10 Simple Steps to Create "Ready to Buy" Customers... Especially in a Recession

Renowned B2B Marketer Reveals How These Steps Brought Him 80,000 Leads, Millions in Revenue and a Best-selling Book

Finding quality customers during tough times really is achievable. Here's some recession-proven steps any business can take to attract great customers—directly from a leading marketer who's business was nearly crushed by the economy.

Following the dot com crash of 2002, entrepreneur Michael Stelzner had a crazy idea. Scrambling with few leads, a sinking business and a family to feed, he decided to woo customers by literally putting his trade secrets in writing and giving them away for free.

Unsure whether his big risk would pay off, Stelzner's skepticism quickly turned to wide-eyed amazement as the results first trickled in—then exploded. Despite the economy, Stelzner's "crazy idea" is still putting money in his pocket.

Unexpected Response

Giving away his best ideas propelled him right through tough economic times, delivering more than 80,000 leads, a steady stream of "ready-to-buy" customers, millions in revenue, a best-selling book and business ventures beyond his wildest dreams.

Stelzner went on to launch a successful 25,000-subscriber newsletter and a thriving conference business and wrote the best-selling book Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged. Now he teaches business owners and marketers how to grow their companies using the very techniques he pioneered.

What He Did

What's Stelzner's secret to quadrupling his business during not one, but two major recessions? Using educational white papers as a way to sell "under the radar." By packaging the right information in the right way, Stelzner has taught thousands how to transform anonymous readers into paying customers. The press calls him "The grandfather of white papers."

"My business was sinking faster than the Titanic before I used this simple method. It's the one marketing tool that allowed me to make more money and grow my business beyond my wildest dreams," said Stelzner.

Why It Works

Studies show white papers remain the most effective lead generation tools, bar none. Prospects turn to white papers when making large purchasing decisions. These marketing tools are so powerful that corporations repeatedly pay up to $10,000 to professionals to craft them.

But you don't have to spend a lot of money or hire someone else to put the power of white papers to work for you. Anyone who can pen a business letter can learn to successfully market his or her business with white papers.

The Ten Rules

Here are Stelzner's 10 essential rules to help you create "ready-to-buy" customers with white papers:

1. Embrace readers by talking about their issues.
Actually write about your prospects' fears and frustrations. What are their problems? Lay it out in writing. Then go ahead and tell them how to solve their challenges.

2. Share your proprietary secrets.
Don't hold back. Tell readers the very secrets that you'd normally only share with paying customers. The response will blow you away. It's often, "How much more will I gain if I hire this company or buy this product?"

3. Accept that your audience isn't a clone of you.
Your readers don't think the way you do. Get inside their heads, meet their needs and use language that doesn't make you sound self-serving. Kill the fancy words, stop talking about yourself and simply speak your reader's language.

4. Use the movie trailer open.
Your first words matter most. Craft an opening that sounds like a good movie trailer-it creates an interesting drama in the minds of readers without giving away the whole story, ensuring they keep reading.

5. Fire your silver bullet by writing a list only YOU can satisfy.
When you use educational content, there's always the chance readers will compare you against the competition. You virtually eliminate your rivals when you tell readers how to shop. Generate a list of requirements that only your company can meet. The result: you provide great value your readers and help them filter out your competitors.

6. Increase your strength with narrowcasting.
Make your paper too broad and it appeals to no-one. The trick to really engaging people is to show them that your paper is specifically for them. For example, rather than focusing on all business owners, how about narrowing your target to small female-owned businesses that hate selling and want a solution that does it for them?

7. Ask lots of questions.
Asking smart people the right questions makes the process of creating outstanding content effortless. By tapping the knowledge of the "right people," you'll rapidly speed your path to white paper success.

8. Nail the title.
Your title is the front door to your lead generation paper. Spend a lot of time crafting and testing your white paper title, ensuring it resonates with your audience. A good title must be ultra-specific, unique and useful to your ideal readers.

9. Make it effortless for readers to promote your work.
Social media is hot. Use the traffic-driving power of networks like Twitter by simply including a retweet button directly inside your paper. If readers like your work, they click the button and their fans are sent to your masterpiece. Brilliant!

10. Tell your readers what to do next.
The very last line of your work must include a specific action for readers to take. This moves them from, "That was a good read" to "Okay, I want to do this." Make it compelling.

Things to Ponder

Even with these rules for writing and marketing successful white papers, there are still more questions that need answering, such as:

• Is there a simple model I can follow to create sales-generating white papers?
  
• What techniques can I use to keep readers fully engaged?
  
• How do I drive traffic to my white paper?
  
• Can I pitch my company's services without appearing selfish?
  
• How do I compel readers to pick up the phone and contact me?

All of the answers to these questions will be revealed at the White Paper Success Summit 2010—an online conference for business owners and marketers. Now you can learn how to stand out and generate more qualified leads for your business with white papers.

Join the masters of the industry, including Michael Stelzner (author, Writing White Papers), Bob Bly (author, White Paper Marketing Handbook), John Jantsch (author, Duct Tape Marketing), Brian J. Carroll (author, Lead Generation for the Complex Sale), Jill Konrath (author, Selling to Big Companies), Roger C. Parker (author, White Paper Design that Sells), Ardath Albee (author, eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale), Joe Pulizzi (author, Get Content Get Customers), Jonathan Kantor (author, Crafting White Paper 2.0) and others as they reveal the A to Z secrets of creating and marketing white papers that sell. The entire event takes place in your home or office, via the Internet.

Click here for a free sample class from Michael Stelzner or to learn more about White Paper Success Summit 2010.