White Paper Pundit

The expression in this title, first used over 100 years ago to dispel false obituary reports of Mark Twain’s demise seem as commonplace today as it was back in 1897. Like then, we are willing to jump to erroneous conclusions based on the opinions of a select few.

This exercise reminds me when the Netscape 1.0 browser first appeared in the early 1990s, and many computer users were wondering what this “Internet thing” was all about. Soon after its release, many were lamenting, “Why would I want a online billboard to promote my business? This is a flash in the pan!“. It didn’t take long for those original static web pages to add digital photos, flash animation, digital videos, forums, blogs, wikis, twitter feeds, Facebook, etc, and become the multi-faceted web medium we enjoy today. Those early naysayers who were ready to abandon that medium less than 20 years ago could not have envisioned what has now become possible. In fact, none of us can know today what may be possible in the next 20 years.

Now a few voices, such as Velocity Partners via their B2B Marketing Blog, have written a blog post entitled, “The white paper is dead…or is it?” In it, they question the viability and longevity of the white paper, due to the limitations of a few bad examples. As one comment on the blog reads:

“most (white papers) are far too long, far too self-serving, far too boring and written so turgidly that just a few paragraphs in, suicide is often attractive. In our experience, while B2B marketers say that they write white papers to exert some thought leadership, few really do this.”

To this point, I wholeheartedly agree. Far too many white papers are poorly written, formatted, and are just too long or too short. The issue of thought leadership doesn’t seem to be a factor with many white paper marketers.

So what does this blogger advocate to correct the problem ? Here are some of their suggestions and my responses to each point:

“Don’t cram your latest widget into every paragraph. If you overkill on your offer you’ll undermine the value of the piece.”

Agree: Too many white papers (often first projects) believe they must include an exhaustive amount of detail rather than being succinct and to the point for their reader. Too much information is a good way to lose your reader and more importantly, any subsequent business leads and prospects.

“Use video, audio or flash or a combination of all three to get your messages across in a couple of minutes. Interview your technology experts in a white board session.”

Disagree: This notion that digital media is the answer to every business need is just plain shortsighted. Remember when homemade podcasts were going to replace white papers? Guess what. That might have been fine if we were all blessed with a voice like Casey Kasem, but somewhere along the way someone forgot to tell that 60s-something CEO to go out any buy an iPod to listen to them. It didn’t happen, and podcasts are now relegated to either professionals or those of us who have figured out how to produce a quality program.

“Keep it short to less than 5 pages“

Disagree: Producing short white papers, especially those in the 2-4 page range may fit a tight marketing budget, but they rarely generate the kind of results that most are seeking. These briefs (I won’t call them white papers) limit their scope to solution advantages and are perceived as glorified “sales pitches”. To lay out the case for a solution as a true white paper would, one must dedicate a certain number of pages at the front end to educate the reader to industry background issues and problem assessments pertaining to the topic. A good white paper that gets read and is passed along to others is a function of its ability to provide quality educational content, and not quick, flashy solution messages.

Fortunately, somewhere in the post, the blogger answers the question first posed in the title:

“So are white papers dead? Providing they’re not boring, too long and all about you, absolutely not”.

Agreed. So here’s my bottom line response to this point: The white paper medium as a whole is not dead. Far from it. It’s as alive as it was when the business community first adopted and modified it over 15 years ago. Just as web technology has evolved as with my Netscape 1.0 example, so have white papers. White papers today are far from what the British government ever could have envisioned when they wrote the first one over 75 years ago. It has matured to become a robust, sophisticated, and multi-dimensional document that still educates and convinces the reader in entirely new and powerful ways.

The core issue isn’t how can we change the medium to be something else, but instead, how can we EVOLVE the medium to take into consideration the changing needs of today’s reader? The popularity of Twitter has demonstrated that we want information delivered in spoon-fed, bite-sized chunks. Grab my attention with a Twitter message, then let me click to drill down to another website, another article, another white paper on my own time and in my own way. These are one of several new requirements for the modern white paper.

To accommodate the needs of today’s changing business reader, we need to evolve the business white paper from the tired, old text-only, left-flush paragraph oriented, mono-font format to one that uses graphic design, Executive and Concluding Summaries, charts, callouts, bullets, etc, that grab reader attention and engage them to read additional quantities of detailed information. Hopefully if done well, the reader will take additional action such as visiting a website, contacting the sponsor, or passing the paper along to someone else within the decision chain.

So let’s not throw the white paper baby out with the bath water because of a few bad apples. White papers will still be a dominant business communications medium for many years to come, but over time it will incorporate entirely new approaches that we can’t even imagine today.

That’s what makes this medium both fun and interesting at the same time.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 at 8:35 pm and is filed under Misc. Rantings, Social Media, Twitter, WP Marketing, WP Opinions, White Paper Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.