How to find clients who need white papers

by Gordon Graham, That White Paper Guy

Freelancers often wonder where to find clients.

So the first question is, what kind of companies need white papers?

Here's three simple questions that will tell you the answer:

Are they selling something relatively new?

Selling something relatively complex?

Selling something relatively expensive?

Any B2B vendor selling anything relatively new, complex, or expensive needs a white paper.

Whether they're selling a product, a service, a technology, or a methodology, they still need one.

Whether they use that paper to gather leads, cement sales, or win mindshare, they still need one.

For a longer discussion, see my related article "Who needs white papers, anyway?"

Any company that can answer yes to all three of these questions—Is it new? Is it complex? Is it expensive?—is a likely candidate for your white paper services.

Lots of prospects out there

White papers are now a standard part of the marketing arsenal for most technology companies.

After all, many of their offerings are new and complicated; that's two out of three right off the bat.

But many other businesses besides computer hardware and software firms could benefit from a good white paper.

I recently got some help researching the potential market for white papers. Here are the numbers we turned up:

• Software and information providers: 21,600+
• Equipment manufacturers: 55,500+
• Scientific and technical services: 290,000+

These are for the U.S. alone. Add in the other English-speaking countries like Canada, Australia and the UK and you're up to well over half a million potential clients for white papers.

Imagine: 500,000+ potential clients who could use a white paper?!

So when you're wondering if anyone out there needs a white paper, the answer is a great big YES.

To uncover these companies, most white paper writers use some combination of:

• Web sites
• Personal networking
• E-mail marketing
• Social networking
• Direct mail
• Cold calls.

A few do content marketing and publish helpful articles or e-newsletters to attract prospects.

Try whatever approaches you like and stick to what works for you.

When you do engage a prospect, they'll most likely be a marketing director or a product manager. In a smaller firm, they could be a VP or the owner.

Prove to them that you can write an effective white paper... reassure them that you're reliable... and you'll soon have a white paper project on your hands.

That's when the real fun begins!

Written by Gordon Graham, a version of this article appeared in the June 2006 edition of the WhitePaperSource Newsletter.

To repost this article on your Web site, please e-mail a request to Gordon@ThatWhitePaperGuy.com.