So, with the complicated and every-changing landscape of media and marketing, where do you find quality leads?

Content is your most valuable currency online. Your prospects want to solve problems, learn and connect. And, they’ll pay (by filling out a form) for it. Use educational content to make that connection and become a trusted resource. Be the go-to guy to solve their problems.

What type of content? Articles, case studies, white papers and videos — it all works. Now, we wouldn’t recommend you put a form in front of a short, general knowledge article. Save the forms and paid syndication for high-value content. That’s information your prospect will be happy they “paid” for.

Where should you syndicate your content? Start by looking into the publications where you typically advertise. Most trade publications have caught on and now support a robust online presence. They may have a resource section with paid
white paper placements where visitors are asked to fill out a form to download the information.

For example, take a look at Occupational Health & Safety. You can pay per lead or pay for a certain amount of time to be posted. In the best-case scenario you can customize the form (by location, title, industry, etc.) and only pay for A-quality leads. Publications such as New Equipment Digest and EHS Today are even offering content syndication through their e-newsletters.

There are also third-party syndication partners who work with various industry websites to help promote your content. For example, if you’d like to reach the food processing industry, you simply provide them your content, description and form fields, and they go out and seek leads through various online sites. In this case, you may have to pay for a minimum amount of leads, but they work to find leads that meet your requirements for as long as it takes — one week, one month or longer.

From our experience with B2B clients, costs range from $50 to $70 per lead. That’s it! Imagine what you pay for a print ad placement: $3,000, $5,000 or even $10,000.

When’s the last time you could directly attribute a lead to that marketing spend?

If quality lead generation is what you want, syndication is what you need.

(Note: Syndication doesn’t work best alone. It draws in the highest quality leads and conversions when paired with strategic branding and marketing tactics. Brand awareness is crucial to being a trusted resource.)

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About the author: Ashley Reppert, Account Executive at Schubert Communications, provides B2B clients with strategic public relations, marketing and interactive support. For more information, visit www.schubert.com.

One question that many white paper marketers have always asked is the relationship between content design and message comprehension. Does the number of columns in a white paper enhance its readability or is it merely used as a ‘look and feel’ guide to provide greater credibility to what would otherwise be mediocre content?

Today most white paper formats typically fall into either a one or a two-column design.

One of the reasons two-column designs are frequently chosen for a white paper format is its similarity with newsletters, newspapers and magazines. Most magazines and newspapers use either a two and three column format, and for many companies, this familiar format extends to the area of white papers.

One possible reason behind this decision is to give a white paper an “air of authority” that is frequently associated with credible, news-oriented periodicals. The thinking with this approach is that if a document looks like something fresh out of a copy of Scientific American or The Economist, then the information in the paper will be perceived as more believable, generating a greater number of business leads.

But by a greater number of columns there is a downside, specifically with what I call the “short attention reader”.

As Social Media savvy users grow accustomed to short, hyperlinked messages, their patience to read lengthy, text-heavy content such as white papers makes the delivery of complex solution messages more difficult for B2B marketers.

Multi-column white papers that require a reader to maintain their attention span from top to bottom, and page to page in a multi-column white paper, breaks the concentration of a short attention, social media-savvy reader.

This is even more challenging when graphics are added to a multi-column format. For example, when you place a graphic (such as a chart or graph) in the middle of a two- column page, the image breaks up the natural flow of the multi-column white paper. As a result, the short attention readers’ cadence is disrupted, since the reader will want to stop reading and analyze the graphic in greater detail. This forces that reader to start the reading process all over again, something that few will do. Most will simply go somewhere else.

For all-text content, I rarely use two columns (unless the client specifically asks for it) because I don’t want to introduce any additional element that distracts reader attention from the primary content and key solution advantage messages in the white paper. It’s difficult enough to keep the “short attention span” reader focused, so why introduce anything that works against the limited time and attention they can devote to the reading process?

If you plan on adding one or more graphic elements (which is an important component to ensure solution message delivery), change your page design to a single column format that better accommodates your short attention reader.

So in my humble opinion, if you want to engage today’s busy reader, save the multi-column design for your newsletters. Use a single-column design when you have important B2B solution advantage messages to deliver in a white paper.

Your short attention, Social Media-savvy user will thank you for it.

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About the Author: Jonathan Kantor is a 15-year white paper marketing veteran. He’s the author of the widely acclaimed book, Crafting White Paper 2.0, and the founder of The White Paper Company and the White Paper Pundit blog.

74% of B2B marketers distribute content through Twitter, followed by LinkedIn at 71% and Facebook at 70%. These are significant increases over the 2010 numbers (Twitter 55%, LinkedIn 51% and Facebook 54%). Not to be outdone, the biggest gainer on a percentage basis was YouTube, which grew nearly 50%, rising from 38% in 2010 to 55% in 2011.

The Undiscovered Gem – Slideshare

Slideshare, the YouTube for PowerPoint presentations, came in at a lowly 20% of usage. This is clearly an opportunity for B2B marketers. Why?

• Slideshare is one of the fastest growing B2B search engines
• Slideshare is well indexed by Google, which means that properly tagging a presentation in
• Slideshare can garner your company more attention

For example, this presentation on Web Content Strategy, uploaded two years ago, has more than 40,000 views on Slideshare. In addition, it has been on the first page of Google for the term “web content strategy,” an increasingly popular term, for years as well. Because of this, we’ve been able to generate significant business from companies that found us here, simply because we uploaded the presentation to Slideshare.

The Story is Key

Yes, we are all publishers now, including B2B companies…and more B2B marketers are leveraging social media to distribute their content. But one thing is clear; without valuable, compelling and relevant content, the tools simply won’t work.

According to the same CMI study, 41% of B2B marketers stated that creating compelling content was their most difficult challenge. Since content marketing is a new muscle for most organizations, this makes sense…but the time is now to start organizing your marketing departments around your customer story.

Remember, first we need to figure out our customers’ pain points…then we can develop engaging content that speaks to those pain points. Then, and only then, can we leverage all these fancy social media tools.

Good luck.

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About the author: Joe Pulizzi is founder and executive director of the Content Marketing Institute, which includes Chief Content Officer magazine and Content Marketing World, the industry’s largest content marketing event. Joe recently co-authored Managing Content Marketing: The Real-World Guide to Creating Passionate Subscribers to Your Brand. Buy it now at Amazon.com. You can follow Joe on Twitter @juntajoe.

One of the toughest challenges for many b2b firms is generating high quality leads for their sales teams. With the stagnant economy, sales departments have been trying to partner closer together with marketing to bring more qualified prospects into the sales funnel and increase conversion rates. As a result content marketing’s popularity has skyrocketed.

Content marketing involves the creating and sharing of valuable and relevant content to generate interest and prospects. Frequently this content takes the form of a free whitepaper or webinar. Rather than selling, content marketing aims to educate about a specific purchasing decision. It gives prospects the facts and options for a solution.  This delivers value, helping businesses earn trust and credibility.

Strong content alone however isn’t enough to drive lead generation.  Almost equally important is an effective strategy to broadcast your content.  This can be done externally through a lead generation company or internally.  Either way, it ensures your content gets noticed.

So if you’re trying to supercharge your sales engine, consider leveraging content marketing to drive your lead generation funnel.