8 Things Your Lead Generation Letter Must Have When Promoting Your White Paper

8 Things Your Lead Generation Letter Must Have When Promoting Your White Paper:from Business 2 Community by Keith Smiley
You’ve written a white paper that addresses problems your target audience is having and offers solutions.  Now you just need some quality prospects to go to your website, fill out your opt-in form, download it and read it.
How do you persuade quality prospects to go to your website and download your white paper?
Two of the most effective ways are sending offline sales letters and emails to your prospects and current customers.
Prospects are inundated with a ton of marketing messages every day, so how do I get my white paper promotion to burst through the clutter, you may ask?
Here are 8 things your letter must have that will make your promotion stand out.

1. Put the white paper title in the headline.  Sometimes the title of your white paper may be all that’s necessary to gain attention.  For example, an online training company can offer a white paper titled, “7 Proven Advantages For Having An Online Training Program,” and place it in the subject line in the email and as the headline on an offline sales letter.       
2. Highlight the problem your prospect is having.  Your letter should start off talking about the prospect, not your white paper.  Talk about what your prospect cares about, their pain, what keeps them up at night, etc.
3. Position your white paper as the solution.  Here’s where you discuss how your white paper answers questions and offers solutions to your prospect’s problems. 
4. Insert a soft call-to-action.  Provide a link to the landing page where your prospects can download your white paper early in your promotion.  It could look something like this:  “Visit www.brainstormtraining.com/solution right now   for your FREE copy of: 7 Proven Advantages For Having An Online Training Program.
5. Provide content details of the white paper focusing on benefits.  Use a paragraph or two to discuss what’s in the white paper and provide a bullet list of benefits your prospects will get by reading it.   A proven way to increase response is to highlight an instant benefit.  An instant benefit provides your prospects with an immediate reason why they should download your paper.  It could be something that they could put in to action right away.  For example, “Download the Online Training Assessment today and find out within the next 10 minutes- exactly how much you’ll save on moving your training programs online.”
6. Provide proof.  Adding specifics, facts, testimonials, and third party endorsements are proven techniques for increasing response.  Be sure to mention the names of the companies where you’ve quoted studies from in your promotion, especially if they are well known in your industry.  This is an excellent way to break down the barriers of skeptical prospects.
7. Close with a call to action.  This is where you need to explain what you want prospects to do, why they should do it, and how they should do it.  You must create a sense of urgency.  Here’s an example how, “Visit brainstormtraining.com/solution right now for your FREE copy of:   7 Proven Advantages For Having An Online Training Program.  You’ll learn how some of the top fortune 500 companies are saving thousands of dollars a year by converting their on-site training to online.”
8. In the P.S., use the “On page 3… technique.”  This is where you explain what your prospect will learn when they read page 3.  This does not have to be on page 3, it can be any page on your document, but it should be something your prospect will learn and can use to take action as soon as possible.  For example, “P.S.  Download this white paper right now and turn to page 6.  There you’ll find how Turnkey Manufacturing saved $50,000 a year by moving all of their training programs online. 

By using these tips and techniques you’ll be able to persuade qualified prospects to go to your website and download your white paper in no time.