Building Buzz for White Papers

After you write a white paper, you need to promote it. Here are a few ideas to introduce a new paper and to leverage its content months after the initial publication date.

1. Blog it — insert a link to your white paper hosted on your web site or extract several relevant items from the paper and insert them as blog comments linked back to the paper.

2. Post your paper — subscription-based services such as TechTarget’s BitPipe, KnowledgeStorm, TMCNet, and others provide a library of IT white papers, webcasts, and product information for review. ZDNet and FindWhitePapers.com are free services.

3. Hand out at conferences — print your paper and hand it out to attendees and reporters at trade shows.

4. Share it with social networks — create a thumbnail of your paper’s cover page and include a visual URL within Twitter to suggest a download from your web site. Send a white paper to Facebook “fans” or link to the paper on your fan page or profile or use the Notes feature to paste in HTML content, such as the paper’s landing page. LinkedIn offers a free app to post white papers and other files on your profile.

5. Send email — rent a list and send an emailer offering a free copy of the paper. You can collect information from readers using a web form for later follow-up and send it automatically by email. Or print a postcard and suggest readers download a free copy of the paper by registering online.

6. Promote in your e-Zine — extract a few tips or quotes to entice readers then request they send an email or complete a simple form for a complete copy of the paper.

7. Capture on video — if your white paper describes a new technology, use video to demonstrate how it works then post the video link on your web site or submit it to YouTube.

8. Send a press release — distribute a press release that describes the message of your paper. Papers with valuable content may justify press attention and releases are indexed by search engines once they are posted online. Some press release distribution firms, such as PR Web, include Google indexing in the distribution fee.

9. Reposition as an article — for maximum impact, use your white paper to reach out to a key trade journal or magazine editor. Send the paper for review and suggest repurposing it as an article. Editors receive a new story idea and your paper is exposed to hundreds or thousands of new readers.