See if you don’t agree with me. . .

I don’t care how much the business world has changed over the past few years — the essence of marketing is the same as it’s always been.

You’ve still got to get your message in front of the right people. And they’ve got to understand it.   End of story.

Problem is, in the hyper-competitive telecom market, the effort it takes to win even ten minutes of face time with key executives can be extraordinary.

The irony is that the innovations the telecom industry is driving --  low cost voice, web page proliferation, and the rapidly emerging wireless web -- all make it harder for you to reach those important folks.

Leading executives at incumbent LECs, LDs, ISPs, and wireless carriers these days are swamped with advertising, email, magazines, and other messages from you, your competitors, and a lot of other people with good ideas.

Has there ever been a better time for a fresh marketing approach?

A New — And Extremely Effective — Way to Put An Old Tool To Work for You 

The “fresh” approach you’re looking for is practically staring you in the face.  You’ve seen it a thousand times...  you’ve even used it before... but you may not have recognized or harnessed its true marketing potential.

 It’s the industry white paper.

The white paper is a perfect medium to cut through the clutter.  That’s because it delivers “more for less” -- a highly focused and compelling message to a targeted audience.

A good paper enables you to raise your marketing up a notch - a notch above the e-mail blasters and other noise -- helping to push your message through while other media are being routed to the circular file.

Unfortunately, most high tech companies produce white papers that are nothing more than simply “technical” reports.  But  a white paper can be much more than that — it can become a potent marketing weapon and a powerful messenger for your company’s value proposition.

Compared to an ad in a trade journal, the white paper is a much more subtle form of persuasion.  It lives and breathes on the philosophy that  sometimes the best way to “sell” is to “tell.”  In turn, the paper reinforces your position as a “thought leader” as opposed to just another “me-too” solution provider.

To help you jump start your white paper program, TRI's has produced produced a document that gives tips on how to position, writing, and distribute white papers effectively.  The paper is called:

How to Develop, Write, and Leverage 
Telecom White Papers

In this paper you'll get advice on:

• Tailoring your message for the particular telecom prospect you want to persuade.

• Structuring your paper for dramatic effect.

• How to stay credible throughout the piece, so the you don't turn off readers before you get your message across.

• How to talk to the customer's concerns and unique experiences.

• How you can help the reader come to a better understanding of his or her business universe.

• Tips on the use of graphics, typeface, layout, and printing.

• Leveraging your paper across web, trade press, seminar, press kit, and other channels.

• Tips on selecting the people within your organization and outside it who should contribute to and write the paper.

Outsourcing Your Marketing 
& Sales Writing to TRI

At Technology Research Institute (TRI), we’ve been tracking and writing about critical issues in the telecom industry since 1994.

In that time we’ve published several industry research reports on subjects as diverse as telecom billing systems, provisioning, telecom EAI, data warehousing, customer care, and advanced intelligent networks.

To keep abreast of industry developments, we interview scores of telecom industry executives and experts each year as we research our industry reports and multimedia training materials.

Though our main line of work is market research, we also ghost write white papers for companies in the industry.

Companies who develop white papers and appreciate their value are usually at the forefront of new industry trends, so it’s a good place for a market research firm like ours to spend our time.  It helps hone our own industry expertise.

Our approach is to first interview your company executives and ask a lot of questions before we begin our writing.  After we prepare the manuscript, we give you the opportunity to sent it back to us for revision at least two times.  At each step of the process, we get feedback from you to ensure we’re headed in the right direction.

And we guarantee the quality of our work.  If at any point during the writing you want to discontinue the project – for whatever reason – we terminate our work together, settle via an agreed upon kill fee and part ways as friends.

You may also want to take advantage of related TRI services.  For instance, we can help:

• Provide design and print production services.

• Advise you on white paper distribution strategies.

• Enable you to mail your paper and brochures to our  proprietary mailing lists at modest additional costs.

• Develop press releases that highlight the main points of the white paper.

• Give you tips on how to leverage the white paper to get you more web site traffic.

• Create audio and PowerPoint content based on your white paper for an upcoming conference or to use on its own.
  

 If you’d like to learn more about TRI’s telecom white paper writing services, please contact TRI’s Research Director, Dan Baker at 570-620-2320 or danb@technology-research.com.