5 Ways to Double-down on Your Whitepaper

Take your typical B2B whitepaper. You’ve spent time (and money) producing it. Perhaps you hired a writer, commissioned original research and even pulled-in a graphic designer to make it look pretty. Now it’s time to use it.

Historically, that meant gating the whitepaper behind a sign-up form on your website. Give us your email and we’ll let you download the whitepaper. (Sorry for the SPAM about to come your way). You might also have issued a press release, and blasted an email to your sales and marketing database. The result? A few emails captured, a few downloads tracked, and then… crickets.

Now however, with the hordes of digital channels at your disposal, you can do much, much more.

How? Break the whitepaper down into smaller, bite-sized pieces. Repurpose chunks of content into multiple formats, and share across multiple channels. Here’s a 5-point punchlist on how you can double-down on whitepaper awareness activity.

1. Twitter Series. One post per day on a specific take-away from the whitepaper. Call out key influencers in your space. Ask for feedback. A 10-page whitepaper can arm you with 50 topical tweets.
2. Twitter hashtag. Create one, or hook into an existing one. Did your whitepaper discuss a trend? Or a solution to an industry problem? Work that into a hashtag. And develop it.
3. LinkedIn Groups. Let the people your groups know about the whitepaper.  Don’t be salesy, and make sure the content is pertinent. But introduce it, and let them know where they can read it. You might even be able to start a discussion around it.
4. Blog Posts. A single whitepaper can be recycled into several articles, each expanding on a particular section of the whitepaper. And in addition to internal authors, consider a guest blogger. Bring his or her readers into the mix.
5. Slideshare. Turn the whitepaper into an easily digested visual piece. Pull-out the key points of the whitepaper, add a few images / illustrations, and emphasize the main message. Further, you can embed the animated PPT in a blog post.

Still reading? (thanks). Here are a few bonus tips:

• Use your other social channels – varying the language and timing – to share news of your new whitepaper.
• Consider creating an Infographic out of the Whitepaper. It gives you another (compelling) digital asset to share.
• Include a link to the whitepaper in your email signature. Get your entire company to do the same. It’s like free advertising.
• Always double down on 11. And always split aces.