How effective are white papers and e-books in B2B marketing?

A white paper is report that addresses a specific issue and sets out a proposed solution to solve it. In B2B marketing, they are often used as a way to put forward a company’s plan to address a specific challenge or issue that is affecting their industry.  It demonstrates their understanding as well as implicitly states they are the “go to” people to fix it.

An e-book, on the other hand, is far more of an information tool. It seeks to inform potential clients about a general subject in a more informal way than perhaps the white paper. It can be summed up thus – a white paper gives opinion backed by concise argument, while an e-book provides information backed by experience.

Both are being increasingly used by B2B marketing companies as part of their content marketing strategy. If the purpose of content marketing is to produce and distribute information that clients find useful – with the ultimate aim of positioning the company as the conversation leader in the field – then white papers and e-books are good ways to do it.  How effective these tools are depends on several factors.

1. Does the content add value to the readers understanding of the market? – in order for a white paper or an e-book to work it has to provide a key “take outs” for the reader. What can they use immediately in conversation with a colleague, or a client or better still a boss? The value you add to their understanding of a subject is directly proportionate to how successful it is.
2. The information needs to be free and yet positioned as premium content – “freemium” content, as it is now called, is what most people are searching for, and expect, online. Bottom line is, if they can’t get it free from you, they will from a competitor.
3. How  is the white paper or e-book distributed – you could have a white paper called “Futurology in Design” which gives amazing insight into the market but unless you have a means to distribute it, it will simply not be read. Social Media provides the best opportunity for distribution via a pre-existing and to an extent pre qualified list of interested parties. This could be your Facebook fans or members of your LinkedIn group. By the very nature of social media, if you have managed to fulfill the add value step, the reader is one click away from recommending your white paper or e-book to their friends and colleagues. This is an incredibly powerful dissemination tool.
4. Make sure it is a content led document – where using a white paper or e-book might fail is if you give in to the urge to lace sales messages through the material. This is the easiest way to lose the value and good will you have built up with the rest of the content.

White Papers and e-books when used as part of a wider B2B marketing strategy can be effective. Provided, of course, they have content worth reading which adds value to the readers understanding of a subject. This coupled with a good distribution strategy will see a return on the time investment in creating it via incoming qualified sales leads and raised awareness of the company.