Today, I share a case study on how a startup used a white paper to build trust in a new product.

This is a new format I am trying; sharing case studies.  These will sometimes be from me, like today, and sometimes be from guests as well, hopefully.  I’d love to know what you think?

Today’s case study is all about when you are new to the market and you need to convince people to buy from you, even though you don’t have a track record. You might be a new company, or you might have developed a new product, either way, your potential customers are going to have a lot of questions and you need to gain their trust.

I’m going to share how I co-developed a PR campaign using a white paper to help a housing sector startup attract customers.

Let’s dive in!

 

Links mentioned in today’s show: 

Intelligent Conversation

The White Paper featured in today’s episode (which has been turned into a ‘guide’).

 

Liked Listening today?  What to do next:

Get my FREE roadmap for more strategic communication activity in your business.

Listen to more episodes, take some training, or download a resource: Find out more here.

Hire my expertise, whether that’s support with a one-off comms project or an entire strategy for your business, drop me a line if you want to explore this further.  You can also work with me 1:1 as a trainer and mentor at emma@henbe.co.uk

Work with me closely

If you’d like to work with me to develop and implement your communication strategy through 1:1 work with me, podcasts, workbooks, sharing ideas, and lots of accountability and up-skilling? Then email me at emma@henbe.co.uk to register your interest for you or your entire team.

Leave me a voicemail on my Speakpipe page I would love to hear your feedback on this episode and thoughts on any topics I could include in future ones too.

 

Full Transcript (unedited)

Today I share a case study on how a startup used a white paper to build trust in a new product.

This is a new format I am trying; sharing case studies.  These will sometimes be from me, like today, and sometimes be from guests as well hopefully.  I’d love to know what you think?

Today’s case study is all about when you are new to the market you need to convince people to buy from you, even though you don’t have a track record. You might be a new company, or you might have developed a new product. Either way, your potential customers are going to have a lot of questions and you need to gain their trust. I’m going to share how I co-developed a PR campaign using a white paper to help a housing sector startup attract customers.

Let’s dive in!

While the company had seen quite a lot of interest in what it was doing, the conversion rate of leads into customers was quite low. The goal of the campaign was to help potential customers understand how to make the move from using traditional products and methods, which are familiar, tried, and tested methods, to new and improved methods and processes.

I began by identifying where the pain barriers were. What was stopping these interested parties from taking the next step? I found that people didn’t understand the steps they needed to take to transition from their current way of doing things to the new methods. They didn’t understand whether it would work specifically for them and how they would benefit from making the effort to transition, aside from the obvious reported differences. It was the classic ‘what’s in it for me’ situation.

We were asking them to change their entire process and work with a company that had little track record.

Creating a comprehensive solution

There were clearly a lot of people on the edge of the fence, and these were the people we wanted to help. To build the ‘know, like and trust’ pathway, the team and I designed a PR campaign that had a white paper, or thought leader paper, at its heart. This white paper explained all of the pros and cons. It walked through the steps needed to transition. It was a guide and it was endorsed by people already using the product.

The product needed to be certified by industry bodies and as part of the white paper, we talked to the people responsible for that. We were then able to share that expert view, which was independent, enabling readers to hear about the solution from another perspective. If you’re a new company, and you haven’t got much of a track record, getting those third-party endorsements is incredibly important.

We included some simple graphics, and most importantly, an honest review of who it would work for, and who it really wouldn’t work for. We showed what type of companies probably could transition easier.

Now, this was a big piece of work. It took a long time to collate the interviews and translate them into copy with infographics and quotes. I wouldn’t want you to think this was a simple solution that can be turned around in a week or so.

What we did next

It’s one thing pulling all this information together but then you need to make sure the right people see it. We did this by launching the white paper at a major industry event where lots of people would be watching.

We were able to build a campaign around it using face-to-face meetings, talks, and content online to drive people to the paper. We also partnered with industry-known professionals so that they would effectively endorse the product as well.

The result was that it was an effective sales tool that demonstrated a high amount of value. And the best bit is that it could be chopped up or repurposed to use again in lots of ways. For example, we shared infographics on social media, and quotes could be used in presentations. It was sent to all customers in the pipeline, and alongside the sales team’s efforts, it helped convert some of those people that were on the fence. It also opened doors to people who were ready to buy but hadn’t heard of the company or didn’t really understand their route.

We created a piece of content that had many years of shelf life, and it’s still going strong. It’s become a bit of a bible of how the product works with customers, when they can use it and how to get the most value from it.

If you would like creative strategic thinking to develop a PR strategy for your housing sector product, let’s have a chat.

Do you have a strategy for how your business moves people along from hearing about you to liking and trusting you enough to become a customer?

One of the many things PR can help with is creating that journey to support your sales process. All the interactions a customer has with you are mapped out so your leads are more informed about you and become warmer. They will be closer to working with you than they were when they first heard of you. This is the ‘know, like, trust’ pathway.

Using PR this way can influence your lead generation and become an essential cog in that sales wheel. It takes some strategic thinking, not just putting content out there. Having a sustained effort over a period of time means you will reap the benefits in the long run.

How do you go about helping leads get to know, like, and trust your business?