This is the strategy: Get company executives or yourself published in an editorial context for significantly greater marketing credibility than self-publishing another whitepaper that just sits on your website.

Applying that publicity strategy adheres to the currently booming demand for content-based marketing—i.e., providing the information customers want before they engage with a brand.

But instead of publishing privately, go public. Use media outlets that deliver many times the traffic of most company websites and offer more credibility than any brand marketer can typically expect.

The following example shows how surprisingly well that strategy can work.

Case History: How Contributed Articles Made a Difference

As the market for digital cameras began exploding, startup Sierra Imaging in Scotts Valley, California, needed to break through and become known as the only "one-stop digital-camera design shop."

Targeting companies such as Agfa, Epson, Sony, Kodak, and others, Sierra could deliver everything the giant brands needed to get to market with their next-generation digital cameras faster than designing the cameras themselves.

With its agency's help, Sierra crafted a sharply differentiated communications strategy that guided all marketing tactics for the company and its products. Those tactics included a series of contributed viewpoint and technical feature articles in key engineering trade journals and consumer electronics publications.