Is Competition Preventing You From Releasing Your White Paper?

Thursday, May 15, 2008 by Mistlee


Can't see any images? -!




Recent Articles

Outsourcing White Papers
Do you work for a company that produces white papers in-house? Is the quality a bit shy of fair? I recently received an email from a gal named Beth about this very issue. Here's her question: I have been writing the...

Improving Your PDF Search Engine Compatablity
If you write white papers, you most likely are creating PDF files as the final product. As you may already know, search engines like Google will treat the content within your PDF file as if it were a web page. This means...

White Paper Writing Tips
Are you a freelancer looking to tap into the lucrative white paper writing world? I get a lot of emails from folks who are just starting out. Here is an email I recently received from Mike (great name you have there): I have a...

Don't Make This Mistake With Your White Paper
What is a good template for a white paper? This question comes up a lot. While working on a white paper, I decided to take a break and see what is happening in the blogosphere. I came across an article that I want...

Words To Avoid In Your White Papers
Michael Stelzner over at the Writing White Papers blog has good little post on the top ten words to avoid using when writing your white papers. Following is the post in its entirety. Do you agree with the list? Is there...

Why Reveal Secrets in White Papers?
Should I keep my secrets to myself and my paying clients? Or should I use them as a marketing weapon? These are very important questions that emerged while I was speaking at MarketingSherpa's B2B Demand...

White Paper Marketing Case Study: Social Networking
Can you leverage social media to generate leads with white papers? Business intelligence company Information Builders did just that. A recent MarketingSherpa report reveals how they did it. Here are the highlights...


05.15.08

Is Competition Preventing You From Releasing Your White Paper?

By Michael Stelzner

Is fear of the competition preventing you from releasing a masterful white paper?

Are you certain your ideas will be embraced by prospects, but are scared the competition will simply copy you?

These are big questions-and surprisingly common concerns.

Indeed, I recently received an email from Julie on this very topic. Let me address this directly here.

But first, here is Julie's full question:

"We are in a quandary about putting white papers on the web for free. Perhaps you could give some guidelines?

We still have a good deal of innovative ideas we would like to publish - that would be useful to distinguish us from our competitors.

We know, however, that whatever we publish on the web will be copied by others. So, we're trying to find ways to put those ideas out there, but control them away from our competitors.

We are considering bundles - a public white paper, a pay-for white paper with more details, and a product we can "drop in" as part of an implementation.

Any other ideas for keeping some of our materials "out there" but a little protected?

Great questions Julie.

White Papers Are Always Free

First about the "pay" white papers you mentioned above. BAD idea.

All white papers are free. And they are expected to be free by readers.

Instead, I might come out with a comprehensive report that perhaps works in a sister relationship with a white paper. You COULD charge for that.


Competitor's ALREADY Have Your Stuff

Let's be super honest here. You have all of your competitor's confidential PowerPoints on your desk. And you got them from your customers. Guess what, the competition has all of your "secret" data also.

If you provide a paper to a prospect (for pay or for free), it WILL end up in the hands of people you consider a competitive threat.

This is just a fact of life and we need to accept this in the business world.

I know all of my competitors have my stuff. In fact I just slammed one last week for literally taking content right from my book and placing it in his white paper-word for word!

If your goal is to distinguish your business, then what are you waiting for? Get those papers written and start using them.

Sure the competition will find them. They might even attempt to copy you.

However, you have one major thing going for you. You were the company that gets the credit for the great idea.

AND, you get the benefit of hot leads and new opportunity because you have a paper on the topic and the competitors do not.

My Final Answer: Get the first mover advantage now. Create a well-crafted and compelling white paper. Market the heck out of it. Win business during slow times. Come out of nowhere and shock the competition. Let them try to catch up. The rewards of your efforts will outweigh any threat from those guys.

Let's here from you? Is fear holding you back? Have you moved forward on a project despite competitors? If so, what happened?

Comments


About the Author:
Visit http://www.writingwhitepapers.com/blog/ for extensive resources on crafting compelling white papers and applying creative marketing tactics.

Michael A. Stelzner is the author of the new book Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged and has written nearly 100 white papers for companies such as Microsoft, FedEx, Motorola, Monster and SAP.
About WhitePaperNews
Get the latest company product information from around the world





WhitePaperNews is brought to you by:

WebProNews.com Jayde.com
MarketingNewz.com SalesNewz.com
CareerNewz.com InvestNewz.com
eCommNewz.com WebsiteNotes.com
AdvertisingDay.com ManagerNewz.com
SoHoDay.com CRMNewz.com





-- WhitePaperNews an iEntry, Inc. publication --
iEntry, Inc. 2549 Richmond Rd. Lexington KY, 40509
2008 iEntry, Inc. All Rights Reserved Privacy Policy Legal

archives | advertising info | news headlines | free newsletters | comments/feedback | submit article


Unsubscribe from WhitePaperNews.
To unsubscribe from WhitePaperNews or any other iEntry publication, simply send an email request to: support@ientry.com

WhitePaperNews News Archives About Us Feedback WhitePaperNews Home Page About Article Archive News Downloads WebProWorld Forums Jayde iEntry Advertise Contact

0 comments: