Are White Papers a b-2-b soft sell?

A recent article by Michael Stelzner – ‘How White Papers can turbo-boost your sales lead campaign’ picked up on the white paper concept we mentioned back in August under the heading ‘Marketing in the engineering work space’. Then we offered the idea of White Papers as briefing documents to help educate the target audience to have a background understanding of the rationale behind our client’s products. When we think about it, we are often faced with an educational task for clients in technology and engineering businesses as part of an integrated marketing campaign. Then again we have had to also explain to some clients what a White Paper is. According to Stelzner, ‘New research shows that white papers are among the most compelling ways to attract leads.’ Apparently this research shows that 70% of US information technology professionals rely on white papers before making a purchasing decision. The informative nature is important as this influences buyers at an early stage in the sales cycle and can produce good quality sales leads. The key to a good white paper is the quality and content that deals with the issues rather than overtly promotes the products or services. Our view is that the ability to write such a document marks a company out from its competitors, it bestows authority on their expertise and allows them to command the moral high ground in their market. The only mention of products is by way of demonstration, where relevant, and the branding is the authorship. Our thinking is that if prospective buyers are ‘educated’ by our clients then the confidence to buy from that manufacturer is enhanced. One client finds that university engineering departments are particularly interested in white papers and getting them young can be no bad thing.