In a previous life when I sold web-based Human Resources software, my “marketing funnel” included a step to send a white paper to the prospect. I recall how much a pain the process was… checking e-mails, seeing which white paper was requested, responding to the e-mail, finding the PDF white paper & attaching it to the e-mail, sending, and then manually entering the prospect into a spreadsheet for documentation and tracking purposes, etc. After doing this a dozen or so times a day, every day… pretty soon my ears started to stick out and I lost use of my opposable thumbs. Any chimp could do this!
Back then, I was inexperienced enough to manually handle the process, but I DID recognize the value of offering white papers in exchange for the prospect’s information.
Something I didn’t know at the time was there are a bunch of secrets around white papers. I caught a solid blog post on white paper secrets by white paper expert Michael Stelzner. Michael claims that, “all you need is a good title and a great first page… the rest of the paper can suck.” My style is to provide value to prospects & clients throughout the relationship, so I don’t fully agree with Michael’s statement. However, he goes on to clarify and provide some really great insights. Stuff I’ll be using.
To read Michael’s post, click here.
Posted In: Small Business
