Thought leadership

Continuing the theme of the last two blogs prompted by research that White Papers are rated "the most influential sources of information and their content figures early on in the buying process", leads to how this can help establish market authority. A company publishing an authoritative document confirms a level of expertise and knowledge that helps gain the 'moral high ground'. There is a strong inference that a company that is fully conversant with the technology, the applications and pros and cons will have also transferred such knowledge to developing their products and should there be problems then they are more likely to have the knowledge and skills to solve them. It can be an important differentiator that introduces a value consideration rather than evaluating products on price alone.

According to Wikipedia, "A white paper (or "whitepaper") is an authoritative report or guide that is often oriented toward a particular issue or problem. White papers are used to educate readers and help people make decisions, and are often requested and used in politics, policy, business, and technical fields. In commercial use, the term has also come to refer to documents used by businesses as a marketing or sales tool." 

Similar to the White Paper but nonetheless performing a different role in influencing buyer behaviour is the Guide to a subject.   The Guide also imparts knowledge but the education and information role is different - it seeks to explain how to evaluate or choose the right product for the buyer's application. We have developed guides for several clients over the years and  these can be very useful for introducing products where the prospect may be less familiar with the technology, where by nature of the product purchases are infrequent, or where there are several options to consider to select the optimum product solution. A guide is also an authoritative document but can be a branded sales document more so than a white paper which ideally should be more neutral.

The Guide can be presented as a well designed and branded document that has high retention value to the person that requests it. It offers a great 'call to action' opportunity in advertising too. The offer of a free guide promises greater value than simply asking for a sales brochure and helps generate enquiries and potential sales leads. One technique we have successfully used is to launch the guide content initially as a series of articles in the leading publication in the market, before consolidating the content into a more formal document. The endorsement of the journal then works to confer approval and also be used in response to readers questions. Creating the definitive guide for a market in this way also makes it difficult for competitors to do the same.

Finally by controlling release whether by sending printed copies or offering a download there is a valuable opportunity to engage with interested prospects and nurture their interest.