Business-to-business (B2B) whitepapers are now a significant part of any successful B2B marketing strategy. Whitepapers are long-form, research-based valuable content that are focused on educating potential customers and helping businesses position themselves as thought leader in their domain. 

For most B2B companies that are committed to investing their time and resources in creating high-quality and valuable whitepapers, the rewards continue to be highly beneficial.

Whitepapers that are informative and well-designed to capture more visitors to your website and convert them into high-quality leads that will increase business growth.

One of the most significant importance of whitepapers is how they continually prove to be an effective means of generating leads.

According to a survey that was carried out by Demand Gen, 71% of B2B buyers, found that whitepapers are valuable in customer's buying journey.

The reason why it works so well for lead generation is because it usually has valuable information for potential customers in exchange for contact details.

The contact details are obtained when visitors are mandated to fill out a form with their name, email, and other info to access the content.

This information makes up the database of leads that have already shown interest in your solutions as a business.

Once your business is able to publish in-depth whitepapers on topics that are significant to your target audience, you begin to set yourself apart as an authority and thought leader in that domain. Insightful whitepapers will show that your company has a deep understanding of the customer's pain points and demonstrate that you have the right expertise to provide solutions.

Instead of simply praising how your products are the best, prove it by showcasing how knowledgeable you are about the industry, trends, challenges, and opportunities.

Implementing this will naturally build trust and make you credible in the eyes of potential customers. They will see your business as their first point of contact for a reliable source of information before they become your buyers.

Whitepapers not only establish you as a thought leader but also help to increase brand awareness and recognition.

Investing in adequately educating buyers will help them have a better understanding of why they need to choose your company.

The B2B sales cycle is quite complex in nature because it involves a long process of decision-making from multiple stakeholders.

Taking the time to educate these potential buyers are your offerings in very important, to ensure clarity.

Thankfully, whitepapers are the perfect medium to effectively explain and break down complex products, services or technologies.

When you use a long-form format for your whitepapers, you get to give an in-depth analysis of each topic and use different cases to simplify how your solutions can solve the problems of your customers.

Most B2B buyers always go through whitepapers as part of their process of researching and evaluating the solutions a business offers. In fact, according to the Demand Gen Report, whitepapers are the second most impactful content format, influencing B2B purchase decisions.

This is because whitepapers give customers a thorough walkthrough and detailed comparisons with competitors, they also address the buyer's concerns instantly and build a rock-solid case for why your offering is the right choice. 

This content can encourage prospects who are already convinced to make a decision.

After putting in work to create whitepapers, the work doesn't just stop once the initial asset is published. It is important to take absolute advantage of the opportunity to maximise the value. The content of the whitepaper should be broken up and shared across different marketing channels, to the right audience.

An example of this can be sharing snippets of the whitepaper in blog posts or social media updates, data can be converted into interactive tools, and key insights can be used to inform your next webinar. Doing this widens the reach and lifespan of your whitepaper content.

Repurposing content also improves the ROI of the time and resources that were invested in developing quality and insightful whitepapers.

Whitepapers directly support SEO in addition to all the other marketing and sales benefits covered.

Having a good SEO strategy is important for improving a business and optimizing your website to show up at the top of the rank in search engines requires frequent posting of new and high-quality content tailored to your target keywords. Whitepapers happen to check all these boxers.

Because using the long-form format allows you to be detailed about the topic you want to share and allows you to naturally add relevant keywords throughout each section, it helps to boost your website credibility. Whitepapers also attract more backlinks as they get shared, which sends signals to search engines that the content you share is valuable.

While publishing whitepapers can be really beneficial for a business, the process of developing it takes time and strategic planning. However, the investment is always worth it because it pays dividends across all stages of the customer journey, from initial research to final purchase decisions.

B2B companies that adopt whitepapers, can easily attract and convert high-quality leads, demonstrate thought leadership, educate customers, directly influence buying choices, extend content reach, and even improve SEO.

If you have a business that sells complex, high-value B2B solutions, whitepapers should be a major part of your content marketing strategy, because it is essential for successful B2B marketing and sales in today's digital world.

Do you want to learn more about how whitepapers can significantly benefit your business? If yes, contact us today, to use our expertise in developing strategic whitepapers that have been crafted to deliver results.