During the Internet boom in the late 1990s so-called white
papers, which had long been considered solid marketing vehicles,
started to suffer from too much hype. Amid the froth, white papers
started to sell exotic visions, and got away from bona-fide sales
strategies. But now they are returning to their roots.
As managers continue to grapple with tight marketing budgets,
the white paper is once again being viewed as a practical,
no-frills way to communicate the benefits of a particular product
or service. What's more, non-IT managers are getting back into the
white paper act.
That's one conclusion that can be drawn from a recent white
paper study sponsored by Forbes.com and Bitpipe, which distributes
information on more than 3,500 IT vendors via www.bitpipe.com and the Bitpipe
Network (with more than 80 separate sites).
The survey, which was released late last month, identified the
role of white papers and case studies in evaluating products and
services; the influence white papers and case studies have on
purchases and the perceptions of the companies distributing the
documents, and the reasons managers read them. Both corporate and
IT managers responded to the study, which was conducted by online
survey service InsightExpress.
Bruce Rogers, VP/marketing at Forbes.com, said PR execs and
marketers of every stripe are, albeit gradually, starting to
understand that white papers are not just for the IT crowd anymore.
"Historically, they have been a tool for the IT industry," he says.
"But since such a high percentage of (non-IT) corporate managers
spoke to the value of white papers, one conclusion we came to is
that they're moving to a more general business audience."
Most survey participants used white papers or case studies to
evaluate technology products and services. Professionals who used
them mostly passed them on to a colleague and filed them for
reference. Overall, the respondents felt that white papers and case
studies are critical to their business practice; about 73% found
these tools helpful and nearly 93% felt that a high quality vendor
white paper positively influences a company's image. (See
tables.)
David Doolittle, a VP with Ketchum in Atlanta, says the
re-emergence of white papers is symptomatic of a return to more
sound business thinking, both in the tech space and traditional
markets. "In order to justify expenditures, managers have to go
back to an ideas-based paradigm and the white paper is an excellent
way for companies to frame concepts," he says. "Everyone used to
use them to good effect, then they got away from their purpose
during the boom and now they're coming back."
Doolittle says in order for white papers to hit their targets
they need three separate elements:
- Defining a specific market need in your industry.
- Outlining plans, or "solutions" for that market need.
- Show in specific terms how your product and/or service
"uniquely" meet the needs of that particular market.
While PR execs may have the impression that corporate
decision-makers are too pressed for time to read white papers the
reality is that, in the current climate, with managers watching
every red cent, they make the time, according to Steve Woit,
executive VP of sales and marketing at Bitpipe. It's the
distribution that's key. "You can't just assume that because you
put the white paper in an e-mail campaign or print ad that that is
good enough. With that kind of distribution 99% of your target is
not going to read" the white paper or case study, he says. "The
challenge is to make the white papers and case studies available
immediately via search engines, IT sites and business sites that
run this type of research. Both corporate and IT managers need to
find this info on demand, and that's a big change" from the last
few years in the annals of white papers/case studies.
"The Internet is very Darwinian and bad white papers and bad
case studies don't get clicked," Woit adds. "On the other hand,
really good white papers do get clicked, get forwarded to
colleagues and can be a very viral form of marketing."
Contacts: David Doolittle, 404.879.9266, [email protected];
Bruce Rogers, 212.366.8890, [email protected] ; Steve Woit,
617.224.4259, [email protected].