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Profitably Using White Paper
Profitably Using White Papers By Christine Taylor
Most B2B companies have a white paper under their belts or are
planning to write one. But it's not enough to write a white
paper. You also need to distribute your white paper to your
prospective customers and channel partners. For example, channel
executives can sharply increase qualified leads to pass along to
their channel partners and can offer the same white paper for
channel partner sponsorship. Marketing executives can generate a
steady stream of qualified leads, passing hot leads directly to
Sales, and successfully grooming warm leads through the sales
cycle. And PR executives can raise brand awareness in the
marketplace and leverage awareness into qualified leads for
marketing campaigns and sales. Marketing your white paper
correctly will increase qualified leads making back your
investment many times over.
#1 Target your white paper to readers who need your technology -
and know it.
White papers are notorious for sitting on a company's Website
doing pretty much nothing. There are reasons for that:
A. The white paper isn't right for its target market, or... B. The
white paper wasn't written well to begin with or... C. The white
paper doesn't compel readers to find out more or... D. All of the
above!
Don't let this happen to you - wasting your investment in a
white paper is like setting fire to a sheaf of bills. The money
you spend to write the white paper whether in staff time or
hiring a professional writer is a poor investment if nobody
reads it or responds. But by marketing a well-crafted white
paper to the right audience, you'll dramatically increase your
ROI - making a white paper your best single marketing investment
and the core of your marketing communications program.
Who's the right audience? Readers who: 1.Know they have a
problem and need to fix it. 2.Can make a decision to purchase
your product (decision makers/executives), or can alert someone
who does (influencers/IT), or can resell your product to their
customers (channel partners).
Decision Makers/Executives. Decision makers are the managers and
executives who have the final say in spending budget and buying
your products and services. They are often CIOs but may be
C-level executives of any stripe who are interested adopting
technology that serves their business needs. White papers
written to decision makers should contain a strong business
focus.
Decision makers are comfortable with white papers. They'll use
search engines to get to them and use search terms on technical
libraries. If they like your white paper, they'll pass it along
to other executives and staff. They would much rather read a
white paper before talking to a sales representative - in fact,
decision makers are just the kind of long-term lead that Sales
usually ignores, but who consistent marketing and marketing
communications can bring on board within the year. The Sales
department then enters the picture to confirm facts and
negotiate the sale.
This role, which has decision makers proactively researching new
technologies for business advantage, is an increasing trend: CIO
Magazine reports that 68 percent of CIOs believe that CIOs
should proactively envision business opportunities and apply
technology to achieve them. Your white paper can help the
decision makers do that.
Influencers/IT. IT staff and managers aren't looking for a spec
sheet but for a technology that will meet a pressing need.
They're using white papers much earlier in their buying cycles.
A recent TechTarget survey reported that 79% of IT professionals
read white papers to learn something new about technology
relevant to their job, 73% of them consider white papers very
valuable for keeping up-to-date on the latest technology trends,
and 62% said they use white papers to get information on actual
implementations. This means that putting white papers where IT
can find them will get their attention very early in their
buying cycle and guiding prospects through the decision-making
process so you'll be top-of-mind when they're ready to make
their short vendor list. With 9 out of 10 prospects using white
papers to research vendor capabilities, the last thing you want
is for your white paper to sit around gathering dust. Channel
partners. It's a real trick to get marcomm into the hands of
your channel partners, especially if you have a large partner
network. Even companies with partner portals find that their
partners rarely consistently download product marcomm. One way
around this is to actively distribute a compelling white paper
on your technology to partners, who in turn can use the white
paper to sell your product to their customers.
Using white papers with channel partners, especially during new
product launches, increases sales, decreases expenses and
reduces complexity.
#2 Persuade prospective customers to respond to your offer and
download your white paper.
Your white paper is useless unless the right people read it.
Once you know who your best prospects are, you must offer your
white paper where they'll see it and respond by filling out a
registration form and downloading a copy. Depending on the
readership you're trying to reach, this could mean electronic
and direct mailings, newsletter sponsorship, content syndication
and paid search/contextual advertising.
Top B2B White Paper Marketing Strategies in 2005
1. Mailings, email and print: Mailings, whether email or print,
are a great way to reach your targeted audience. Use email to
reach mid-level professionals and managers, and use direct mail
with high-level executives. Use in-house and highly targeted
lists like VARBusiness.com to reach channel partners and partner
prospects.
2. Newsletter sponsorship: Advertising in a newsletter targeted
to your audience works very well with mid-level IT
professionals. Since a popular newsletter can go to more than
10,000 subscribers, this is an excellent balancing technique to
direct mailings. Use trade journal newsletters directed to
resellers to reach the channel.
3. Content syndication: Posting white papers on syndication
sites like Bitpipe and TechTarget works especially well for
white papers in hot categories. Ideally, links should point to a
landing page that's specific to your white paper.
Paid search/Contextual advertising: Method of presenting ads
based on user-entered keyword searches. Google Adwords is a
popular method of paid search, and contextual ads extend keyword
search into business and IT sites.
Here are some practical applications:
Channel executives. Reach existing and prospective channel
partners through mailings. Email is ideal for partner sales reps
while direct mail is best for high-level partner executives.
In-house lists can be golden, but if you rent an outside list
make sure it's highly targeted to the people you want to reach
and that it's scrupulously cleaned. Also post your white papers
on content syndication sites; you can pass on the resulting
leads to partners as well as your direct sales force.
Marketing executives. Do all of the above. Send email and direct
mailings in-house and other trusted lists, syndicated content on
the top syndication sites, sponsor popular newsletters to your
targeted prospects, and invest in paid search in Google and
business/IT sites.
PR executives. Offer your white paper in mailings to media and
include a copy in your press kit. Reporters that will dump a
press release in a hot second will stop to read a good white
paper. Suddenly your client's approach to solving a business
problem becomes a valuable resource for the reporter instead of
an annoying intrusion. Titles and abstracts
Compelling titles and abstracts pull readers to click on a link
to download the white paper (content syndication sites) or be
sent to a landing page customized for the white paper
(everything else). Take a hint from extensive ad testing -
headlines are responsible for at least 50% and as much as 75% of
an ad's responses rates. White paper downloads depend on the
same element.
Here is an example of before-and-after titles and abstracts:
Before: Not compelling, to say the least Title: "Protecting Your
Email Directory with Guardian Software from SecureLock"
Abstract: "Many challenges are faced today by email
administrators. This white paper from SecureLock describes how
Guardian Software protects email directories from Directory
Harvest Attacks."
After: A whole lot better Title: "How Spammers are Assaulting
Your Critical Systems and How to Stop Them" Abstract: "How
secure are your critical messaging systems from outside attack?
Most corporations say email security is a top priority, but all
they do is set up a virus checker and call it a day. This white
paper investigates the challenge of fighting off spam, hacking,
phishing and harvesting attacks, and tells you how to protect
your vital email systems today and in the future." Which one are
you more likely to download?
#3 Once the prospect has downloaded your white paper, ask
permission to contact - then do it.
Some prospects will be ready to talk to a salesperson right
away. These so-called hot leads go directly to the direct sales
force or channel partners. The challenge lies in the warm leads
- people who are interested enough to register and download your
white paper, but who aren't ready to purchase in 3 months or
less. These leads often get lost, which is a shame - a large
percentage of them do end up buying within 6 months, and even
more within the year.
Registration forms will allow you to capture the lead and to
request permission to contact. One of the best ways to encourage
a prospect to respond and give permission to contact is by
encouraging them with a specific landing page optimized to your
white paper. The great beauty of a landing page is that it
vastly increases white paper requests and registrations, and
increase permission responses to send the prospect other
materials like newsletters, articles, and promotional mailings.
This is key to warming up a lead and bringing them to a purchase
decision: regular, permission-based contact keeps your product
top-of-mind when the prospect is ready to buy.
About the Author
Christine Taylor is the principal of the Christine Taylor
Company. Christine concentrates on writing Core Collateral like
white papers, bylined articles and case studies, which is the
foundation of the successful B2B marketing outreach. You can
reach Christine at 760-249-6071 or at christine@ctaylor-co.com.
Visit her website at www.ctaylor-co.com and her blog at
http://christinetaylor.typepad.com/core_collateral.
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