Best Practices For White Paper Syndication – A Complete Guide
Whitepapers have been a valuable asset for organizations and brands looking to grow their influence, increase their perceived authority, and gain traction with content that’s both practical and shareable across a range of platforms. Of course if you’re intending to take advantage of white paper syndication opportunities, you need to know about the ways to achieve the results you crave, as well as the potential pitfalls that lie in your path.
Grab the Readers’ Attention Immediately
If your whitepaper doesn’t have a strong headline, then people won’t be compelled to dive into it in the first place. It’s a good idea to test out various versions of a headline before settling on the one you’ll actually use when your whitepaper is published and circulated.
Focus on What’s Relevant to Your Intended Audience
As with all marketing content syndication, you need to avoid the temptation to present readers of your whitepaper with information that isn’t relevant or interesting to them, even if it does serve to further your promotional efforts. Instead, be sure to always have your target audience in mind, and craft pieces that cater to their expectations, and also deal with issues and obstacles they are facing with actionable guidance and advice.
Support Your Points with Statistics
A whitepaper will be much more credible if it includes facts and figures from independent, respected industry bodies to back up the statements you make. Also, when sourcing stats, ensure that the reports they are drawn from are recent; don’t rely on data that is a little long in the tooth, as it could be incorrect and will also make it seem like you are not saying anything new.
Add Your Own Research & Interviews
Using third party sources for relevant data is all well and good, but your whitepaper will be all the more attractive and shareable if it has fresh, unique information and perspectives to offer readers. If you’ve conducted or commissioned relevant research, be sure to include this, and make sure your visualization is consistent and digestible. You can also gain traction by interviewing industry experts and featuring their thoughts and comments within the whitepaper, since quotes from reputable sources will further bolster its readability and authority.
Write a Press Release to Market Your White Paper
In terms of the actual distribution of a whitepaper, there are a lot of avenues to consider, and creating a press release to spread the word is still an incredibly effective strategy. You can submit press releases to various platforms, and so long as the content is relevant, the copy is unique and the information contained is interesting, this should help your white paper to build that much-needed early momentum.
Take Advantage of Social Media
Distributing your whitepaper far and wide is easier if you have an established social media presence. Of course it could also be your ticket to a bump to your follower numbers, particularly on business-focused platforms like LinkedIn. Share your white paper with your contacts, add a link to it in your bio, and diversify your coverage of platforms so that you aren’t just reliant on standard syndication services.
Optimize Your Landing Page
If you want to use your white paper as a way to fish for data from people who download it, the landing page has to be on-point. A clean layout, accompanied by a minimally complex download form, is better than a page that’s overly cluttered or asks for too many details, as this could harm conversion rates.
White Paper Best Practices
With time, you’ll develop and improve your whitepaper syndication skills, and this is still a process which is relevant for marketing and brand-building. Be patient, learn from your mistakes and use a range of tactics to make your white papers work for you.