By Jonathan Kantor
When making purchasing decisions, low price is sometimes a viable choice, but there are arenas where it is decidedly not, especially when it comes to services that affect your company image.
For example, your company’s website is an area where most decision makers understand that you get what you pay for and that professional design, content flow and well-written text play an important role in perception, brand recognition, reputation, image and bottom line results.
The same is true for white papers.
Unfortunately it seems that more and more companies are choosing the lowest price in deciding which white paper writer to engage. Why would a business that would never bat an eyelash paying for a high-quality website, choose the low price provider for a white paper? The answer lies with some flawed perceptions:
- Decisions based on price wrongly assume that all white paper writers have the same level of industry and writing experience. The truth is cheaper writers almost always have less specialization and industry familiarity. Their inexperience often means that internal subject matter experts or project managers will have to spend more time explaining critical business terms and concepts. It usually also translates into more edits and revisions, ultimately extending completion and publication dates. And as the old adage goes - time is money. In this case, added time can easily wipe out any cost savings assumed to be gained in choosing the less qualified writer.
- There’s a reason more sophisticated, skilled and experienced white paper writers charge more: They do a better job. A well-produced white paper will convey not just the needed information in an accessible and easy-to-understand style, but will do so in a way that showcases how well the company understands its customers’ needs and how well the product or service addresses those needs. The perception, image, information and expertise conveyed as a result are invaluable to a business.
- A good white paper will also generate “buzz.” An interested customer will tell ten others; a bored or unimpressed customer will toss a substandard white paper in the trash. A poorly written white paper will etch a lack of professionalism and leadership in the prospects’ mind that will be difficult (and costly) to overcome later on.
- If a white paper is viewed as a commodity item, it will be treated as such, relegated to some obscure section of a website in the hopes that someone might download and read it. On the other hand, white papers that are viewed as strategic sales tools will often be printed, used as handouts in sales presentations or meetings, made an important part of a direct mail campaign or featured as an offer in a solution-oriented advertisement.
Companies that view white papers as crucial sales tools, tend to focus more on the white paper writers’ experience than on price, just as they would in hiring a web designer, an advertising agency or professional copywriter. These organizations know that a well-written and well-designed white paper can act like a remote, stand-alone sales agent, selling the business’s most important strategic messages and industry leadership qualities and expertly conveying how the company stands apart from the competition in understanding and solving its customers’ problems. Superior white papers increase the possibility of generating highly qualified leads and increasing the number of phone inquiries, email responses or website visits.
The real issue here has a lot to do with what our fathers used to tell us about doing things right: You get back what you put in. Cheap things often produce poor results, which is why they require more frequent repairs and have the poorest customer service - and why the best white papers generate the best results.
The bottom line is that a well-produced white paper will yield a pretty fast payback because it will generate interest and sales leads. And in most cases, the price difference between a top-of-the-line writer and a less effective writer is insignificant compared to the company’s overall marketing budget.
So, the question to ask before choosing your next white paper writer is simply this: What is the impact to company image, brand, perception and future sales in choosing the inexpensive route - and is the price difference really worth the risk?
About the Author: Jonathan Kantor is the President and Founder of the Appum Group (http://www.whitepapercompany.com) a firm dedicated to technical marketing for small, medium and enterprise businesses.
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