Should I Require Registration for Access to My White Paper?

[PaperShark]

This question seems to come up a lot. What do you think?

In the latest WhitePaperSource newsletter. Michael Stelzner said:

[torka]

Yeah, I saw that same Marketing Sherpa article.

On the other hand, if you don't ask for registration, you've lost some potentially important lead generation info, as the newsletter quote points out.

My feeling is somewhat like that expressed in the newsletter article. It depends on the purpose of the white paper. At present, we don't ask for registration at the company where I work, but we probably will at some point in the future, at least for some of the white papers we're planning to write.

In addition to the content "teaser" recommended in the newsletter article, I'd also recommend a couple of the techniques from the Marketing Sherpa case study:

1. Create a special "landing page" on the website just to promote each white paper. Make sure the text on that page isn't "salesy", but rather focuses on how useful and informative the white paper is.

2. Make sure each landing page prominently includes a privacy statement to help reassure people that their information won't be abused.

3. Make the registration as painless as possible by asking for only the minimum amount of information necessary. My experience with marketing folks is that they're going to want to try to gather as much demographic information as possible -- but that's going to "put off" potential registrations. So I beat 'em over the head with a big stick until they tell me what the bare minimum is that they need to know.

And, of course, keep track of your stats to see how many are visiting versus how many are registering and downloading.

--Torka
_________________
Bright Ideas for the Web and Beyond!
http://www.nineyards.com/

[PaperShark]

It is also a good idea to send an automated e-mail response to people that fill out the form to further your branding efforts. Something along the lines of "thanks for your inquiry, we will be sending you the paper shortly. In the mean time [include pitch]."

PaperShark
_________________
PaperShark - Administrator of WhitePaperSource.com

[bob742]

That is a very interesting take on it.

Most peoples experience with sales people is that they call at a time when you don't want to talk to them. It is in the nature of selling that this will be the case. The reason that people don't want to register is because they don't want to be pestered by sales people / emails / whatever calling them when they have no interest.

However when you actually want to buy something you want to talk to a sales person - you will seek him/her out.

If you are semi-serious, or believe that you will want to purchase in the future them I think most people will accept the risk and register. Its somewhere between not wanting to talk to a saleperson and seeking him/her out.

The people who don't register are either neurotic about privacy or never expect to be a buyer and therefore don't ever want to be contacted.

So I think that registration is a good filter.

The corollary is that the more intrusive the detailed the form, the more it filters!

[Gordon Graham]

One question here is "what is a lead?"

Some companeis define prospects using a 4- to 10-part process, where the first step is just dreaming about solving a problem in their business. So depending on where the prospect is, the vendor handles them differently.

Early in the process, making white papers available without registration is fine. Later on, they may be ready to provide their contact information and tolerate a sales call. But not too early! The worst thing a vendor can do is turn over a contact name to the sales force too early. They are likely to turn off the prospect forever.

I feel that too many companies consider everyone who visits their site a "lead." Sometimes I visit sites just to check out their white papers, and then I get calls from their salespeople asking how soon I'm thinking of buying my CRM system. I tell them NEVER!


Gordon Graham
(514) 488-1875
www.gordonandgordon.com

[Stelzner]

Gordon;

Good point on what is a lead. I actually get more than 100 requests for one of my white papers each week. The inflow is so high that I do not ever call any of them. However the information does come in handy when someone might call me or e-mail me out of the blue from a company. I do a quick search and drop a name such as "do you know so and so," and they will often say "yes he referred me to you." By having all of that knowledge stored, it helps the sales process.

Best Regards,

Mike
_________________
Michael A. Stelzner - Publisher
Founder of WhitePaperSource & SocialMediaExaminer.com

email: mike@whitepapersource.com
my book: Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged
blog: Social Media Examiner
twitter: http://twitter.com/Mike_Stelzner

[David @ NetLine]

Perhaps the most important aspect of "gating" access to your document is how you present it to the prospect. Why call it "registration" when in reality it is rarely that?

Keep the form minimal and focus on acquiring the datapoints you truly NEED, and not the nice-to-haves. Your conversions will be higher and your prospects will be happier.
_________________
David Fortino
Vice President of Audience Development
NetLine Corporation
http://www.NetLine.com
http://www.TradePub.com

[nettie hartsock]

I agree with David, great points! Sometimes if the registration part takes longer than reading the white paper, all you've really done is lost a potential client and/or customer.

Nettie
_________________
Nettie Hartsock
www.nettiehartsock.com
http://www.allbusiness.com/blog/ProfessionalPR/2975292/
nettie.hartsock@gmail.com
512-396-1066

[Gordon Graham]

Yes, I completely agree with David.

I have identified "obnoxious registration forms" as one of the Top 10 Deadly Diseases now afflicting white papers. Don't fall victim to it!

Push back against the data dictators, and leave some empty holes in your CRM screen. You can always fill those in later when people have raised their hands to show they are truly interested in your technology.

Here's what I think. Name and email is enough to start. Title and company are nice, but right at the edge of what most busy people feel like providing to you.

City can be useful later, but street address is usually totally irrelevant.

And asking for a telephone number too early in the process just makes people shudder. Who wants to start getting phone calls from a pushy salesperson when all you wanted was to glance over their stinking white paper? Say NO to obnoxious registration forms or you risk turning off prospects forever.


Gordon Graham
www.gordonandgordon.com

[nettie hartsock]

Gordon is right on the mark with the phone number making people shudder. As a journalist I have too many times filled out those forms, even putting in the comment field, "Journalist - please no sales calls" and if they have the number they will still call!!!!

Nettie
_________________
Nettie Hartsock
www.nettiehartsock.com
http://www.allbusiness.com/blog/ProfessionalPR/2975292/
nettie.hartsock@gmail.com
512-396-1066

[anuragiimk]

I have a point here:

I have found a number of interesting white papers hidden behind a registration form. This form at times acts as an enemy at the gates for a search engine spider/ robot.
If my objective for putting a white paper is mainly lead generation, then why should I restrict the possibility of a prospect dropping by my site through a search engine.

A solution could be to have a white paper in the form of an html page, with a small text box asking for a mailID if someone wants to be contacted by a sales representative. Asking address, phone number and mailID at the same time appears very ridiculous to me...after all the objective is to have the contact information not to position someone on GPS.
I would agree to Gordon, when he says that an obnoxious form would just act as threat of turning off your prospects.
_________________
Anurag Gupta

[HJSewell]

Great discussion! Disclaimer: any and all white paper syndication programs we coordinate as an agency are exclusively for lead gen purposes, so this response comes with a healthy dose of bias ...

It is true that a lengthy "obnoxious" form requiring complete contact information, not to mention qualifying questions, defeats the purpose and will likely turn off otherwise qualified prospects. Otherwise, I fail to understand how any company would give access to any white paper without some form of registration -- I guess you disseminate your message more freely that way, but at what cost?

Our reg forms typically require:

* Name, title, company name, e-mail address, and phone number
* Mailing address if and only if the prospect wants the white paper to be mailed to him/her (5-10% choose this option)
* Answers to 2-3 very basic qualifying questions

and yes, we probably lose some people as a result, but this is the very minimum information that most clients want to be able to provide their sales reps for follow-up purposes.
_________________
Howard J. Sewell, President
Spear Marketing Group
"Marketing with a Point"
Web: http://www.spearmarketing.com
Blog: http://www.spearmarketing.com/blog

[mrowton]

I don't think that anyone could argue against the point that viewers in general hate to fill out forms before viewing papers.

Viewers who are forced to fill out a contact form to read a paper are much more likely to be a false-positive in that you think they are a lead, when in fact they simply wanted to read the paper.

Giving a higher priority to viewer/customer needs (i.e. giving them easy access to papers) in my opinion is the best long term strategy. The paper will have more readers, a wider circulation, more free viewers, and fewer false positive leads.

Its a fairly new world in which potential customers are bombarded by ads saying "read such and such white paper for free." They don't expect to have to register. If they do register to read the paper and are not satisfied by the merits of the paper then there is a higher probability that they won't read similar papers.

While papers that don't require registration can be equally without merit, there is a lower chance of the viewer making a choice of not reading similar papers in the future if they are unhappy.

There are a large number of people who don't know that they have to register before reading some white papers. When they do register they usually don't know that they are considered a lead.

The whole process just doesn't seem sustainable.

[Stelzner]

Hi Mitchell;

I have to respectfully disagree with you. Marketing professionals depend heavily on metrics to gauge the success of a campaign. In addition, most white papers are written to generate leads. If there is no way to capture a potential lead then you are fully reliant on the strength of the paper to hold its own and get the phone ringing. I strongly advise lead capturing so you can determine who is reading your white paper and where they are coming from. When done correctly, people do not mind registering. One of my papers gets 50+ registrants each day.

Take a look at this article: http://www.whitepapersource.com/marketing/registration.html

Best Regards, Mike
_________________
Michael A. Stelzner - Publisher
Founder of WhitePaperSource & SocialMediaExaminer.com

email: mike@whitepapersource.com
my book: Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged
blog: Social Media Examiner
twitter: http://twitter.com/Mike_Stelzner

[mrowton]

That's because you have exceptional and trusted papers.

From the link you provided

"white papers that require registration should include the first few pages of unedited content so readers can determine if it is worthwhile to fill out a form to get the entire paper. "

I wouldn't have such a strong stance against this type of lead generation. It’s quite reasonable. However, in my opinion, most white papers aren't syndicated like this.

I think the key phrase is "When done correctly." In general I don't think the big players do this correctly because of the following:

1) They don't provide enough information to allow the reader to determine if they want to fill out a form to view the paper.

2) They don't communicate with the viewer what happens with their personal information. (they do, its just not always obvious)

3) Viewers are unexpectedly called or e-mailed because they read a white paper.

I'm generalizing here and realize that specific examples such as yours don't fit well with my doom and gloom outlook

I would be interested in your opinion on whether or not white paper syndication in general is done correctly. This would include large syndication outlets and vendors marketing papers on their own.