Two questions: while the pass-around factor of white papers is high, how big a segment of a market will it actually reach. That question isn’t phrased very well, but I hope is clear enough.

Not every market will lend itself easily to the creation of a white-paper. Certainly not, to my mind, the more lucrative marketing niches. What to do with those then?

Perhaps marketing used it to generate sales lead, make a business case and most of all educate the customers.

Jim’s comments are right on the money. I believe that you need a well thought out strategy for white papers that leads and nurtures people through your marketing and sales processes. Oftentimes, a single white paper is forgotten easily. A constant contact programme that keeps you in “front” of a prospect on a regular basis is essential to build credibility over time. It allows a relationship to develop as the recipients continually get relevant, educational material and so too the recognition of expertise in an given area.

To achieve this, I think that consideration can be given to a series of smaller specific white papers centered around a primary theme. In my experience, time poor business people are more likely to read a 2/3 page white paper, understand and digest specific, to the point content, and do this every couple of weeks than a one-off larger paper. They will then come to expect more material from you - the relationship develops!

I believe that you should think of a series of white papers as a campaign just as you would an advertising campaign. You need to have an objective, measure the results and tune it as needed. Jim’s thoughts therefore on the marketing and sales cycles are absolutely correct. A campaign of white papers helps marketing build reader profiles, and qualify them before getting sales involved - they don’t waste sales time just becasue someone downloads one white paper. They have a defined trigger point.

For me, the key from an online marketing strategy point of view is to be able to have a way of measuring who reads white papers and then sends to a friend (and who that is). A good email marketing tool should help you with this analysis. Oftentimes, papers are sent on within a company and you can then start to build a profile of interested parties. It might also help you better understand who else are influencers and decision makers.

Similarly, using your website, you should be able to build your database with subscribers if you have good white paper content that builds over time. More people in your database helps you get viral.

Regards

I believe a white paper should be in the sales tool kit as often as the marketing tool kit…in some cases more often.

I love studies like this…the more you read them, the more you can get out of them and the more you can test in your work.

You bring up some very good observations.

I think wise marketers must really consider adding white papers and case studies to their mix.

It seems the white papers are missing in many cases.

Mike

What this means is you can’t have just one white paper, position, value, benefit, presentation, case study, application, etc. All these tools should be developed against your known sales cycle and delivered at the right time to advance the sale.

A second area of interest is the report’s finding that buyers (72%) want information on how to solve a problem, while marketers predominately (87%) produce new content to promote their offering. The study calls this an “Information Gap.” This is interesting because it highlights a problem and opportunity for marketers - people aren’t interested in what you do, they’re interested in what you do for them.

Again, nice study. Thanks for linking to it.