What if Prospects Won't Read?

I came across two important articles this week, indicative of a trend that I believe will significantly impact the work of technical copywriters from this point forward:

1. What if readers can't read?  Discusses changes in audience reading habits and tools, published in the STC Intercom Magazine, 2/2009 issue.

2.  Reading, writing and recession. Reports how budget cuts are forcing many local schools to close their libraries; an action that discourages not only reading of physical books, but also the serendipity of discovering new ideas as students explore the shelves.  (Time magazine, 2/23/09 issue)    

The lessons discussed in these articles apply equally to marketing communications, where our prospects face a deluge of information and nearly uncountable sources of opinion and commentary. Yet their time for attentive reading and thoughtful analysis is becoming ever shorter and ever more subject to interruption.

So, for marketing communicators I would write an article called "What if prospects won't read?"

Are the days numbered for long-form sales materials such as brochures and white papers? Will all of our product information, customer success stories, solutions messaging, and other content be delivered only through short-form web pages, blog posts, and Twitter tweets?  

Although I am still writing many traditional marketing materials, I'm also receiving more projects from my clients for short-form content. 

What do you think?  Are you seeing a change in your work assignments or how your company approaches marketing communications?

Comments

[Janice King]

I haven't seen an interest in e-books. For most marketing depts. it's enough of a challenge getting a white paper through the development and review process. But I have worked on book-length projects in the past, and will post my thoughts on that approach soon.

Thanks for the question.

[Stephanie Tilton]

Hi Janice,
This is an interesting topic. To date, I haven't seen that my high-tech clients are backing away from producing white papers. It seems many folks considering complex technology solutions still turn to white papers while conducting research. However, I'm wondering if that will change in light of the points you raise.

This is slightly off-topic, but I'm curious to know if you've seen more requests for e-books than white papers lately. David Meerman Scott seems to feel that e-books are more appealing (http://www.webinknow.com/2008/07/business-to-bus.html).

Thanks for the thought-provoking post!

Best,
Stephanie