Are Whitepapers Dead?
If you ask Lauren Carlson of Marketing Automation Software Guide,, the answer is clear in her article No One Wants to Read Your Whitepaper, Let's Hope They Recycle It.
The days of the Whitepaper have changed. Twice it seems. And a third time could be a charm for both writer and reader.
I had the opportunity to ask Lauren a few questions to help us understand the future of whitepapers and their possible replacements:
Q: In your piece, you point to PDFs, ebooks, and microsites as potential replacements for whitepapers of old. As content management tools continue to get easier, is this one reason whitepapers are becoming passe (quick-attention spans being another)? /div>
A: I think that content management tools make it easier to manage your content in multiple mediums. However, I think the attention span has a lot to do with the whitepaper's waning popularity. A good whitepaper – one that provides valuable information or is educational in nature – can be very helpful further on down the decision-making process. However, the early-stage buyer is not interested in digesting a dense sales pitch. They want a simplified version that can give them an overall idea. Save the dense material for later.Q: Can you give us an easy definition of "microsite" with possibly a few examples of good ones?
A: A microsite is typically a page or cluster of pages that act as a supplement to a primary website. They are usually focused on one topic, product, area of interest, etc. Our company, Software Advice runs several microsites. Some examples include:Q: Whitepapers may have gotten too "salesy" because business people were offering "free" whitepapers to build an email list. Is there an acceptable length and maybe a better term than "white paper" to use in offering such an exchange (info for email)?
A: I would say that it's not so much about the length, but the formatting. So many whitepapers look like essays. A person opens it and, even if they are interested in learning more about the topic, they will tune out. Formatting the whitepaper with a user-friendly UI, incorporating interactive elements such as embedded videos, polls, etc. – these make the content more appealing to the reader. However, the addition of these elements make it more of an eBook than a whitepaper.
If you'd like to follow more of Lauren's thinking and linking:
- Her Site: http://www.marketingautomationsoftware.com/
- via LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/laurencarlson
- On Twitter: http://twitter.com/crmadvice
