I tend to disagree with you on a few points.

I find that it is rare that a person actually goes from reading anything to actually acting.

I give folks the option to register for my newsletter and about half take me up on it at the point of registration.

There was a point when I did not do this and very few people actually were taking it to the level you were.

So, I like to provide the option at the right moment.

I think if you applied a similar strategy you would see similar results.

Case in point, 44,000 people registered for my paper, I have 20,000 on my list. Those other 24,000 never acted. I guess very few of the other 20,000 would have had I not made it seemlesss for them.

Mike

I believe that there are certain white papers for which giving your contact information away is a no-brainer, which includes your white paper on white papers.

I also believe that many of those 20,000 readers would have still subscribed to your newsletter, had you made them register for the white paper or not… at least those who saw value in your white paper — which should be most of them!

I know for myself, I subscribed to your newsletter because after studying your book in detail, I definitely wanted to hear more of what you had to share. And I continue to subscribe to your newsletter and teleclasses because I clearly see value in doing so. I didn’t subscribe just because I wanted to get your white paper for free.

All I’m saying is that I perceive that more and more, people are getting tired of having to subscribe to a new newsletter every time they want to download and read a white paper — whether it’s out of curiosity, or it’s part of necessary research.

That’s just my perception, and it could be wrong… but this particular finding of the study SEEMS to somewhat support that. Do you agree?

If it were not for a white paper that I wrote about 5 years ago, I would not have 20,000 readers on my newsletter.

And I can assure you they all would have unsubscribed a LONG time ago had they not found the newsletter content valuable.

Mike

I’m curious how many propects are on mailing lists — as a result of registering for white papers and such — that they would rather not be on, but actually hesitate to opt out… of a conscious or subconcious fear of insulting the person, colleague or company who provided them with a free white paper in the first place.

I know I’ve held this irrational fear in the past (not anymore though). As a result, I would download less “free” stuff.

Though I could very well be wrong, I suspect that the 80% figure will come down. I believe that more and more, it will be mostly those who MUST read a particular white paper that will register to download it. More of those who are merely curious, at that point, will not bother to register.

Having said all that, I do believe that prospects will still register to download a white paper more than most, if not all other, marketing material.

Great comment!

Once key finding is that this came from folks who do NOT regularly go about using white papers.

Perhaps a more telling study is this one: http://www.writingwhitepapers.com/blog/2007/05/22/registration-study/

It states that 80 percent of people are WILLING to register for a white paper.

Your thoughts on that?

Mike

I completely agree with Anne Holland’s suggestion.

A prospect who downloads a white paper is researching options, not necessarily seeking to be marketed to. Let the white paper become viral naturally. If readers like what they see, they will contact the company who produced the white paper. Simple as that.

I would suggest a little line at the end of the white paper offering interested prospects the opportunity to opt-in to a mailing list, which offers either white paper upates, newsletters, etc.. Let them choose what they want to receive.

And let the readers choose how they want to be marketed to AFTER they read the white paper. I think that shows respect to the reader that they are capable of making their own decisions. And I believe that will result in a better list, with more interested and loyal prospects.