Your audience is searching for information, and will look for an authoritative source — a business they perceive as having in-depth knowledge of a subject.
The contents of your white paper should serve to showcase your expertise in a given area. White papers enable you to build trust with your audience. They show readers that you're reliable, experienced, and adept in a given domain. When potential customers search for information to help them understand a problem or opportunity they're facing, and you provide them with a quality white paper that helps, they'll turn to you again in the future.
This perception of authority can also serve to boost sales in an organization. More than half the respondents to 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, white 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 exchange personal information for a white paper — more than for eBooks, case studies, analyst reports , podcasts, or infographics.
With all of these potential benefits, utilizing white papers in your content marketing strategy can produce great results. More than three-fourths of survey respondents were willing to exchange personal information for a white paper. When you think about white papers, you probably think of PDF articles with thousands of words.
But times are changing and so is the way we produce and consume content. Nowadays, every marketing collateral including white papers needs to be well written, well structured, and designed for every type of visitor.
What Developers Want - CodinGame. This unique one-pager presenting findings from the Developers at Work Survey demonstrates how a white paper should be done. The animated, interactive data charts show off just what's possible with our embed feature. Open white paper. This well-produced special edition produced by BDO and creative agency Monte Media does an incredible job of turning a conventionally dull topic into a piece of content that's engaging and comes to life.
See more white paper examples. Start creating white papers with Foleon. Starting a white paper can be a daunting task. Even after the writing itself has begun, white papers are tricky to do well.
Simply listing statistics without some form of narrative arc is a surefire way to keep your white 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. This might seem obvious, but without a topic that resonates with your audience, your white paper is not likely to be read. When choosing the right topic, you should consider three important criteria:.
Naturally, finding a topic that brings points 1 and 2 together is vital. White papers are meant to be authoritative 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 produce something they'll be eager to engage with. Don't be afraid to crowdsource information from within your organization. The same goes for other roles.
Crowdsourcing knowledge means having the power of a true expert in many fields. Finally, filling a "content gap" will help your white paper get noticed and gain traction. By addressing a topic no one else has written about definitely, your white paper will be more likely to rank highly on search engines and even be featured elsewhere on the web.
Pro tip: You can even ask your audience what they would like to see in your upcoming white paper. You'll get ideas, make your topic more relevant, and you'll generate buzz around your content even before it's finished.
In fact, we used the same method for this guide! Defining your audience goes hand in hand with choosing the right topic. Knowing this helps establish the voice you should use and whether industry-specific jargon is appropriate. It also narrows the scope of the research you should include.
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 research and what search terms they put in. Not only will this help a white paper get found by the right people, but it is useful when outlining the white paper later on.
Optimizing for keywords is important, but remember to write for people, not for search engines. Google is getting better all the time at understanding and matching search intent with relevant content.
Like with all good writing , your intro should serve to captivate your audience, pique their curiosity, and entice them to read further. It's good practice to provide a brief summary of what they'll find in the white paper and to emphasize exactly what benefit they'll get from reading it.
Your outro is equally important, especially if you're using your white paper to market your products or services. You should avoid any self-promotion in the body of your white paper, but you can certainly mention your relevant product offerings and how to obtain them — perhaps using a compelling call-to-action — at the end. White papers are not meant to be advertisements for your company, and you should avoid any overt promotion. Instead, you should provide plenty of useful information that will be valuable to readers even if they don't become customers.
Emphasizing value is the key to a great white paper that will get shared and widely read. Remember, white papers serve to showcase your expertise as a company or brand in a given field.
Your readers should come away having learned something useful and with the impression that you're a reliable source of expert information.
As pointed out earlier, generating this kind of reputation will lead to greater business success as buyers are more likely to purchase from companies they trust. No first draft is ever a finished work. While a white paper may not need seventeen drafts, there will undoubtedly be points missed and logical inconsistencies in the first version.
Finishing a draft, stepping away, and coming back to it with a fresh mind is the best way to ensure quality. White papers should be more detailed and thorough than blog posts or eBooks.
This may cause them to be more dry and formal, but this doesn't mean they have to be boring. A trap that white papers easily fall into is using statistics as a crutch and not maintaining interest throughout. Technical as it may be, you still want your white paper to be read. There are some pitfalls and common mistakes to avoid when writing a white paper.
Each of these has the potential to make an otherwise stellar piece of content into a wasted effort. Here's a brief list of things to look out for. When white papers are used as part of a marketing campaign where businesses showcase their product, a common mistake is to make them sound like a sales pitch. Don't let this happen; it will immediately turn your readers off. Simply import your spreadsheet into the chart editor, or copy and paste your data.
Creating a data-driven white paper is simple using Venngage. White papers can pack a lot of information into one document, and they often take more than one person to create. With Venngage, everyone on your team can work on the same white paper it from one dashboard using the Team sharing function.
Edit the design, make comments and share the draft with each other. Streamline your white paper design process with Venngage! After you put the final touches on your white paper, it's time to download it and share it with your readers. Or share your document directly from Venngage on social media or really anywhere you want.
A white paper is a long-form, in-depth piece of content that seeks to educate its target audience about a business's area of expertise. You can publish your white paper on Venngage and share that link with a few clicks. Design a visually-appealing white paper with Venngage Get Started Now. Reach new audiences with a well-designed white paper White papers have the power to connect you and your business with new customers. Get Started Now.
How to create a white paper on Venngage in 5 steps: Join Venngage for free with an email, Gmail or Facebook account. White papers generally follow a standard document format. The content order may seem similar to other business reports, but there is one major difference:. Many business communications, such as technical reports or proposals, place the main conclusion at the beginning of the document.
This order responds to the desires of the reader and their preference in receiving the information. In a white paper, the content and research inform the reader and increases their understanding of the problem throughout the document. The major findings follow suit. And, no matter the journey, the document must be easy to understand and include informative headings for easy navigation. A good title is essential.
It should clearly indicate what the reader will learn from the white paper. It should also be enticing. Bland title example: White paper on Law Some audiences are seeking that authoritative indicator.
Other readers may be scared off from valuable content because of the term. As always, think of what your audience would prefer. It allows the reader to ensure they have found a document relevant to their needs.
The problem statement specifies the issue the white paper will address. This section provides the background information required for the audience to grasp the problem and, ultimately, the solution. The content may be detailed and technical or broad and high-level. The content depends on the reader and the problem.
You can do this by creating a glossary for your white paper. Think of it as a map that outlines exactly what your white paper will cover. In bright white paper examples like the one below, you can see how the designers used a bold color to bring attention to the glossary. This ensures that it will be seen by a reader, and actually used to navigate the content. Try using a full-page color fill like in this white paper example for your glossary. Otherwise, readers may miss it when quickly flipping through the pages.
When writing a white paper, you can also section off important pieces of information using tables and boxes. In the white paper examples below, the designers used a table to organize key points and takeaways from each main section:.
Breaking up lengths of text with boxes will help make your white paper easier to read:. You can create a hierarchy by using a different font or color for your headers and sub-headers. This also helps give your page design more variety. In this example, they use different fonts and colors for each level of header. This helps make the distinction between main and sub-headers more noticeable.
The primary goal of your white paper should be to educate readers. But you also want to strike a balance between being informative and entertaining. If there is a central point that you want readers to remember, you may want to dedicate an entire page to that one point and an accompanying image to help drive the message home.
Pages like this should be used sparingly. That being said, they can deliver some real impact to readers. Unlike one-page reports where you have to fit a lot of information into a small space, white papers allow for more freedom to spread the information out. That will allow you to create page designs with plenty of white space.
In the design world, white space is the empty space around design elements on the page. Leaving some room for your text and images to breathe will help your design look less cluttered. Check out how this example uses plenty of white space on nearly every page. The result is an organized and modern white paper design. Dividing your page into columns is a good way to organize your information and save space on the page.
For example, in the white paper above, the Overview and the beginning of Chapter 1 are organized neatly into their own columns. Speaking directly to your readers can really grab their attention. Asking a question can get them to want to actually read your white paper. In this white paper example, a simple question to the reader introduces what the report will cover.
The designers even bolded it so it was the first thing readers would see! On the other hand, when you address a common problem people in your niche face, that will pique their interest. When people look at the same thing over and over again, it can cause visual fatigue. Their eyes glaze over and their attention drifts. Varying your page layout will help keep readers engaged by going against their expectations.
This white paper template uses a few different page layouts. One page may have a featured image, another a large quote, and the next only including written content. This white paper layout is fresh and interesting.
Use these examples of white papers as springboards for your own unique and brand-appropriate designs. Knowing how to write a white paper that considers your audience every step of the way will help you develop the perfect response to their questions and make your designs accessible.
In the business world, a white paper is an in-depth informational report that explains a complex or technical concept in addition to providing a persuasive solution to a problem. Unlike ebooks , which may address a broader scope of topics, white papers have a singular focus. White papers are also research-based and widely considered to be a valuable resource. White papers can be extremely valuable documents to educate your stakeholders, clients, and top-of-funnel traffic—when the white papers are actually interesting.
Typically, white papers are around 3 to 20 pages long. But some whitepapers can be longer. A white paper should be long enough to cover the concept or problem at hand. Since this usually includes case studies or new research, plus explanations and analyses, a good rule of thumb is writing white papers to provide enough evidence to back up your claims.
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