09 Mar
Content marketers are deliberate in what content they schedule and publish. They know it’s not enough to post on social media or write a blog. If they want to reach both marketing and sales goals, they have to consider different types of content that will yield the best results. Many marketers find value in whitepapers. It may seem formal or complicated to write and publish one, but its benefits outweigh the costs. And in this article, learn how whitepapers can still benefit your business.
What is A Whitepaper?
A whitepaper is a document that aims to reveal your position on a particular issue in an educational or informative manner. It can also provide solutions. Originally, government institutions and several non-profits or corporations prepared whitepapers. But since marketers need to diversify content, whitepapers have become an important piece of document to achieve marketing goals.
Are whitepapers still relevant today?
The short answer is yes. Even with the rise of visual content, whitepapers provide meaningful value, especially for B2B companies.
How to Write and Publish A Whitepaper?
Before I discuss writing and publishing a whitepaper, you need to ask yourself if writing a whitepaper is the right way to go. Whitepapers can be time-consuming, considering the time and research dedicated to completing this work. Other than that, one of its main differences from eBooks is that it focuses on one topic only. So, you have to start with finding a topic.
Finding a Topic and Doing Research
By this time, you need an idea of which topic you could tackle and in what way you can convey value in text. Then, after that, you start doing your research. Make sure to add data since it’s a huge part of writing a whitepaper. Whitepapers can give you your authority and expertise badge, and you need data to back-up any of your claims.
Writing the Problem Statement, Background, and Solution
A whitepaper is like writing a research article. However, research articles are more comprehensive. Meanwhile, whitepapers are shorter but still provide value. According to Instructional Solutions, you need to present the problem statement, background, and solution. These are the essential elements of any whitepaper, and you shouldn’t forget to include them.
Due to the formal nature of the whitepaper, you need to use jargon here. This matters, especially if you’re in a technical field. But if your audience is laypeople, provide a glossary or a terminology page. They can refer to that page if they’re not familiar with any of the terms you might have used.
Also, don’t forget to craft an enticing headline or title for your whitepaper. Your content may be the star of the document, but it’s the headline that will lure people into downloading your whitepaper.
Formatting and Designing Your Whitepaper
If you want people to read your whitepaper, design, and formatting are also an important part of creating one. Sure, you have all the information organized in a word document or file. However, if you want to make it more compelling, you may need to hire a designer to guide you in formatting or designing your whitepaper. This way, it’s readable and presentable.
Also, make sure to add charts or figures if possible. You want people to visualize the data you found regarding your research. It helps for those who like to scan whitepapers and want to view visuals only.
Proofreading and Editing Your Whitepaper
Before you publish and promote your whitepaper, the final step in writing any type of content is proofreading and editing it. You want to set yourself up as an authority or expert, right? You need to polish wording, flow, tone, grammar, and spelling. You want to make sure that you sound professional and don’t have any significant grammatical or typographical errors that could turn away leads.
Publishing Your Whitepaper
Once you have the format, design, and final draft, you can share your whitepaper with the world.
One of the most common ways businesses publish their whitepaper is setting up a landing page on your site. Make sure to write relevant content and keywords that will lead people to that page so your target audience can download it.
4 Reasons Why You Should Write Whitepapers
In 2016 and 2017, whitepapers were among the leading sources of content from B2B marketers. In 2017, 76% of B2B buyers wanted to exchange information to get a whitepaper.
However, as visual content rose over the past few years, that has become the primary source of information. Still, as Demand Gen finds, whitepapers hold relevance as 48% of B2B buyers chooses to fill out a form to download a whitepaper.
So, let’s learn why we need to publish more whitepapers.
1) Generates New Leads
Like eBooks, whitepapers can also generate new leads for your business. One of the best practices in getting new leads is to have them fill out a form and sign up for your site. This way, you get their email address and market to them differently; in any case, your whitepaper doesn’t persuade them as much.
Take a look at this infographic from Marie Foleon. At the end of the infographic, you can see that you can attract leads at any point in the buyer’s journey. It’s much better you have them sign up to get your whitepaper to send more content that will lead them to decide.
2) Makes You an Authority
Whitepapers may seem tedious to work on, but it can boost your authority. Once you share your research and data and publish other relevant, high-quality content on your site, people will look to your business as both an authority and expert.
Sasha Laferte wrote on Convince and Convert that you should target your audience’s pain points. This will help you connect with your audience much better. And the more you provide solutions to their issues, the more they might advocate your business to others.
3) Gives You An Advantage or Levels You With Competitors
If you think your competitors have not thought of publishing a whitepaper, think again. It either crossed their minds already, or they’re about to post one. Some of them might even have one prepared to target your audience.
Whitepapers can give you one or two steps ahead, especially if you publish something much better than what they’ve done. In fact, as part of your research, you should also see what they’ve written. This gives you an idea of how to provide more value and give more actionable recommendations. This way, your target audience chooses you over your rivals.
4) Educates People
At the end of the day, your whitepaper should aim to educate your target audience. Aside from one-upping your competition, make people aware of the challenges they’re facing. Then, elaborate by presenting data you found during your research phase. This data should correlate as to how you helped a particular group of people, perhaps. Maybe it can be a comparison of products or services.
Regardless, your research should be comprehensive. Plus, it should also show the implications to your readers. After all, you want people to use your products or services. Show them how it will make a difference.
