Know-How Exchange : Copywriting

White papers are meant to provide some technical information which assists your industry (they are not specifically marketing pieces). Perhaps you can provide some technical information about an area of printing that confuses people? Something like when and why they'd want to use a certain stock over another.

nadia,

Try looking at the white paper content from the prospect's point of view. What do they need to know to make a decision? Don't try too hard to sell what you have. Take the other approach: provide information about what the customer needs and why.

If you don't know, talk to your customers and some hot prospects. Ask them how they make a decision to go with one printer over another. Then deal with those issues in your white paper.

Not only will customers appreciate the help, but you'll get points (for your company) for being helpful and not overly competitive/parochial.

An afterthought that will probably ring true to many on this forum: There is no such thing as a commodity. It's a mindset, usually on the part of a manufacturer who isn't into marketing strategy, or a purchasing agent whose job it is to get everything for the lowest possible price.

I once had to develop a marketing plan for titanium dioxide (TiO2). That's about as commodity as you can get. Yet we were able to differentiate the client's TiO2 from everyone else's -- and increase sales/share by almost 20%!

I have several other war stories about how we took commodities and differentiated them. "Commodity-ness" is not something in the product. It's in your head.

Don't let anyone tell you that your product/service is a commodity. That belief is the kiss of death for a professional marketer.

"I agree, it is all about the relationships, but when our salesmen cannot get past voicemail and the prospects don't return phone calls--it is very difficult to begin a relationship."

These is a key problem needing solving. Either by importing a sales trainer specializing in B2B, "get past the gatekeeper" sales techniques, etc, or hiring better salespeople. It is a major salesmanship skill, and if "all" your salespeople suffer this malady, not even brilliant white papers can save you.

Meanwhile, mgoodman's prior comments about commodity repositioning is right where you need to focus much of your efforts.

Here are some possibly useful links:

https://www.virtualstrategist.net/issue2/2-7-1.html

Here are a group of articles here on MarketingProfs that go to the heart of the matter:

https://tinyurl.com/65v4e

Discovering, designing and testing new ways to repackage, rename, or reposition your products / services is the key to the kingdom.

Have some fun!