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How To

Measure The

ROI of Your

White Papers

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Who We Are

JD Peterson, Scripted.com

SVP of Marketing

jd@scripted.com mike@doxiq.com

Michael Feng, DoxIQ

Co-founder

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Who is Scripted?

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What is a White Paper?

A whitepaper is a persuasive, authoritative, in-depth report

on a specific topic that presents a problem and provides a

solution

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• Typically 3-10 pages• Not a pure product

pitch• Deeper than a blog

post or article• The best have a lot of

words along with corresponding graphics, charts, etc.

• May or may not be “gated” with a form

What is a White Paper?

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Content Marketing

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Content Market ing Goals

Content Goals

Brand Awareness

Customer Acquisition

Customer Retention

Education & Engagement

B2B B2C

Brand Awareness

Lead Generation

Customer Conversion

Thought Leadership

Education & Engagement

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Where White Papers F i t

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What’s doxIQ?

The modern document presentation layer, optimized for marketing

• Convert PDFs to a native document experience, in the browser

• Capture leads on un-gated content

• Collect valuable data on each view

• Plug in real-time chat, sharing, & analytics into your documents

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1. Are white papers still relevant today?

2. Do people actually read white papers?

3. To gate or not to gate?

4. How do I know if it’s working?

Some Burning Questions

S CRI P TE D. COMSource: 2013 B2B Content Preferences Survey, Demand Gen Report.

1. Are white papers still relevant today?

S CRI P TE D. COMSource: 2013 B2B Content Preferences Survey, Demand Gen Report.

I share the following content types with my colleagues:

“When we asked respondents what type of content they share, the results were a bit surprising. B2B buyers were most likely to say they frequently share white

papers”

1. Are white papers still relevant today?

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AMMUNITIONASSET AUTHORITY

Leads more likely to submit info

Champions use them in board meetings

1. Are white papers still relevant today?

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Complex, lengthy sales process

Education and nurturing required

Multiple decision makers

Traditional buyer base

OPTIMAL CUSTOMER CHARACTERISTICS FOR WHITE PAPER MARKETING

1. Are white papers still relevant today?

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How much of my precious time and money should I devote to writing these things?

2. Do people actually read white papers?

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106kUNIQUE VIEWERS

900DOCUMENTS

1 yearTOTAL TIME SPENT

Our dataset after 5 months of private beta…

2. Do people actually read white papers?

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0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10+

PER

CEN

T W

HO

REA

D T

HIS

PA

GE

PAGE NUMBER

View depth probability

Many viewers depart immediately…

2. Do people actually read white papers?

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0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0

80.0

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10+

AV

ERA

GE

SEC

ON

DS

SPEN

T

PAGE NUMBER

Average seconds spent per page

…but not much dropoff after page 3!

2. Do people actually read white papers?

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2 TYPES OF WHITE PAPER VIEWERS

PerusersGlancers

2. Do people actually read white papers?

high ROIlow ROI

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LeadsEyeballs

GATEDUN-GATED

“The analysis I have done around form versus no form has suggested that there is a 50:1 ratio whether people will download or not.”

– David Scott Meerman

Source: ”Should Your Content Be Behind Forms? [Debate],” HubSpot. http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/8499/Should-Your-Content-Be-Behind-Forms-Debate.aspx

“Most marketers have goals in terms of the number of leads they need to generate and you are responsible to your boss.”

- Mike Volpe

3. To gate or not to gate?

TENSION

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A GoldiLocks solution?

First page Last page

http://resources.instartlogic.com/d/WKhvs/Case-Study-Dollar-Shave-Club-Instart-Logic

3. To gate or not to gate?

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FORMLANDING PAGE

• Bounce rate

• Download rate

• Share rate

EMAIL CAMPAIGN

• Click rate

• Forward rate

4. How do I know if it’s working?

Aggregate, high-level metrics

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What happens after the click?

4. How do I know if it’s working?

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More shares may indicate higher interest within company

Person-level metrics

Overall Engagement Score

Time spent actually reading

4. How do I know if it’s working?

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A Framework to Calculate White Paper ROI

4. How do I know if it’s working?

1. Capture person-level engagement metrics with doxIQ

1. Prioritize sales calls to the highly engaged leads

1. A/B test vis-à-vis random sampling

2. Compare conversion rates

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Common Fears

• Will people really read it?

• Unsure how to measure!

• Too expensive!• Too hard to write!• Not enough time

and/or resources!

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5 Simple Questions

• Is anybody reading it?• Consumption stats: views, downloads

• Is it helpful?• Customer feedback, media & influencer coverage

• What do people do after they read it?• Multiple reads per visit, return visits, conversion events

• Are people sharing and/or discussing it?• Social engagement, media & influencer

• Which content is resonating most with buyers?• Content scoring -> analyze which content is most consumed by your MQL’s

or Wins?

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Smal l Team, B ig Content

Team

• Content Manager

Volume

• 35+ pieces of content

published per month

Content

• Blog Posts

• Articles

• White Papers

• Slideshares

• Webinars

Content Creation

Scripted Writers

In-House20%

80%

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Thank You!

Time for

Q & A

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