Social White Papers B2Lead.com Introduction The purpose of this document is to introduce you to a new way to place white papers at the center of social marketing programs for lead generation using the new concept of the Social White Paper Platform. The document will show you how you can generate more high quality leads per paper at a lower cost per lead than any previous methods. White Paper Marketing “We have a problem” Did you know that in 2010 approximately 11 million white papers will be delivered for Business-To-Business (B2B) lead generation? While the topics are as diverse as the B2B landscape itself, they all have one thing in common. Virtually all white papers are delivered the same way as they were 15 years ago—as part of transactional campaigns delivered online as a flat PDF file. B2B marketers face a new challenge to adapt an aging, but still effective marketing program to the new realities of social content marketing and how buyers do product research (“Customer 2.0”): • Buyers are now in charge of the process and expect to do their own research. • It’s becoming increasingly difficult to ‘push’ messages out to buyers and let your sales team try to control the process. • Standalone PDFs can’t take full advantage of social sharing and discovery methods B2B buyers have come to rely on when sourcing projects. Today, by the time you get a lead from traditional channels, odds are the buyer is already ahead of your sales team in the scope of their research and knowledge and have already selected their ‘short list’ of potential vendors. A 2009 study by Forbes and Google shows how important it is to be discovered early: • 64% of C-level executives conduct six or more searches per day to locate business information
