How to Write White Papers

                                                                                        F-22 Raptor image courtesy U.S. Air Force

White Papers are the Trojan Horses of marketing. The stealth airplanes. You could also liken them to white knights.

Let me explain.

On the one hand, they are performing the chivalrous task of informing readers on a topic of high importance to them. On the other hand, these short- to medium-length reports also carry an unspoken directive. Their purpose is to help potential buyers further along in their decision cycle — and hopefully deeper into your sales funnel.

Achieving both goals requires subtlety, thorough subject matter knowledge, and a genuine desire to provide valuable information.

 White Papers Defined

But first, a quick definition for those not familiar with the term “white papers”:  A white paper is simply an informational, usually brief, “special report”-style document that an organization can use to educate its customers or potential customers on some otherwise esoteric topic.

 Here is an example of a white paper I wrote for Knowledge(at)Wharton that was sponsored by Wipro, an Indian technology firm. Wipro wanted to get the word out about its green computing offerings — without beating potential customers over the head with a sales pitch. The key is to lay off the self promotion while going heavy on providing useful, valuable information.

For the niche audience intended to read them, white papers can be highly valued resources.  For the organization that sponsors white papers, they can build tremendous goodwill and develop highly targeted leads for customer relationships.

The scope of white paper topics is nearly limitless, but a few popular subjects include information technology, communications technology, engineering, workplace and organizational behavior, investing and finance.

Ultimately, you want readers to find your white paper so compelling that they’re forwarding it to colleagues, supervisors and most importantly, whoever in their organization signs the checks. You want it to become “sticky,” as in, people refer to it and share it often. You want it to go viral, so that your organization’s name becomes associated with the expertise and thought leadership shown in the white paper.

Here then, are a few best practices for writing white papers that stick.

DO …

Identify at the beginning of the paper a problem, crisis, or dilemma that the intended reader faces

Provide a brief roadmap of how the paper will proceed to define, quantify, and identify solutions to said problem

Use language and jargon appropriate to your audience; i.e., using lots of techno-jargon with engineers will build credibility; using techno-jargon with a marketing or executive audience will generate blank stares and perhaps annoyance at you for wasting their valuable time.

Know your audience. Perhaps somewhere in the paper’s opening you even mention something like, “this resource will help network managers to identify and mitigate obstacles frequently encountered in fiber-to-the-home planning and deployment projects.” By singling out “network managers,” you elegantly excuse the marketers and execs — perhaps your product is too technical for them to understand. So you appeal to the people in operations, with the popular strategy of making the folks in the field your evangelists in their organization.

Quote reputable outside sources, but especially recruit your own, best, in-house experts. Every time your subject matter experts open their mouths and drop pearls of wisdom upon the reader, they are selling without selling.

Close with a soft sell. These are sophisticated individuals, your readers, and a hard pitch at the end of an otherwise good white paper will leave a bad taste. They will ask themselves, “How reliable was any of this information if all they were trying to do was sell me on their so-called ‘solution?’”

A good way to get in a plug for yourself, then, is to include a case study (or studies) of customers who benefited from your product or service. This lets the reader know that yes, you do offer a fix to their problem; and a quick case study provides third-party validation that your proposal works.

DO NOT …

Make your company, product, or service the “star” of the white paper; in that case, it just becomes a glorified brochure.

Hard sell. As noted above, strong-arm tactics won’t work with this audience. For the most part, they’re too sophisticated, and if you make them feel uncomfortable while they’re reading, they’ll abandon your document to their folder of forsaken and forgotten downloads.

Speak in impenetrable prose. Academia is probably the only domain where pompous language is revered and rewarded. In business, keep it simple — if you want to get the business.

Final Thoughts

 The complete list, obviously, is much longer. The above rules are made to be broken — but under different contexts than a white paper. Unlike other marketing pieces, the white paper’s purpose is to avoid the frontal assault of heavy self-promotion. Instead, it is a strategic piece that slips in beneath your buyer’s sales-avoidance radar, demonstrates you to be a reliable and valuable source of information, and lays the all-important groundwork of establishing a longer-term relationship with your customer.

 Interested in developing a white paper to promote your business and educate your customers, but not sure where to start? Drop us a line or write a comment below.