Downloadable assets, such as white papers, are an essential part of content marketing and inbound lead generation for B2B companies. By offering content that’s relevant, thorough and that solves a problem, you become a trusted resource for potential buyers.

Creating valuable content, whether it’s in the form of blog posts, templates or white papers, takes research, time and resources. Naturally, you want the content to reach as many people as possible, particularly potential buyers. One way to get the most out of your content is to share the content through as many of your company’s touch points as possible.

Follow the 5 steps below for every white paper your produce to ensure it reaches as many people as possible.

1. Create a landing page

Using a landing page for your white paper enables you to capture a visitor’s information in exchange for the white paper. This is a great way to capture leads who may be interested in your company’s products or services.

The best practices for effective landing pages are very different from a regular page on your company website and because optimizing conversions on landing pages is an art unto itself. We often use 3rd party tools, specifically for design landing pages. Tools you can use to create a landing page include Unbounce, Qualaroo and Lander.

Here’s an example from the Kiss Metrics Marketing guides:

2. Send an email to your list

Emailing your existing customers, prospects and partners is a great way to promote your white paper. These are contacts who will find your white paper highly relevant since they are interested in your business and the business challenges you help them solve.

To promote your white paper, you can send an email solely for the purpose of announcing the white paper, or you can include it as part of your regular newsletter. If you’re new to creating a company email newsletter, here are a collection of email newsletter resources to help you get started.

3. Make an announcement on your social media channels

Share a link to the landing page of your white paper. To ensure you’re promoting your downloadable assets on a regular basis, you can figure out the best time to tweet or post updates, and then preschedule your updates to Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or Google+ with a social media management tool such as Hootsuite.

Here’s an example from a VA Partners Tweet:

4. Write a blog post about it

Announcing the white paper on your blog is a good way to reach people who are subscribed to your RSS feed or who regularly visit your blog. In the blog post, you can give a teaser on the white paper by showing a selection of excerpts, diagrams/charts or take-aways from the white paper.

5. Use website and blog banners

Put a widget or ad on your website, on the sidebar or at the bottom of blog posts mentioning your white paper. This reaches readers who might have arrived on your website or blog for the first time through a search engine or social media.

Here’s an example from the Hubspot blog:

Using all your company’s marketing channels to promote your white paper will help ensure the fruits of your labour will reach as many existing contacts and potential customers as possible.

If you need help getting started with content marketing, creating or promoting white papers for your B2B business, contact us at [email protected] or (647) 401-7156.