CUSTOMER ADVOCACY POWERED DATASHEETS AND WHITEPAPERS?
Datasheets and whitepapers are two of the most powerful tools in the marketing toolkit. They talk about business problems from a persona’s perspective, position brands as thought leaders, attract the right audience, and engage that audience in problem solving conversations.
These marketing assets are often the combo that moves buyers from challenge awareness to product consideration and then to decision making by
- first arguing that one technology is superior to others for solving the business problem
- and then introducing the proposed solution and its strengths.
Whitepapers are thought leadership pieces that marketers create to educate their audiences about a new technology, a particular issue, or a notable methodology. Whitepapers target large audiences, putting prospects at the top of your funnel and may also present research to give context and support the argument. Including hard facts will gently nudge potential clients towards the consideration phase where they can be nurtured with product datasheets showcasing product use cases, performance metrics and features.
Sprinkling whitepapers with customer testimonials of how they discovered a challenge, how they decided to trust data, or even how they felt in early stages of acknowledging a problem, can help your audience identify faster with the proposed issues and invest more emotion in solving it. There’s no need for product awareness at this point.
But as you nurture your prospects down the funnel and start feeding them datasheets and product information, testimonials will come in handy again. This time you should include quotes that mention specific products or use cases that contain numbers and competitor comparisons. User reviews and ratings are also very useful. Including a snap of overall rating captures attention and leave a good first impression. Then you can expand on it by adding links to specialized review sites, customer communities and forums to promote your invention, product or service with customer advocacy.
