The percentages you suggest are not surprising, however, I have found that a combination of 3 of top 4 works well. I have a client that has quite a lot of white papers and case studies around ERP software and we have used these as the basis for a newsletter out to their database. Most people like to be educated and use the web as their primary research tool.We have also used them in traditional print advertising as a means to build more subscribers (prospects) into the database - we drive them to the web for a subscription download.

The whole objective in fact is a nurturing program whereby the database, having been segmented receives a monthly communication that is specific to their industry or subject that have an interest in. I think the real point is that getting visitors to a website can be done in many ways, but once there, you need to have great content to keep them and get them to return and take some action to contact you.

Studies from Marketing Sherpa indicate that in a B-B environment that a prospect may take up to 7 communications over 8 months to contact you, while in a B-C, it is 7 over 3 months. The quality of your material therefore has to be relevant and valuable.

As you would be aware, the primary issue that most businesses face is to develop a continual stream of new white papers and case studies - no-one seems to want to do them and they don’t have time. Many don’t realise the value that they have in an online environment. To make things easier, I have found that a taped interview on a specific topic gives a lot of material, then having it transcribed provides a good start.

The result is that leads are being generated with a combination of 3 of the top 4.

Regards

Great question, I am not sure of the specific crackdown on URLs but I do know that if you sign up for PR Web that you will receive a “Special Welcome Gift” … Send Your Release with SEO visability (a $200 value for just $140).

In other words, the crackdown probably has more to do with PR Web’s monetization strategy. The fewer “free” links they allow, the more valuable the SEO offering will be.

PR Web highlights the following stats on their site:

98% of journalists go online daily
92% for article research
81% to do searching
76% to find new sources, experts
73% to find press releases
On an average day, 68 million American adults go online

30% use a search engine to find information
27% get news
Sources: Middleberg/Ross Survey and Pew Internet and American Life Project

My conclusion: PR Web recognized the value of optimized releases and simply established new parameters to maximize revenue.

It was worth it reading it! I’m eager to know more of your stories concerning the white paper management.

By the way how many people that are blogging to your white paper?

Ntarugera François

So here’s a question. I understand that PRweb has cracked down on URLs in press releases. I assume that would have a very negative impact on SEO with press releases, wouldn’t it?

Mike

I was a co-author with Robert Lesser and would be happy to discuss the study if there are additional questions about it.

Keep it up.

Ntarugera François

This will prove helpful as we dive deeper into the findings.

As well, we plan to conduct a number of qualitative interviews with responders to better understand their perspective.

I will plan to include some probing questions to delve deeper into the questions that you have raised.

I suspect that with the closed end answers that we provided, the responders to the survey may have grouped all associated content under that answer. For example, email newsletters could include all batch and blast emails and potentially 1to1 sales or transaction emails. Press releases could include all of public relations include search engine optimized press relations.

All the same, these findings are consistent with a Forrester survey that ranked Email and PR as the top two lead generation tactics that B2B marketers use (see Q2 2008 B2B Marketing Effectiveness Online Survey, Forrester Research).

Thanks again for the feedback!

Re: “misunderstanding of survey questions”: Agreed. Something weird here. I wonder how often that happens with surveys and statistics?

I read something on a prominent copy blog that caught my eye: allegedly, 42% of college grads never read another book again. Really? Is that at all plausible? Even if you were to replace “high school grads” with “college grads” it seems awfully suspect.