Prospects are hungry for information. White papers have been used to feed these prospects, and marketers have found that white papers are a very valuable tool to get information in front of their buyers. Today, white papers are also becoming an important tool used in successful video marketing.

The questions to ask about video white papers are what and when. What information is typically produced and when should that information be provided to prospects?

The information produced in a white paper is typically technical information or information about business problems or use cases. Generally, white papers are made available in the buyers search process before they engage with a sales rep. Buyers in this stage are out on websites downloading white papers as they establish their criteria for solving their problem. This is really the beginning of the journey with prospects and that’s why it is so important for many marketers to use white papers.

The common medium for white papers has been PDFs and although they have been effectively used in the past, there are a few key drawbacks. The first is a content issue. Marketing needs access to domain knowledge in order to create a white paper. The time involved in sitting down to write a 5-10 page white paper is extensive and is further complicated by the fact that marketing needs to go outside the department, to a technical person, an executive, or another person with subject matter expertise, for help. That means obtaining their commitment, getting on their calendar, and conducting one or more interviews. Once that is done, there is still time to be spent writing the white paper, putting it in the right voice, etc. So, access to and creation of content is a big challenge with a PDF-based white paper.

The second problem is one of accountability. You may always be able to tell that a prospect has downloaded a white paper, but it is hard to carry that any further. You won’t necessarily know if it has been consumed, if someone opened it up and read the first two lines or if they read the entire document.

Finally, there is a problem of differentiation. If a prospect has downloaded a white paper from your website, chances are that they’ve also downloaded six PDF white papers from all your major competitors which they may or may not have read.

At Sales Engine International, we believe that video is a highly effective yet underused medium for white papers. Video marketing techniques can give your white papers an edge over traditional PDFs.

First of all, the personality of the organization and the presenter will come through in a video white paper. Rather than reading a static document, the prospect will get a feel for the company and the subject matter expertise within your company by watching your expert talk about a subject in which he or she is highly knowledgeable.

Second, the visual aspect of video marketing is also much better for engagement. You can keep your prospects interest for a much longer time frame with video than with a written document.

Third, video marketing and video white papers clearly create differentiation from the stack of PDFs that are sitting on your prospects desktop. You’ve chosen to present your information in a dynamic video format, and they are doing it in a static PDF — clear differentiation in your product.

Fourth, and very important to marketers everywhere, is measurement. Video marketing presents marketers with greater opportunities to gather intelligence about the consumption of content. By offering a video white paper, you’ll know when it was downloaded, when it was viewed, how much of it was viewed, if it was abandoned and where it was abandoned. And you’ll be able to use those metrics to improve your process and gain a better understanding of your prospects.

Taking a video marketing approach to creating white papers also means it will be easier for you to capture the content you need for your white paper. Your subject matter expert can be prepared in advance by reviewing questions you provide. That also ensures that your expert covers the point you’ve determined to be the most important ones to convey to a prospect. Your expert’s knowledge will be clearly articulated to the prospect and the process of capturing the information will be much easier and more efficient for all involved.

Finally, as with all video marketing content, you can convert the video white paper to a print version, which will allow you to get an SEO lift on your website and give you another medium for presenting your information.

Taking a video marketing approach to presenting your information in a white paper can be very effective.

We are finding that marketing leaders are increasingly excited about outsourcing demand generation for one simple reason: it just takes a myriad of people to pull it off.  A few years ago, we were educating a lot of people on the integrated marketing process, and the “FIND, CONNECT, and ENGAGE” components that we find essential to a successful marketing automation and nurture marketing strategy.

That’s not the case anymore. Today’s marketers get it.  They are very well informed, and they see the challenge and understand the solution.  For marketers, executing on demand generation has become an arms and legs issue.  It’s no longer possible to get to it all, and marketers are now focused on educating their senior management on the limits of their bandwidth.

If you are going to play the integrated marketing game, you really have to play to compete.  Then, you need to meet all these functions and processes.  Database management, messaging, video creation, graphic design, engaging content written by subject matter experts, and HTML production are all essential elements in this new era.

The world of selling has changed dramatically.  Sales reps are accustomed to and want to be able to drive the action on their own, but that is not possible in today’s 2.0 world.  Last month, Cyber Monday sales reached over $6 billion.  The Internet has changed the way buyers, even B2B buyers, shop.  B2B organizations can learn a lot from how some B2C companies have harnessed today’s tools to build relationships with potential buyers and drive a steady volume of traffic to their websites.

I have been in B2B sales for nearly 30 years and the way we started, the way we were measured was: first – on sales success, second – on the number of dials, and third – on face-to-face appointments.

Today, 85 percent of outbound sales calls go to voice mail, never to be returned.  80 percent of buyers are finding the seller on their own, which is completely counterintuitive to the sales professional’s persona.  As a result of failing to adapt to this shift in buyer behavior, half of sales reps are not meeting their sales quotas.

How can a B2B sales leader adapt his game to meet the challenges of the new world of sales?  Take a page from the integrated marketing playbooks of all the B2C merchants who have leveraged it so successfully.

First, FIND your audience.  To do this, you must build a database of ideal prospects so that you can reach out to them, but you also need to make yourself findable to them through search engine optimization and other initiatives that ensure your website is loaded with the right content to attract buyers.

Second, CONNECT with your audience.  Making a connection was easy when all that it required was a warm handshake from a good sales rep.  Today, to connect you have to have a strong array of different digital content to tell your story.  You have to remember that the connection requires this level of human contact when telling your story.  If you can’t get face-to-face as early as you once could, digital messaging is powerful to build that connection.  Buyers are consuming information digitally and filing it away as they make their preliminary and final buying decisions.  Integrated marketing connects your outbound delivery strategy with your audience of suspects and ensures that you have the right process in place to deliver the right piece of content to the right buyer persona.

Third, ENGAGE all your prospects.  Many of them are not ready to buy just because you are ready to sell. You need an integrated marketing plan to stay continuously in touch with them in different manners and different styles.  Keep touching them until they are ready.  Until a trigger event happens that indicates they have decided to enter the market, it is fine to just keep touching them.

Once a trigger event indicates that they are ready to move on to the next step, make sure you have practices in place to keep sales follow-up in alignment with the marketing message.

FIND, CONNECT and ENGAGE is the new normal.  Many, many companies are reaping great success by adjusting their models this way.  Companies that are not are at a competitive disadvantage.  Unfortunately, the old ways are not coming back.  It’s important to change your sales methodology if you want to thrive in the new world.

Interested in learning more about strategies to support the consistent delivery of relevant content? Watch our on-demand webinar on The Top Five Challenges to Delivering Relevant Content.