The Top 5 Reasons to Use White Papers to Market Your Business
Today’s economic conditions have presented companies with two serious challenges:
A. Getting the best return on their marketing investment dollars, and
B. Determining the effectiveness of their marketing
Companies must make sure that their marketing efforts are producing the best value from every dime they spend. They must also make sure that they are effectively communicating to the marketplace, and delivering the right message to their target market.
Prophet, a branding and marketing research firm, produced “A State of Marketing Study” which showed that senior management is expecting their marketing to at least enable both the short and long-term growth of their business. They preferred that the marketing completely do the job.
Improved effectiveness of marketing spending was one of the top three priorities of upper-level management.
What does all this mean? Company executives want a good return on the money spent on marketing, and they want it done at the lowest possible cost. Translation: They want the biggest bang for their buck.
Can this be accomplished with white papers? Yes. And here are the top five reasons why:
- Lead generation – a recent study by RainToday.com shows that white papers were ranked as an excellent source of lead generation by almost three-fourths (74%) of companies that provide professional services.
- Readily accepted form of marketing communication – white papers are read more often than company web sites, case studies, industry journalism articles, product literature or analyst reports.
- Effective marketing tool – Readers pass white papers to coworkers and colleagues. KnowledgeStorm.com says the number may be as high as 3 in 5 readers (57%).
- First in evaluating business solutions – the use of white papers outranks email newsletters, case studies, articles, software downloads, product literature and articles
- Widely respected as a source for problem solving. Most people who read white papers are looking for a solution to a problem. White papers are an effective way to accomplish this goal.
They also outrank podcasts, webcasts, online video and blogs.
There isn’t a better, more effective, more readily accepted form of marketing than the white paper.
