Your company has worked hard to develop its product, service or mission. Now it’s time to explode the industry with your first attempt at media exposure. But, before you light that fuse, first make sure your brand is ready to be showcased to the world. Whether the media relations campaign is done by your in-house team or through a hired agency, it’s important that your brand is polished and professional before the first detonation.

We’ve put together a few basic tips to help make sure you are prepared and ready to nail your media relations campaign when you make your big bang.

  • Remember that your website, blog, social media, and any offline collateral will serve as a potential source for journalistic research and story development. It is imperative that all of your content has clear and consistent messaging, originality in its presentation, and a professional design and purpose. If you think the website will confuse journalists, prepare a good old fashioned fact sheet that is clearly intended for the media
  • Take the time to stand out from the crowd. To be an industry leader you must know your competition and then further develop your brand with a message that differentiates your company.
  • Know your intended goal for media relations. Make sure to structure your campaign with tactics that caters to your mission. Making more sales and gaining visibility may mean a very different set of tactics.
  • Have a clarified message. Make sure your spokespeople get media training whether or not they want it (LOL). At a minimum, make sure your spokesperson has all of the facts and key messages about the news, and can speak well to the product, service, or mission of the company.

By taking the time to prepare before you make your explosion into the market, your opportunity to hit your target increases and all these efforts will maximize the desired results.

In a recent post titled “Five Basics for a Good Analyst Briefing,” we looked at some of the key fundamentals for a good analyst briefing.   Today, I bring you five more basics in the list of best practices that you can adopt to ensure your company is putting its best foot forward in its analyst relations efforts.

#1 – Let the analyst talk

While the purpose of a vendor briefing is for companies to tell analysts about their products, savvy vendors recognize that analysts have something useful to say and deserve a listen. Too many companies plow through dozens of slides sticking tightly to their scripts and often end the call without the analyst getting one word in.  Most senior analysts will not let this happen and will interrupt if they have questions or comments. But don’t make them do that. Good etiquette means you should pause often and ask whether the analyst has something to say. Better yet, make sure you plan to schedule time at the end of your briefing to specifically hear from the analyst, who can provide valuable insight and direction for your company. Contrary to common perception, analysts try to add value on their calls whether or not the vendor is a paying client.

#2 -Respect the analyst’s time

Bottom line, industry analysts are among the most busy folks you’ll work with – and if they’re not, they’re probably not worth your company’s time.  In addition to tracking hundreds of vendors, they’re busy answering client inquiries, doing research, giving presentations/webinars, working on consulting projects, and writing reports.  It’s a known fact that analysts spend a lot of time on vendor briefings although they often prefer to be doing their other work. Therefore, it’s essential to schedule only the amount of time needed and abide by the schedule by starting and ending meetings on time.  Also, make sure your technology works; delays around incorrect Web conferencing logins, for example, are irritating and usually avoidable.  TIP:  resend web conferencing details about 10 minutes before the call so the information is at the top of the analyst’s e-mail box (Gartner analysts most particularly appreciate this).

#3 – Prepare a proper agenda and follow it

Having a proper agenda will help keep your analyst briefings on track.   When possible, this agenda should go to the analyst ahead of time for approval.  While this is not a popular practice, the agenda provides a tool for vendors and analysts to keep the briefings under control and make sure important topics are not overlooked. Too many vendors focus exclusively on their technology. It’s important to ensure that non-technology subjects like company, customers, financials, investors, management and industry backdrop are included in the briefing to ensure analysts have the proper perspective.

#4- Go easy on the PowerPoint® slides

Nothing makes an analyst more frustrated than when they see that a vendor briefing presentation contains more slides than there are minutes allotted for the briefing. Too many slides leaves the analyst confused and not completely sure what is important for their takeaway. You need to make sure your presentation conveys a clear message and gets to the points you think are most important.  The best briefings supplement the presenters, not vice versa. Many analysts want to see your product in action; but of course these product demonstrations should be manageable and support the business messages you are promoting. Again, make sure that there is time for questions and discussion to hear from the analyst so you know if he/she has understood your presentation and make sure to get the valuable information they can offer.

#5 – Follow up with the analyst

It’s amazing that many times after a vendor expends extensive effort to find and brief an analyst, they do nothing to follow up after their initial call. Companies should continue to build the relationship by keeping analysts aware of news and asking for their opinions or ideas when appropriate. It is a fallacy that analysts will only give ideas to paying clients. While paying vendor clients do receive more involved interactions, most analysts are willing to have meaningful discussions with non-paying vendors after a briefing. Companies should strive to build memorable connections with analysts which are achieved by faithful, honest and interesting communications.

Bottomline: analysts are top influencers with your customers and among industry peers—nothing should be spared in applying correct etiquette to ensure you make the most of your valuable time with these high-powered people.

 

Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing techniques around, but it does have some unique caveats. It can be really effective in increasing awareness, sales, and engagement, but it can actually repel people if it is done the wrong way. It takes a certain amount of finesse to find the right people and send them the right content at the right time. Here are some tips about how to create a B2B email marketing campaign that really works.

Focus on creating valuable content

The most effective thing you can do for your email list is focus on creating valuable content. The content in your emails needs to provide your subscribers with information or resources that are not only relevant, but useful. For example, an article in your email newsletter could provide information about how to use a particular product or list other similar resources or recommendations that may be useful to your customers. While it is alright to have some promotional messages in your email campaign, being too promotional will definitely turn off subscribers.

It is vital to continue to test out content and techniques on a regular basis. So you can send certain email messages to certain marketing segments and leave the rest the same as the control for the experiment. If you want to figure out what is going to be the most effective content, leave the control group the same and then create variations and test with the remaining group. Use the metrics in your email marketing program to see if there are changes in the number of subscribers or the amount of opens and clickthroughs. The next step is to use this information to set measurable goals to increase engagement in your upcoming email campaign messages. It is also very easy to simply ask your subscribers for feedback about what they would like to see in the future.

Pay attention to peak usage times

The success of an email marketing campaign can be dependent upon when it is sent. The truth is that people tend to be more receptive during certain days of the week and times of the day. It may not be the same for everybody, but it is something that you can learn through testing. As a general rule of thumb, it seems that Friday has the lowest rate of opens while Tuesday has a significantly higher open rate. Obviously, emailing people on a major holiday will probably not work so well because people are not checking their emails on those days.

Find the right frequency

Sometimes email campaigns are not as successful as they should or could be because of the frequency. Some campaigns send emails too often and alienate their subscribers, while some do not send enough emails and cause their subscribers to forget about them. There is no correct answer in terms of frequency, because it depends on your audience and how often they want to hear from you. A good place to start is sending once a month, and then work from there to see if people are interested in hearing more from you.

Place an emphasis on landing pages

Landing pages are just as important as the actual email messages themselves. The main goal in terms of sending emails is to get your prospects to take action in some way, shape, or form. Perhaps you want them to sign up for a free trial, attend a webinar, or become a follower of your social media account. In any case, you need to make sure that the landing page is functional, attractive, and enticing. Above all else, it should fulfill its function of capturing their information, and have visual appeal as well as persuasive writing.

Email marketing requires a certain amount of testing and development to create a successful campaign. It will be a product of some trial and error, but as long as you keep track of results, what tends to be more effective will become apparent. Take some time to really get to know your audience and use the metrics to guide you along the way.

Briefing industry analysts is more of a learned art, rather than a formulaic science.

The main objective is to connect with the analysts so they understand your company and solution enough to describe it accurately to others. Some of these “others” include journalists and potential customers who may subscribe to an analyst service. While this objective seems quite straightforward, the desired result is often not achieved. The benefits of success can be so powerful, it’s important to get it right.

Companies need to learn the best practices for briefing industry analysts to help make sure their company connects the dots with these top influencers.

  • 1. Get the Right Analyst

    A good analyst relations program starts by identifying a list of top candidates by proper research and adequate planning.  While it seems obvious, analysts sometimes are pulled into briefings when they do not belong there. This can be quite embarrassing and/or irritating for all parties involved. You can learn about most analysts by looking at their biography on the analyst Web site, reading the titles of their research, looking for their quotes in the trade press or following their social media updates.  Not doing the proper research shows a lack of preparation and can definitely get you started on bad footing.

  • 2. Prime the Analyst

    Do not assume an analyst knows about your company or product. A briefing always goes better when the analyst has time before the discussion to learn about your company. This gives the analyst a chance to think through what you do and is better prepared to ask relevant questions and provide valuable input. Vendors or their PR agencies need to provide information to analysts ahead of time including links to recent press releases of significance. They should also provide the analyst with names and titles of people that will be participating in the briefing. If the analyst does not have this basic info, more time is wasted on background discussion and the analyst is less likely to be prepared to add much value, which is not ideal.

  • 3. Preparation, Presentation and Protocol

    When it comes to analyst briefings you can’t be too prepared.  A brief but informative presentation should serve to familiarize the analyst with the basics of your company history, vision and direction, as well as differentiating product information.  Don’t tell all – leave enough time for the analyst to give his or her feedback or both you and the analyst will be missing out.   Also, make sure your PR representative gives a backgrounder on analysts to the spokespeople to prevent disconnects and show knowledge. He or she should also teach spokespeople the most current analyst protocol and schedule a full-blown run-through of the presentation with briefing tips.  Preparation is the greatest form of believing.

  • 4. Get the Right People in the Meeting

    It’s important to choose the best and most relevant spokespeople from your company to attend an analyst briefing. Things to consider when deciding who should attend a call include: the analyst’s seniority, level of technical expertise, vertical industry, and their coverage areas.  You should limit company attendees to 2-3 people at the most and offer follow-up communications with other members on the team if necessary. Avoid confusion at all costs.

  • Proper Introductions

    When hosting a briefing, It is imperative to take the time for proper introductions before jumping into the company spiel. Nothing is more awkward than when company X launches into slide ware before everyone on the call knows who will be involved and why. While the more seasoned analysts may interrupt and suggest introductions, some will not.  For the best results, everyone should know who is on the call and why.  Also, it’s very respected to let the analyst/s in the briefing provide a brief summary of his/her background , coverage areas and specific items of interest before you start, even if you’ve sent the info previously. When everyone is clear who the players are, you can tailor the conversation for the most success.

There is no way around it, industry analysts influence people in the business and it is important to be sure they have an accurate perspective on your company and solutions. And they need to be handled with care. In an upcoming post, we’ll look at more tips to help you make the most of your analyst briefings.

Holidays are a great time to do editorial placement campaigns.

I just finished pitching a New Year’s pitch that was a whopping success.  While many companies tend to see the holidays as dead air time, some even shutting down their PR efforts altogether, savvy PR folks see huge opportunity.

The truth is the time period between Thanksgiving and a few months after the New Year presents an opportunity to leverage the perceived news lull with a year-end or year-beginning storyline.  Often editors and media outlets are looking for interesting ideas to “fill their pages” during this holiday down time.  Also, with the general slow-down in corporate productivity around the holidays, more people are reading news sites, blogs and following social media channels than during busier times of the year.  So smart holiday PR campaigning can be a powerful way to get your company noticed.

Some of the most important keys to effective holiday editorial placement are:

  • Leverage popular trends and storylines

    Even if your product is a nerdy, seemingly non-interesting component in the technology stack – look for the larger story lines and market trends you can connect your company or product to.  This may require thinking outside of the box but it always can be done.

  • Mention the year you are recapping or making a prediction about in the headline

    Let the reader know up front you are providing interesting tidbits about the year end – year coming and what matters about it.  Media outlets are expected to drench their readers with these very specific storylines.

  • Use a sensationalistic headline

    OK, you should always write a compelling headline (stay tuned for an upcoming Attain blog post on headlines) but year end/year beginning headlines need to be especially dramatic.  Remember, you are about to make a sweeping statement about what has happened or will happen in an entire market or industry.  Your headline needs to stand out among a litany of these types of stories.

  • Be inventive

    Perhaps you can leverage a partner or customer to jointly address an interesting angle or co-sponsor a year-end study.  The holidays are great times to announce results of surveys or make predictions about New Year trends.  This is also the time to consider something a little more catchy or gimmicky as these types of news stunts often seem to fit in better with the sense of sensationalism surrounding the holiday season.

  • Be believable

    You can claim that any pitch is related to the holidays, but that doesn’t mean an editor will believe it. In order to achieve the best success, there must be a valid, relevant holiday tie to your story idea.  Are you working with an expert source who can predict trends that relate to the Christmas season? Do you have a customer or partner that offers a great product perfect for holiday shoppers? These are the sorts of things that make for successful holiday editorial.

  • Start early and pitch well into the New Year

    Many pubs have their Christmas content picked out early, so make sure to get a jump on the crowd  If you start early enough you can also leverage editorial calendar opportunities to add momentum and additional stories to your PR campaign.  Also, New Year predictions can be placed through February so don’t give up the holiday editorial idea too soon.  The appetite for predictions never seems to end.

If thoughtfully crafted and executed properly, year end, New Year editorial placed content can be a very effective way to keep PR momentum through the holiday lull while possibly netting some great attention for your company you might not otherwise have received.

Want to know one of the top keys to copywriting success? It’s one you won’t hear too many pros mention, but it’s super important. To get the reader’s attention, you must make your message clear. Nobody cares how many big words you or I know. In fact, the more complex the subject the more important it is to use simple words.

The truth is, people just want you to fix their problems as-fast-as possible so they can get back to what’s really important. Give them 3 steps, not 10. Give them short sentences, not long. And, if you do, they’ll reward you by coming back to read again.

Easy-to-read copy is one of the most important rules in good copywriting. I can tell you from experience that writing this way isn’t as easy as you might think. To make the task easier, I’m going to share a few tips to get you started. If you use them, you’ll begin to see results right away:

How Simplify Your Writing

  • 1. A single great idea is more powerful than two

    Have one main point and restate it throughout your narrative. Research shows that it takes up to six times hearing something before you start to remember it.

  • 2. Use parallel constructions

    Group like ideas together. Contrast where possible. Short bursts of concise sentences is refreshing and memorable.

  • 3. Use lists to pull the reader through your piece

    Lists easy are to follow. They allow people to make a quick scan of your material and decide what they need.

  • 4. Remove as many words as you can without losing the message

    Edit, edit, edit—get rid of words that add no meaning. The saying: less is more is true. Removing visual clutter allows what’s important to gain strength.

    Make sentences clear, concise and useful.

Follow these four tips and you will make your readers happy. And entice them to come back for more.

 

Facebook now favors video updates in Newsfeeds, and average over 1 billion video views per day. Last year, Buzzfeed scored over a billion video views per MONTH, leading them to launch the new Buzzfeed Entertainment division, led by web video impresario Ze Frank. Listicles are so 2015….video ads are now delivering the hype.  And thanks to their ever-evolving algorithm, Facebook reach has plummeted to a dismal 6% (according to this Social@Ogilvy study). But here’s a happier stat: 1.65 BILLION people are watching video on Facebook everyday.

Those of us who follow such things surely noticed the high number of mentions of online video marketing in those ubiquitous Top Digital Marketing Trends of 2016  published last January. I don’t know about you, but we paid attention. And we came to the conclusion that video marketing is the new social media, in a sense.

With both digital trends, companies were initially reluctant to recognize and admit that they needed to include them in their marketing, or risk getting left behind. Both were seen as time-consuming and slow to generate ROI.

This is no longer true, of course. Companies can use instant gratification platforms like Vine or Snapchat to generate videos for their brand, or find increasingly affordable outsourcing options like Humblee or VeedMe. These serve as a kind of matchmaking service between companies and a vetted network of videographers and producers – awesome! Or there’s always platforms like Typito (which is subscription-based), a sort of Canva for online video that lets you craft videos out of standalone images or video clips, or use a template.

There are a few different types of marketing videos you can make, depending on what you’re selling:

Explainer Videos

These are one of the most common asks, and consist of a short statement about what your company does or sells at a high level.

One of the most talked about and most copied of the last few years is Dollar Shave Club’s:

It’s hilarious, features their actual founder, is shorter than most explainer videos, and clearly works – Unilever bought them for $1billion this year. That is “F***ing Great.” And the video is still collecting views on YouTube – at the time of writing this article, they’re at 23M views. Damn.

Customer Testimonial

As the name suggests, this is like a video version of a case study you’d use to show off your client wins. It’s also one of the best ways to get social validation if you’re selling a product, especially since millennials tend to trust reviews by their peers more than any other type of advertising.

Customers vouching for your product or service builds trust and credibility, which is why this is one of the best and highest-ranking formats for B2B companies. They are also considered to be one of the most challenging types to make.

This testimonial by 99designs is awesome because it’s eye-catching, moves fast, and does a good job of showing how their logo creation services helped this successful accessories designer launch her business from scratch:

And as an added bonus: reviews and testimonials boost your search rank.

Product demos

Ah yes,….ye olde product demo. This is where you get to, as the old pros say, eat your own dog food. These usually feature someone from your company talking enthusiastically about your product or service.

Go ahead and fanboy or fangirl right out on your moneymaker, like Squareup did. Way to make that “little white thing you plug into your phone to take credit cards” sound cool:

A couple tips first: write a script. Not a good idea to wing it, as you don’t want to miss all those key elements like “value propositions” and “product specs,” do ya?

Also, hook them early. That’s right, drop your hook right in the water at the beginning of your demo with a good tagline or amazing stat about how much money people can make with your app, or whatever.

And finally…Finish Strong. BOOM, like that. This is a CTA (call to action) and is kinda the whole point of your video.

Animated videos

People like these because they remind them of cartoons. Just kidding…sort of. But  they do eliminate the need for shooting a lot of expensive, time-consuming live footage. They also allow you to make quick cuts and transitions, which is particularly useful for explaining why people should care about your startup, for example. And short and sweet wins the day on Facebook (30 seconds max, plz), just make sure to use some punchy text overlays since Facebook auto-plays videos without sound.

Pinterest went this route when they unleashed their strangely addictive virtual hoarder social platform:

Their video went for 90 seconds since it was 2012 and attention spans hadn’t shrunk down to 30s yet, but it was a nice touch letting people know that up-front.

If you use 3D animation (less expensive than you’d think), you can create a nice, lifelike prototype of your product. And you don’t need to have a company mascot, like those annoying Afflac ducks, to create animated videos. Of course, if you already have one, by all means use it as a narrator – you won’t find a cheaper spokesperson.

One more tip before we leave you to your Red Bull-fueled brainstorming sessions – don’t get caught up in the Periscope, Facebook Live, and Instagram Videos hype to the point that you’re ignoring YouTube. It’s still the second largest search engine on the Web (never forget their parent company is Google) and the third most visited site. So keep posting your videos there, and use good SEO practices when you do – it matters.

Are your headlines doing the job? Headlines perform a critical task. They entice your reader to actually read your content. If your headline isn’t clear or doesn’t promise a powerful reward, people will pass it by.

Professional Copywriters spend up to 50 percent of their time developing the perfect headline.

Here are four simple tips that will help you improve the quality of your headlines.

1. Promise something useful

People read articles because they’re looking to solve a problem. They need to save time. Your headline let’s them know exactly how you’re going to help. Don’t make people guess.

If you want someone to click on your headline promise something they can do right away.

2. Use Numbers

Readers like lists. They’re easy to follow. People are more inclined to click a post with a list because they feel the odds are good that they’ll find something useful.

Algorithms like Google Hummingbird reward useful content. Numbers tell search engines that your content intends to deliver something.

Use random, 2-digit numbers like 13 or 27. It’s an old copywriter trick. These numbers telegraph authenticity to readers.

A word of advice: if you promise 17 essential tips, be sure all 17 of those tips are high quality.

3. Use a Logical Keyword

If you sell tires, use words in your headline like: traction, tread, wheel-hub or grip. If you sell software for autonomous vehicles, use words like: driverless, WiFi, or self-parking.

Think of this like deposits into your search-engine savings account.

The more you include keywords naturally used by searchers, the easier they will find you.

4. Keep Headlines Under 65 Characters

Algorithms penalize headlines that are over 70 characters. That’s because they’re harder to read. That aside, the important takeaway is not muddy up your message with too many words.

Make sentences clear, concise and useful. These qualities will entice interested readers to read your article.

 

Marketing copy that grabs your attention is either effortlessly cool or unbearably cringe-inducing. Hubspot recently profiled a few companies who are getting it right and also distills the learnings from each great copywriting example into some actionable tips.

We’d like to share some of our own thoughts on how to consistently write great marketing copy that hits all your goals: to grab and hold your target audience’s attention amidst all the other social noise, get them interacting with you on social channels, and keep them coming back for more. Ultimately, we hope this relationship-building is also leading toward more lead generation, more sales, and more brand awareness of your products/services, but first things first.

While it’s true that other forms of media are successfully grabbing the lion’s share of consumer attention (Vine, SnapChat, Pinterest, Instagram), the written word will never lose its impact. Especially when it comes to translating your brand vision, voice, and mission. What’s a picture of a Nike shoe without the tagline “Just do it”? It’s fantastic to show all of this through great video campaigns and the perfect graphic image, but we think the combination of showing AND telling is where the lasting power of brand messaging lies.

As the Hubspot blog puts it, The continuity of a brand, despite the advent of new media, hangs on the tenor of a singular voice.

The B2C Marketing Voice: Selling a Brand Vision

Some of the most successful brands out there (Red Bull, Levi’s, Xbox, Nike) know exactly who their audiences are and how their interests align with the brand’s vision. They’re not going to waste their time coming up with universal copy that appeals to everyone and offends no one. They know exactly who they’re selling to and why.

Hubspot uses Red Bull as a good example of this: their social campaigns, or a stand-alone Instagram post, probably won’t make sense to the average person. Your Midwestern grandma has no clue what a “#HippieJump” is, much less how a hashtag works, so their picture of a snowboarder grabbing massive air with this tagline won’t mean much: “Son, rise. #HippieJump for @arthur_longo #snowboard.”

But to their audience, it’s cool, it’s clever, and it’s inspiring. The Red Bull customer is into extreme sports, video games, and anything edgy so they can cater to these people directly and not worry about who they might be alienating.

Companies who don’t know their audience opt for the safe (read: no one gets fired) option and over explain so everyone gets it.

You want to be in a position where you don’t have to explain what your brand is about and what you represent – it’s evident in every product, every ad campaign, every image, every social post, and most importantly, every nuanced and highly-targeted piece of copy. People who connect with it are “in the know” and like that feeling of belonging to a larger community. You know there’s a community of Red Bull drinkers even if they aren’t instantly identifiable, just like there’s a huge and highly active and vocal community of Xbox gamers.

The B2B Marketing Voice: Press Release on Steroids

Almost every B2B company I’ve worked with as a social media consultant also had a full-time Content Marketer and a full-time publicist on staff. When you’re selling a product or service to other companies, you can’t fake it if you don’t have a good brand story. If you’re selling CRM software to companies in all different types of industries, for example, and they all have the common goal of managing their customer databases – they’re going to need a compelling reason to subscribe to or buy your software instead of the many other options out there.

This is why every piece of copy about your business has to be aligned and consistent: your Web copy, your product descriptions, your social media channels, your infographics, your press articles. It’s a lot to manage, and it amounts to every business also being its own publisher.

HubSpot uses Intel as an example of a non-sexy company that nonetheless has created a compelling and exciting story. They make semiconductor chips – if you’re not a tech nerd, why should you care, right? People do care, because they’ve created a brand message and copy that inspire. Their slogan is: “Look Inside.” This is a clear call to action that expresses Intel’s brand promise of innovation. It also doesn’t exclude anyone.

Intel also pushes this message out across all their ad campaigns and Web copy. They’ve created IQ, which is a series of well-developed case studies and press releases that are presented like a virtual magazine. It’s updated daily, so content is always fresh. It also always highlights some aspect of Intel’s offerings: their computer chip is basic but mighty. It’s the heart or brain of a computer and that computer is involved in every type of technological innovation out there.

Intel’s IQ tirelessly looks for and presents stories that point back to how Intel is relevant. You can’t get better press than stories you create yourself and push out in the right way.

Your message is your brand

Whether you’re B2C or B2B, and no matter who your audience is, your marketing copy should be as true, unique, and inspiring as your brand. Written copy is the heart of your branding, and what you combine it with to get audience attention (video, ad campaigns, social) is the conduit for that heart blood. Your social media strategy is only as effective as your brand messaging – the most successful companies have both closely integrated and working together to grab (and keep) the love and loyalty of your target audience.

White papers can be great lead generation and sales support tools when properly constructed with purpose, impactful design and digestible content. But sadly, many technology companies publish white papers that miss the mark and fail to engage readers. Today’s executive decision makers are busy. They don’t have time to sift through text-intensive white papers in search of a few great nuggets of information. Boring, unformatted or overtly marketing-focused white papers will collect dust while hampering the sales cycle and negatively impacting your brand.

To make sure your white papers work for you, and not against you, follow these 5 essential steps.

Step 1: Define the Purpose. Before you write a single word, define the, “Who, What, When and Why?” of your white paper. The answers to these questions will help keep the paper on target and the content interesting.

  • Who is the intended audience?
  • What problem is your reader trying to solve?
  • When in the sales cycle will the paper be used?
  • Why should the reader spend his/her valuable time reading your paper?

For more tips on writing with purpose, read, “Sales Collateral Success Tips: 4 Questions to Ask Before You Write

Step 2: Build the Outline. I know plenty of writers that skip this step, but you are more likely to stray off course or be repetitive without the outline as a guide. An outline forces you to think logically about how to best present the information before you invest time in writing. That said, an outline should be fluid. Make adjustments as needed to eliminate issues or incorporate new ideas that arise in subsequent steps.

Step 3: Give it an Attention Grabbing Title. The title is one of the most important determining factors for whether your paper is read or passed by in the search for better content. A seemingly endless number of books, blogs and articles are dedicated to the mechanics of writing effective titles. If you are unfamiliar with these resources, you may want to search out some of them or view my post on the topic, Get More White Paper Downloads with a Great Title.” Otherwise, here’s some basic tips:

  • Focus on what’s in it for the reader.
  • Be specific.
  • Balance relevance with creativity.
  • Be succinct.

Step 4: Create an Impactful Design. In the old days (as in 5 years ago), the writer wrote the paper and then the graphic designer formatted the content and added a few graphical elements to make the piece visually impactful.  The written word ruled supreme and the layout was just the icing on the cake.  Today, this is no longer the case. With increasing job demands, constant disruptions and less time to do more, I think it is fair to assume that nobody actually reads any more – well at least not until they are convinced that the read will be worth their time. Within as little as 5 seconds, your prospective buyer will decide whether to read your paper or move on to the next task. Stack the odds in your favor by contemplating the design first. Aim to teach your reader something useful in 2 minutes or less, and make sure the design helps you accomplish this goal. Headings, call out boxes, tables, diagrams and imagery can help make your paper visually interesting and quickly demonstrate value. For each section of your paper, define what graphical queues will help tell your story before you write.

Step 5: Make the Content Digestible. When writing content, understand that your reader will probably not read your paper from start to finish in the first pass. “Reading” for most has become a 3 step process. Step 1) Skim the entire paper in search of interesting information. If the information presented is engaging, move on to Step 2) Review sections which stand out as potentially useful. Finally, if value is derived, move to Step 3) Read the entire paper.  Support the 3 Steps process by avoiding text-heavy papers. Instead offer the reader relevant section headings, bulleted lists or tables and section summaries that can be easily consumed when skimming.