I declare the Whitepaper Dead! RIP YAWNERS!

I have blogged in the past about YAWNERS, Yet Another Whitepaper Nobody Ever Reads, and today, I want to go another step further and declare the whitepaper dead!

Why? Simply because we don't need to settle for generic, one size fits all content anymore. Customer have always wanted more, they've always said, "Hey, but what about me?"
Well, the great news is that we can now deliver technical marketing materials that are:

1) Relevant
2) Customized
3) Meaningful

Not only is this great for the customer, it provides our sales-teams with prequalified leads, and the knowledge to engage the prospect in a MUCH more meaningful and successful conversation.

Today, Nimsoft launched a great example with their new Nimsoft Cloud Readiness Assessment, a simple 5 minute online tool that delivers a customized PDF to the prospect minutes after completion. This allows Nimsoft to educate their potential clients by tailoring this deliverable to the specific situation of the client. Wow!

Here's another great example from FireEye, an innovator in Next Generation Malware Protection. Like the Nimsoft example, this allows both the prospect and the vendor to zero in on areas of need where there may be a fit.

These innovative programs are a sign-post of the future, a future of engaging content, tailored to the B2B buyers need. Wow, doesn't that sound cool. Whitepaper YAWNERs- RIP

Hybrid Service Delivery, 2 yrs later...

I posted this vision piece 2 yrs ago. I still think we are a ways from realizing this vision, but I think it still rings true....

Thoughts?

http://www.zdnet.com/news/new-hybrid-delivery-security-architecture/211127

“In the past, CIOs deployed their own self-contained application architectures on their own servers and storage systems. This old model is giving way to a hybrid application architecture that combines hosted functionality with in-house applications running on consolidated and virtualized commodity servers. We believe that this transformation will drive efficiencies across the full stack, from business processes to physical infrastructure, while increasing IT's ability to meet new demands in a rapidly changing business environment.” - Kishore Kanakamedala, Vasantha Krishnakanthan, and Roger Roberts, McKinsey Quarterly, 1
Commentary--Software as a Service (SaaS), virtualization and integrated IT appliances are creating new and powerful service delivery models for IT managers to leverage. One only needs to look at the success of SaaS companies such as Salesforce.com and WebEx, the robust growth of integrated appliances in spaces ranging from security to data warehousing, and the meteoric rise of VMware’s adoption in the enterprise to see that all these models deliver significant “utility-like” benefits and cost savings.....

Built to Last Programs - Great marketing has legs

Quick note...when I was at Actional, I wrote a whitepaper and built a model on Web Services Management ROI that was used for 5 yrs!!! Good content has long shelflife.

At Secure Computing, we launched the SWAT initiative in 2008. This week, McAfee (#mfe) updated the Forrester Research and the core Whitepaper behind this initiative.

Lessons:

1. Do less, but make it impactful
2. Great content has longer than expected shelf life
3. Great content focuses on the customer's needs and challenges
4. Market ahead of the curve (Web 2.0 in 2008) and the market will come to you, creating leverage...

Over and out!
Ken

451 Recognizes Nimsoft's innovative go to market

Nice article from 451 today. You can read it in it's entirety on Gary Read's blog here.

Here's a couple of great quotes:

"In any case, it seems clear that innovation and aggressive channel and product marketing will continue to be hallmarks of Nimsoft’s business strategy going forward. "

and

First came the April release of the Nimsoft On Demand IT management SaaS offering...July brought usage metering that reports on actual usage to facilitate a pay-as-you-go business model across product lines so that Nimsoft can manage customers’ elastic cloud and virtualized workloads.... Then late last month, Nimsoft announced monitoring support for Vblock Infrastructure Packages,"

Nimsoft on Demand, Usage Metering, Vblock monitoring = innovative product marketing = programs managed by KJR Associates! - had to brag a bit!

K