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Nobody’s ever been bored into reading something.

People love good stories.  After all, it’s part of what makes us human.  And no matter if it’s a technology white paper, a product brief, a speech or a Op-Ed submission to technical journal, readers are people first. They want to be engaged on their terms, not the author’s or the vendor’s.

It’s incumbent upon the content creator to engage the consumer/reader.  No matter how compelling you believe your material is, don’t assume you have a reflexively engaged audience.  It’s not up to the reader to find a way to stay interested.  So, how to do this in an age of short time and shorter attention?

Right from the start, at the concept-stage of your project, it’s fundamental to get inside the head of the individual you envision on the receiving end.  Think about yourself as a reader or a member of an audience. What is it that grasps and holds your attention?  Of course, the subject matter has to be relevant to an issue or problem you might be dealing with at the moment but if what you read is fluff that evaporates before the end of each sentence, or so opaque and dense with jargon that you have to re-read each paragraph, chances are you’ll put it aside.  Even if it’s clearly worded, a tract that reads more like a textbook is unlikely to inspire the calls-to-action envisioned by the author.

By storytelling, we don’t mean anything touchy-feely or non-analytical.  The watchword here is “anecdotal”.  Incorporating real-life vignettes or business anecdotes gives authenticity, immediacy and texture to your content.  The reader can identify with it. We won’t argue that the objectivity of numbers and statistics don’t inject strength into any argument but the objectivity of the numbers weakens them as a communication device.  And make no mistake, you’re trying to communicate — images and ideas and opinions. You need to motivate a prospect.  Reassure a customer or partner. Capture their interest and, ideally, their imagination.  Get them to think in a new ways about familiar things.  And get them to want to read your content when you have something else to tell them.  Your objective is not just to get your content approved for publishing.  It’s to get read.

One of our clients was in a collateral quandary recently. One to which, we’re proud to say we called attention.  In the crush to create killer content about their technology, they had assigned us to generate a relatively generous number of technology white papers.   As we drew closer to preparation, we grew concerned about quality vs. quantity.

Now we are the first to cite the utility (read: value) of white papers, despite some claims that fewer of them are being downloaded these days.  In the I.T. world, the workhorse white paper remains a standby of marketing. Customers expect them and read them (the good ones).  And, admittedly, we welcome the opportunity to show off our chops. In this instance, however, there simply was not enough there to justify and support the volume documents originally called for.  Upon closer scrutiny at our invitation, the functional VP agreed that as impressive and elegant as his products are, a smaller number of more comprehensive documents would suffice.

How does your team decide when and if a white paper is justified?  Are you publishing more of them today or fewer?  Is the volume of downloads greater, smaller or about the same as a year or two ago?  How does this compare to competitors?  What’s the process you use to determine white-paper ROI?