White papers and eBooks are great ways for B2B marketers to position their brands as leaders in the field, innovators and trusted sources of information. These quality publications require lots of resource to create and disseminate, so it is important that marketers make the most of them and utilise them across different channels.
White papers and eBooks are most typically used by B2B marketers as bait for successful gated content campaigns, where interested professionals will exchange some personal data in return for content that is valuable to them. However, this should be just the start of the story. Once you have created a valuable piece of original content, all of your marketing channels as well as your internal communications should be benefiting from it. Every member of your marketing team should be conversant with the information available, repackaging it, using the headlines, promoting it by all possible means.
With a gated campaign you can measure how many people download your content, but you can’t tell if they read it, or how much of it they read. Doubtless, some of your best material and useful insights will be overlooked even by those who get as far as downloading the publication. What’s more, you’ll never know. You can’t monitor how much is read of a downloaded pdf. Just another reason to reuse the content of your white papers and eBooks in more accessible and monitorable formats.
“Most content creators spend 80% of their time creating content and then 20% of their time promoting it.”- Copyhakers
Here are just some ideas for ways you may be able to repurpose your content and make sure it gets the reach and impact it deserves.
Press
If the information you have is fresh and pertinent, it should be of interest to relevant industry publications and perhaps the wider press. Press releases are easy to write, can be published on your site to good SEO effect, and distributed via free networks. At worst it’s adding some value and richness to your site, and if it gets picked up and written about, all the better
Webinar
Why not record a discussion about your new publication and bring in some industry experts to talk about it? Such an event could even form part of the content creation process. Either way, the webinar adds value and creates an additional piece of content for you to promote. If you do decide to host a webinar, make sure you get the right tools for your needs. Check out our comprehensive guide to the best webinar platforms for B2B lead generation.
Extracts published as blog posts
Why not make sure that your great content has every chance to be read. Publish extracts or re-written chapters on your blog and present your content afresh. These snippets will attract a different audience and encourage more people to download the full report.
Recycled as series of social media posts
Share the content, chapters, headlines and opinions on your social media channels and not only do you get more exposure, you get to see who is interested as well. Which companies and individuals have liked or shared your latest post on Linkedin?
Presented in newsletters/emails to existing audiences
Don’t forget to share this great new content with your existing customers/lead base too. Talk about it in your newsletters or email campaigns. You could drip-feed your new content through a whole series of mails, making sure that every point of interest is getting exposure, and again, using another very measurable medium to monitor what your target group is interested in, what it responds to.
Worked into a sales script
If this new publication is pitched correctly – right at the core of your product and offer – then your sales staff should be conversant with it too. Make sure they too are presented with the information as it launches, ready to follow up with clients who have read it and keen to send it to those that have not.
These examples are not an exhaustive list; the potential is endless. Yet often the full opportunities of great eBooks and white papers are not realised. As the project manager of an eBook or white paper, you need to make sure that your content-product is accessible to all. Sell your publication internally, provide additional creatives that might be useful, and make it as simple as possible for your colleagues to read, use, and repurpose the material.
