It was great fun to attend Michael Stelzner’s White Paper Summit last month, where about 300 students learned from industry greats how to write and market white papers. It was so inspiring, in fact, that several of us banded together to create our own blog on the subject of white papers, White Paper Insider, and my first post on this blog centered around the subject of B2C—an area that several of our instructors noted did not fit as well as the traditional B2B market for using white papers. You can see my blog post here: White Papers Not for B2C? I Disagree!

I had to pull chains a little bit, and point out some B2C areas where I could see a good potential for white paper use. My post was answered by Jonathan Kantor, one of the Summit’s wonderful instructors. His expertise in the field is legendary. Over his 25 years of business experience in the B2B sector, Jonathan has a bird’s-eye view of the trends in the industry—and he’s right to say that historically, white papers have not enjoyed as lucrative a home in the B2C marketplace as they have in B2B.

He took it a step further in his reply to my post (which you can view here), where he said that the reason for the scarcity of white papers in the consumer trades is the lack of attention that the average consumer gives to reading these days. He cited a 2006 study conducted by InfoPlease.com on reading habits of adults, which indicated that those in the 25-44 age range only read 9-12 minutes a day—a statistic that would make it difficult to convince B2C marketers of the benefits of using white papers as a marketing tool. 

However, the same study stated that adults in the baby-boomer age range spent 30-50 minutes reading per weekday, and up to an hour on weekends.  What does that tell you?

I would argue that baby boomers (who represent 30% of the US population and spend $2 Trillion annually) are more likely to respond to white papers in the consumer market than those survey respondents who read less—but are they seeing white papers now?

Here are three samples I found just by Googling “Free Special Report” this morning, in the first two pages of results:

These three happen to be from the health industry—two of which market pharmaceuticals to consumers—a big trend in the Baby Boomer market today.

Notice these are not called “white papers,” but they serve the same purpose. They just lurk in the marketing mix under other names.

As another of our Summit instructors, Bob Bly, noted in his talk on white papers, the consumer market calls them guides, special reports, tip sheets and the like. The term “white paper” is used more in the technical B2B field that understands them as such, but special reports or guides serve the same function, even if they don’t look the same.

Ok, so you won’t see special reports floating around on the latest fashion style, dish soap or dog food, but marketers of insurance, financial and health services (anything that’s a bit more complex, expensive or controversial) will always need to find ways to inform their prospects so they can stand out in an increasingly crowded marketplace, and white papers fit the bill nicely.

After all, people are people whether they occupy the B2B or B2C space. They all have needs and desires, and they all have problems to solve. If a person needs to ponder the benefits of choosing this or that product for a variety of reasons, I think there’s a window.

Time will tell whether this niche becomes as lucrative as it is for B2B, but you can bet I’ll be singing white paper praises to my clients in the B2C Alternative Health market, where I see a huge potential.  

And my hat is off to the great collection of white paper experts, Jonathan Kantor, Michael Stelzner, Bob Bly, Gordon Graham, Steve Slaunwhite, Roger Parker and Peter Bowerman who inspired me and over a dozen other Summit attendees to take the leap and pool our efforts to make better use of white papers in our various industries. Thanks guys! We hope you'll be regular contributors to White Paper Insider!