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White Paper Registration A Big Objection
By Michael Stelzner
Expert Author
Article Date: 2007-07-19
A common debate in the marketing world is whether to require white paper registration or just allow a direct click through to your PDF file.
MarketingSherpa just released an interesting new finding.
They asked people who shy away from white papers, why?
According to this study (see page 5), 71% of people who avoid white papers do NOT like the fact that they must register to get a white paper.
MarketingSherpa's Anne Holland, had this to say: In other words, if you want your white paper to go viral, so people are handing it off to other people, which we know they do once they get them in their hands, if it's an interesting enough paper - you have to loosen the strings early on and get rid of those barriers.
Just set the white paper free and let it go and find its home and find its way across the committee.
Now, Redhat has actually been testing this for two or three years now, and we did a Case Study on them and how they did that, and they said it was very successful, that they were getting an exponential increase in the number of white paper downloads for certain white papers, and then, of course, they just had a call to action at the end of the white paper. If you read it and you were interested in them, then, "Hey, here's how you get in touch with us."
I want to know your thoughts on this? Let's hear from marketing folks as well.
Comments
About the Author:
Visit http://www.writingwhitepapers.com/blog/ for extensive resources on crafting compelling white papers and applying creative marketing tactics.
Michael A. Stelzner is the author of the new book Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged and has written nearly 100 white papers for companies such as Microsoft, FedEx, Motorola, Monster and SAP.
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