How a Manufacturer Put Its Customers First in a White Paper and Won Leads, Positive PR

When working to make their company better known, JER Envirotech put its customers first and created a great success story from a lead generation campaign and more.

According to a case study at MarketingProfs (subscription required) JER Envirotech (TM) needed to make itself better known and more credible.   JER makes  eco-friendly thermoplastic biocomposite materials used by other manufacturers.  (Very green!)

They were competing against traditional manufacturers with their innovative green products. JER’s technology was new in late 2007 when they set out to improve their credibility.    JER’s challenge was to explain why it was better to use their new green materials vs. traditional choices offered by competitors.

JER created a white paper that focused on its customers, not itself.  The white paper produced 500 leads in the first 60 days measured by downloads on the web site.  They also earned lots of good public relations with media mentions.

Keep the Spotlight on Your Customer

The 8-page white paper titled “Injection Molding with Thermoplastic BioComposites” (snappy title) did not focus on JER Envirotech as a company.   Instead, the white paper described how one of JER’s customers used their new types of products in an innovative way.  (Find the White paper here.)

MarketingProfs quotes the JER director of marketing at the time:
“We focused our whitepaper on one of our clients and their unique application of our technology. We were careful to keep the spotlight on them and not ourselves. This allowed the paper to be much more objective,” noted [Marc] Hoelscher.

White Paper Results

By keeping the focus on the customer, the company attracted the attention of a major trade publication when the CEO presented the white paper at a trade show.  That attention in turn resulted in major coverage of the white paper in Plastics Technology, a key industry influencer as well as a bylined article.  Expert articles that educate are powerful conversation starters.

How can you keep your focus on your customers in your content and your conversations?  Here are some suggestions:

Steps you can take:

1.    Find a success story amongst your customers and develop a strong, educational white paper.

2.    Think about how can you write an educational white paper that will be a conversation-starter.  Not a rehash of your capability brochure, features/benefits sheet or ad copy.

3.    Work with editors and other influentials in your market space to extend the mileage from your white paper.  The more educational your content is, the more attention it will drive from your industry.

4.    Find (more) ways to highlight your successful customers.  I really like how JER Envirotech’s home page showcases rolling customer profiles of their clients.

Have any other ideas to share from killer white paper examples?  Share your own or others you’ve observed in the comments below.