While the volume of white papers produced by B2B marketers seems to increase each year, the quality of most of these papers fails to inspire the reader to act. On this blog, I emphasize the importance of clear and inspiring design as a major factor in the success of a white paper.

However, while design is extremely important in you B2B marketing efforts, design alone will not generate leads for your business. As I indicated in a recent post, great design starts with great content, and creating a beautiful white paper with terrible content is a lot like putting a new paint job on a car with no engine.

In a recent article, Robert Buday, Tim Parker and Rob Leavitt of The Bloom Group discussed the importance of and a method for developing a compelling point of view for your white papers. Therein they offer a trenchant analysis of current white paper trends–like the fact that only 7% of IT buyers definitively see white papers as trustworthy–and a discussion of the imoprtance of developing solid content.

They then give a 5-step method for developing compelling points of view:

• Develop the initial argument
• Gather the evidence
• Analyze and synthesize
• Create frameworks
• Craft and refine the outline

The article is in-depth and thorough, and is a must-read for anyone responsible for developing custom marketing content for any purpose, whether for white papers, website, brochures, or anything else. I look forward to the second installment of this two-part series.