At the close of this decade, many marketers have offered their predictions of marketing’s future in 2o10, and the white paper space is no different.

Jonathan Kantor, veteran white paper crafter and principal and founder of The Appum Group, recently published his White Paper Predictions for 2010. His 5 predictions are all quite accurate, but his first 2 are of interest to me:

1. Design will become a competitive differentiator
2. All-text white papers will continue to bring diminishing returns

As I’ve mentioned on this blog before, the effectiveness of your white paper is intrinsically linked to the effectiveness of the white paper’s design. This may seem like common sense, but research has shown that design affects the influence of your white paper.

So as we enter 2010, in an era of shorter attention spans and higher expectations, B2B marketing leaders must ensure that design is central to the white paper development process. Doing so will facilitate the exchange of information between your company and your target audience and boost white paper effectiveness and ROI.