Spencer H
President at Hill Asset Management/Managing Director at University Retirement Specialists
Has anyone used a whitepaper marketing strategy?
What type of success did you have? Where did you do your research for the marketing strategy (book, web, etc.)? Anyone or thing particulary helpful in bringing about a great succes wit this?
Good Answers (10)
Absolutely. These can be very effective marketing tools. We created an initiative on behalf of a client and utilized a telephone survey to generate the core research. We were able to get 33% of the targeted audience to participate. A white paper was written and published highlighting trends in the industry. The paper was utilized in a number of ways to market the company - from public relations to conference handouts to inclusion in the sales kit.
George N
Integrated Marketing Communications Strategy Specialist and Adjunct Professor
White Papers definitely provide the foundation for additional marketing initiatives if executed properly. In my case, I use the white papers we offer as a catalyst for making article pitches. We have successfully converted three white papers into articles for publication so far, which has helped to increase our credibility in the industry.
Brian M
at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories
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Hello Spencer,
I've used this approach many times. This kind of strategy is effective for many goals. Examples include brand awareness, new technology evangelism, positioning and raw sales support.
In most cases, the key thing is to analyze the needs, desires and prejudices of the people you are targeting. Then craft the whitepaper and the pitch for the whitepaper to those needs. A good marketer can often work this out by getting in the field and having sales set up a number of meetings with sample customers.
Regards
Brian MacLeod
Whitepapers have been a great lead generation and PR vehicle for me. The PR play is obvious - pitch it as a contributed article, especially to a niche-type publication. On the lead generation side, it's been a good method for quickly identifying interest in a particular topic, product, or service. The key is in promoting it to the right audience, at the right cost, and ensuring appropriate follow up. I'd be happy to discuss with you further.
For further information, you might want to check out this reprint from MarketingSherpa - http://www.jinfonet.com/news/news_salesteam.htm
Links:
This approach can be very successful depending on your objective. It can elevate the credibility of your organization, it can certainly generate new leads, or it can be part of a great public relations strategy. More and more companies are finding marketing success using this approach because of the Internet and its ability to get your findings out there faster. Here's an example of a recent research project we conducted nationwide that received press online and on network TV.
Links:
Has anyone used a whitepaper marketing strategy?
I have experienced different methods of application of this strategy, noted by other here; as the foundation for the campaign and as the support architecture for message delivery. Either can be equally effective given a high degree of detail and technical recognition in the target industry. i.e. pick your source wisely.
What type of success did you have?
Foundation papers provide a portable means of market research deliverable to clients in pre-visit or as take-away documentation. Support details bind your story with accepted industry research or recommendations that provide instant connections or instill a sense of product familiarity that otherwise must be gained over time.
Where did you do your research for the marketing strategy (book, web, etc.)?
The web should serve as a jump-point for locating accepted companies or vendor routes for developing or corroborating your story. Purchasing this type of marketing tool via only the web obtains high risk.
Anyone or thing particulary helpful in bringing about a great succes wit this?
Do your research into your vertical markets accepted leaders, accepted publish formats and publications (sources), and definitely differentiators yielded from such tool engagement or utilization. Determining benefits before development provides a more focused approach and higher resulting yield.
Bob M
Managing Director USA, Four Groups
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I've never used one but I am often targeted. Many are pretty awful. Somne I save for the statistics and some I act on.
Do make it:
- Complete
- Easy to read (deliver via e-mail with the deep dives in a hyperlink)
- Factual
- In logical stages (start with the strategic basics and build to "Best in Class" i.e.: for marketing start with positioning, targeting and measuring cost per sale, then build to brand personality and integrity, finally finishing with long-term competitive initiative.
- Value to the reader (something that makes them print and keep, in your case some kind of chat that you can lay a ruler on to benchmark your asset status or performance).
- Of interest to the reader
- Ease of follow up
Avoid
- Selling. No one wants another ad. As you expose a problem and the related GENERIC solution, put in a hyperlink entitled "See Hill Asset Management's Solution" or put in a short case study.
- Superficial content
If you have properly exposed the issues and your service is based on addressing the issues, you should be able to generate qualified leads.
Results may be mixed but keep in mind that if you do it poorly you destroy any future credibility that the company you are marketing for has.
I signed up for a whitepaper that sounded very interesting. I went through all the hoops and answered the survey. The whitepaper was merely an advertisement for a particular vendors solutions. I have not pursued any other whitepapers that this company trieds to send me because this first one was a complete waste of time.
I used a white paper once to solve an investor relations marketing problem. Medicare announced a policy change that was really a "no news" economic event for our company, but which sounded like very bad news to people who didn't understand health care reimbursement technicalities (and who does?). The stock was tanking.
So we quickly put together a helpful white paper clearly explaining these reimbursement technicalities with examples, policy citations etc. and sent it out to the key analysts (and anyone who called with a concern about the issue). Instant stock recovery.
In investor relations, you are often marketing to a small group of
opinion makers, so changes in buying behavior can happen quickly.
David A
Strategies & Solutions for Profitable Marketing & Effective Direct Mail
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I have had clients use the Whitepaper strategy for lead generation.
Last year, we tested a White paper against an Amazon.com gift certificate. As expected the gift certificvate out-piulled the White Paper, however, also as expected, the White Paper pulled better quality leads.
I believe we mailed 100,000 pieces with a 50/50 split. The gift certificate pulled over 3% and the White Paper just over 1%. Consider this - that's 1,000 high quality leads and 3,000 other leads!
