Bedell Communications

Last week I advised information technology training companies to consider using white papers and case studies in their marketing efforts. Both are great lead generation techniques because IT professionals understand their value. This week I offer some topics that you might consider for your IT training white papers and case studies.

Case studies present an opportunity to highlight a personal success story as it relates to your product or service. Use case studies to profile individuals and organizations that completed training and successfully earned certification. Begin by explaining the challenge(s) faced by the subject. Did the subject previously fail the exam after training with another company or no training at all? Was the exam just weeks away and a job was on the line? Was the subject busy at the office and unable to go offsite for training?

The remainder of your case study should call out your program’s specific benefits as they address the subject’s challenges. Support them with quotes from your subject. I recommend writing two-to-three paragraphs with a subhead on each benefit.

While case studies focus specifically on how your product or service helped a company, a white paper focuses on educating leads on some aspect of your product or service. When I worked as an editor at TechTarget, I received a steady flow of user-submitted questions pertaining to certification exam preparation. Here are some topics that can be addressed with white papers:

• How to study for specific certification exams (Include the name of the exam in the title and make sure to include specific tips and strategies that apply to that exam.)
• Certification paths for specific positions or upper-level certs (Again, be specific in the title and content of your white paper.)
• How to choose an IT training company
• How to choose between computer-based training, instructor-led training, a boot camp, etc.
• How to get the most out of a boot camp/computer-based training/instructor-led training/etc. (Be specific. Each one of these could be a white paper in and of itself.)

This is just a small sampling of topics to get you started. Once you get started with one or two case studies or white papers, the ideas — and leads! — will keep coming. — Crystal Bedell

In some ways information technology training companies have it made when it comes to marketing. With mandates like the DoD’s 8570 requiring the CISSP and employers using certs to prequalify job candidates, information technology training companies have a steady flow of clientele seeking their product. There’s little need to educate clients on why they need training. The challenge lies in convincing clients that your training is the best. An often neglected means of doing so are the very marketing vehicles that IT pros are already comfortable with: case studies and white papers. These are also proven lead generation techniques.

Every white paper and case study you create should be posted on your Web site. Require visitors to complete a short registration form after reading a paragraph or three of your white paper or case study. Also send the link to the registration page in your e-newsletters and other customer-facing communications, allowing users to easily forward the information to their colleagues. 

Consider syndicating white papers with a vendor that can target the appropriate verticle and job title. (You don’t want to promote a white paper on how to prepare for the CISM to an application developer.) In addition, a vendor that owns multiple properties like TechTarget or TechWeb will have a further reach because they have several different audiences.

Finally, consider pay-per-click advertising. With the right keywords, you can pre-qualify leads that come to your registration page. Just remember, again, to tease readers with some of the content before you throw a registration page at them. At the very least, post an abstract of your white paper. At most, consider a full page.

And don’t forget to give users an opportunity to opt-in to your mailing list via your registration pages. Many information technology training companies rely on their list to communicate upcoming classes and discounts. Your white paper/case study registration pages are an easy and inexpensive opportunity to grow your e-mail list.

Next week we’ll look at some of the topics information technology training companies might consider for their white papers and case studies. In the meantime, share some of the lead generation techniques you’ve used. — Crystal Bedell

Some technologies are simply made to market during a recession. Their benefits speak to business managers’ primary concerns: lowering capital and operating expenditures. Virtualization is a prime example. Server virtualization reduces hardware requirements, which translates to lower cooling and maintenance costs.

Your technology may offer equally important — but less obvious — benefits. If you don’t call them out in your marketing materials, potential buyers won’t know about them. Here are some cost-cutting benefits that might apply to your solution and should be highlighted in your white papers and case studies:

• Ease of administration/management — Like everyone else, IT organizations are expected to do more with less. This means they can’t afford to higher someone with a specialized skill set. Nor can they afford to send personnel away for days to learn how to use your technology. Highlight your technology’s ease of use and moderate learning curve. If you offer training via webcast, highlight that, too.
• Centralization — Centralizing otherwise disparate technologies under one roof not only gets rid of standalone devices and their associated overhead but can provide IT staffs with an integrated view of the infrastructure to enable smarter business decisions.
• Optimization — Does your technology make it possible for organizations to get more out of their infrastructure without throwing more money at it? Think, for example, of thin provisioning or bandwidth optimization, which allow organizations to get more out of their existing storage and bandwidth, respectively, without costly upgrades.
• Business enablement — Organizations are increasingly treating IT as a service that helps meet business objectives. The techie researching your product may be sold on the technical specifications, but if you can help him/her tie it to business objectives, you’re helping him/her sell it up the chain of command.

The importance of lowering expenses in a down economy is fairly obvious, which makes it all the more important for you to call out how your technology can help IT organizations achieve those goals.  — Crystal Bedell