Questionable Downloadables

To follow up on my last post about content marketing strategy…

I was inspired by a recent Network World article by Mark Gibbs: Dear Vendor…

This is a scathing condemnation of the tired, uninspired marketing content that software and technology companies regularly churn out and aim at overworked, over pressured IT workers. Mark is absolutely on the point as he zeroes on the prevalent misuses of marketing content such the whitepaper, analyst report and sponsored reviews by software marketers. These documents, purportedly meant to educate and inform the prospects, are actually tailored solely for selling or hyping the technology.

In this post, i just want to single out the downloadable content that are being used solely as baits for lead harvesting.

As part of my job at OpenView, an expansion stage venture capital fund, I am constantly checking out new software technologies and vendors. Many a times, I come upon a website with attractive design, bright, captivating typeface and headers that promise nothing short of groundbreaking, market leading innovation. Naturally, I would want to know more about the company and its product. I then have to climb over the onerous gate that is the ubiquitous lead information form (quoting Andrew Davis at TippingPoint Labs: people love Salesforce.com too much), and even after that, have to sometimes wait for the document to be emailed to me at a later time.

Assuming that I finally get my hand on that prize, what does it really do for me? Most whitepapers, as they are now, do not really bring a lot of value to anyone. This is true! Let’s just round up the possible beneficiaries:

•  A potential prospect looking for possible solutions: a whitepaper usually discusses a particular technical problem that the vendor solves. However, as it is meant to be a general purpose marketing tool, it lacks the depth and technicality that would make it really useful for a really tech user.
•  A prospect looking to compare and contrasts different solutions: a whitepaper is not going to be useful, because most vendors will mainly focus on portraying their approach.
•  A technical expert, a technology blogger or a journalist looking for information or leads for possible articles: Again, the whitepaper is mostly semi-old content that does not help with anything.
•  Any other person who might be interested in the whitepaper: If anyone wants to know more about a particular technology, they would know many other websites where the information is free, readily searchable and balanced.

As for myself, I usually fall into the first or the last category, and my experience is that the whitepapers most do not say anything valuable for me.

Marketers, it’s time to step up and make better use of your content.

•  First, let them go free
•  Second, give them a real purpose in life.
•  Third, be prepared to go with the flow, which is something I will discuss in the next post..

Until the next time!