The ‘Time-Value’ White Paper Lead Generation Conundrum

Updated: April 14, 2011

So what can a solution vendor do to quickly establish the level of value that will generate high quality leads?

They must make every FIRST IMPRESSION count with their prospects! That means the following white paper attributes must achieve a greater significance in quickly establishing a positive ‘value-oriented' first impression with a prospective customer, including:

- The White Paper Landing Page

- The White Paper Cover

- The White Paper Text Abstracts

- The White Paper Summaries (extracted from the featured white paper)

Featuring these "samples" of your white paper enables your prospects to spend a incremental amount of time with your content to better understand your value-oriented solution message. If this is performed in several strategic areas over time, that prospect will gain a better appreciation the value that you bring to the market, which will generate a ‘warmer' lead.

For example, a visually appealing landing page (with a thumbnail of your front cover) combined with a succinct abstract and an ‘ungated' sample of your white paper will go a long way to generating a white paper download for the full white paper that creates in a warmer lead.

Once you can get the full white paper in the hands of your prospect, your opportunity to build on that business relationship will be closer to the kind of business relationship that will generate a sale.

This may not happen overnight. For example a free sample might lead to a white paper, then a newsletter signup, and finally a social media following, etc. Over time, that may move that prospect closer to advancing the business relationship.