Nurturing Prospects With White Papers
By Michael StelznerShould a white paper be delivered to people who did not necessarily ask for it?
The answer is yes if you are looking to nurture prospects, at least according to a recent article in B2B Magazine’s E-mail Marketing Insight Guide.
The article explained how Jeanniey Mullen at Interactive agency OgilvyOne leveraged white papers:
Marketers that were looking to promote a white paper, for instance, might e-mail their list and encourage recipients to visit their website to download the white paper.
When recipients did so, they’d see a thank-you page on the website.
With e-nurturing, however, prospects would receive an e-mail delivering the white paper and then receive additional e-mails with appropriate content based on their stage in the sales cycle or the various actions they take.
The concept of nurturing is implies that not everyone is ready to buy. So rather than releasing all leads to the hounds of sales, help them grow into opportunities with relevant and rich content, such as white papers.
What are your thoughts on this topic?
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(2 votes, average: 4 out of 5)


October 1st, 2007 at 8:47 pm
I absolutely think you can use white papers to nurture leads but you need to consider a few things
1) what is the frequency or cadence of these communications (weekly, every 2 weeks etc)
2) do you have enough quality content to make that cadence happen (dont forget I said quality content)
3) can you vary that content with other types of content like case studies, podcasts, articles, webinars, or live events
armed with those items above you could create a compelling calender of communications to a specific group of prospects
then the next question quickly becomes how can you profile what is being looked at. but thats the topic of another blog post perhaps …
paul dunay
www.buzzmarketingfortechnology.com
October 2nd, 2007 at 8:20 am
Paul - Great insight and thanks for your comments! - Mike