Introduction
White papers are a popular & powerful tool for nội dung marketers. They can be used khổng lồ position your company as a thought leader, to lớn present useful and persuasive research and information about your products and services, and lớn generate leads. This ultimate guide will teach you everything you need khổng lồ make trắng paper kinh doanh a formidable addition to your nội dung sale strategy.
Bạn đang xem: White paper
1. What is a Trắng paper?
A white paper is an in-depth report or guide about a specific topic & the problems that surround it. It is meant khổng lồ educate readers and help them to lớn understvà & solve an issue.
In the world of sale, a white paper is a long-size piece of content, similar to lớn an eBook. The difference between the two is that Trắng papers tkết thúc to lớn be more technical and in depth. The facts & opinions expressed in White papers are often backed by original research or statistics that the publisher has aggregated from reliable sources. They often include charts, graphs, tables, & other ways of visualizing data.
The term "trắng papers" originated in Engl& as government-issued documents. One famous example is the Churchill White Paper, commissioned by Winston Churchill in 1922.
Today, the term is most commonly applied to lớn “deep dive” style publications. Businesses — especially in the consulting, financial, or B2B sectors — use them to lớn communicate their organization’s philosophy on a topic, make the case for the superiority of their product, or simply khổng lồ present retìm kiếm findings related khổng lồ their field.
White papers are no less editorial than other forms of nội dung, but the depth of retìm kiếm lends them an authoritative sầu tone. For this reason, they are good candidates for promoting thought leadership.
Who uses White papers?
In the past, Trắng papers were most often produced by governmental agencies, NGOs, think tanks, consultancies, & financial institutions that needed lớn present the findings of their ongoing retìm kiếm in a succinct format.
With the widespread growth and adoption of nội dung sale (the creation and distribution of non-promotional content intended to generate interest in a business & its offerings), White papers have become more common in other industries as well. Any organization that engages in nội dung marketing can benefit from producing trắng papers.
Their popularity across industries is due lớn their versatility. While all White papers have certain elements in common, a B2B startup will use them differently than a large consultancy, & both will use them differently from a governmental organization.
Types of trắng papers
There are numerous types of trắng papers a business might publish.
One type is the backgrounder, in which the benefits of their product, service, or methodology are explained in depth.Another is a problem-solution approach, which walks the audience through the solution to a problem that is comtháng in their industry.Other types of White papers simply present a summary of useful statistics & information about the state of a particular field or industry. An example of this would be the Content Marketing Benchmarks Budgets & Trends from the Content Marketing Institute.
Whatever type you produce, the contents of your Trắng paper should serve sầu khổng lồ showcase your expertise in a given area. Your audience is searching for information, and will look for an authoritative source — a business they perceive sầu as having in-depth knowledge of a subject.
The purpose of a White paper
White papers enable you lớn build trust with your audience. They show readers that you"re reliable, experienced, và adept in a given domain. When potential customers tìm kiếm for information lớn help them understand a problem or opportunity they"re facing, và you provide them with a chất lượng White paper that helps, they"ll turn lớn you again in the future.
This perception of authority can also serve to lớn boost sales in an organization. More than half the respondents khổng lồ the Eccolo Media B2B Technology Content Survey reported having read a White paper before making a buying decision. Buyers prefer to purchase from vendors they trust and see as experts in their field.
Finally, Trắng papers are extremely useful for lead generation. The Content Preferences Survey from DemandGen found that more than three-fourths of survey respondents were willing to lớn exchange personal information for a trắng paper — more than for eBooks, case studies, analyst reports, podcasts, or infographics.
With all of these potential benefits, utilizing trắng papers in your nội dung kinh doanh strategy can produce great results.
More than three-fourths of survey respondents were willing to exchange personal information for a White paper.
2.White paper examples
When you think about Trắng papers, you probably think of PDF articles with thousands of words. But times are changing and so is the way we produce & consume nội dung.
Nowadays, every sale collateral (including trắng papers) needs khổng lồ be well written, well structured, and designed for every type of visitor.
Here are some great examples of Trắng papers doing exactly that.
This chất lượng one-pager presenting findings from the Developers at Work Survey demonstrates how a white paper should be done. The animated, interactive sầu data charts show off just what"s possible with our embed feature.
xuất hiện White paper
Privacy and the GDquảng bá -BDO
This well-produced special edition produced by BDO & creative agency Scripta does an incredible job of turning a conventionally dull topic into lớn a piece of nội dung that"s engaging and comes khổng lồ life.
Open trắng paper
ThisWhite paperis a step by step guide lớn succeeding with nội dung sale.
3. How to write a white paper
Starting a Trắng paper can be a daunting task. So much information & retìm kiếm are required that it’s easy to lớn get lost in that portion of the work & let it become a roadbloông xã to lớn actually putting things on paper.
Even after the writing itself has begun, white papers are tricky to lớn do well. Simply listing statistics without some khung of narrative arc is a surefire way to keep your Trắng paper from ever being read. Luckily, following a few simple guidelines can help keep a White paper engaging and make the process of finishing it much easier.
Piông chồng the right topic
This might seem obvious, but without a topic that resonates with your audience, your Trắng paper is not likely to be read. When choosing the right topic, you should consider three important criteria:
It should be something you are qualified lớn write about.It should be something your audience is interested in.Naturally, finding a topic that brings points 1 and 2 together is vital. White papers are meant to be authoritative sầu pieces of content based upon the author"s experience and expertise, so it"s important to write about what you know. But you must match this to the interests of your readers if you"re to lớn produce something they"ll be eager to lớn engage with.
Don"t be afraid to lớn crowdsource information from within your organization. If the topic of a Trắng paper is related lớn engineering, why not interview an engineer or have sầu them look over what you’ve written? The same goes for other roles. Crowdsourcing knowledge means having the power of a true expert in many fields.
Finally, filling a "nội dung gap" will help your Trắng paper get noticed & gain traction. By addressing a topic no one else has written about definitely, your White paper will be more likely khổng lồ rank highly on tìm kiếm engines and even be featured elsewhere on the web.
Xem thêm: Red Bull Solo Q 2021 - Lol Tier List Patch 11
Pro tip: You can even ask your audience what they would like lớn see in your upcoming White paper. You"ll get ideas, make your topic more relevant, và you"ll generate buzz around your nội dung even before it"s finished. In fact, we used the same method for this guide!
Define your audience
Defining your audience goes hand in hvà with choosing the right topic. But moving beyond your audience"s interests, it’s important to lớn think of the kinds of people who will be reading your white paper.
Are they fellow professionals, well versed in your subject?Are they likely khổng lồ be reading something they are relatively unfamiliar with?Knowing this helps establish the voice you should use và whether industry-specific jargon is appropriate. It also narrows the scope of the research you should include. It’s always important to ensure all arguments are logically sound và well supported, but the stats và information presented should be relevant to lớn the specific audience you"re targeting.
Part of defining an audience in the age of Google centers around how people will find the White paper. This means thinking about which platforms specific personas use for retìm kiếm và what tìm kiếm terms they put in. Not only will this help a trắng paper get found by the right people, but it is useful when outlining the white paper later on.
Optimizing for từ khoá is important, but remember khổng lồ write for people, not for search engines. Google is getting better all the time at understanding và matching search intent with relevant content.
Wrap it in a great intro and outro
Like with all good writing, your intro should serve sầu khổng lồ captivate your audience, pique their curiosity, và entice them to lớn read further. It"s good practice to lớn provide a brief summary of what they"ll find in the white paper & lớn emphaform size exactly what benefit they"ll get from reading it.
Your outro is equally important, especially if you"re using your Trắng paper lớn market your products or services. You should avoid any self-promotion in the toàn thân of your Trắng paper, but you can certainly mention your relevant sản phẩm offerings và how to obtain them — perhaps using a compelling call-to-action — at the end.
Paông xã it with value
White papers are not meant khổng lồ be advertisements for your company, & you should avoid any overt promotion. Instead, you should provide plenty of useful information that will be valuable to lớn readers even if they don"t become customers. Emphasizing value is the key to a great trắng paper that will get shared và widely read.
Remember, White papers serve to lớn showcase your expertise as a company or br& in a given field. Your readers should come away having learned something useful & with the impression that you"re a reliable source of expert information. As pointed out earlier, generating this kind of reputation will lead lớn greater business success as buyers are more likely khổng lồ purchase from companies they trust.
Don’t be scared of multiple drafts
No first draft is ever a finished work. Elizabeth Bisiêu thị, the renowned and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, wrote seventeen drafts of her poem “One Art” before it was completed. It’s now considered one of the best villanelles ever written.
While a white paper may not need seventeen drafts, there will undoubtedly be points missed và logical inconsistencies in the first version. Finishing a draft, stepping away, and coming bachồng lớn it with a fresh mind is the best way khổng lồ ensure quality. If there’s another good writer at your company, getting another phối of eyes on it is even better.
Keep it interesting
White papers should be more detailed and thorough than blog posts or eBooks. This may cause them to be more dry và formal, but this doesn"t mean they have to lớn be boring.
A trap that White papers easily fall inkhổng lồ is using statistics as a crutch & not maintaining interest throughout. Technical as it may be, you still want your Trắng paper lớn be read. To make this happen, it’s useful khổng lồ borrow techniques from fiction & creative sầu nonfiction writers.
There are lots of resources for learning about a plot, but generally, it has five sầu parts, as illustrated in Freytag’s pyramid:
These won’t always correspond perfectly in a factual piece of writing like a trắng paper, but they can get you thinking about how to lớn create & hold interest. Use those ideas khổng lồ keep readers’ attention until the very kết thúc.
4. Mistakes a Trắng paper should avoid
There are some pitfalls và common mistakes to lớn avoid when writing a Trắng paper. Each of these has the potential to lớn make an otherwise stellar piece of nội dung into a wasted effort. Here"s a brief list of things lớn look out for.
Sounding like a sales pitch
When Trắng papers are used as part of a marketing chiến dịch where businesses showcase their sản phẩm, a comtháng mistake is lớn make them sound like a sales pitch. Don"t let this happen; it will immediately turn your readers off. In a trắng paper, your audience is seeking unbiased, educational information that will help them, not try to persuade them. Save sầu the sales pitches for other content, like product brochures.
Lachồng of adequate research
As previously mentioned, trắng papers should be well-researched documents. It’s true that conducting lengthy original research may be outside a marketing team’s budget, but merely including a few stats from the first page of a Google tìm kiếm simply won’t cut it.
Aggregating statistics and searching through scholarly work may take time, but the result will be worth it. For your white paper lớn achieve its intended effect, It’s important khổng lồ establish your content as an authoritative source to which the audience would want lớn return.
Poor design
We"ll go in-depth inkhổng lồ design in the next section, but it"s worth mentioning here. The written nội dung of a trắng paper is what matters most, but neglecting kiến thiết is a big mistake. Designmakes your salient points stvà out & helps the reader understand what they"re reading. Using visuals (like images, videos, charts, và graphs) that tư vấn your arguments is crucial. Chechồng out some White paper examples built with nayaritas.net to lớn see examples from clients of ours who have sầu an eye for thiết kế.
Not telling a story
White papers are informative sầu & factual. We’ve driven that point home already. That doesn’t mean they should be boring. Backgrounders, problem-solution trắng papers, and retìm kiếm findings all have sầu a story khổng lồ tell, and the reader is far less likely lớn make it through the entire piece without some size of narrative sầu to lớn keep them engaged. Setting up a problem, elaborating on a solution, and including some type of success story is a proven formula for making any type of content more story-lượt thích.
Leaving it abstract
Because most trắng papers will involve sharing research findings, it can be easy khổng lồ leave sầu them in the realm of theory without explaining how lớn utilize those findings on a practical level. This is true more of backgrounders but can be the case with problem-solution Trắng papers as well.
A good example is the abundant amount of nội dung on employee engagement. Many B2B cases have sầu covered the importance of employee engagement và the pitfalls of getting it wrong. Too little of this nội dung goes further and gives concrete examples of what companies in specific verticals can do khổng lồ alleviate the problem.
5. White paperformat
Before addressing anything else, we first need lớn talk about the format you"ll use.
A picture is no longer worth a thousvà words. Today, its value is in the number of eyeballs it can keep glued to your nội dung và the ratio of those viewers it convinces to cliông chồng through to lớn other sections of your website.
Your carefully crafted copy và painstakingly gathered statistics won’t earn those clicks on their own. The average human attention span is now less than that of a goldfish. And with 3.3 million Facebook posts, 448,800 tweets, and 149,513 emails sent every minute, competition for your readers" attention is intense, khổng lồ say the least. Long form mediums like the trắng paper need serious sparkle just to lớn compete.
You"ll need more than just blaông xã text on a White background. Your kiến thiết choices regarding things lượt thích color, typography, và the use of visuals will play a prominent role in the success of your White paper. Here are a few important principles to keep in mind for creating a unique Trắng paper design.
Keeping Mobile visitors in mind
More than 54% of internet traffic is now Smartphone, and website designers have sầu adapted khổng lồ this trkết thúc by creating what"s known as responsive thiết kế. Before this, website pages simply scaled according to lớn the form size of a user"s screen, retaining their layout. Naturally, this made most pages both unreadable and unnavigable on smaller devices.
Responsive sầu thiết kế solved this by allowing elements on a page to lớn rearrange, rekích thước, or be completely hidden from view in response to lớn the form size of the screen. When a smaller screen is used, font-sizes increase, buttons become larger for touch screens, & the entire layout adjusts to make the page mobile-friendly.
But while this has become standard for web designers in a mobile-first world, producers of other digital content assets like white papers have generally not adapted. Surprisingly, most companies that offer white papers and eBooks on their websites still use PDF format.
The problem with PDFs is that they"re unreadable on smaller screens. They"re fixed-layout documents — they can"t adjust or adapt khổng lồ different screen sizes. Reading them on a di động device requires excessive sầu zooming & panning around, which is a terrible experience for users.
