Get your message out with a white paper!
How would you like to learn a great way to attract new customers to your business? You can—with a professionally-written white paper.
You’ve heard the term tossed around, but what is a white paper, anyway? A white paper is a report that is intended to 
be the definitive statement on a particular topic or issue. Lots of types of organizations write white papers, for lots of different reasons—governments spelling out official policy, for example. In the business world, a white paper not only establishes your product or solution as superior to the competition but positions you (or your company) as a thought leader.
A white paper is first and foremost a marketing tool. It should be written with your customers in mind, and should seek to address their problems, needs, or concerns. The length of the paper can vary, but again, keep your audience in mind. A highly technical consumer will be more tolerant of a longer, more detailed document than will a less technical buyer.
Whoever the audience, it’s important to grab their attention quickly. Remember, no one is forcing them to read your white paper. In the first few sentences, it’s key to catch their attention with phrases that will resonate with them. For example, “Are you tired of missing important e-mails because your spam filter does its job too well?” or “Finally—a document solution that combines the low cost of black and white with the professional look of color.”
Now you’ve got them on the hook! Next, reel them in with the specifics of exactly how your product or service can solve their problem. Be sure to include figures, stats or studies that support your claim. Testimonials from customers who have experienced success with your product work well, too.
Finally, wrap it up with a concise, compelling summary that restates your key points and includes a call to action: “To reclaim your inbox, call E-mail Solutions today.”
Trade Press Services can help you craft an effective white paper that will help your company get its message out to your audience.
Advertorial content: The Frankenstein of print media
You may know what “editorial” means (that’s on the opinion page in the newspaper, right?), and you probably know
what advertising is (the annoying stuff that interrupts my TV show!) But what the heck is “advertorial”? And why do you care?
Advertorial content is the Frankenstein monster of journalism. Part news, part opinion, and part advertising, it’s a section of a publication that looks like a story, but it isn’t. It may contain some news, but it doesn’t quite look right. The type style is just a little different than the previous page. The people in the photos seem a bit too…happy. And the author sure seems enthusiastic about a certain brand of products.
Usually, advertorial pieces in reputable publications are labeled “Special Advertising Sections” or “Special Advertisement,” but not always. This is especially true of online publications, where an advertorial section may be labeled “Info Site” or contain no warning at all that this is advertising and not unbiased reporting.
Why do companies pay for advertorial content? First, there are always those people who won’t see the warnings and who will assume that it’s another story—and gosh, Company Y sure must make great products if Publication Z is so crazy about them. Others may recognize the advertorial content as an ad, but they’ll read it anyway—for the same reason that people read long, multi-page letters from charities raising money at the holidays.
Editorial content on the other hand is different. It comes in the form of opinion pieces, news, by-lined articles, case studies, research results, roundtable discussions, etc. It positions the author as an expert and the company as a leader in its marketplace. There’s no pay to play involved.
Advertising is space within the publication that is sold, usually to companies but sometimes to individuals, for the purposes of promoting a good or a service. Content can be completely self-serving. While advertising content increases visibility in the marketplace, editorial content has more credibility. Generally, advertising, along with subscriptions and single copy sales, is how publications make their money.
At most publications, there is a firm line drawn between the newsroom and the sales department. In other words, it’s important to the editors of the publication that their advertisers don’t influence the stories on which they report or their opinions, in order to protect their journalistic integrity. Likewise, they don’t want to write heavily about certain topics or promote certain opinions hoping to lure in certain advertisers.
Bottom line: nothing promotes your company as well as good old fashioned editorial content. You can’t pay for a front-page article in the paper. Really, you can’t. They don’t sell that. You have to make the news on your own merit.
Lucky for you, Trade Press Services is expert at getting your name into the publications that you want to be in. We help you assemble first-rate editorial content and place it in the finest industry publications, where your customers, potential customers or strategic alliance partners will recognize you as the subject matter expert.
Don’t fool around with Frankenstein. Contact Trade Press Services today.