White paper syndication

As a follow-up to the white paper how-to report, MarketingSherpa has published part 2 with a list of syndication sites that make your paper available to targeted audiences. For each site, the list includes information to help you decide which are best suited to your paper, such as:

• Target audience
• Site demographics
• Number of white paper downloads per registered users/visitors
• Cost to syndicate a white paper
• Guarantee minimum number of leads
• Lead delivery mechanism
• What lead information is provided
• Abstract/summary availability
• Time limit on campaigns
• Top 10 search terms:

Michael Stelzner, author of Writing White Papers, gives a quick summary of the list, with links to WhitePaperSource's reviews of each site. He says the top three syndication sites are:

• TechRepublic
• KnowledgeStorm
• TechTarget

My clients have achieved good results by partnering with industry publications to promote their papers. The campaigns included these steps:

1. Email the house/subscriber list with in invitation to download the white paper.
2. Post a banner ad on the magazine website promoting the free white paper.
3. Create a landing page explicitly to register to receive the white paper.
4. Deliver the white paper in pdf file format, which lends itself forwarding.
5. Email an invitation to house list/subscribers to participate in companion webinar where "experts" are interviewed in a Q&A session (registrants receive the white paper).
6. Follow-up calls to all webinar and white paper download registrants by sales personnel.
7. Publish a webinar report in the magazine.