List Building – Downloadable Content As An Email Marketing Strategy

Whether you’re an affiliate, running an ecommerce store or offering service, a downloadable content strategy is a great way to entice people to signup to your campaign and a perfect email list building technique.

White papers are one of the simplest forms of downloadable content. While not being the fanciest marketing tools in the world, can be invaluable when written well.

To give you an example, a white paper is a report into, say, a new product or service that you have to offer – such as a new software package – and it goes into to detail about what the product is, what it does and why clients should buy it.

White papers are about educating people and giving highly useful information; they don’t have to relate to a specific product, but it should discuss in detail something that is highly relevant to your industry and give new information to the reader.

They are usually offered for free in a downloadable format, signing up a prospect to an email marketing list in the process! More and more businesses are incorporating this into their content strategy for the web.

Easy. So how do you go about writing a good one?

Show your knowledge

You just have to know your subject and be passionate about it. Remember though, this is an email marketing strategy to aid list building so spend time creating a snappy title that explains what your white paper is all about; it’s all about signups!

Audience

Decide who your audience is and pitch the content accordingly. If you’re hoping to sell to a particularly tech-minded client, then by all means fill the paper with data and specs. But that’s only an approach to take if you’re absolutely sure you won’t be blinding your audience with science. Otherwise, a simpler, jargon-free marketing white paper is the better option.

Approach

Don’t think just because the phrase ‘white paper’ sounds quite serious that you need to write reams and reams of copy – do that, and you run the risk of your clients zoning out before they finish. Only you can decide the right length – it all depends on your product and your client – but there’s really no need to pad your paper out unnecessarily.

However, do bear in mind that the most successful white papers are usually somewhere between 6 and 12 pages long, including sidebars, snippets, a cover page, table of contents, appendix (for sources, although you can also use footnotes) and images.

Entitled

First, a title – something suitably businesslike is in order, communicating what your product is about and how it can help the client. Nothing too cute or hyperbolic here – this isn’t Twitter…

The Solution

Now, a white paper needs to demonstrate that it’s the solution to a problem that your reader may well not even have realised they had. Which is why after a brief outline, you need to devote some time in your white paper to describing what that problem actually is.

Perhaps you’re promoting a super-special new Learning Management System. In that case, talk a little bit about how staff learning needs are constantly changing and older LMSs aren’t necessarily as adaptable as newer ones.

Whatever you’re promoting, simply find what your solution is. Then back up whatever your argument is with market research and plenty of it – if you’ve got stats to prove what you’re saying, it’s much more effective.

Good reports

So what’s the solution? Well, remember you’re writing a report not an out-and-out sales pitch, so don’t immediately say ‘Our product is the answer!’ Make a case for the type of product that you’re selling and explain its benefits. If you’re trying to sell a newer version of a product your client already owns, talk about the need to upgrade and leave old technology behind.

Now you can move on to your own service or product, highlighting its own particular benefits that make yours better than the competition, including a call to action directing people to your website or phone number to get any questions answered. Conclude with a summing up paragraph very briefly describing – again – why your product is so brilliant and how it can solve your clients’ problems.

Getting visual

So that’s the content – what about the looks? Well, a white paper doesn’t need to be stupidly over-designed – no trendy fonts and go easy on the primary colours, please – but it does need to look professional.  Include a title page and a brief abstract to outline what the paper is about.  Be sure you company name, logo and contact details are on this first page somewhere.

 

Create a cover page in Word, adding colours and logos to suit

Splitting your text into two or three columns is a good idea – anymore, and you’re at risk of making your lovely white paper look all cramped; not using columns at all will make your lines of copy way too long.

Bear in mind that the use of sidebars and graphics for including snippets of information are ideal for breaking up the text and keeping the reader interested.

You can use text boxes to create sidebars and snippets in Word

If you’ve got a lot of charts and graphs, consider putting them all on one page, so that the client can get all that data at a glance, and use pull quotes and subheads to break the copy up.

Get some help

If you don’t own PDF Writer, then don’t panic, there are now a slew of online resources which quickly and easily convert Word docs to PDF for a professional-looking finish.

If you’re really not confident, a quick Google or LinkedIn search for ‘white paper writers’ turns up plenty of freelance guns for hire, all of who claim they can write the perfect white paper for you.

If you’ve already got your email marketing campaign in place thanks to prior list building, check out our post on creating effective email marketing content.