writing a press release for a white paper, it has 3 times the chance of seeing the light of day in a magazine or newspaper than a regular product release! ***

Several of my clients are small companies - less than ten million in sales - that are generating HUNDREDS of sales leads a month with white papers. In most cases those leads are coming in for only a couple bucks apiece.

As a matter of fact, I suggest that you commit a goodly percentage of your advertising budget to promoting white papers — it goes MILES further than ‘branding’ and ‘image advertising.’

http://www.perrymarshall.com/whitepapers/action.htm

Perry Marshall : (This guy knows what he’s talking about an endorsement from Bill Masson)

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