A white paper, well written can be an excellent marketing tool. So how can you make the best of this opportunity to engage your readers attention? 

Here are 7 simple rules to guide you.

1. Create an engaging solution focused title. 

2. Focus on benefits. Use your white paper to engage your readers' interest and gain their support by providing high quality evidence based research.

3. Show your customer how you can solve their problems and make life easier for them.

4. Speak their language. Use NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) to appeal to readers across all sensory modalities.

5.  Use up to date references to make your white paper a valuable educational resource. Ideally, references should be less than five years old.

6. Include infographics. Research shows that using infographics  that combine both words and pictures is a much more effective way to communicate than either words or images alone. 

7.  Use your own branding discreetly. The last thing you want is for your white paper to come across as a pushy sales document. Be subtle. Use your white paper to engage your customers interest. The sales conversation comes later.

Click here to read a sample white paper

Many white papers these days are presented in a two-column format.

But why?
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What benefits does the two-column format have over a single line of text?
 
In short, it’s all about how your brain scans and processes information.
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Research shows that the optimal amount of text for printed materials is just 60 characters per column.

​More than 60 characters per column and the brain starts to have difficulty in scanning through the text easily.  It’s the same principle as needing to take a visual break by adding some white space between paragraphs.

Long lines of text, just like long sentences can be harder to read. For technical and medical papers, a two-column layout also allows graphs, tables and other graphics to be clearly presented without taking up too much page space. That said many companies do prefer the clean and simple lines of a single column layout. That  can work very well too, just as long as the  page has wide margins and the text runs to no more than  90 characters per line.

It’s all about helping the reader to understand your message as easily as possible.

​Questions about content and structure.

• What do you want to achieve with your white paper? How will you know if it’s been a worthwhile investment?
• Who is your target audience?
• Where does your primary  audience sit in  relation to the sales funnel. Are you targeting the right decision makers?
• What keywords are important to your business and what key words will potential readers use to find you?
• What do you most want to convey in the title of the paper?
• The call to action, or what you want the ideal readers to do after they finish reading

Compared to other forms of marketing, creating a white paper generally  takes more time, involves more people, and requires a greater overall investment, so it’s important to get the groundwork right.

​Remember, once written a white paper can provide an excellent source of content to re-purpose into slide decks, blog posts and other bite sized content to attract your customers attention

The chances are you want a white paper to help sell your product. That’s the end goal, right? 

But here’s the thing. You need to be discreet. Subtle even, selling indirectly, covertly and quietly.

Too much product promotion and you will be left with nothing more than a sales brochure and you may well have lost your customers attention before the second paragraph.

Yet, done well a white paper can be hugely successful at generating leads and positioning you as thought leader in your field.

The key is to educate. Not sell. That way you can draw your reader in, leaving them wanting to know more without overt product promotion.

Once your white paper is written, then you can use it to sell. A well written white paper provides you with exactly the right type of content for promotion, and social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook provide are all ideal platforms to share high quality content.  It’s a simple, efficient and elegant way of getting your customers attention and drawing them in.

White papers are precious documents for anyone selling technical equipment, or complex solutions to challenging problems.  Their aim is to both educate and sell. The challenge though, is to make them visually appealing enough to keep the reader engaged from start to finish.
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​What makes a good white paper?
 
Two things.
 
First, you need to pick a high value topic that will be of interest to your target audience.
 
Second, you need to position your company as the go-to expert to provide solutions to your customers problems.

​Here are 5 quick tips to keep your white paper uppermost in your prospective clients’ minds.
 
1.  Know who your intended audience is and write specifically for them. 
 A well written white paper should help your prospective customer make a decision about your product. This makes it essential to know as much about them as possible before the writing process begins.
Consider . . .

• Who are your ideal customers?
• What needs, and problems do they have?
• What ideal solutions are they looking for?

 
2.  Conduct a thorough literature search. 
Writing a white paper for a complex medical device begins with conducting a thorough literature search. Without access to up to date, high quality research, it’s impossible to write a white paper with sufficient academic credibility to be taken seriously.

3.  Make good use of colour, font size and graphics
Most readers won’t read your white paper from beginning to end on the first sitting. They need to be enticed to read more with well placed colourful graphics, pull quotes, box outs and bullet points. Do this well, and your reader will be much more likely to give your white paper the time and attention it deserves.
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​4. Begin with a concise executive summary  
It’s likely that your reader will be pressed for time. This is why writing a concise summary at the beginning of the paper is good way of helping them understand your key points quickly. A well written executive is an excellent way of encouraging your potential customer to read more.
 
 5. Acknowledge problems and provide solutions. 
A well written white paper should always begin by acknowledging the clinical challenges that the reader cares about. Only once you have shown that you understand the readers problems, should you go on to talk about the solutions.
 
 
Last but not least don’t forget a simple call to action right at the end of the paper so your customers know how to contact you.
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White papers can be one of the greatest assets in your marketing toolkit, yet they are often misused and misunderstood.
 
Which is a shame.
 
Written well, a white paper can be a powerful tool to get your customers attention, demonstrate you can solve their problems and make life easier for them.

​Not all your customers will pick up the phone or email you about your products. Most will need to be persuaded, with step by step reassurance that it’s your product or service that will best fit their needs.

This is where a white paper becomes an invaluable marketing tool. They are easy to download and can be handed out at events allowing your customers to read at their leisure away from the pressures of a sales conversation.
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In short, white papers are an excellent way of getting the attention of decision makers, subtlety, effectively and persuasively.