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Profitably Using White Paper

Published by Jesse Holmes | October 9th 2009 | Views:

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Profitably Using White Papers By Christine Taylor

Most B2B companies have a white paper under their belts or areplanning to write one. But it's not enough to write a whitepaper. You also need to distribute your white paper to yourprospective customers and channel partners. For example, channelexecutives can sharply increase qualified leads to pass along totheir channel partners and can offer the same white paper forchannel partner sponsorship. Marketing executives can generate asteady stream of qualified leads, passing hot leads directly toSales, and successfully grooming warm leads through the salescycle. And PR executives can raise brand awareness in themarketplace and leverage awareness into qualified leads formarketing campaigns and sales. Marketing your white papercorrectly will increase qualified leads making back yourinvestment 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 Websitedoing pretty much nothing. There are reasons for that:

A. The white paper isn't right for its target market, or... B. Thewhite paper wasn't written well to begin with or... C. The whitepaper doesn't compel readers to find out more or... D. All of theabove!

Don't let this happen to you - wasting your investment in awhite paper is like setting fire to a sheaf of bills. The moneyyou spend to write the white paper whether in staff tiseyour product (decision makers/executives), or can alert someonewho does (influencers/IT), or can resell your product to theircustomers (channel partners).

Decision Makers/Executives. Decision makers are the managers andexecutives who have the final say in spending budget and buyingyour products and services. They are often CIOs but may beC-level executives of any stripe who are interested adoptingtechnology that serves their business needs. White paperswritten to decision makers should contain a strong businessfocus.

Decision makers are comfortable with white papers. They'll usesearch engines to get to them and use search terms on technicallibraries. If they like your white paper, they'll pass it alongto other executives and staff. They would much rather read awhite paper before talking to a sales representative - in fact,decision makers are just the kind of long-term lead that Salesusually ignores, but who consistent marketing and marketingcommunications can bring on board within the year. The Salesdepartment then enters the picture to confirm facts andnegotiate the sale.

This role, which has decision makers proactively researching newtechnologies for business advantage, is an increasing trend: CIOMagazine reports that 68 percent of CIOs believe that CIOsshould proactively envision business opportunities and applytechnology to achieve them. Your white paper can help thedecision makers do that.

Influencers/IT. IT staff and managers aren't looking for a specsheet 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 professionalsread white papers to learn something new about technologyrelevant to their job, 73% of them consider white papers veryvaluable for keeping up-to-date on the latest technology trends,and 62% said they use white papers to get information on actualimplementations. This means that putting white papers where ITcan find them will get their attention very early in theirbuying cycle and guiding prospects through the decision-makingprocess so you'll be top-of-mind when they're ready to maketheir short vendor list. With 9 out of 10 prospects using whitepapers to research vendor capabilities, the last thing you wantis for your white paper to sit around gathering dust. Channelpartners. It's a real trick to get marcomm into the hands ofyour channel partners, especially if you have a large partnernetwork. Even companies with partner portals find that theirpartners rarely consistently download product marcomm. One wayaround this is to actively distribute a compelling white paperon your technology to partners, who in turn can use the whitepaper to sell your product to their customers.

Using white papers with channel partners, especially during newproduct launches, increases sales, decreases expenses andreduces complexity.

#2 Persuade prospective customers to respond to your offer anddownload 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 yourwhite paper where they'll see it and respond by filling out aregistration form and downloading a copy. Depending on thereadership you're trying to reach, this could mean electronicand direct mailings, newsletter sponsorship, content syndicationand 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 toreach mid-level professionals and managers, and use direct mailwith high-level executives. Use in-house and highly targetedlists like VARBusiness.com to reach channel partners and partnerprospects.

2. Newsletter sponsorship: Advertising in a newsletter targetedto your audience works very well with mid-level ITprofessionals. Since a popular newsletter can go to more than10,000 subscribers, this is an excellent balancing technique todirect mailings. Use trade journal newsletters directed toresellers to reach the channel.

3. Content syndication: Posting white papers on syndicationsites like Bitpipe and TechTarget works especially well forwhite papers in hot categories. Ideally, links should point to alanding page that's specific to your white paper.

Paid search/Contextual advertising: Method of presenting adsbased on user-entered keyword searches. Google Adwords is apopular method of paid search, and contextual ads extend keywordsearch into business and IT sites.

Here are some practical applications:

Channel executives. Reach existing and prospective channelpartners through mailings. Email is ideal for partner sales repswhile direct mail is best for high-level partner executives.In-house lists can be golden, but if you rent an outside listmake sure it's highly targeted to the people you want to reachand that it's scrupulously cleaned. Also post your white paperson content syndication sites; you can pass on the resultingleads to partners as well as your direct sales force.

Marketing executives. Do all of the above. Send email and directmailings in-house and other trusted lists, syndicated content onthe top syndication sites, sponsor popular newsletters to yourtargeted prospects, and invest in paid search in Google andbusiness/IT sites.

PR executives. Offer your white paper in mailings to media andinclude a copy in your press kit. Reporters that will dump apress release in a hot second will stop to read a good whitepaper. Suddenly your client's approach to solving a businessproblem becomes a valuable resource for the reporter instead ofan annoying intrusion. Titles and abstracts

Compelling titles and abstracts pull readers to click on a linkto download the white paper (content syndication sites) or besent 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% ofan ad's responses rates. White paper downloads depend on thesame element.

Here is an example of before-and-after titles and abstracts:

Before: Not compelling, to say the least Title: "Protecting YourEmail Directory with Guardian Software from SecureLock"Abstract: "Many challenges are faced today by emailadministrators. This white paper from SecureLock describes howGuardian Software protects email directories from DirectoryHarvest Attacks."

After: A whole lot better Title: "How Spammers are AssaultingYour Critical Systems and How to Stop Them" Abstract: "Howsecure are your critical messaging systems from outside attack?Most corporations say email security is a top priority, but allthey do is set up a virus checker and call it a day. This whitepaper investigates the challenge of fighting off spam, hacking,phishing and harvesting attacks, and tells you how to protectyour vital email systems today and in the future." Which one areyou more likely to download?

#3 Once the prospect has downloaded your white paper, askpermission to contact - then do it.

Some prospects will be ready to talk to a salesperson rightaway. These so-called hot leads go directly to the direct salesforce or channel partners. The challenge lies in the warm leads- people who are interested enough to register and download yourwhite paper, but who aren't ready to purchase in 3 months orless. These leads often get lost, which is a shame - a largepercentage of them do end up buying within 6 months, and evenmore within the year.

Registration forms will allow you to capture the lead and torequest permission to contact. One of the best ways to encouragea prospect to respond and give permission to contact is byencouraging them with a specific landing page optimized to yourwhite paper. The great beauty of a landing page is that itvastly increases white paper requests and registrations, andincrease permission responses to send the prospect othermaterials like newsletters, articles, and promotional mailings.This is key to warming up a lead and bringing them to a purchasedecision: regular, permission-based contact keeps your producttop-of-mind when the prospect is ready to buy.


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