White Paper Pundit

Sure you can use white papers as a source for lead generation, but how about creating an entire library of white papers to promote your business?

An article in the March 12th edition of Inc. Magazine online tells the story of Dan Dersham, of LeanLogistics, and what he did to promote his transportation-focused, supply-chain management software company. To drum up business, the Holland, Michigan company offers expertise free of charge to as many people as possible in the form of white papers and case studies on supply-chain management. Over the past few years His company has invested more than $2 million to build up it’s library of logistics literature.

According to Dersham, the white papers had previously been distributed via e-newsletters and Webinars, but now he uses them along with e-newsletters as his primary marketing medium to generate new business leads and opportunities. The reason, according to the Inc. Magazine article, is as follows:

Dersham found that his company’s e-mail campaign with the white paper component yielded almost double the number of leads at only one-sixth the cost of producing a Webinar, in part because newsletters can be e-mailed multiple times. They also tend to sit in a client’s InBox for days, while a Webinar is more ephemeral – a client logs on at the appointed time or not, even if the broadcast remains available online afterward.

LeanLogistics is just another example of how many companies are using white papers as a stratetic weapon in lead generation, thought leadership, and to create a competitive advantage.

There are a number of other examples that demonstrate how white papers are becoming an excellent mechanism for lead generation, such as :

1. A new study by RainToday revealed that 74 percent of professional services companies ranked white papers as an excellent source of lead generation.

2. A study by MarketingSherpa found that free trials, webinars, white papers, blogs and podcasts topped the list of the most effective lead generation tools used by business technology marketers.

3. In a TechTarget survey of 400 IT decision makers from medium and large organizations, white papers were among the most effective information sources. A large 82 percent indicated they used white papers, yet an even larger 86 percent rated them as effective. Only search engines and software downloads were used more frequently (84 percent each).

4. A new study by ITtoolbox revealed that large companies are significantly more reliant on and influenced by white papers. White papers (70.5% reporting) were overwhelmingly the number one advertising approach to influence IT people, followed at a distance by webcasts (40.4%), email ads (37.3%), sponsorships/microsites (34.3%), banners and rich media (32.4%) and text links (21.3%).

If you would like some additional information on the topic of white papers and lead generation, please see the statistics that have been posted on The Writing White Papers Blog.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 14th, 2007 at 7:06 am and is filed under Industry Insights, WP Marketing. 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.