Death of the One-Pager

"Thanks for this review; all the information was really helpful. Do you have a one-pager I can share with my customers?"

I hesitated. I almost lied and said I didn't have one, but I did. The truth is, I didn't want to send my participant the document for a simple reason: traditionally, one-pagers, especially in the context of Partner Enablement strategies, are for the most part, ineffective tools for communication.

Reflect on the last one-pager you encountered in your Partner Enablement journey. Can you recall the experience vividly? If so, what was your initial reaction? Were you excited to delve into it, likely from the email it was attached to? Or did you reluctantly open it, only to discover that it was, as expected, challenging to digest, unengaging, and ultimately forgettable?

Can you remember the product name it discussed? While the company's name or perhaps its industry might linger in your memory, the product's name itself is often elusive. And what about its value proposition? Could you, after reading that one-pager, confidently articulate its key points in a conversation?

Based on my experiences with Partner Enablement materials like one-pagers, it's likely that most of the critical details necessary for a meaningful customer dialogue slip through the cracks.

If one-pagers constitute a significant component of your Partner Enablement strategy, it might be time for a strategic reassessment. The fundamental issue with one-pagers is their attempt to cater to a broad audience in an era where such audiences scarcely exist. In today's market, there are tools, resources, and platforms capable of delivering precise information to targeted audiences with unparalleled accuracy. Thus, for Partner Enablement efforts to be effective, content must either be meticulously tailored to specific demographics or distributed in a manner that ensures it reaches its intended audience directly.

One-pagers have never been synonymous with viral content. As such, we need to shift our perception away from comparing them to a viral video that garners widespread attention.

A glaring oversight with most one-pagers, especially those meant for Partner Enablement, is their lack of a defined audience. Many I've seen prioritize aesthetics over substance, focusing more on layout and design than on the conveyed message. Furthermore, they often become outdated almost immediately after approval.

Typically, one-pagers are crafted by graphic designers, with content sourced from various origins such as a company's website, which serves a distinctly different purpose and intent. Alternatively, the copy might be a compilation from multiple internal teams, each competing for space on the document. This approach leads to a disjointed narrative, a lack of coherent call to action, and essential information like joint value propositions becoming obscured and difficult to extract.

Moreover, one-pagers are notoriously user-unfriendly on mobile devices, requiring readers to pinch, zoom, and scroll in multiple directions to read the content.

For an extended period, the one-pager has been a cornerstone of Partner Enablement initiatives. However, in the evolving landscape of Ecosystem Enablement, the traditional one-pager is becoming obsolete. It's time for us to advance, leaving behind outdated methodologies, priorities, and delivery techniques. In the new era of Ecosystem Enablement, agility, focus on customer needs, and timely delivery are paramount.

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