In the digital environment, it is now buyers--not sellers--who gain control of the sales cycle. In fact, the sales cycle has become the buying cycle. Marketing automation systems, like Eloqua, Marketo and Pardot, give buyers the control they demand, and give marketers the information they crave for tracking and nurturing leads. 

Producing a market research report based on a primary survey is a novel way to gain visibility by sharing enlightening information with customers, the public or the media. Often these market research reports have the aura of speaking for an entire industry or a specific set of customers. Frankly, it’s easy to conduct Web-based surveys these days; we’re surprised more organizations don’t take advantage of it.

Nothing sells like success.That about sums up the rationale for compelling case study content. Case studies make excellent selling tools: moving interested prospects down the sales funnel and into a sale.

Especially in long sales-cycle B2B markets, prospects are constantly looking for validating signals that your product or solution is authentic:  that you will do what you say you will do. The best way to prove this is to create a series of descriptive case studies that show how your organization solved problems for other clients.

In the last few years, our white paper service has helped clients create more than 200 white papers. And while the subjects have ranged from electronic health records to Web-based debt collection strategies and the benefits of virtual server technologies, most have a few things in common: