Marketing with Electronic Reports, White Papers and E-Booklets

Jim Jenkins is a business coach and training consultant. His firm, Creative Visions Consulting, recently launched a new web site to attract visitors and targeted prospects into its corporate consulting programs.

Jenkins noticed a trend in his site's visitor statistics. An overwhelming percentage of visitors were searching for "free team- building exercises," a phrase that appeared in several places on his site. He decided to channel this definite interest in team- building into an effective lead generation strategy.

He wrote an e-booklet, Five Low- Cost/High- Impact Team- Building Exercises: A Manager's Guide to Building High- Performing Teams. Those who signed up for his email newsletter could download the booklet from his web site. Jenkins also experimented with Google Adwords by purchasing team-
building-oriented search phrases based on what his target market was searching for.

The strategy paid off. Within three months, Jenkins' web traffic spiked. Over 2,000 people joined his email list and downloaded the booklet. Best of all, these were qualified prospects--key decision makers at large, Fortune 1000 companies.

"The decision to publish a special report as a free PDF document has really opened doors for my business," says Jenkins. "Not only did it encourage great prospects to opt into my mailing list, but I've also been able to segment the list by company decision makers. I then followed up by telling each person about my consulting programs. This is an affordable lead generation!"

High- Value Information Attracts Your Best Prospects

People look for educational resources on the Internet to learn about companies whose products and services they are considering buying.

Typically, white papers, special reports and e-booklets may have:

-Analyses/descriptions of current trends or problems in an industry
-Solutions to these problems by using technology or services
-Case studies or success stories
-Business forecasts
-How-to guides

This is what your market needs from you; therefore, your document must describe how you can provide the solution they are looking for.

Publishing a white paper, special report, or e-booklet focusing on your business, and providing it free or for a fee, is one of the best ways to get your name out to your target market. You are also providing credible information to prospects who are considering whether to do business with you.

Comments

[Len McGrane]

Yes! Jim Jenkin's strategy is definitely going to pull in business for many other consultants. But I can report from personal experience that it will nto work for for all of them. The trick is to choose the right subject of the give-away. The only time my visitor will pick up a free booklet from my site is when its about something that really interests him. So, for a conultant doing corporate teambuilding, for example, I would write in detail on a sure-fire, single, simple team building exercise. One that my visitor can put into practice in his buisness. When that one works, he is likely to come back to me for more ideas -- for which he will hopefully pay me!