White Paper Pundit

If you’ve seen any of the commercials for the iPhone, it seems there’s a new app for everything from finding your parked car to studying the various phases of the moon’s waxes and wanes.

But all these snazzy apps do not mean that users will spend more time with them. According to website Engadget, stats complied by Apple from their iPhone App Store indicate that most iPhone users have the attention span of your average gnat:

Did you put down Rolando after a mere 10 minutes of play time, never to touch it again? You’re may be a cold, soulless person with nary a fun bone in your body, but you may not be alone.

Pinch Media, whose analytics engine can be used to track the performance of participating iPhone apps, has found that merely 30 percent of people purchasing iPhone apps use them the next day, and free apps clock in at a miserable 20 percent. Over the long run, loyal users dwindle to just a single percent of downloaders — and this is where it gets strange: free apps get used a whopping 6.6 times as often as paid apps, which may not bode well for devs looking to make a decent living off the App Store, Windows Marketplace, Ovi Store, Android Market, and the million other mobile software store initiatives coming up over the next year.

It’s likely a testament to the fact that your average free app is simpler (and possibly more indispensable day in and day out) than your average paid app — which means we should all be paying $15 for tip calculators and $25 for speed dialers.

This is yet another example of the declining attention spans that business executives have in receiving messages within today’s vast communication landscape. After all, if a slick iPhone app doesn’t have a chance to increase your attention, what chance do you think a ‘plain-jane’ text white paper will have in gaining that valuable and limited attention? Answer: not much!

To address this growing problem, I am launching a newsletter called, “Short Attention Marketing Tips“. If you interested in learning new ways of gaining greater attention with your white papers and other business documents, you’ll want to subscribe to this free newsletter. You can sign up by following this link.

I think there’s an old Paul Simon song called “Something So Right” that contains the line, “When something goes wrong I’m the first to admit it”.

Well those are the words I am thinking about right now when I think about how I felt about Twitter just a few short weeks ago. In fact, I indicated that I would report back to you within a month. I don’t need to wait that long. The bottom line is that Twitter is fantastic!

To those who haven’t jumped into the Twitter fold, the best way to describe it is a combination between a blog, instant messaging, email, an online forum, and a bulletin board…essentially all the great communication vehicles on the Internet. I know that may sound impossible, but it’s difficult to describe Twitter without jumping headfirst into it.

In a very short time, I have been able to establish a presence on Twitter and gain a small but growing following.

There is one person that I need to thank for turning me onto Twitter: Mike Stelzner. Mike was the one who suggested I create a blog two years ago and recently did the same with Twitter. Thank you Mike!

Mike is a great example of the best of the online B2B marketing industry. He is probably the single best marketer that I have come to know over the eight years that I have been writing white papers and running an online business. No stone is left unturned when Mike decides to jump into a marketing project. Everything he touches turns to gold and it shows with each initiative he has been involved with.

Besides his business and marketing acumen, Mike is a good guy. He walks the talk in his personal life as well as his business life. A moral and decent person, a good family man, someone who bends over backward to help his fellow business associate (even his competitors!). I consider meeting Mike and being associated with him one of the high points of my professional career and I am grateful for his tutelage in allowing me to work with him in each of his marketing activities.

Anyway, if you haven’t tried Twitter, you’re missing out! In a world where we make snap judgements everyday, you can’t afford (like I did) to pre-judge Twitter.

As long as we’re quoting old lines, as an old Alka-Seltzer commercial used to say, “Try it….You’ll like it!”

Well the results are in.

Yesterday, as part of a poll conducted at the White Paper Success Summit 2009, the question was asked, “What is your impression of Executive Summaries”.

Approximately 131 new and existing white paper writers voted in the poll, and the results were:

Favorable – 66%

Unfavorable – 9%

Don’t Know – 24%

What do these results mean?

Well, it says to me that the impression of Executive Summaries is very healthy within the B2B marketing industry. For a long time, this portion of the white paper medium has had a bad rap. Several influential marketers, bloggers, and writers have fostered the idea that inclusion of an Executive Summary is akin to opening your presents before Christmas. In other words, giving away your solution advantages up front in the paper creates a disincentive for your reader to read the rest of the white paper.

I disagree. Your reader’s time is valuable. In many cases more valuable than money since it’s so limited.

By including an executive summary you honor your reader’s limited amount of time. If that summary contains information that your reader deems important, they WILL read the rest of the paper, not the reverse.

So go ahead. Write an Executive Summary in every white paper. Your ‘time-challenged’ reader will thank you.

One of the most interesting questions that was asked after my presentation yesterday at the White Paper Summit 2009 entitled, “Ensuring Your White Papers Appeal to Business Executives” was:

“What’s the difference between an Executive Summary and a Concluding Summary”

Here’s my answer:

An Executive Summary assumes that the reader knows nothing about the white paper content and the topic. From that standpoint, an good Executive Summary will walk the reader through a series of key messages that provide them with the most important points that will be subsequently delivered in the white paper. These are:

The Situation – Background/Industry Issues

The Problem – The specific Business Problem

The Solution – How to Resolve the Problem

The Result – The Benefits Gained from the Solution.

The goal with an Executive Summary is to provide an incentive that will entice the reader to read the rest of the white paper.

In comparison, the Concluding Summary assumes the reader HAS already read the primary white paper content. It’s goal is to build on what the reader knows, by reinforcing or reiterating key messages that were delivered in the white paper.

Since the information in the Concluding Summary will be the last piece of information that the reader sees, you should ask yourself, “What is the final ‘walk-away’ message(s) that I want my reader to remember after they finish my white paper?”

Keeping the differences between these two summaries in perspective will help you retain executive attention and yield a more effective white paper for your target business reader.

On Wednesday, I will be presenting on the topic of “Ensuring Your White Papers Appeal to Business Executives as part of the White Paper Success Summit 2009.

The issue of executive appeal via a white paper is akin to the “holy grail”. Many seek it but few can effectively achieve it. After all, if your white paper can’t present appealing information to today’s business decision-maker, its not worth the papyrus it’s written on.

Unfortunately, many B2B writers believe that good writing style, exceptional grammar, and vast industry knowledge are all that is needed to write great white papers. They would be wrong.

A major part of this dilemma stems from the lack of available time that executives have to conduct solution-oriented research. Ten years ago they had a lot more than they do today. Given today’s economic environment, most are trying to cram 10 lbs of work into a 5 lb. bag given the requirements of their positions and the amount of available time they can accomplish it. Most executives still need to do this research not only to preserve their employer’s competitiveness but their own position should they find themselves on the wrong end of the layoff axe the next time around.

White papers provide them with the information that they need to be effective in this capacity.

Today a good white paper is more about how information is formatted and presented than it is about how well the text in it is written. My presentation touches on the application of six key formatting elements that you can add to your white papers that are specifically designed to grab executive attention and communicate key solution messages. They are (in the order of importance):

1. Executive Summaries
2. Concluding Summaries
3. Business/Concept Graphics
4. Bullets
5. Callouts/Pull Quotes
6. Shaded Text Boxes

If you would like to tune in and hear my presentation, Go here now to learn more. If you miss it, you can see the questions from participants at the White Paper Source online forum, and follow the link to White Paper Success Summit 2009.

Speak to you soon!

Jonathan

Value, Profitability, Cost-containment, Downsizing, Controlled Spending and Growth….these are the new buzzwords of today’s recession. Businesses both large and small are turning over every rock to find new ways to trim costs WHILE being as effective as before the economic downturn.

So how do you accomplish this Herculean feat? White Papers.

But you don’t need to hear that from me. Here’s another perspective from a B2B marketing writer named Jackie Cooper, on a blog post entitled, “Improve Profits with White Papers”. Jackie provides five reasons why the white paper medium is so powerful in accomplishing this goal:

• Every business can create a white paper of one or other description. Whether you’re in retail or engineering, white papers can be your salvation in troubled economic times, and here’s why:

1. White papers are low key, under the radar, educational ‘advertising’
2. White papers are useful to their target audience
3. They carry more credibility than an advert or other overt promotion
4. They cost little or nothing to produce
5. They empower the target audience to buy your product or service by providing all kinds of direct and peripheral information pertinent to it.

Right on all accounts Jackie, but I’d like to clarity item #4: They cost little or nothing to produce.

Having a professional white paper writer produce your white paper may cost you several thousand dollars, but its VALUE is much greater than its COST. White papers provides a greater number of uses than any other business marketing medium today. With one investment in a professionally produced white paper you can use it for:

• Website Downloading
• Email Marketing
• One-on-One email communications attachment
• Direct Mail
• Tradeshow Collateral
• Sales “leave-behind”
• Business Presentations (for Presentation/White Paper messaging parity)
• Presentation hand out

If you make one sale from these marketing applications, the cost of the white paper more than pays for itself. By applying white papers to each of these activities, the probability that you will close that sale increases substantially because of the perceived credibility that white papers carry.

Can you think of another business marketing medium that provides as great a connection to profitability as white papers? I can’t.

Over the past 10 years, white papers have proven themselves to be a valuable marketing vehicle for delivering essential business information. When it comes to gaining executive attention, B2B marketers are always looking at new ways to get a larger share of this limited asset.

Unfortunately, as the popularity and number of white papers flourish across the Internet, most will taken on a boring sameness as many companies use of same text formats as the primary vehicle for delivering critical information. These white papers are akin to a warm glass of milk late at night, and have a similar effect on the executive attention span. After about three or four pages, you can expect the executive’s eyes to glaze over rendering your solution message difficult.

I call the use of design and graphics, your reader’s oasis. They’re akin to a cool drink of water after a long trek in the hot desert. Imagine after three or four text pages, your reader comes across a nice, colorful, and simple concept graphic. Don’t you think your reader will stop, look at it, and analyze it for its key solution message?

Of course they will.

The same is true a white paper that embodies a good page design and contains colorful concept graphics. Both provide a rest from the preponderance of white papers that are built around a plain text format, and are a big step towards improving reader attention span, something that is in very short supply these days.

There’s an old Chinese proverb that says, “The Journey is the Reward”. Use good design and graphic illustrations to make that journey easy for your white paper reader.

Yesterday, I discussed a new twist on white papers from advertising agency DDB Worldwide, which was described as a “yellow paper”. You can see the actual paper by following this link.

First, the paper is very well done, using a sharp design, large fonts, and attractive use of black, white, and gray to enhance its reading style.

But what the heck is a ‘Yellow Paper’ anyway? Unfortunately, no where in this paper does DDB Worldwide provide a definition. So allow me to insert mine.

My perception is that this is a ‘cutesy’ play on the old phone book terms, white pages and yellow pages. If you have a White Paper, then reason stands you should have a Yellow Paper. I’m sure DDB Worldwide thinks that putting out a White Paper has become to commonplace, so in their attempt to be different, they decide to change the name of the medium.

Will this work? In my opinion, no it will not.

The only thing that injecting a new term into the business marketplaces accomplishes is add to the already abundant confusion that exists with the term ‘white paper’. It’s difficult enough when major corporations issue a one or two-page paper with the title ‘white paper’ on the cover. Now when a business reader sees this document, they will probably say the same thing as my blog title.

If the goal is to deliver quality educational information to the business community, maybe DDB Worldwide should be more concerned about the quality of their content, rather than trying to win this year’s Clio Award for some new twist on an existing business communications medium.

First we had the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Then came the Chief Operating Officer (CIO) . Certainly Chief Financial Officer (CFO). And then, the Chief Information Officer (CIO).

Lately, it seems like we have resorted to “Chief Madness”. Over the past ten years there has been an explosion in the use of the title “Chief” to describe positions that previously warranted no higher than a Senior Vice-President level on any major corporate organization chart. For example:

Chief Marketing Officer - that is in charge of all marketing strategies.

Chief Human Resources Officer - responsible for all employee benefit programs.

Chief Learning Officer - that is responsible for all learning, training, and development

Chief Happiness Officer – responsible for boosting employee morale.

Chief Blogging Officer - in charge of social media and online communities.

Now courtesy of the Oldest Living Digital Marketer blog, there is a new “Chief” title, The Chief Community Officer. What is a Chief Community Officer you say? According to their white paper (actually described as a “yellow paper” but more on that term tomorrow), DDB Worldwide, one of the world’s largest advertising agencies, describes the position as:

• “A Chief Community Officer ideally oversees the relationship between brands and their communities.”

Funny, it sounds like a responsibility that would traditionally fall under the realm of marketing. Do we really need to create another C-Level position responsible for these duties, especially in light of today’s economy and cost containment policies?

I’m waiting for the creation of the Chief Waste Officer so we won’t offend the janitor.

I think we have gone way overboard with the use of the term “Chief”. If everyone is a chief, then we have effectively ‘de-neutered” the CEO position, making it more difficult to be the true leader that will set the strategic direction of the company.

Didn’t DDB Worldwide every hear the old adage: “Too many cooks spoil the broth“? (You can replace the word cooks with Chiefs here).

Time to put your ego aside and call it like it is….Vice-President.

Attention is something that is in short supply these days, and getting shorter given the current workload of most corporate executives.

That’s why the text-only, left-flush paragraph-oriented white paper just won’t cut it. Today’s busy executive just doesn’t have time to sit down and read ‘text-only’ white papers from the Introduction to the Concluding Summary. To get a piece of their valuable attention you must add one or more of six key ‘attention-getting’ elements to your white paper to ensure that your reader notices those important value-added solution messages.

Here are the six attention-getting elements in the order of importance:

1. Executive Summaries
2. Concluding Summaries
3. Callouts/Pull Quotes
4. Graphics (such as business, concept, and workflow)
   
5. Bullets
6. Shaded Text Boxes

Why is Executive Summaries the most important element you can add?

A well-executed Executive summary should encapsulate the ENTIRE white paper in one single page. It should also be written LAST not FIRST. That way you can pick out the most important points made in the paper and add them to the final Executive Summary.

The Executive Summary also honors the valuable and short amount of time that today’s frenzied executives can devote to reading solution-oriented material. It says to the reader, “I understand your situation. Here’s something that will give you an idea of what’s inside this white paper and allow you to decide whether it is worth the investment of your valuable reading time“.

I’ll be discussing this subject and each of the other five elements in my upcoming seminar on February 18th, entitled, “Ensuring Your Papers Appeal to Business Executives” as part of the 2009 White Paper Success Summit. This presentation will provide you with everything you need to know to format your white paper in a way that will appeal to the way that business executives read critical information.

I will also be answering your questions on the subject at the White Paper Source online forum. See you there!