When white papers were primarily selling tools and “leave behinds,” the title didn’t count for much. Now that they’re mostly lead generation devices, the right white paper title can mean a lot. If a prospect is browsing through the white paper library on your favorite IT site, a compelling title can mean the difference between a sales leads for you or one for your nearest competitor.
I wrote about white paper titles back in 2004, but here’s something I didn’t know: apparently even the first letter makes a difference. A VP of Sales for a media company recently confessed to me that, on his site, white paper titles starting with the letter “A” generate slightly higher download rates because they appear at the top of category and search listings. (His company doesn’t publicize the fact because – heck – everyone would start naming their white papers the same way.) Now, maybe this phenomenon is specific to one particular site, but something tells me it probably works well elsewhere.
“AA+ Ideas for Network Security,” anyone?
For a copy of our free white paper: “10 Tough Questions to Ask Your White Paper Syndication Vendor,” click here.