B2B Web Strategy Blog - eMagine

Improving B2B white papers by answering 3 easy questions

August 4th, 2009 Posted by: Bill Gadless

As much as B2Bs today rely on white papers to raise their prospects’ temperatures, you’d think they’d be more uniformly effective.  And they can be, if their developers respected just one key principle:  focus on your reader, not on your product/service message.

Or so says Michele Linn, writing in the White Paper Pundit.  To ensure that focus, she suggests making sure that your white paper answers three key questions…

What’s in it for me?  Initially, as David Meerman Scott has said, “No one cares about your product except for you.”  To create that interest, you must first capture the reader’s attention with material that addresses their top-of-mind concern, which is always “How does this make my job easier?”

Why should I trust you?  Remember, the reader may have just discovered your company via a search engine;  it’s a long leap to ask them to suddenly trust you as an authority on this particular subject matter.  You can neutralize this concern by:

• quoting industry experts (e.g., Gartner, Forrester and IDC for infotech)
• displaying your personal “expert” credentials, perhaps in a callout
• citing industry research and statistics …but always with footnotes/hotlinks to facilitate authentication
• including customer references / links to case studies, as appropriate

What should I do next?  In a recent informal sampling of 40 white papers, Michele found that only 12 incorporated any sort of call to action …making this a really easy way to make yours stand out.  Clearly, you want to give them an easy path to further info from / contact with your company, since otherwise their next step is likely to be a Google search that unearths your competition.

Oh, and another easy way to stand out? …give your white paper a concise executive summary.  In reader surveys, 80% rate this the number one element that “makes a great white paper” …yet strangely, very few B2B white papers include one.

Entry Filed under: B2B Web Strategy, Internet Marketing