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Survey shows white papers are VERY important to businesses

By Michael Stelzner

Survey says . . . Ding, ding, ding: white papers are pretty darn important to businesses. A July 2006 survey of 115 readers of the WhitePaperSource Newsletter asked people to indicate their agreement or disagreement with this statement: “White papers are important to businesses.”

An overwhelming 92 percent agreed or strongly agreed and 8 percent were undecided.

What is interesting is that no-one disagreed, not a single person. Actually, the overwhelming majority—53 percent—strongly agreed with the statement. The demographic of the audience is mostly marketing professionals and professionals writers.

What do you think?

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 19th, 2006 at 6:42 am and is filed under Statistics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

  • Ntarugera François
    Mike:

    Obviously I do really think that you should double check when it comes to survey whatever it is happening within the Whitepapers. Who are the surveyers? Are they credible for that? How do they publish it?

    Ntarugera François
  • Hi Bob;

    I really think you should check out my book. It is the only one that has been written on the best practices for writing white papers.

    See http://www.writingwhitepapers.com/book/

    Mike
  • Bob
    Mike

    I am just hoping that you could help. I am really trying to deternmin best practice in writting a whitepaper. Do you have some examples that you could point me in the right direction of? this would be much appreciated.

    Many thanks

    Bob
  • Bob - They are mostly used in high-tech, however any business-to-business space can benefit from them.

    Mike
  • Bob
    Morning!

    Cheers Mike for the above links I will look at these in due course. I was wondering which industry is the main advocate for whitpapers?

    Sorry for my naivety on this subject but it is all very new to me, but with your help I am learning!

    Regards

    Bob
  • Hi Bob;

    Here are the links you are interested in:

    The Sep. 05 KnowledgeStorm Study.
    The July \'06 KnowledgeStorm Study.
    The new IT Toolbox study is actually coming out today. So keep your eyes peeled for the results.

    Mike
  • Bob
    Mike,

    WOW Thanks for clearing that up for me. I would be keen to have a look at these reports, so any links that you are able to post so we can look over in more detail would be much appreciated?

    keep up the good work,

    Bob
  • Hi Bob;

    Despite the narrow focus of the readers, this informal study backs up other research. For example:

    • In its 2005 IT Purchasing Cycle Survey, ITtoolbox found that nearly 80 percent of IT professionals stated that white papers were the most significant online information source to aid in purchasing decisions.

    • September 23, 2005 - White Papers Most Valued by IT Pros: Among the breadth of content available to IT pros, vendor white papers are more frequently read than reviews, analyst reports, product literature, websites, articles, or case studies, as indicated by nearly 1400 professionals in a survey by CMO Council and KnowledgeStorm.

    • July 6th, KnowledgeStorm and SiriusDecisions released the results of a new study on lead generation. The important finding: White papers were the most appealing tactic among prospective clients that were in the early stages of a sales cycle.

    Thanks for your thoughts!

    Mike
  • Bob
    What a surprising stat!

    I mean coming from the WhitePaperSource Newsletter and all...Do you not feel that this is a rather biased result and therefore doesnt realy give us an accurate indication?
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