Is proofreading important? Have you noticed the dramatic increase in the number of typos and other mistakes in materials produced by companies and organizations? I suspect it results from three factors: emphasizing haste over quality, relying on software spellcheckers, and unfamiliarity with spelling and language. Granted, the mistake someone at your company makes may not … Read more
The COVID-19 crisis led many B2B marketers to rethink how they reach out to prospects and customers. Stepping up your online presence may be a wise move, but only if you avoid some common mistakes. Whether you choose to beef up your website, expand blogging, introduce email marketing, host webinars, or take a stronger stab … Read more
White paper case studies can be one of the most effective ways to promote your company and its products or services. In simple terms, a case study is a document that tells readers what you did for someone, how you did it, why you did it that way, and what the results were. White paper … Read more
“I hate writing!” Perhaps that should be music to my ears because it ensures a steady stream of work, but it saddens me. Many people dislike (or even fear) writing and are intimidated by knitting words into sentences and sentences into paragraphs. Nearly everyone needs to write now and again. Being able to assemble words … Read more
Mentioning competitors in your white paper Your white paper may serve any number of purposes, from explaining a new technology, to presenting the advantages of a particular strategy, to educating your stakeholders about an issue that should be important to them. Often, however, the purpose of the white paper is to contrast the products or … Read more
The landscaping contractor had a nice-looking pickup truck and well-kept trailer. He had invested some money in an attractive door sign. But a little detail probably cost him more business than he ever realized. Squarely in the middle of his front bumper was a license plate displaying the Confederate flag. (Before Civil War buffs jump … Read more
You can communicate too much You and your team have worked for several weeks to develop your white paper detailing the improvements to your product line. When you turned it over to your graphic designer, she reported that your white paper would be at least 24 pages long — and probably even longer than that. … Read more
You messed up. You handled something the wrong way. Could be you just failed to handle it when you should have. So what are you going to do about it? Are you a big company? Then you’re probably going to mess up even more. Sure, you’ll spit out some kind of public apology, but it … Read more
One of the most common purposes for white papers is to educate key audiences such as customers and prospects. But there’s another audience for which white papers are just as effective at educating. That audience is internal staff. White papers to educate internally Most people think of white papers as external marketing documents and they … Read more
What many call “fight or flight” is a quick way to describe the brain’s innate responses to stimuli. It might come as a surprise that it also offers some valuable advice related to websites and other marketing communications materials. Humans like to think we’re rational animals who don’t give in to automatic judgments about people … Read more