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White Papers - marketing's best kept secret 

What are white papers? Essentially, they are valuable, authoritative, management briefing documents on topical business issues. At the very least, for B2B operations, they establish your organisation as a Voice in your Industry. A recent Forbes magazine survey of top decision makers revealed that:

• 63% use white papers or case studies to evaluate products and services
• 78% pass white papers and case studies to colleagues.
• 93% felt that high quality vendor white papers positively influence a company's image. 

This IT White Paper achieved more than 20% response from Shipping companies around the globe

But they are really much more than that. They are probably the best sales lead generation technique available in the B2B environment. These are some real life examples of the responses my UK clients have gained from White Papers (audited):  

25% of UK law firms requested a copy of this White Paper on Flexible Working Systems

Paper      
Consumer Credit Act
Traceability in Food Processing
Flexible Working in the Legal Sector 
Evaluating Clinical Trials Systems
Public Sector Data Security   
IT in the Shipping & Freight sector  

Response Rate
24%  from  finance companies
19% Food Processors responded
25% from top law firms
18% from  pharmaceutical companies
17% response
 over 20% response

CODA achieved requests from 1,700 Financial Directors (out of 5,000 mailed) in just 12 months for their Selection Guide White Paper


Why/how are White Papers so effective in lead generation?

The problem with traditional mailings (physical and electronic) is that, even when a recipient likes what they read, inertia sets in - I'll deal with that later. The true reason for not responding is the knowledge they will have to speak to a salesman.

Using an offer of a White Paper / Management Discussion Paper / Management Briefing / Survival Guide (same thing) has the following benefits as a lead generation technique:

• It is not pushing a product or service - it is offering something of value. Free of charge
• Offers of a Business Document stand a much higher chance of getting past the gatekeeper than a product/service sales mailing
• It is non-threatening. Instead of having to speak to a nasty salesman, the prospect is simply going to receive a valuable report (we always make it easy to respond, without human contact. Given the option, no-one uses the phone to request the paper - always, email or Fax)
• It meets emotional as well as rational needs - eg Fear (of making a wrong decision), Kudos (displaying their new-found knowledge to colleagues), Laziness (not having to research information for themselves)
• Once written, it is incredibly low cost and can be used in campaigns over and over again (one client has been using what is essentially the same White Paper - a Survival Guide - for more than 10 years).

Remember, in the B2B environment, our objective is simply to get prospects to identify themselves, not to sell our product/service. Once identified, then we can call in the sales team.

Clients also offer downloads of their respective White Papers from their websites - but prospects have to register first!

 Contact me to learn what could be achieved in your B2B environment with an on demand white paper copywriter -

“It’s great working with a professional copywriter who enjoys writing White Papers. Len Smith has made life so much easier for us.
He came up with a compelling structure and has been so proactive in the development of the report. Much more than just a wordsmith.” 


- Ella Crook, Marketing Manager at CTI Group