White papers, ebooks and other long form content typically provide more in-depth information than a simple blog post might, and are usually available for download, rather than being given away for “free” on your website. For this reason, long form content is a powerful lead generation tool.
How Does Long Form Content Work? Long form content provides significant value to customers and potential customers. For this reason, long form content is typically kept “gated” and delivered as a downloadable PDF. When it’s kept behind a gate, users must provide their contact information in order to access the downloadable content.
This is helpful for building out your email list and for generating valuable qualified leads for your sales team.
What Does Long Form Content Look Like? How a white paper or ebook looks usually depends upon the subject, the conventions in your field, and whether you have the resources to employ a graphics team to make the content pop.
When I provide a white paper or ebook for a client, I provide the “meat” – the words, the organization and, when appropriate, guidance for the graphics team. I also provide content for the landing page the paper will be accessed from, thus removing any roadblocks standing in the way of publication.
Where Does the Information Comes From? For many of the blog posts I write for clients, the information is readily accessible, so I do my own research and deliver the post with links, where appropriate.
But long form content is gated for a reason. It is created with expert information not readily accessible online. For this reason, I typically interview subject matter experts before writing, and then ask them to review the content before delivering the final product.
The end result is a valuable piece of marketing content that can be used to attract leads and build your email list, providing your company with a larger audience that could be there for years to come.