White Papers That Work

How many times have you researched a topic online and shared your e-mail address in exchange for a “white paper”, only to receive a cleverly re-packaged promotional piece that offers little value? 

For many B2B marketing teams, a “white paper” is an opportunity to thinly disguise a product promotion as “information”, “data”, “case studies” or “solutions”. 

To paraphrase the old Wendy’s commercial, “Where’s the beef?” 

The original intent of white papers (yes, even before the Internet) was to help customers or prospects make a decision, explore technology or learn more about a subject.  

And that should still be the intent of marketers who embrace permission marketing; for what they lack in lead quantity, they will recoup in quality.

I spoke with an in-house marketing colleague recently who bemoaned the lack of viable leads, despite the fact that he had an appreciable database of contacts. He admitted that his white papers “might be” thin on useful information, “but”, he defended, “we still offer the best product out there.” 

The point is this: once prospects or customers recognize that a downloaded or e-mailed white paper is more or less shameless self-promotion, they may downgrade your firm’s credibility ranking. 

And if that’s too much for you to consider, here are 8 tried-and-true tips for keeping a white paper balanced with content and meaning:

1. Content is King. Good content is absolutely vital.  If your marketing department is used to peering at your products through a microscope, turn that around and make it a telescope. Take a wider view of an industry topic and explore the challenges that gave birth to your technology or product and talk in terms of process rather than product.
2. Remember Your Audience. If your white paper addresses an IT issue, there’s a good chance that it will become a finance issue, a management issue – and more – down the line. But you have the best opportunity to reach a single disciple within an organization and educate that one person – rather than talking to several people and hoping the message resonates. Also, ask yourself, “Who will read this? What would they want to know? How can this white paper help them research this topic?”
3. Visual Appeal. Nobody wants a white paper that is wall-to-wall type. Design your white paper to include pull quotes and graphics that share crucial bits of information easily. Most readers absorb detail more readily when it’s presented in two or more visual formats.  In addition, consider ways to depict details and facts as visual graphics, since they offer relief for the eye on type-heavy pages.
4. Size Matters. Aim for a length of between eight and ten pages, inclusive of graphics, pull quotes and photos. Even readers who request detailed studies start to lose focus after about eight pages.
5. Practice Restraint. It may tempting to include phrases like, “Our company offers just such a solution”, but that qualifies as editorializing – an inappropriate and ineffective practice that can distance a reader from the material and reduce the credibility of the message.
6. Include case studies as appropriate to the message. Case studies are most effective when profiled firms have a genuine opportunity to deliver real content through challenges faced and conclusions reached - without a testimonial-like endorsement of your firm.
7. Flag the White Paper As Exclusive Content. If you include your white paper as part of general navigation, you may receive greater interest from casual browsers. But if your white paper is developed as a landing page and shared through social media or even includes a search engine results page (SERP) summary, it’s more likely to benefit from the attention of qualified visitors.
8. Consider budgeting for paid search through a cost-per-click (or CPC) campaign. This will ensure that interested parties who view your landing page are actively interested in a topic, the first step in a well-constructed marketing funnel. 

As marketers, we all recognize that white papers offer a unique opportunity to capture data, generate leads and help nurture prospects in a buying process.  But let’s not forget that a white paper should be content-rich, audience-directed information, with a nearly “sales-be-damned” attitude. 

Online Marketing's Shift From Search to Social

When the World Wide Web was born, business people all over the world realized they could reach a portion of their prospects by using early search engines. And suddenly huge chunks of marketing shifted seismically from traditional media to digital media.

Today, for as much as we rely upon search engines for our heavy lifting, the web’s marketing focus is slowly turning toward “social” and away from “search”.

Social media has leapfrogged past personal boundaries and has taken up residence in the business world. We would be foolish to ignore its presence, its possibilities, and its potency.

Since we all know the best customer is a qualified one, one way for savvy business people to qualify a customer is to get to know those customers on social media. If you can initiate a dialogue on social media, you can create the form of a trusting business relationship. And that’s where true customer engagement is born.

So unlike marketing of the past - where we talked about our brands, our business model, why we were better than competition – social media marketing requires we listen and share appropriately.  Companies meeting their customers through Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest and Facebook are enjoying more developed, deeper relationships that have bonds lasting beyond a project or two.

If you’re not sure how to find your social media voice, try this simple exercise:

·      Consider what meaningful information you could share with those parties interested in your industry.

·      Then outline ideas for a post within a social media forum suitable for your industry and your audience.

·      Next, prepare and compose the post with a planned adversity toward sales. That is, develop your thoughts with a tone that is decidedly non-commercial in nature.

And if you’re listening to that little voice in your head screaming, “But isn’t the point to makes sales?” – the answer is yes. And no.

The point is to 

1. build your brand through social media
2. build relationships with parties who have an interest in your industry
3. provide an additional path of interaction for your customers
4. encourage others through social media to “share” and make referrals on your behalf
5. position you as a trusted authority on a subject
6. add value to a conversation within a social media community 

The sales will come. But first you need to create your social media presence with pure intentions; developing a social media “mission statement” may help serve as a guide.

Your social media mission statement should look something like this:

We pledge to –

Communicate meaningful ideas that generate conversation within a social media community.

Inspire our contacts to share their own ideas on a topic.

Seize opportunities to teach others.

Respond quickly to customers or others who reach out to us. Address complaints, appreciate compliments, and answer inquiries.

Enjoy the engagement of social media and use it to build deeper relationships.

Be a networker. Embrace opportunities to “introduce” parties that may enjoy symbiotic objectives.

Be more of a go-giver than a go-getter: we are prepared to give more than we get.

There are many reasons to embrace social media and make it a part of your company’s marketing.  It may not seem practical at first; in fact, it may seem to be a waste of resources. But take heart: 77% of respondents in a recent study admitted that they were more likely to buy from a company whose CEO used social media. 82% said they “trusted” a company more if that company had a social media presence.

Humans are social animals. We have discovered that joining together makes us more powerful, more successful and in many cases – more content. It’s why we build families, create communities, join teams and share knowledge.

Social media is really just an extension of that – an online community that shares for the betterment of the members.

So join in anytime. There’s a whole world waiting for you. 

The Surprising Science Behind Behind How Our Brains Recognize Logos [Infographic]

The Surprising Science Behind Behind How Our Brains Recognize Logos [Infographic]