Qualify your company in the media, with clients and prospects with White Paper IQ, Market IQ's white paper survey, white paper research and white paper writing service.
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Planning, Structure & Purpose
An effective white paper must support specific marketing and sales initiatives. A properly structured and planned marketing or technical white paper can be an effective way to provide the various participants in the sales process with the information they need to make an informed decision about a new purchase, especially when faced with complex business choices.Potential customers require more than just a brochure that simply pitches a company, its products features and benefits.
Objective & Useful
A well-written marketing or technical white paper (or series of effective white papers) should provide objective, useful information that qualifies the issuing company as an authority and will create goodwill and confidence in potential and existing clients, influencing buying decisions.
Select the Right Subject Matter
White papers must address the real concerns and issues facing potential and existing clients. White papers written in a corporate marketing vacuum, disconnected from real-world sales contexts will alienate. Select topics that interest, inform, and intrigue sales people and prospective buyers.
White Paper IQ: WIIFM?
What is in it for me? If you are going to ask sales people, the media, potential and existing clients to invest time and energy reading a white paper, there must be information of value within the white paper. The best white papers give readers objective information (survey results, research findings, statistical data, study conclusions, etc.) and are effective at educating and informing readers, particularly during transitional sales stages, when customers are considering and evaluating their purchase options.
Know the reader, create a customer
Address what real customers are thinking, doing, and asking during the sales process. Involve sales teams in the white paper definition and outlining. Experience-based knowledge is crucial to develop a white paper that services the needs of sales staff and customers.
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Clearly Defined
Common white paper types include industry trend overviews, issues analysis, survey results, business implication discussions, strategy discussions, research findings, stats and study conclusions. The aggregating capabilities and power of the Internet has made data collection and number crunching remarkably efficient. Market IQ develops white papers utilizing online surveys and studies. Questions and criteria are clearly defined with the purpose of the survey clearly stated for all participants and stakeholders. It is essential that a white paper serves a purpose and a role in the sales cycle.
Content your mother (or grandmother) can understand
Techno-babble and shop-speak renders a white paper useless. Market IQ writers ensure content is compelling, persuasive and informative, offering sales staff a tool; potential customers a clear understanding of the issue at hand; and media an easily understood hook to hang their story on. Don't ask potential customers to invest time reading a sales pamphlet or technical manual. Give them valuable information and they will give you business.
White Paper IQ: Objectivity
Establish credibility by being objective and by avoiding making unsubstantiated claims. Demonstrate your market knowledge, industry leadership and technical competence in plain language with properly cited third-party sources. Built on a specific Market IQ online survey and then enhanced by casting a wider research net, a Market IQ white paper is a more substantive, objective and powerful sales tool.