White Paper Pundit

I have to admit, I was shocked to find out that more Americans are texting with their cell phones today than talking.

According to consumer researcher, Nielsen, for the second quarter of 2008, U.S. mobile subscribers sent and received on average 357 text messages per month, compared with making and receiving 204 phone calls a month. In comparison, during the first quarter of 2006, Americans sent and received 65 text messages per month. The number of messages sent and received today has increased 450 percent. But even though people are texting more, it doesn’t mean that they’ve stopped talking on the phone. According to the same research, the number of phone calls that people make and receive each month has remained relatively flat over the past two years.

So how will our growing comfort with texting impact our attention spans and ultimately, our desire to read text-heavy information such as white papers? The Media Madness blog provides some useful insight on the issue:

When we discuss in class that attention spans are shortening, and how pieces of information are shortening, I think about how we are moving more toward a society where short messaging services (SMS) could eventually become the primary form of communication. There has already been a massive increase of “text messaging” growth among teens and young adults, and the pressure to communicate with these generations has in-turn, increased. Teenagers and young adults “text” more than talk on their cell phones, and their parents and friends who do talk, often have to “text” to be able to communicate with them.

I have to agree with Media Madness. As older business decision makers are replaced with younger ones, the comfort and familiarity with short messaging methods such as texting, Social Media, and MMS will form a new standard for all printed material. After all how many of us read an entire document from page to page anymore? The answer: few under the age of 40.

Will this change the white paper medium. You bet it will!

Does this spell the demise of the white paper? Certainly not. With the amount of distrust in news media and our aversion to being  “sold” with heavy-handed commercial messages, the white paper still remains a trusted source for unbiased, factual, solution-oriented information.

But business marketers will need to find entirely new ways to transform their white papers in a way that will appeal to this new generation of text-messaging readers. Text messages in a white paper translate into elements such as sidebar callouts and shaded text boxes that can quickly deliver short bottom-line solution messages. Picture messaging translates into concept graphics and industry-specific illustrations that draw readers into white paper content associated with those pictures.

If you would like to learn additional tips on how you can transform your white paper to this new generation of readers, please pick up a copy of my new book, “Crafting White Paper 2.0″. It specifically teaches you how to incorporate attention-generating elements into the traditional text-heavy white paper. Consider it a first step in the transformation of traditional long text business information into “short-attention” oriented business information.

Your reader will “thk u 4 it”.

(Click to Download)

FEATURED FREE WHITE PAPER OF THE WEEK:

Title: “Social Life and Social Media”

Publication Date: Fall 2009

Sponsor: Euro RSCG Worldwide

Author’s Description: In October 2009, Euro RSCG Worldwide commissioned a survey to map the trajectory of social life and social media usage. in the United States, quizzing 1,228 Americans from all online demographics. This white paper looks at the macro developments in social media; it also brings in numbers and verbatims about people’s hopes for their social life online and offline before finally drawing conclusions and implications for marketers and their clients.

White Paper Pundit Comment: This white paper another example of how European governments, commercial businesses, and researchers are effectively using the white paper medium to educate target readers. This white paper uses a series of visual components such as screenshots, digital photographs, text boxes, and italicized callouts to reinforce key messages on a section by section basis.

Download Link URL: http://j.mp/8dWMFc

Website URL: http://eurorscgsocial.com/

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Welcome to the Friday FREE White Paper List!

This list is a summary of the free white papers that have been posted during the past week on Twitter. Each white paper is completely FREE and does not require email registration or personal information. This is a great way to review white paper examples and learn new techniques from hundreds of white paper marketers. Simply click on the shortened URL link next to the file name and download the white paper.

1 The Evolution of Network Access Control http://bit.ly/4U2GuR

2. Social Life and Social Media http://j.mp/8dWMFc

3. Understanding the Fair Labor Standards Act http://bit.ly/5rUD8D

4. AdAge White Paper: The New Female Consumer: The Rise of the Real Mom http://bit.ly/3fPQn9

5. Ensuring that Your White Papers Appeal to Busy Executive Readers http://bit.ly/ft0Gy

6. Oracle Beehive: Unified Collaboration. Built for the Enterprise. http://tinyurl.com/yl9kkra

7. Why RAID cannot be considered a storage security solution http://bit.ly/174fwJ

8. Oracle White Paper: Smart Metering for Electric and Gas Utilities http://tinyurl.com/yz5x4gx

9. Make Way .com: Here Come the New gTLDs! http://tinyurl.com/ykkzx4t

10. Why RAID Cannot Be Considered a Storage Security Solution http://bit.ly/174fwJ

11. Taxonomy of Botnet Threats http://tinyurl.com/ybk3nke

A new white paper has been circulating around Social Media circles for the past week that has been generating a lot of buzz. It’s from Canon, featuring the new EOS-1D Mark IV digital camera. The camera has some pretty incredible features for a professional DSLR with full HD video capability and a radically new autofocus system. But it should with a suggested retail price of $4999!

But enough with my lame attempts at product PR. I’ll leave the reviews up to the scads of camera enthusiasts and their blogs. My beef with this document is that once again we see a major company exploiting the name “white paper” in an attempt to impress prospective customers and gain a few PR points.

Here are my reasons why this technical product brochure should not be called a white paper:

1. Scope – We have to be honest here. A white paper is an educational document. It is supposed to educate a prospective reader that knows nothing about the topic, with all pertinent information surrounding that topic. This includes industry issues, business problems, and solutions to those problems. This document is nothing but a technical brochure that dedicates every one of its vast number of pages to features and benefits in exhausting detail.

2. Size – While the size of the typical business white paper has been declining in the past 10 years, most fall into the 6-8 page range. The reason is that most time and attention-challenged business readers can’t assimilate more than that amount of information without going into a carbohydrate-induced stupor. This tome is equivalent to a product-oriented version of “War and Peace”, weighing in at a portly 122 pages! Please, someone pass the No-Doze before attempting to read it!

3. Technical Detail – While I’m not a professional, this document is clearly targeted to the highly knowledgeable photographic enthusiast and professional. It is filled with lots of cutaways, schematics, diagrams, charts, and graphics. In comparison a commercial or business-oriented white paper uses graphics as a way to visually convey a complex concept, where text alone would not suffice. Yes, there are technical white papers, but they do not attempt to position themselves as an elaborate and rich marketing brochure as Canon has done with this piece.

Don’t get me wrong. This is truly an amazing technical brochure, and a round of applause is certainly in order for the marketing team at Canon. But please, don’t call it a white paper. Call it a technical brochure, product overview, technical primer, or technical guide, but not a white paper!

I can just hear it now, “Well, what’s the big deal if Canon uses the term white paper on the front cover of this brochure?” That’s an easy one to answer:

If we randomly assign the term “white paper” willy-nilly to any document we like, we confuse the target reader when we really need one to educate, inform, and convince a prospective client. Think of it as the “chicken little” approach to marketing communications. When we ask for a resume, we know what one looks like. When we ask for a spec-sheet we know what one looks like. And yes, when we ask for a brochure, that also has certain expectations with customers. But if a white paper is everything from a one-page summary to a 122 page technical brochure then something is clearly wrong in Cincinnati!

I’ve written extensively on the need to create a set of white paper standards. If you like to read my perspectives on this issue and would like to chime in with your own two-cents worth, please do.

Thanks for stopping by,

(Click to Download)

FEATURED FREE WHITE PAPER OF THE WEEK:

Title: “Retail 2015: New Frontiers”

Publication Date: June 2007

Sponsors: PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and TNS Retail Forward

Author’s Description: Retail 2015: New Frontiers, confirms that the retail industry is becoming more complex and changing at an ever-increasing speed.By exploring topics such as changing demographics, the new consumer, retail outlets, strategic outsourcing, targeted collaboration, the importance of technology, and security and privacy, Retailing 2015 highlights the accelerating pace of change expected for the retail industry through 2015, and the exciting prospects for the future retail marketplace.

White Paper Pundit Comment: This white paper provides a good example of high-quality enterprise white paper design. PWC’s application of photographic imagery alternating with complimentary text information is a good example of how to retain reader attention from page to page.

Download Link URL: http://bit.ly/32wBle

Website URL: http://bit.ly/1HkVFZ

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Welcome to the Friday FREE White Paper List!

This list is a summary of the free white papers that have been posted during the past week on Twitter. Each white paper is completely FREE and does not require email registration or personal information. This is a great way to review white paper examples and learn new techniques from hundreds of white paper marketers. Simply click on the shortened URL link next to the file name and download the white paper.

1. 7 Steps To Improve Your Conversion Rates http://ow.ly/D8xP

2. Social Media for Leaders http://bit.ly/4e9nns

3. Implementing a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) http://tinyurl.com/yhefkx9

4. Integrated Systems Management: The New Generation of IBM System x Servers http://bit.ly/3clB85

5. HDTV (High Definition Television) and video surveillance http://bit.ly/4v6fSX

6. 3D Integration: A Progress Report http://bit.ly/1kdtuy

7. Financial Conditions and Average Revenues of Water Utilities http://tinyurl.com/yclr9mg

8. Leadership Onboarding Unplugged! http://bit.ly/xbIao

9. Interoperable Clouds Open Cloud Standards Incubator http://bit.ly/1E2CT2

10. The Technology Behind Bolt Guitar Amplifiers http://tinyurl.com/ygq2blv

11. PWC Retailing 2015: New Frontiers http://bit.ly/32wBle

12 Deloitte White Paper: Retail clinics: Update and implications http://bit.ly/4hD3L3

13. WebEx Network Bandwidth http://tinyurl.com/yjt9qpv

14. Oracle White Paper: Smart Metering for Electric and Gas Utilities http://tinyurl.com/yz5x4gx

15 Why RAID cannot be considered a storage security solution http://bit.ly/174fwJ

16 Oracle Beehive: Unified Collaboration. Built for the Enterprise. http://tinyurl.com/yl9kkra

After almost eight months in development, my book “Crafting White Paper 2.0″: Designing Information for Today’s Time and Attention Challenged Business Reader, is finally available.

The question that is probably most on your minds is, “Why did I write it?” Let me attempt to answer this question for you.

Since I started creating white papers for enterprise businesses almost 12 years ago, I have seen many changes taking place in this marketing space. Most notably, are the changes I have seen over this past year are taking the white paper medium into uncertain waters. There are three aspects that are dramatically changing today’s white paper medium:

1. The Business Environment: The recession has caused businesses to seek cheaper white paper solutions, resulting in shorter, more text-oriented documents. Shorter white papers also have become more sales oriented, and businesses are demanding that they must now generate leads and ROI. The white paper marketplace has also become crowded. Every business has them and they no longer have the unique competitive advantage they provided just a few years ago.

2. The Business Reader: Overworked, stressed out, lots of distractions with little time for reading tomes of complex information, especially large blocks of standard paragraph-oriented text. Today’s reader is also turned off to white papers that have overt ‘sales-messages’.

3. Social Media: Short, quick, colorful, rich information has become a new norm, changing the face of business communications and what many online users have grown accustomed to. Short attention spans are fueling new forms of information.

The result: Cheap, short, sales-oriented, stark, all-text white papers that disconnect with today’s social media aware business reader.

Crafting White Paper 2.0 is about changing this downward spiral for the white paper medium. My book advocates a new generation of visually stimulating white papers that connects with today’s social media aware reader. CWP2 promotes the use of a variety of text, graphic, and page design elements so that key business solution messages can be assimilated by today’s short attention reader much more effectively. This is what I refer to in the book as developing a, “White Paper 2.0 Strategy for Short Attention Marketing”.

For business marketers, Crafting White Paper 2.0 provides the guidance to stand out about a crowded field of plain, text-oriented white papers to gain a new level of differentiation and a competitive advantage.

For white paper writers, Crafting White Paper 2.0 provides the information necessary to transform commodity-oriented, all-text white papers into more engaging, effective, and profitable white papers for their clients.

I hope you enjoy the read. To pick up a copy, please follow this link to my publishers website. The book will be available via major book retailers such as Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble very soon.

As always, I welcome your feedback.

Thank you!

FEATURED FREE WHITE PAPER OF THE WEEK:

Title: “Permeable Interlocking Concrete Pavement”

Publication Date: February 2008

Sponsor: Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute

Author’s Description: The Permeable Pavement Comparison Guide compares the similarities and differences among permeable pavement types (permeable interlocking concrete pavement, pervious concrete and porous asphalt).

White Paper Pundit Comment: I see several unique elements in this white paper that help to connect the reader with the content. This includes detailed illustrations that are adjacent to corresponding text, tables with digital photos that help the reader to understand material properties, and sequential photos that educate the reader to installation methods. These attributes widen the audience for the white paper to include both industry specialists as well as consumers.

Download Link URL: http://ow.ly/B76n

Website URL: http://bit.ly/1xw665

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Welcome to the Friday FREE White Paper List!

This list is a summary of the free white papers that have been posted during the past week on Twitter. Each white paper is completely FREE and does not require email registration or personal information. This is a great way to review white paper examples and learn new techniques from hundreds of white paper marketers. Simply click on the shortened URL link next to the file name and download the white paper.

1. TACDC White Paper: Eminent Domain http://tinyurl.com/y8aly38

2. Top 4 Ways to Get Closer to Your Training Consumers http://bit.ly/2XEJuN

3. Permeable Interlocking Concrete Pavement http://ow.ly/B76n

4. Intel Endianness White Paper http://tinyurl.com/yjgf8ur

5. LDP over RSVP http://tinyurl.com/yk24t9j

6. The ROI of Collaboration http://bit.ly/2b8GxR

7. The Importance of Connecting Brands with Bloggers http://bit.ly/DDWsX

8. Using the Scheduling option of OnTheAir Video ftp://ftp.softronmedia.com/WP_OTAV_Scheduling.pdf

9. Maturing Agile Processes to Deliver Better Value http://tinyurl.com/ydcmtv8

10. Right For The Moment’ Leadership http://bit.ly/3nm96u

11. Health coverage in rural Iowa http://bit.ly/2nW9nX

12. Nokia White Paper: Evaluating your online success with Web Analytics http://bit.ly/4sJN4z

13. The Vital Role of Creativity in Brand Building http://bit.ly/XuKte

14. PPG Paint, Glass and Coating Product Contributions to Green Building Projects http://bit.ly/41PXdC

15. Comparing Fixed- and Floating-Point DSPs http://tinyurl.com/yg84pff

16. Integrated Registry and Cadastral Systems http://tinyurl.com/yejxgv3

17. Two-factor authentication for secure web portals http://bit.ly/W33Yx

18. Breaking the Speed-Price Paradigm for Consumer Broadband http://j.mp/xRY25

19. General Purpose Permanent Magnet Motor Drive without Speed and Position Sensor http://bit.ly/1el4Iv

20. WHITE HOT! Everything you need to know to conceive, write, design and distribute a WHITE PAPER that gets results http://bit.ly/4ziTjY

21. Polk Audio SDA™ Surround Technology http://tinyurl.com/yddb68x

22. Virus Prevention (PC & Mac) http://tinyurl.com/ycp4c5p

23. Land Use/Land Cover and Climate Change http://tinyurl.com/yb3cncm

24. CRM Solutions for Insurance Organizations http://bit.ly/2KrFH9

25. Issues for Responsible User-Centric Identity http://ow.ly/AIFR

26. Panda Managed Office Protection http://bit.ly/12fbQV

27. Questions from the HIT Policy Committee Info Exchange Workgroup: http://bit.ly/2GoWnz

28. BMC White Paper: Meeting the Challenge of IT Security Compliance in the Federal Government: http://bit.ly/1EYrsT

29. Getting Back on Track to Close Guantanamo: How to Get to Zero http://bit.ly/3GoJMT

30. How Webcasting Can Improve Employee Engagement, Productivity and Shareholder Value http://budurl.com/ysqf

31. Learning Environments: Where Space, Technology, and Culture Converge: http://bit.ly/4FpGE8

32. Mobile Marketing UK Spam Study http://bit.ly/Ghw1n

When it comes to the use of color in white paper design, most businesses treat the issue as an afterthought after the primary content has been developed.

While color in support of corporate guidelines is critically important, its use with design and layout is viewed as less strategic. With smaller firms that don’t have an internal creative department, color selection is often left up to an external creative consultant without concern to the indirect messages that color may convey.

But with short attention readers that are accustomed to short online media messages, color has now become a more important attribute that can either create greater reader engagement, or create a negative impression of the company and/or brand.

According to the book, “The Marketing Toolkit for Growing Business“, author Jay Lipe references a survey from ColorCom where over 30,000 graphic professionals provided input on the meaning behind color choices. Here are some of the results from that survey:

Also, don’t forget the indirect messages behind the standard ‘stoplight’ colors:

What brands do you associate with these colors? Here are three you may recognize:

These color choices are no accident. Organizations carefully choose their colors based on the indirect messages they convey. The colors you choose for your white paper will also convey a particular message. If you choose a color that doesn’t compliment your solution or brand message, you will create greater reader confusion and detachment.

Here are three white paper examples taken from my weekly Friday FREE White Paper List, where the colors that were selected did not serve their sponsor’s intended marketing message very well:

Now compare these examples to three other white papers that used warmer, more inviting colors:

The use of warmer colors in these examples engages short attention business readers and builds a stronger incentive to download the white paper to read what’s inside. So, carefully consider your white paper colors in your next project if you want to build greater reader affinity that will generate exceptional results for your marketing campaigns.

FEATURED FREE WHITE PAPER OF THE WEEK:

Title: “Measuring the Impact of HealthCare Reform: the Pharmaceutical Industry”

Publication Date: September 2009

Sponsor: LECG

Author’s Description: Congress has devoted significant attention to healthcare reform and several draft bills have been put forward by members of the House and Senate. The White House’s efforts included brokering a deal with the pharmaceutical industry to contribute $80 Billion over 10 years to health reform through new subsidies and discounted brand-name drugs. Although there are still negotiations and compromises that will take place before a final bill is complete, pharmaceutical companies should begin thinking about the strategic implications of reform and how they will affect their business.

White Paper Pundit Comment: This white paper includes several attractive elements that include: attractive and professional design, sidebar questions, and 3-D illustrations and graphics.

Download Link URL: http://bit.ly/1FyCek

Website URL: http://bit.ly/3PGljU

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Welcome to the Friday FREE White Paper List!

This list is a summary of the free white papers that have been posted during the past week on Twitter. Each white paper is completely FREE and does not require email registration or personal information. This is a great way to review white paper examples and learn new techniques from hundreds of white paper marketers. Simply click on the shortened URL link next to the file name and download the white paper.

1. The Challenge of Corporate Diversity Communications: Achieving Sustainability in Difficult Times http://bit.ly/46wuOz

2. Halo Collaboration http://tinyurl.com/ycvboen

3. Hurricane Preparedness for Small Business http://bit.ly/2dPXzv

4. The first 6 Macro Trends of the 21st Century http://bit.ly/LxkXy

5. Creating E-commerce Videos That Sell http://bit.ly/45Aheq

6. Measuring the Impact of Healthcare Reform: The Pharmaceutical Industry http://bit.ly/1FyCek

7. Strategic Advantage: Why America Should Care About Cyber Security http://tinyurl.com/yjrrxz8

8. Web 2.0 and Homeland Security: ENDING THE FRAGMENTATION OF THE PRACTITIONER COMMUNITY http://tinyurl.com/ygmj7v4

9. Turbocharging Employee Engagement: THE POWER OF RECOGNITION FROM MANAGERS http://bit.ly/13OUK0

10. How involving customers create business value http://tinyurl.com/y97tv8f

11. Climate Change and Individual Behavior: Considerations for Policy http://bit.ly/2Unf0o

12. Decrease Total System Costs with Industry’s Lowest Cost, Lowest Power FPGAs http://ow.ly/xtGp

13. Building a Green Collar Workforce in Chicagoland http://ow.ly/xGNo

14. Mathematical Modeling of an Outbreak of Zombie Infection http://ow.ly/xE6z

15. Questions from the HIT Policy Committee Info Exchange Workgroup: http://bit.ly/2GoWnz

16. Panda Managed Office Protection http://bit.ly/12fbQV

What prompted you to spend $10 and see your last first-run movie?

If you’re like most people it was probably the movie trailer you saw prior to the previous movie, or a TV commercial featuring the same. During the course of a typical 1-minute movie trailer, we’re able to determine if that movie is worth seeing shortly thereafter, or waiting until it’s available in the cheap theaters for a buck.

Movie trailers are a lot like Executive Summaries, and they serve a similar purpose. Executive Summaries provide us with a preview of the primary white paper content, and just like the trailer, they allow us to determine if the white paper is worth the investment of our limited and valuable reading time. Without an Executive Summary, we’d have to wade through the first three pages of the white paper to make that determination. For many, especially those with a short attention span, such a requirement is far too great.

In a good movie trailer, we’re able to determine whether the movie is a comedy, a thriller, or a drama. We’re able to determine the good guys from the bad guys. We’re also able to determine if it’s intended for adult viewing or it’s suitable to take our children along to see it with us.

In the same way, a good Executive Summary allows us to determine if the content is technical or business-oriented, whether it has a serious or edgy tone, or whether its intended audience is the C-Level decision maker or the mid-level department manager. If written correctly, a good Executive Summary allows a business decision maker to determine if they should read it and pass it along, or if they should pass it along from the start.

Seeing the significance that movie trailers have with first-run movie sales, how can you write an Executive Summary that is more like a good movie trailer? Here’s my recommended short list:

1. Make it Concise - No one would sit through a 5 minute movie trailer, so don’t make the same mistake in your white paper. Your Executive Summary should be no more than one page made up of short visual elements such as bullets, bold headers, and text formatting such as shaded text boxes. The goal isn’t to fit as much data into the page as possible, but for your reader to capture key messages in as short an amount of time as possible. Just like the movie trailer, your first few seconds are the most important. Make them count.

2. Make it Compelling – What captured your attention in the last movie trailer you saw? Music? Editing? Suspense? Of course your white paper may not read like a Hitchcock film, but you can still use text elements to make it more compelling than having a page of left-flush paragraphs. Try adding a large sidebar callout representing your most important message. Use several bold, short subheads that engage your reader to the situation, problem, solution, and result. Add one or two short paragraphs to each subhead from your primary white paper content that best represents your most compelling business messages.

3. Create Visual Imagery – Just as the movie trailer peaked your imagination, try doing the same with your Executive Summary. For example, add a side info bar that includes industry data to validate your message. Add a small chart such as a pie or simple column chart to back it up. Your audience will be drawn to it and it will create interest in the rest of your Executive Summary information. If it’s worthwhile information, your reader will be more likely to read the rest of the page and the rest of your white paper. To get an idea of what this looks like, take a look at this white paper example.

4. Write with your Customer in Mind – For your Executive Summary, don’t think like a solution provider, think like a customer. What compelling business issue or problem is on their mind? Cost? Productivity? ROI? If you don’t know, then find out by emailing or contacting one or more registered users. Once you’ve found out more about their needs, re-write the Executive Summary from THEIR perspective. You will have a more engaged reader that will want to read the next several pages of your primary white paper content than if you had written it using an overt sales message.

The Executive Summary isn’t a shortcut to avoid reading your white paper, it’s the enticement to read more of that paper. If you view your summary like that of a movie trailer, you’ll gain a higher number of engaged readers, just like those that are compelled see the full-length movie. You’ll also retain their attention with a larger white paper (6-8 pages) than if you had written a 2-4 page white paper without the Executive Summary.

Who knows? You might find that it’s so successful, you’ll want to write the sequel.