If you’re seeking ways to repurpose white papers, you’ve probably already started to see the benefits of using a white paper as part of your marketing strategy. While a white paper is one of the most important types of long form content available for a content marketing strategy, it can also be the source for repurposed contact in multiple marketing channels. In other words, your existing content will make it easier to reach your target audience.
Why repurpose a white paper?
You may use white papers to explain what it is that makes your solution better than competing alternatives. You can summarize key information about a particular issue or problem to help the reader develop a stronger understanding. Or you can describe common problems your audience faces and offer a detailed explanation as to how your approach provides the best solution. But what you put in your entire white paper isn’t the only place for that information. You can repurpose your paper to deliver engaging content through social media channels and elsewhere.
White papers and webinars
You might think white papers and webinars are very different communications channels, but the two approaches serve essentially the same function. White papers and webinars are both used to inform and educate, often about topics with some degree of complexity. Both approaches tend to be serious and straightforward, especially compared to promotional materials such as mailers or brochures.
There are many ways to use white papers and webinars together as part of your marketing strategy. For example, your white paper can become the basis of one or more webinars about the topics covered in the paper. (When presenting webinars, you can offer a white paper, allowing attendees to access even more detailed information.)
Blog post: the natural white paper companion
A well-organized white paper can become the source of many more than one blog post for your company’s blog. Every blog post can mention the white paper and include a link for downloading it. You can develop an introductory blog post that summarizes the key message of your white paper, along with an individual blog post based on each section of it. In addition, industry websites and trade publications frequently produce blogs of their own targeted at the audiences that are important to you. Many welcome guest blog posts and will even allow you to include a link to your white paper. Not only will this expose your paper to more people in your target audience, but the fact that the owner of the site presenting your blog post is allows you to be a guest poster gives you a third-party endorsement as an expert.
Landing page
You can use white papers to drive readers to specialized web pages and other digital content marketing tools. For example, let’s say your company sells products for cleaning building exteriors. You know that roughly one-quarter of prospects will be most concerned about how environmentally friendly products are, so you produce a white paper to explain your environmental advantages. Next, you create a special landing page on your website. The only place its URL appears is in the white paper. When readers click on the link, they’re taken to a special landing page focused on the importance of being environmentally responsible. Not only does the use of the landing page allow you to easily tailor a sales message, but it lets you count how many readers went to the website — and sometimes even who they are.
Social media channels
Many businesses that use social media find it challenging to generate relevant and interesting content to post. Your white paper is filled with relevant content you can use to support lead generation or other strategies to generate leads. Whether that involves posting its availability on Facebook or Instagram, tweeting key facts, or repurposing parts of the content as LinkedIn posts, social media gives you many ways to present your white paper to interested audiences.
For business-related topics, LinkedIn posts are most effective. You can post the paper on your company page and encourage your team to share its availability on their own pages. If you belong to any LinkedIn groups, you can post a link to the paper there. And LinkedIn’s article function allows you to take parts of your white paper and present them as articles for your network to see.
Videos
White papers and videos are powerful strategic partners, with each offering opportunities for supporting and strengthening the other. For example, you can use videos to build traffic to your website. You can include links in your white paper that bring readers to videos providing additional insight on key elements of the topic. Most social media platforms are becoming video-driven. Some people even turn a press release into a video. A particularly effective approach is creating brief video clips of the subject matter experts who provided information for your white paper . They can explain key y concepts. For example, suppose production engineer Jill Jones helped you understand what makes cross-cutting better than spiral-cutting. Putting Jill on camera to share a similar explanation will catch viewers’ eyes and plant the idea that smart and personable people are behind your products. Because people are more likely to do business with people they like, this can pave the way for more sales.
Sales sheet
White papers can help you build your sales funnel, too. If you’re selling a product or service that requires a lot of education, a white paper can be a great way to provide that education.
When you repurpose your white paper into a sales sheet that’s essentially a one page summary, you have a handy content repurposing tool that will help your sales team convince potential customers of the key data points related to your offering.
Press release
A white paper can serve as was you announce key news, or it can form the basis for a traditional press release. You can also issue a press release about the white paper’s availability.
Infographic
Another interesting way to repurpose your white paper, if it lends itself to graphics, is to develop an infographic version that immediately tells your story.
Training materials
Finally, if you have a product or service that requires training, a white paper can be a great tool to support your training efforts. You can take the main points from the white paper and use them to develop a step-by-step guide or tutorial.
