AMiable Solution #54: Seeing White Papers in Black and White

Beefing up your content marketing?  Try adding white papers to your mix.

White papers are essentially reports that provide information about a product or service and explain how the product or service solves a problem.  Although they are marketing pieces and nudge readers toward a particular brand, they are not outright salesy and must provide real and practical information.

White papers are best written in an informal tone. The objective is to engage, educate, and convince, so you’ll want to keep your text accessible.  That means no—or limited—technical language or jargon.

Most white papers contain five elements: an abstract, or one-paragraph description of what the paper is about; a two or three paragraph description of the problem; a description of the product or service; a description of how the product or service solves the problem and why it’s the best solution; and a one-paragraph conclusion.

Writing a paper that offers real-world applications for a company-specific offer can be tricky.  The goal of any content marketing piece is first and foremost to provide useful information, but when you’re trying to make the sale, too, it can be tempting to make the piece all about your organization.  Don’t be tempted.

To help you maintain an educational focus with a marketing twist, keep the following tips in mind:

• Stick to the facts.  Use research and statistics to establish the problem and explain how your problem or service provides the solution.
• Think of your white paper as an extended brochure.  Take advantage of the extra length white papers provide to delve into the mechanics of what you’re selling and the benefits of using it.
• Educate first, pitch last.  When addressing the solution to the problem, start with the basics.  Talk about how the benefits that your type of product/service provides affect your target audience in general.  Once you’ve convinced your audience of the basic solution, then tell them why they should buy from you.  Highlight your product or service’s specific benefits and unique features.
• Include a call to action.  Although white papers aren’t typical marketing pieces, they are still marketing efforts.  Send readers to your website or to the phone to place an order or to speak to a customer service rep.

Not sure you have the time to generate original text for your white paper?  Take a look at your blogs.  You may be able to edit and repackage a series of blogs into a white paper.

AMiable Solution #53: Using E-mail Newsletters to Deliver Sales

Content marketing allows you to increase customer retention and activity and create long-term relationships with customers and prospects. 

One of the best ways to share practical information and regularly remind your audience of your presence is through emailed newsletters.  E-mailed newsletters give you the opportunity and the forum to address issues that are important to both your particular customers and to your industry.

Creating a newsletter is an easily achievable goal if you follow a few simple tips.

Plan ahead.  Determine how often you want to publish your newsletter, and then create an editorial calendar identifying your planned topics.  But allow yourself to be flexible.  If a topic becomes newsworthy and should be addressed, don’t hesitate to bump a previously planned theme to accommodate more pressing or relevant information.

Keep your design simple.  Don’t try to get fancy with tons of graphics or non-traditional layouts and color choices.  Use plenty of white space and keep your text readable.  White or light-colored backgrounds with dark, contrasting text works just as effectively in emailed newsletters as they do in printed catalogs.

Edit carefully.  Clear messages are key no matter what format you publish them in.   

Not sure how to fill your newsletter?  In his email-marketing-reports.com article, “31 content tips and ideas for your B2B email newsletter,” Mark Brownlow offers the following ideas:

• Problem/solution
• How-tos
• Top tips
• Opinion/analysis
• Look into the future
• Horror/disaster story
• Case study                                        
• Reviews
• "Best of"
• Surveys/feedback request
• Event recommendations                         
• Resource links
• Amusing or inspirational anecdotes, stories, and quotes
• Answering feedback
• Interviews
• News
• Statistics and lists
• Quizzes

Although your content should be original, it doesn’t have to be exclusive.  To make the most of your time and expertise, consider how you can re-use your newsletter subject matter and text in other content marketing and sales marketing efforts, including blogs, catalogs, web pages, and other marketing materials and communications.

AMiable Solution #52: How to Write and Use How-Tos

Looking to showcase your expertise and earn goodwill at the same time?  Providing free “How-Tos” allows you to establish your organization as an industry authority and encourages long-term relationships with potential and current clients. 

Happily, how-tos require few resources: all you need are the people who know the details for completing a particular process and the people who can help articulate those instructions.

First, you need to address the “what” of your “how to.”  Where can you find inspiration?  It’s all around you:

• Your desk. Consider the tasks or computer programs you wish you had had help learning, activities you’ve streamlined or mastered, and methods that take the stress out of generating particular reports or marketing materials.
• Your departments.  Each of your organization’s departments specializes in a particular task.  Meet with each of them to identify things they do that are common or relevant to the things your members, customers, or donors do.
• Your experts. The folks your organization works with--authors, community leaders, consultants, vendors, etc.--specialize in tasks and skills that your organization may not.  See who’s willing to share their knowledge with you and your market.

No matter where you get your inspiration from, choose your topics wisely.  You don’t have give away trade secrets, but you do have to provide thoughtful, meaningful, and useful information. 

Once you identify the “what,” it’s time to describe the “how.”  Here’s how:

• Keep it brief but specific.  General, non-descript information won’t help your intended audience accomplish its tasks, and it won’t reflect well on your knowledge on the subject. As you lay out each instruction, remember to identify and quantify everything you can to make sure your instructions are as clear as possible.
• Look at the little picture.  Don’t try to teach big, complex activities.  Instead, break them down into small projects that can be implemented and achieved now.
• Break the task down into steps.  Don’t bury the sequence in a huge paragraph or two.  Identify each key step and bullet or number each one.
• Avoid lingo.  The idea is to make a particular task easier for your members, clients, or donors.  Using unfamiliar language will only confuse and cloud your efforts.
• Use photos or illustrations to help explain complex steps.  Sometimes pictures really do speak a thousand words. 

Once your how-tos are written, spread the word!  Include your how-tos on your website, in blogs, with related marketing collateral, at conferences and other meetings, etc.  Update them with new information, if necessary, and add to the collection when you can. 

AMiable Solution #51: Something for Nothing: Content Marketing Q&As

These days, consumers want more from the organizations they support: more help, more insight, and more benefit without additional pressure. Content marketing does this.  It provides valuable information without a sales pitch.  Why do it when there’s no immediate benefit to you?  When done consistently and well, content marketing establishes your organization as an authority and as a trusted resource. The result?  An established or enhanced relationship, which ultimately ends in sales, donations, or other support.

Creating content requires time and effort, but it doesn’t necessarily require cash.  This month, we’ll look at four types of content marketing you can create in-house with at-hand resources.  We’ll start with Q&As, question and answer sheets.

Q&As provide inquirers with background information and explanations to common questions, concerns, and complaints.  Not sure how to get started or what questions to include?  Inspiration for questions can come from a variety of sources:

• Inquiries to your company.  Talk to your customer service and sales departments to find out which questions and which issues concern your clients, donors, or members.
• Changes within your organization.  Has your organization changed its name, policies, key personnel, strategy, or offerings?  Providing your market with explanations or background can make the transition easier.
• Changes in your industry. Emerging technology, evolving strategies and practices, and changing regulations.  If it affects your audience, they’ll want to know what you know you and how it affects them.

Answers to questions should be brief but as complete as possible.  Once you’ve created your Q&A, don’t post it on your website and forget about it.  Make a point of reviewing it and adding to it regularly, and use the information you’re providing for all it’s worth.  Include links to your Q&A page throughout your website--anywhere a Q&A-addressed term or issue is referenced and may need further explanation.   Then, use the topics addressed in your Q&A as inspiration for other content marketing efforts.