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Last week as I was trawling through my regular listening posts, I started to see mentions of a recent report published about the use of B2B marketing collateral in technology decision making. I spent nearly 20 years in the IT industry, as a developer and in direct sales, so that sort of thing interests me. Having been both a buyer and a seller of software, I was curious to know which role found more value in marketing collateral. My real surprise was the findings of the survey had more to do with my current job, copywriting, than anything I’d done before.

Case Studies are a Hit
Let me back up a bit. In any industry there are thought leaders. The incomparable Casey Hibbard is one of those people. She literally wrote the book on case studies. In Casey’s blog post of 6 October, she cited the report as saying that buyers of technology liked case studies and used them in making purchasing decisions.

White Papers Deliver the Most Impact
Another thought leader I follow is Jonathan Kantor from The Appum Group. His blog is aptly named The White Paper Pundit. Like Casey, he has a worldwide reputation and is extremely generous with his information. Jonathan blogged about the same report back in September. His comments related to the important impact white papers have in the technology sales cycle.

Content is a Good Thing
I decided it was time for me to read the report. Titled Eccolo Media 2009 B2B Technology Collateral Survey Report, I doubt too many people outside the B2B marketing industry are going to be interested. I expected to read about case studies and white papers, but what struck me most was just how influential original content of any kind was ranked. In short:

1) Not surprising for the industry that invented them, white papers were still very influential with over 84% of respondents.

2) Almost half (49%) of the respondents had viewed a video in the last 6 months.

3) People share content with each other:

• White papers 89%
• Case studies 85%
• Brochures/data sheets 81%
• Podcasts 80%
• Video 79%

4) People prefer digital copies of their content (80%). Plenty of people like printed copies, as well.

5) Good writing was important to both decision makers and influencers. The report states:

Even though respondents of all kinds said they preferred to have collateral – particularly white papers – written by a third-party, good writing from a vendor trumped mediocre writing from an objective source. (Yay!)

6) Content opens doors. A significant majority used content in pre-sales stages before engaging with suppliers.

The Take-Away
Business has to be developing original content. The content needs to be professionally written and must be available online and in print. The reward for this effort is that people pass your content around and make purchasing decisions based on information they can find themselves.

Content Marketing Presentation
I can’t tell you how happy I am about this report. In November I’m speaking at the Perth Business Expo on the subject of Content Marketing. I’m giving a free seminar titled Educating the Customer: Why Content Marketing is the New Trend. Come along and hear how changing consumer habits are requiring businesses to rethink their marketing strategies. Your new secret weapon to nurturing leads just might be your local copywriter.