White Papers That Work

How many times have you researched a topic online and shared your e-mail address in exchange for a “white paper”, only to receive a cleverly re-packaged promotional piece that offers little value? 

For many B2B marketing teams, a “white paper” is an opportunity to thinly disguise a product promotion as “information”, “data”, “case studies” or “solutions”. 

To paraphrase the old Wendy’s commercial, “Where’s the beef?” 

The original intent of white papers (yes, even before the Internet) was to help customers or prospects make a decision, explore technology or learn more about a subject.  

And that should still be the intent of marketers who embrace permission marketing; for what they lack in lead quantity, they will recoup in quality.

I spoke with an in-house marketing colleague recently who bemoaned the lack of viable leads, despite the fact that he had an appreciable database of contacts. He admitted that his white papers “might be” thin on useful information, “but”, he defended, “we still offer the best product out there.” 

The point is this: once prospects or customers recognize that a downloaded or e-mailed white paper is more or less shameless self-promotion, they may downgrade your firm’s credibility ranking. 

And if that’s too much for you to consider, here are 8 tried-and-true tips for keeping a white paper balanced with content and meaning:

1. Content is King. Good content is absolutely vital.  If your marketing department is used to peering at your products through a microscope, turn that around and make it a telescope. Take a wider view of an industry topic and explore the challenges that gave birth to your technology or product and talk in terms of process rather than product.
2. Remember Your Audience. If your white paper addresses an IT issue, there’s a good chance that it will become a finance issue, a management issue – and more – down the line. But you have the best opportunity to reach a single disciple within an organization and educate that one person – rather than talking to several people and hoping the message resonates. Also, ask yourself, “Who will read this? What would they want to know? How can this white paper help them research this topic?”
3. Visual Appeal. Nobody wants a white paper that is wall-to-wall type. Design your white paper to include pull quotes and graphics that share crucial bits of information easily. Most readers absorb detail more readily when it’s presented in two or more visual formats.  In addition, consider ways to depict details and facts as visual graphics, since they offer relief for the eye on type-heavy pages.
4. Size Matters. Aim for a length of between eight and ten pages, inclusive of graphics, pull quotes and photos. Even readers who request detailed studies start to lose focus after about eight pages.
5. Practice Restraint. It may tempting to include phrases like, “Our company offers just such a solution”, but that qualifies as editorializing – an inappropriate and ineffective practice that can distance a reader from the material and reduce the credibility of the message.
6. Include case studies as appropriate to the message. Case studies are most effective when profiled firms have a genuine opportunity to deliver real content through challenges faced and conclusions reached - without a testimonial-like endorsement of your firm.
7. Flag the White Paper As Exclusive Content. If you include your white paper as part of general navigation, you may receive greater interest from casual browsers. But if your white paper is developed as a landing page and shared through social media or even includes a search engine results page (SERP) summary, it’s more likely to benefit from the attention of qualified visitors.
8. Consider budgeting for paid search through a cost-per-click (or CPC) campaign. This will ensure that interested parties who view your landing page are actively interested in a topic, the first step in a well-constructed marketing funnel. 

As marketers, we all recognize that white papers offer a unique opportunity to capture data, generate leads and help nurture prospects in a buying process.  But let’s not forget that a white paper should be content-rich, audience-directed information, with a nearly “sales-be-damned” attitude.