A white piece of paper (WP) is essential advertising and marketing collateral that can generate prospects for your business. Although the target of a WP is to crank out sales leads, it is not a gross sales brochure. The purpose of a WP is not to sell. WP’s work to educate prospective customers and give this insight on how to solve their business problems. The following suggestions will help you write effective WPs to promote your business:
1 . Decide the audience: The viewers of a WP are potential customers. These customers could be enjoying various roles in their agencies. Before beginning to write your WP, you need to determine the viewer type or user jobs that your WP is concentrating on. For example, a technology WP could be for Chief Technological innovation Officers (CTOs) and Information Devices Managers, while business WPs could be targeted to Chief Executive Authorities, Chief Financial Officers, and Chief Operating Officers. You need to know the audience because, due to the typical characteristics (or attributes) of audience types, figure out how your WP will be studied. This, in turn, determines the creating style for white paperwork (more on that later).
2 . Determine the Purpose: The only most crucial purpose of a WP is to educate your potential customers and provide them insight into approaches to solving their business difficulties using your recommended method or perhaps solution. In a way, you are inspiring the customer to take action – to be able to call for a demo or ask for more information. When you educate consumers, you are no longer just a seller trying to sell something. You become an accomplice who understands your client’s business. Therefore, you enjoy more credibility and trust, which often generates rapport and can allow you to get your foot in the client’s door quickly.
3. Consider the Central Message: Given that you have identified the viewers and purpose, it’s time and energy to think out the central communication of your WP. What is the bottom-line message that you are trying to get around? For example, your WP can talk about (i) the implications of important trends in the consumer’s industry, (ii) describe what sort of solution functionality helps remedy business problems, (iii) prove thought leadership by advising a new way of doing things, (iv) showcase solution implementation, and it is benefits, (v) compare your unique solution with your competitors alternative. These are some pointers that can assist you in thinking out the central concept for your white paper.
5. Determine White Paper Style: Once you have the central concept, it’s time to think out the type of WP that is suitable for your message. Typically, you will discover five types of WPs. (i) An Industry Trends white piece of paper talks about the various business general trends and the impact of the general trends on your client’s business, and exactly how the client can convert often the trends into opportunities as well as reduce the risk of challenges. (ii) A Functionality Description light paper describes how an alternative functionality can help solve minor business problems. (iii)
Thought Management’s white paper presents a new paradigm shift from the traditional way of doing things and proposes a new innovative tool for getting things done. (iv) Proof of Solution white pieces of paper showcases your solution guidelines and their benefits. (v) Level of competition Eliminator white paper considers your solution with a level of competition solution, brings out the benefits of your current solution, and helps pre-empt levels of competition. Each of these have its pair of information elements and construction and its own unique creating styles.
5. Prepare the particular Outline: The Outline in the WP determines the communication flow. The outline is a listing of the significant chapters in the WP. In short, it is the kitchen table of contents. Well-developed traces naturally lead readers to a higher section and have the maximum impression. While developing the format, remember that all audiences may not read the WP conclusion until the end. Therefore, each part or chapter should jump out and make sense independently, like the outline for a WP that describes solution performance could be – Business Summary, Business Problem, Solution Summary, Solution Description, Solution Function, Benefits, etc.
Six. Think out the Content: Using the outline in place, you can now believe the content for each section. Put down points against every chapter heading of the description. Take your time to do this exercise. Place your thinking team to operate, and conduct brainstorming sessions. Keep in mind clarity of thought results in clarity of writing. Avoid rushing into this physical exercise. Take your time. The more time you spend on this design exercise, the more efficient your WP will be.
Seven. Write White Paper Content material: It’s time to start composing content for the WP. Make use of a persuasive writing style. The compelling writing style persuades, excites, and motivates visitors. How do you write persuasively? The actual rule of thumb is to empathize with readers’ business problems, talk their language, and use conditions that they can relate with. These types of writing techniques get the audience hooked on your WP. Steer clear of adjectives and sales vocabulary. Provide facts. And most important, don’t ridicule or criticize competition. Remember you are publishing to educate and inform. Not necessarily a sales brochure.
6. Localize Chapter Headings: Phase headings in WPs needs to be attractive so that readers may want to read further. For example, as an alternative to “The Proposed Solution” being a chapter name, write “Improving Cash Flow with Automated Billing.” The latter is more intriguing, has a better impact, and gets readers to read further.
9. Give the White Report a Meaningful Title: WP titles are significant. It determines whether the WP is going to be read or not. Don’t call up your WP “A Bright Paper.” Please give it a substantial title. The title should generally state that readers genuinely care about – a business ache or a significant business gain. The sub-title should supplement the title. The sub-title chunks up the essence of the WP in one concise phrase.
Twelve. Add Credibility with Outer Information: External information, for instance, customer quotes, performance files from research agencies, exterior product reviews, benchmarking results, metrics, and quantifiable benefit claims, add credibility to the WP.
11. End with a Proactive approach: WPs should always end by having a call to action. If the information within the white paper is fascinating enough, readers will be interested to know more. That curiosity will undoubtedly turn into a sales lead for your company. It’s a good idea to end the WP with a call to action for visitors. For example, you could ask visitors to call you, visit a website, attend a workshop, drop a mail, and so on. If your white paper is written well, then the proactive approach is the easiest to achieve, simply because readers are excited and curious to know more.
12. Evaluation, Publish, and Propagate: When the WP is ready, it can be time to get it reviewed by an expert. If possible, employ an editor to modify the paper for dialect and writing style. It can be essential that your WP comes after a persuasive tone and contain spelling errors. Punctuational and grammatical errors tend to be credibility killers. Once the WP is ready, you can distribute it on your website, deliver it through email, and use other sources of WP propagation on the internet.
The author can be a technical communication professional using over 15 years of expertise. He is an expert in enticing communication techniques and goes his website on Bright Papers. For practical application of the tips and to make your bright paper writing a breeze, check out the author’s white paper internet site. The website offers layouts, guidelines, and processes intended for white paper writing, which often take care of the manual, repeating writing tasks, thus helping you to focus and spend more time contemplating the theme, message, written content, and strategy for your bright paper writing projects.
Read also: Seller’s Checklist – Be Risk-free and Make Extra Money
