Attracting Potential Buyers

The leveraging method I’m about to share with you is more indirect than most sales activities and can be difficult to quantify or even track. In this case tracking and quantification will rely on your conscientiously asking callers how they came to be contacting you, or setting up tracking mechanisms on your web site to track and measure conversions.

This method involves using information products, either self distributed (viral marketing) or together with a strategic alliance, co-branding in such a way that the strategic alliance will benefit from distributing it to his or her customer base, and yet inquiries will also be directed to you. The most common medium is the “white paper”, fast becoming the most powerful marketing tool ever known, provided it is done correctly.

A good white paper has a very high “pass-on” rate, meaning that it becomes a “viral marketing” mechanism. The best white papers are written when we change our mindset and think in terms of drawing potential clients to us, instead of chasing after them. What valuable information do you have that you can offer in order to demonstrate your value to such a degree that the potential client has absolute confidence in your ability to solve their problem?

The Power of the White Paper The White Paper is the new buzz word in savvy marketing circles. Formerly the province of government departments and big business, it is now being widely embraced as a powerful marketing tool.

The term "White Paper" comes from the term "white book", which is what governments call an official publication. In business, we typically use a white paper to showcase expertise, or provide a definitive description, position or solution.

A white paper should not be merely a long-winded sales brochure and should be written from the client's point of view, not our own. If a white paper appears to be self-serving, it has little or no relevance or credibility in the eyes of readers, will not be read, will not be passed (ie, it fails as a viral marketing mechanism) and people will certainly not respond to it.

Speed Business Networking has 2 white papers available in its "Connecting the dots" series, which are:

"Connecting the dots: A faster, easier and simpler way to grow or improve your business", and "Connecting the dots: 7 steps to sales Nirvana for small business".

Take a look at these to determine whether you could do something similar for your business. "Products" like these really showcase your expertise and help build trust and respect, dramatically increasing the likelihood of the potential customer picking up the phone and calling YOU!

These 2 papers, which took approximately a week each to write, are bringing us more business than any marketing strategy we have ever used before. Well-written and appropriately angled, your own white paper could do the same for you.

Make sure your white paper leads on to something. One way or another, there should be an irresistible opportunity to contact you or engage with you in some way.

As a member of Speed Business Networking, you can get free help from fellow networkers to critique your draft and help fine-tune it! If it’s really, really good, and relevant to visitors to the site, we’ll even list it up for everyone to see.

Not everyone can write an effective white paper, one that is so relevant, interesting and compelling that people just can’t help not only passing it on, but getting in touch with you! In that case there is one guy you really ought to talk to, and that is Mike Stelzner. Mike even runs a forum about white papers. You can check out www.stelzner.com or you can check out his excellent forum for white paper writers on www.whitepapersource.com.

A good, non-technical white paper costs in the vicinity of $3500 to $12000. A highly-technical white paper, requiring a great deal of study and research, could easily cost 3 times that range. However compared to any other advertising campaign, that’s really quite inexpensive, especially when you consider that a well-written paper continues to replicate itself all over the internet, directly to qualified targets, via personal recommendation.

Something else your company might like to look at is podcasting and blogging. While the latter has been around for quite some time now, and is more often used badly than well, it remains a potent marketing force if used intelligently and strategically. Podcasting is very new, only around 2 years, and the technology is still a little clunky – but I assure you it is well worth investigating. We run a podcast called “Business Strategies for Success” which helps businesses to learn and integrate clever marketing, sales, and operational strategies that put them ahead of the pack. Check it out (see the home page of the web site) and see if it’s something you could also do.



Attracting Potential Buyers - To learn more about this author, visit Christine Sutherland's Website.

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