It’s been my experience that the business that takes it uponitself to lead with education ends up with the lion’s share ofprofits.

When I was starting out at a small startup, instead of trying todiscount our way into sales, we developed really strong pieces of content thateducated the market about how to grow their own businesses.

As a result, we grew quickly and organically, and built asubstantial list of clients within a three-year time frame and hitthe Inc 500 list at No. 17 of all companies in the UnitedStates. Our growth curve was astonishing: 1,503% in under threeyears!

Thought leadership & education

What I learned was that the fastest way to grow your lead in the market is to constantlycreate thought leadership and education to help your market riseabove the confusion. In the words of business growth legend JayAbraham, “People are silently begging to be led.”

Ask yourself, who in your market is educating, leading andshowing clients the way to security, more profits or peace of mind?Who is actively demonstrating that through thoughtful white papers,webinars, in-person events, blogging, emails and the like?

I’m going to give you a step-by-step roadmap for gaining thatmarket edge using content. It’s one of the most overlooked piecesof authority-building you can use to separate yourself from thecompetition, generate leads and get direct access todecision-makers in your market.

And if you know the “insider tricks,” it can be very easy todo.

White papers vs. reports

I once had a client named Joseph, a commercial lines producerlooking for a way to get access to the elusive business market inhis community. He had tried cold calling, door knocking andattending early-morning networking meetings, but the going wastough.

Since he wasn’t adding value to the market, I advised him toshift his approach. I suggested that we start producing valuablepieces of content for the market as a way to attract the idealprospects.

First off, we had to decide the kind of content we wouldproduce. The most basic form is a PDF labeled either “white paper”or “special report.”

Related: Selling insurance to small business: What works,and what your should be trying

A white paper is a special type of report that takes an elevatedapproach to a complex topic. It tends to be more professional andsophisticated than a special report. You can use the same strategyfor coming up with content that I’ve laid out previously, but itshould be aimed at a reader who is a bit more sophisticated.

I’ve found that calling these pieces “special reports” worksbest for converting consumers (senior products, health and lifeinsurance, home and auto); but when dealing with thebusiness-to-business community (commercial lines, group benefits,investments, etc.), it’s best for conversion to call them ”whitepapers.”

If you don’t want to write your white papers yourself, try tofind writers experienced in writing specifically for the businesscommunity, as white papers require an expert voice. You can findmany of these on www.upwork.com.

Finding topics for your white paper

Joseph and I spent some time brain-storming topics related to whathe sold by making a simple list of products, each of which could bethe subject of a white paper:

• Commercial lines.
• Drones.
• Risk management.
• Workers compensation.
• Professional liability.
• Cybersecurity.

I know. They are pretty generic, right?

Then, we headed over to Google and started crowd-sourcing ourcontent. What’s “crowd-sourcing?” It’s a simple way to tap into acommunity to co-develop a project, piece of content, or find what’sworking already.

Using Google to see what others have written ona given topic and how you can adapt it is a great shortcut tocontent development, and a clever way to get your content writtenquickly. Just use what’s already working!

Start by writing down your core area of focus, then add keywordssuch as:

• Tips.
• Ideas.
• Report.
• Study.
• Survey.

For example, Joseph was writing about annuities, so we did aGoogle search for “Annuity tips” and “Annuity study.”

The number-one result was a great article called “7 tips toavoid annuity headaches,” written back in 2013 as a press releasethat made it into MarketWatch.

Joseph then headed over fiverr.com and hiredsomeone to do some “article spinning” for $5 to $10.

Be careful when doing this, though. You don’t want your articlewritten by a piece of software, so make sure your writer explicitlyspells out that he will do the work by hand. And another thing:Some articles don’t allow you to rewrite unless you havepermission, so check to be sure you aren’t violating someone’scopyright.

To be clear, Joseph was not copying the article; that’s outrightplagiarism. What he was doing was having the story completelyrewritten so it was a brand new piece of content.

A quick aside on press releases

Let’s take a quick break from talking about white papers for aminute to talk about press releases.

Did you notice the date on that article I picked? It’s April 18,2013. Years later, it’s still ranking above the New YorkTimes! How did they DO that? And how can you do the same?

Related: 12 best practices for writing small businessaccounts

It’s a pretty simple formula actually, and may change a bit ifGoogle updates its ranking algorithm between now and when you readthis, but here are the basics:

Step 1: Write up a press release in a storyformat, or have someone on upwork.com do it for you for about$100-150.

Step 2: Pay a top-notch PR distribution companysuch as BusinessWire to send it out for around $350.

Step 3: Go to fiverr.com and hire a contractorto do “SEO backlinks” for $5, and have them point the words“Annuity tips” back to the most reputable website your pressrelease was sent to.

This way, you’ll have a release out on the major networks andsome search-engine links that point back to the article.

Yes, it IS that simple!

OK, back to the main point . . .

Review other resources in your city

Another idea Joseph and I pursued was to review various insuranceprograms or products available in his city.

Chances are, your clients don’t know what their options are; youprobably have access to carrier profiles and program requirementsthey’ve never seen before, because every agent before you has shownthem only “good fits.”

Related: 9 ways to double your business in oneyear

Clients want as much information as possible at the beginning ofthe buying process. Create a simple white paper that includes thename of your city. For example:“Chicago Commercial InsurancePrograms: Reviewed and Rated.”

And, since you are the person reviewing and rating them, you cancontribute your expert voice, which will help bolster yourcredibility.

Or, here’s another idea: “Denver Benefit Advisors: Reviewed andAssessed.”

Here, you can use your experience to point out the weaknesses ofother advisors.

Offer the white paper to local HR managers via LinkedIn, or post it in local groups as a“service to the community.”

Once Joseph had completed his white paper, we reached out tolocal firms that were potential power partners for him — in hiscase, attorneys, CPAs, and business consulting firms. He invitedthem to contribute a page to the white paper, offering them fullcredit.

He then sent this more well-rounded report to his internal emaildatabase of 1,200 contacts (including his LinkedIn contacts). Hispartners were pleased to have the report distributed to theircontacts as well, so he added another 800 people to his databasefrom their lists. When recipients attempted to download the whitepaper, they were prompted to enter their contact information.

By the end of the month, Joseph had an inbox full of prospects and back-to-backappointments lined up for sales opportunities. Incredible!

Powerful way to gain market credibility

Creating thought leadership pieces can be a powerful way to gainmarket credibility, generate leads and gain market advantage.Though writing them yourself can be tough, using content that’salready popular can shave hours off of your decision-makingprocess.

Google can be a great resource to for compiling andcrowd-sourcing your ideas. Using outsourced writers from onlinenetworks can further shortcut your speed to market. Invitingpartners to collaborate on your piece can double or triple yourexposure base and open up a new source of leads you hadn’t hadaccess to before.

What piece of content did this article inspire you to come upwith? What could you Google right now to start generating ideas forthe title of your report?

The takeaway

• Brainstorm challenges and risks your business customersface.
• Use Google to come up with content ideas.
• Use your experience and expertise to guide the white papercontent.
• Hire a writer to build the white paper or “spin” thecontent.
• Distribute the finished white paper via LinkedIn or othersocial networks.

Jeremiah D.Desmarais ([email protected])is a 23-time award-winning financial marketer, TED Speaker andphilanthropist that has been featured on Forbes, CNN, and Worth.His work has generated over two million insurance leads and helpedadvisors in over 51 countries. His #1 best-sellingbook, SHIFT: 201 Instant-Action Proven MarketingStrategies to Sell More Insurance and Financial ProductsNow is available at www.TheShiftNation.com.