White Papers, are they worth it (as a promotional tool)?
subpixel: FWIW, I'm a small business owner and have downloaded quite a few whitepapers and signed up for quite a few "webinars" that I thought might provide valuable info. Quality varies, but tends to hover well below "wow".In each of these cases, my contact info was captured. So that part of it works.The object, however, is not to get a prospect's number, but to get them to call you.Nothing will light a fire under a potential customer's ass like seeing your product/service in use:* use customer testimonials/case studies/videos (see mathematica's customer testimonials - http://is.gd/kk8B / Highrise customer interviews / etc.)* make a great, simple video explanation - see http://commoncraft.com* show off the website, twitter stream, etc. of a make-believe lawyer who represents your ideal happy customer (e.g. "let us help you be this awesome."At the end of the day, I think a whitepaper is too much like a TPS report. You want something that can be shared 'over the shoulder', when someone at a company finds your service and shows it off to his partner or colleague.