ClickPredictions: The Short-Attention White Paper

Posted by Ambal Balakrishnan February 4th 10

We asked Jonathan Kantor "What are key marketing trends and predictions for 2010? What actions should marketers take in 2010?"
Jonathan Kantor is a 26-year veteran of the technology industry, the author of the new book Crafting White Paper 2.0, and the primary contributor to the WhitePaperPundit.com blog.

Jonathan Kantor

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"Use Visual Enhancements to Engage New Media, Short Attention White Paper Readers.”

Jonathan Kantor's Marketing Prediction for 2010
Social Media will generate significant white paper changes in the future. As readers grow accustomed to short, hyperlinked, colorful, and stimulating media, a growing but limited attention span will require white papers that compliment these new media formats. As a result, the traditional text white paper will become less relevant to this savvier new media audience.

Starting in 2010, we will see a host of new white paper formats, designs, colors and visual enhancements that engage today’s short attention Social Media reader. These changes will prove to be more effective in delivering critical solution-oriented business messages that conventional white paper formats.

Jonathan Kantor's Marketing Action for 2010
To date, marketers have assumed that readers will read text in the serial fashion as it was created, from first to last page. Unfortunately due to the impact of Social Media, today’s new media audience loses interest after only one or two pages.

To engage this new reader, marketers must embrace a series of visual enhancements such as page layout, design, illustration, pull quotes, concept graphics, and abstracts/summarizes that spoon feeds short messages, creating a greater incentive to read more detailed white paper content. Using this approach, marketers can deliver critical solution-oriented messages in a more effective fashion.

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