How Are You Measuring Your White Paper Reader?
So how do you measure the effectiveness of your white paper?
By re-directing that reader to a unique online location that could have only come from the white paper. Some ideas in this area include:
1. A Unique Landing Page, that says something to the effect of: "So now that you've read our white paper, here's some additional information you may be interested in." Your landing page should also include a thumbnail of the same white paper (as a reminder and placeholder) and a counter to measure the number of unique views.
2. A Unique Offer, such as an additional report, a free give-away, or a coupon for a complimentary service that is only available to white paper readers.
3. A Unique Toll-Free Phone Number, that directs the reader to a specially designated contact.
If any of these three things occur, that person is entered into the CRM system which is flagged in the event that the contact ends up making a purchase. This eventually ties the white paper to the sale, providing a direct ROI measurement. If you have several white papers, you create a unique redirect location for each one.
Seems to be a ‘no-brainer' no? So why aren't more B2B marketers doing this?
The problem is that most marketers view white papers like every other passive deliverable (read brochure) and don't see the larger role they play in lead generation and sales development. Most think all that is needed is to publish the white paper, and put it out on their website in the hope that it will result in a lead and a sale. Without some form of measurement, it is impossible to tie the reader to an eventual sale.
White papers influence decision makers more than any other deliverable and as a result, lend themselves much better to enabling some form of online measurement strategy.
