White papers are a favorite form of subject-matter expertise content for B2B marketers who use content offers for lead generation. Still, relatively few marketers re-purpose a white paper into a variety of content assets to maximize lead generation results.

5 Truths of White Papers as a Marketing Tool

Truth #1: Most people don’t have the time or attention span to read an entire 20-page white paper from start to finish anymore.

Truth #2: Most white papers are about multiple topics, answer multiple questions, and sometimes even speak to multiple audiences in a single document.

Truth #3: Despite better search indexing of PDF documents, most of the subject-matter expertise locked inside white papers still isn’t easy to find via search engines.

Truth #4: A quality white paper is very expensive to produce when all of the thinking, researching, writing, editing, layout, design, and production costs are factored in.

Truth #5: The potential ROI of the knowledge inside a white paper is never fully realized if the knowledge is not leveraged in other ways.

Turn one white paper into multiple content assets

A well-written white paper is a great cornerstone content asset of a marketing program. It contains tons of rich subject-matter expertise that helps the reader solve a problem or make a decision.  In most cases, it will include knowledge that touches on a number of related topics in a fair amount of detail.

Those topics can—and indeed SHOULD—be extracted from the white paper and turned into shorter, more focused, more easily consumable content assets that complement the white paper.  Content re-purposing is a skill that requires an eye for discreet topics in a larger body of content, and the ability to re-write each of those topical sections into a tone and format different from, but related to, the original white paper.

Leveraging re-purposed content assets for lead generation

When developing re-purposed assets, strive to use the language and voice of a prospective customer. That means titling, tagging, and articulating key concepts using language that describes the problem or opportunity more so than the solution or benefit. Also think about formats that will perform well in natural search results, and string together multiple assets that deliver incremental levels of detail and insight as the reader moves from one to the next. When you draft and produce the content, be sure to include cross-links to the related content assets that suggest content consumption pathways for the reader.

Here is a diagram illustrating a recent client exercise where we re-purposed a single white paper into 8 additional content assets; 4 online resource pages to appear in their website resource center, and 4 associated 1-pager downloadable articles that are gated with short lead capture forms. The white paper itself is also gated with a short lead capture form.

By creating content pathways between related assets of increasing detail and insight, not only do we create multiple lead generation opportunities, but also some implicit lead qualification based on depth of content engagement; leads who read more content assets have a higher likelihood of being qualified leads.

While Sherry Shi and I were presenting the Pitney Bowes Ecommerce Solutions case study at Pardot Elevate 2011 earlier this week, a question was asked by an audience member about the Pardot Campaign Report Summary. The audience member was asking whether the counts of Visitors and Prospects for each campaign included the same individual more than once, or if it was only a count of the first Campaign that a Visitor or Prospect interacted with.

My answer to the question was incorrect. I explained that the numbers for each campaign line included all Visitors or Prospects who interacted with that campaign, even if they were already a tracked Visitor or Prospect in the Pardot database.

The correct answer is that both Visitors and Prospects are tagged by Pardot with the first campaign they interact with, and are only counted once in the Campaign Report Summary. There is no double-counting of Visitors nor Prospects across multiple campaigns in the Campaign Report Summary.

You will, however, see a list of all Prospects who successfully submitted a Landing Page or Form on that asset’s detail page in Pardot (Marketing > Landing Pages or Marketing > Forms). The list of Prospects on that detail page includes all who successfully completed the Landing Page or form, even if their associated First Campaign is something else.

Sorry for any confusion I caused during the session, and please feel free to comment below or email me if you have any additional questions.

Slides from today’s presentation at Elevate #Pardot2011

For More Information

How to Use Knowledge Marketing to Create B2B Customers: Free BrainRider eBook
B2B Marketing Content: How to plan website, sales collateral, email, blog, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other marketing copy for my business
SEO for B2B Marketing: Tips on how to improve your findability and reach more customers

Attaching tags to each content asset, article or post does very little for the SEO (search engine optimization) of any singular article on a B2B blog or website. Used properly, however, content tagging makes your blog or website much better.

When implemented as a tertiary level navigation alternative, content tags can generate high-relevance, well-optimized landing pages of aggregated content.  Tags in most content management systems (CMS) are also a great way to manage content syndication. Read more »

If you’re a B2B marketer in the Greater Toronto Area, you’re the target audience for a new ongoing live event series that we recently kicked off in September with our first #torontoB2B Marketers Meetup at the sleek, modern, funky ING Direct Cafe in downtown Toronto. Each event is small and cozy with attendance limited to 50 people, so keep an eye on the upcoming schedule and register for free online to secure your ticket. The next #torontoB2B Marketers Meetup happens Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 4pm.

The mission of the event series is simply to unite the thousands of Toronto-area B2B marketers in a casual, face-to-face setting where we can share knowledge, expertise, and learning with one another. B2B Marketing is ripe with innovation, change, and growth these days. Even still, many marketing industry events and conferences pay little or no attention to what’s working in B2B marketing and what’s not.

This is the an ongoing series of peer networking and knowledge-sharing meetups exclusively for B2B marketers. The events begin with hand-picked guest speakers sharing their B2B-focused expertise and experience in focused 20-minute presentations, followed by an open and informal networking session fueled by light munchies and beverages.

Here’s a video of one of our presenters, Axle Davids from Distility, from his 20 minute presentation at the first #torontoB2B Marketers Meetup in September.

Exploration & Commitment: The Essence of Building and Living the Brand

If you have an idea for a guest speaker at an upcoming event, or would like to sponsor an event, please email Nolin LeChasseur.