It’s many years since I first read Alvin & Heidi Toffler’s 1970s international best-seller, “Future Shock”. One of their predictions was that news, information and even society itself would become so fragmented and specialized that people would struggle to cope with the resulting overload.

Sure enough, forty years on many of us now live in a world besieged by information inputs. Cable TV, mobile communications, and especially the Internet, have shattered the ‘narrow-band’ stranglehold that the main stream media once had on our collective attention.

White Paper Overload or B2B Marketer Laziness?

In the light of this “information choice explosion” isn’t it then strange to find white paper offerings still stuck in a time warp of trying to be all things to all readers? Just like TV, radio and newspapers were able to do for so long – because there weren’t any viable alternatives.

Today’s B2B readers may be deluged with white paper ‘scofferings’ (I made that word up to denote the apparent neglect some marketers have for their prospects’ needs) but these online searchers are the ones who are increasingly in control of the how, where, what and why of content consumption.

So, what’s to be done?

Start Offering White Paper Content Channels…

On the plus side, this broadband, multi-media world means there’s so much opportunity for computer networking companyies to differentiate their white paper offerings from those of competitors.

And here’s how to do it.

1) Go download the free white paper infographic (pdf, 2.35 MB) from Alinean, “the leading provider of dynamic sales and marketing tools for B2B vendors.”

2) Study it carefully and then answer the following questions as they relate to your technology marketing strategy:

a) Which content types do your prospects find most helpful with buying decisions?
(e.g., white papers, customer success stories, webinars etc.)

b) Are your white papers clearly targeted to buyers at specific stages of the buying cycle? (The Infographic describes three generic stages.)

c) Are your white papers too long or too short, or ‘just right’? How do you know? Have you polled your prospects and customers?

d) Are your white papers segmented by factors of interest to your prospects? For example, do white papers used by marketing department(s) for prospects in the Asia-Pacific rim countries include business, technological and geographical contextual references those markets are most comfortable with? At a tactical level, do you care if CIOs get to read the same white paper as network operations team leaders? You should…

e) Are your white papers designed to be interactive?

There’s much to discuss on this point and Alinean’s infographic only has space to mention the concept – but I’m sure their white paper review service would probably go in to much greater depth.

For my part, as a white paper writer, I think the (r)evolutionary convergence of social media interaction with ‘traditional’, take-it-or-leave-it b2b white papers is still gathering momentum. See my previous post on ‘b2b white papers meet social delivery platforms‘ for additional comment on where that might be headed.

3) Take the answers/feedback from question two and sit down with your Sales colleagues to see how white papers (and other content items) can help them woo more prospects and close more deals. This is ‘collective bargaining’ time and may take significant effort and concessions on both ‘sides’ to get a metric-driven plan that is measurable and achievable.

And if the above seems like too much work for already busy departments?

Well, isn’t churning out white papers that go unread, or become just a tick in a RFP check-box, a waste of your company’s time, money and knowledge?

And if that’s not bad enough, imagine what your poor, bloody prospects must be thinking…

- Mark ‘white paper writer’ McClure

Mark McClure provides freelance case study and white paper services to the computer networking industry worldwide.

Based in Tokyo, Japan since 1994, he has over 18 years experience with computer networking and was a Cisco CCIE from 2002 to 2008.

Here’s an interesting tweet via Pluggio (my aff. link) from @CiscoIT all about an award from @Computerworld for a video case study.

I was intrigued enough to click through and find out more.

Strike one for Cisco. (Get the click!)

Arriving at the landing page I find this headline giving a great summary of what awaits:

Business Video Case Study: How Business Video Transforms Cisco Business Processes

Strike two for Cisco. (The job of the headline is to entice the reader to stay on the page and see what’s on offer or of interest.)

Alas, when I click on the link to go read the case study I get redirected to a Cisco login link.

And wouldn’t you know it but I don’t have access to my password.
It’s probably at home on my main machine… grr!

A little frustrated with myself, I look beneath the fold and there’s a section titled “Associated Files” with three very relevant file names just waiting for a click!

There’s an ‘executive summary’, a ‘presentation’ and, to my amazement, an ‘IT Case Study’ file! All in pdf format, and with file sizes shown for convenience.

And not a login or registration form in sight!

Strike three for Cisco?

Well, maybe. Though in soccer terms, this is probably a yellow card event for time wasting or offside behavior.

Why?

You see I was all fired up to read the case study only to be confused at the final hurdle. Part of me is worrying about the login requirement while another brain processing time slice is wondering if the three pdf files are the same, or different, to what lies behind the authentication firewall.

Why should a b2b marketer be worried about that? For the simple reason that a confused mind is less likely to buy (in the long term) or to feel confident about spending more time on ambiguous web content (in the short term).

In this case I’d probably give Cisco the benefit of the doubt and assume that the three associated files and the protected case study are one and the same. Which makes the Cisco login requirement an anomaly.

However, if they are in fact different then I’d be much happier as a prospect if the web page clearly spelt that out. I could then make an informed decision about registering or not.

How about you?
Do you think case studies should be hidden behind firewalls?

- Mark ‘IT Case Study Writer‘ McClure

I’m pleased to announce that my ‘tech content rocket’ blog successfully blasted off from the technologymarketers.com platform launch site at 15:10 hours GMT on 23 March, 2011.

Geostationary orbit above a volatile b2b mix of information technology and marketing elements has been completed.

All being well, the tech content rocket blog’s search for intelligent uses of story telling techniques in customer case studies, and for the ongoing evolution of educational marketing approaches to white papers, will hopefully yield new insights into their roles across IT buying cycles.

Back on terra firma (aka this samuraiwriter.com/blog), I plan to delve more deeply into how b2b content marketing for the computer networking industry is shaping up…or not.

- Mark McClure

Case Study and White Paper Writer To The Computer Networking Industry

According to some social media commentators, cyberspace is now littered with abandoned blogs and populated by drive-by surfers who find even 140 characters a struggle. Has business blogging therefore become a waste of time for b2b technology marketers?

I think not! Despite what the ‘digital herd mind’ might be echoing, here are three compelling reasons why b2b blogging is still very much in play for marketers in the IT computer networking industry.

1) You Own the Words that (Help) Change Minds

What? You don’t think so?

Granted, by itself, an individual blog post may not. Taken together, it’s a different story. That’s because what others refer to as ‘content marketing’ comes alive to your prospects when you actively take the high ground and discuss how your products and services can make a real difference to their business… and to their careers.

Consider those controversial test results on your latest data center switch? Yes, customers and prospects really do want to know how you’ll address their concerns.

And that emerging standard your competitor’s taking the lead on?

Where, how, and when will your company respond? People with money to spend on products like yours want to know! And a significant number of them may be nowhere near signing your NDA to find out.

That’s why your blog’s an ideal place to woo and exchange ideas with this audience. And not only that. You can slice and dice posts into tweets and status updates. Use them as digital bait for discussion groups and email links.

Best of all, you (well, your company mainly, but see #2 below) gets to own the content and the messaging platform, something that those social media ‘experts’ advocating a headlong rush into Twitter’s event horizon and FaceBook’s content vaults, conveniently neglect to emphasize.

Yes, numberless others will probably (and hopefully!) re-purpose and curate the content you create. Sometimes they’ll do this well and you’ll be pleased. Other times, you’ll wonder why you even bothered. Maybe a stiff drink will help…

But the upside is that all roads lead back to your digital communication hub. An online fortress where friendly visitors are welcome, the drawbridge remains open and the moat is clean enough to swim in!

2) (Y)our Reputation is (Y)our Greatest Asset

Perhaps some readers remember corporate town hall meetings where the CEO reminded assembled employees:
“Our employees are our greatest asset.”

There are two problems with that immortal line:

a) Many employees don’t (if they ever did) believe it anymore.

b) It’s wrong.
Perhaps the CEO would be more accurate with this revision:

“Some employees might be our greatest asset.”

Now b) could be true for a tech start up when their idea’s written on a restaurant napkin, and further VC funding depends on geeks coming up with the goods.

However, for larger, established IT networking companies, the market reality is that both talent and companies are ambitiously mobile. Meaning, this month your job is in New York until it’s moving to Mumbai… but without you.

(For those in Mumbai, I offer little solace to the likelihood that same displaced job may eventually disappear with automation; but not before it turns up in Vietnam. There’s really no hiding place for being just expensively competent anymore…)

No, what our savvy CEO should really be telling the assembled troops is the truth. Something I once heard a multinational’s CIO explain to staff based in Asia. It went like this:

“Our reputation is our greatest asset.”

And he meant it. While employees are important, and companies will often do their utmost to attract and retain the best, they’re all expendable. Every last one of them, from the CEO downward. And, in my mind, that include Steve Jobs, Apple’s visionary and iconic leader.

However, a company’s reputation is a different matter. It can be damaged and even lost in mere seconds and minutes these days, thanks to those very same communications networks and informed communities many marketers rely on to build their brand.

And the cost in time, expertise, delayed products and lost sales to resuscitate a tarnished image can run into many millions of dollars.

Of course such disasters are thankfully rare but employee attrition, force adjustments, overseas centers of excellence – whatever you want to call losing your job – are much more common.

So that’s why accomplished b2b tech marketers should do all in their power to cement both their company’s reputation, and their own.

Blogging’s an ideal vehicle in which to do this. Interesting and (sometimes) controversial b2b tech bloggers get known and liked not only by prospects and customers, which their employers quickly appreciate; but their voices are also heard by peers and competitors.

While your loyalty should be to your employer first and foremost, any tech marketer who follows trends will know that the online world not only brings people together to do business, but it also introduces millions of potential competitors for your job!

Yes, it does. And a growing number of these people are multilingual and ‘hungry’ to succeed. They may not be multicultural (who really is?) but they invest time and effort in learning how to market and do business with the “Western world” (an admittedly imperfect label for numerous languages and cultures. But restrict it to a universe of the top 20 IT networking companies, and the view through cultural glasses becomes a little clearer.)

The interesting thing about blogging is the career doors it can open. To see what I mean, take a look at this post I wrote on my career change and personal growth blog:
“Your Online Resume is Everywhere”.

Naturally, without permission, you can’t use content your ex-employer owns, even if you wrote it. Still, imagine that same blogging content syndicated, re-purposed, commented on by an army of peer bloggers over the years; and archived forever more by those tireless Google bots…

“Your online reputation really is your greatest asset.”
(Thanks for the inspiration, Mr. CIO!)

3) Pitfalls, Prats and Pisspoor Writing

Fortunately, the blogging world’s full of people making asses of themselves. By itself, that isn’t a disaster because many established bloggers are open to helping others who genuinely want to write better and build an audience.

A b2b blogger who consistently posts interesting and eye catching content is something to behold. Even rarer is one who responds to comments and respect the opinions of others while ignoring those of the willfully ignorant (“that’s what a search engine’s for, you muppet” – my favorite expression on meeting such folks).

Are you up to the b2b blogging challenge?

Do you disagree with any of what I’ve written here?

I’m open to hearing all constructive comments!

- Mark ‘case study writer’ McClure