White Paper Pundit

This blog has always assumed that white papers can be applied to most business marketing situations and needs.

But there are circumstances when a white paper IS NOT appropriate to address business marketing challenges. Here is my list of situations when a white paper is not an appropriate tool for business marketing:

1. The Youth Market – As today’s youth would say, this one scores a big DUH! Contrary to public opinion, there are large groups that simply don’t like to, can’t, or won’t read printed material. A good example is the youth market, identified as 13 to 25 aged consumers. As your target market moves younger, your primary marketing vehicles should move away from printed materials to more web-based, audio, or video-oriented vehicles. Websites, podcasts, Youtube videos, wikis, and interactive animation make better ways to reach this market than a white paper.

2. Time Constrained Readers – Many executives are too busy to sit down and read even a four paged document, let alone a 10 page one. Many decision makers leave the grunt work associate with solution research to lower end managers and administrators, so that a their final decision is based on a list of bulleted advantages.

3. Audio and Visual Learners – Some decision makers are more receptive to either audio or visual-based information. These learners use expressions such as “If I hear you correctly, you mean…”, or “I see what you mean..”. These learners are not moved by printed text-based white papers, choosing instead presentations, podcasts, or Webinars for the source of their information.

So while I’d like to believe that a white paper can apply to every business situation, the reality is that it may not be appropriate in all circumstances. You need to know your audience and how they receive information to decide which medium will be the best way to deliver information to them.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 31st, 2008 at 9:43 am and is filed under WP Opinions. 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.