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.

Much time and money goes into creating b2b white papers. But where’s the ROI? Sales want leads while marketing stoically tracks metrics about visitors brave or curious enough to register an interest.

Meanwhile, hovering over the tech sales funnel entrance is a mysterious black hole known as “prospect engagement”, where information about how prospects actually use and distribute white papers never seems to escape the post-download event horizon.

However, in the comments thread of a LinkedIn discussion group, I discovered one company with an enterprising solution.

B2Lead.com is offering vendors with white papers the opportunity to securely and privately host html versions of their papers, along with a set of integrated social media tools. These tools allow registered readers to use Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, and email to spread the word. On receiving social media updates, interested parties can then freely register with the site to access the white paper content and join the discussions.

I was curious enough to register and check out how b2lead are using the product with their own white papers.

Their business model is based on charging only a cost per lead, so there are no large, up-front fees.

Another very attractive feature are the metrics on the who, how, what, when and where concerning distribution of your white papers.

This has long been an irritating problem for b2b marketers who know that people share their white papers but have no easy way of tracking and engaging with these folks.

Are White Papers Destined To Migrate to Social Delivery Platforms?

Much will depend on the value that b2b white paper readers assign to the time cost of registering and regularly visiting a social delivery platform. And this, in turn, will require marketers using such platforms to really think through exactly how they’re making the visitor’s experience a useful and interesting one.

Because the b2lead experience is designed to be social, a big opportunity exists for word-of-mouth referrals to become viral, or to die a quick, digital death should the value for the reader soon evaporate.

This could happen if the white paper sponsor sees this social delivery platform as yet one more place to mine prospect data for lead and demand generation activities.

(Of course, accurate data is important for the marketer but it’s the kiss of death when strongly sensed by the potential prospect.)

I’ve got some additional questions on the viability of private label versions of this social delivery platform but those can wait for another day.

How about you? What value do you see in hosting white papers as ‘cloud papers’?

- Mark ‘white paper writer’ McClure

This is a promotional post for Jonathan Kantor’s online white paper 201 classes, scheduled for May 17th – 19th.

I attended Jonathan’s white paper 101 training last year, have read his book and follow his blog. The class was delivered over 3 days in a professional online webinar format, with slides, mp3s and transcripts available for those who couldn’t attend the live event.

White paper 201 takes the training a stage further and is focused on the business use of white paper as tools to help with lead generation.

Add Lucrative White Paper Lead Generation Techniques to Your Portfolio!

The best white paper marketers use their white papers to bring in hundreds of leads! If you were able to generate half of that, how could it help your business? Do you know “how” to produce these sought after services? The great news is you don’t need to be a techno-geek to generate lots of leads from your white papers.

Discover everything you need to know at the White Paper 201 Class, “Crafting White Papers that Generate Quality Business Leads“. This is a professional lead generation development course specifically designed for business marketers. Leading expert Jonathan Kantor, a 14-year veteran in with white papers will share his closely guarded secrets to white paper lead generation success at this LIVE online series of classes.

No travel is required. The online course allows you to attend class sessions from the comfort of your home or office. Only 100 seats will be offered for this session and it is sure to sell out quickly.

Find out how to qualify for a $100 savings and lock in your key to white paper success. Visit http://bit.ly/90Q9pe and discover how to get over $350 in giveaways.

Sign up here: http://bit.ly/90Q9pe

And here’s my samuraiwriter99 tweet feed from Jonathan’s recent free White Paper 201 Preview Call; hashtag #wppundit

I watched a replay of the free preview class Jonathan held recently. Here are the tweets I made while watching – preserved here for posterity because Twitter seems to ‘forget’ after about a week!

1) Set my alarm for 3:40am a few nights ago to attend Jonathan Kantor’s free white paper seminar with idea of live tweeting it. Alas, slept right through… Going to live tweet my own private viewing of the webinar playback shortly with hashtag #wppundit  (This was FaceBook status update.)

2) About to tweet live on watching replay of free online white paper webinar by @jonathan_kantor I slept in and missed the call! #wppundit

3) Title is “9 Ways to overcome the most common white paper lead generation mistakes” #wppundit

4) I attended Jonathan’s free class and the followup (pay) 3 class webinar on whitepaper creation (101) in 2010. Recommended #wppundit

5) I have Jonathan’s “Crafting white paper 2.0″. Goes well with Mike Stelzner’s Writing White Paper book #wppundit

6) Define “legitimate lead” – prospective, first-step, evaluating, solve #wppundit

7) prospective customer = not a repeat customer #wppundit

White papers as a prospective customer’s first step in a long evaluation process #wppundit

9) Gated content – the moat comes down? Sign up to download white papers… archaic? #wppundit

10) White paper mistake #1 – give me educational content, not the undercover sell… #wppundit

11) Over branding your white paper smacks of steering prospects into a sales corral – where they don’t want to go (yet, if ever)… #wppundit

12) That “tape drive” white paper jammed me on the title page too. #fail #wppundit

13) Solve a business solution, rather than sell a solution. See the diff? #wppundit

14) Trying again: Solve a business PROBLEM, rather than sell a solution. See the diff? #wppundit

15) Educational Value: 3 Key Areas for white papers: 1) T; 2) LP; 3) 3rd Party A #wppundit

16) White paper landing page – show me what I’m going to get… #wppundit

17) The lack of a “sample” was mistake #2 #wppundit

18) lol The chocolate white paper (I wish) #wppundit

19) Jonathan now discussing the structure of a 4 page sample white paper #wppundit

20) What benefit messages are your readers getting from a free sample white paper? #wppundit

21) White Paper Mistake #3 Are you targeting the ideal prospect with too much geek speak or tactical issues? #wppundit

22) Decision makers often focus on at least one of 6 key benefits #wppundit

23) A white paper title page does tell a story with imagery… #wppundit

24) White paper mistake #4: I’m distracted, engage me n-o-w! #wppundit

25) The White Paper graphic landing page now being shown. #wppundit

26) White paper mistake #5: Too many distractions and/or overwhelming design. #wppundit

27) Solving white paper mistake #5 : Looks like a microsite landing page with related content plus return points to the original paper #wppundit

28) White paper mistake #6: too many reg fields on landing page.. but who does THIS benefit? Mktg CRM systems?? #wppundit

29) White Paper reg fields: Is family name even required? Maybe just email address is OK… test it IMO #wppundit

30) White Paper Mistake #8: To get the paper, here are the hoops to jump through… #wppundit

31) Getting that white paper – the rule of 3 #wppundit

32) White Paper Mistake #9: Pay here… #wppundit

33) Some ad agencies / industry consultants sell “research” as their business model #wppundit

34) Consider giving away 1/3 of your white papers for free, with no reg required. #wppundit

35) Free white papers and pull vs push marketing. #wppundit

36) The secret sauce is your content info in the free white paper. #wppundit

37) White papers, first impressions, and a younger gen of decision makers… #wppundit

38) Jonathan now talking about his 3 part white paper 201 course, starting in May. Similar to this call but in depth #wppundit

39) If you want a download link to Jonathan’s free webinar (this one!), DM me here and I’ll send you his email addr. #wppundit

40) Part 2 of @jonathan_kantor course covers “crafting a B2B White Paper Strategy” #wppundit

41) WP201 Course #3 covers “Next Gen white papers” #wppundit

42) wp 201 also gives download access to videos, presentations and transcripts. Good if want to listen on demand #wppundit

43) white paper 201 webinar course limited to 100 seats; offer closes May 6th or when all seats gone… and 300 on this free call #wppundit

44) Find out more about white paper 201 (and 101) classes from this (aff) http://bit.ly/90Q9pe or (non-aff) http://www.whitepapercompany.com/docs/wp201class.php

45) This ‘live’ tweet on “9 Ways to Overcome the Most Common White Paper Lead Generation Mistakes” is now complete. Thank you. #wppundit

- Mark ‘white paper writer’ McClure

Today’s message is short and sweet.

As a freelance white paper writer I love giving deals that wow IT marketing managers – a tough thing to do, I know!

And here’s a deal too good to pass up.

Order a 6 – 10 page white paper and get another one absolutely FREE.

Yes, that’s right, it does say ‘free’.

That’s zero, nothing, nill.

You get two professionally-written white papers for only $2,100.

(That’s the bottom end of my rate for just one paper these days.)

Am I crazy? Possibly.

Crazy like a fox… you get a great deal and I get a happy client.

Sounds good. But read on.

What’s The Catch? There must be a Catch?

Sorry, there isn’t one.

You win, again

Of course, there are three small, inconsequential conditions but absolutely no catches. (I’m a marketing copywriter, not a commodity writer, bless their little socks.)

Condition #1: You pay a 50% deposit to start the project, with the balance due on delivery of the first white paper. Or within 90 days of the project kicking off, whichever is sooner.

(That’s my ‘project anti-procrastination’ clause which is rarely invoked but keeps the project ticking along if personnel or project requirements change mid-stream.)

Condition #2: Your second white paper project must finish no later than mid-December of 2011.

My time and energies are finite but I’ll move copy writing heaven and earth to give you an excellent second white paper before heading off to write Santa Claus’s email auto-responder sequence on December 1st.

Just kidding?

Basically, what this means is that you agree to kick off the second white paper project no later than early November before reviewers (your staff) go on winter leave, and things slow right down.

How to Order

Condition #3: You must contact me before midnight Sunday 9th January and let me know you want in on the deal. The deposit must be paid no later than 31 January, 2011 otherwise the deal is off.

Can’t say fairer than that.

- Mark ‘white paper deal-maker’ McClure