White Paper Pundit

Courtesy of the Working on Internet blog:

The science of persuasion has moved to a new level of intrigue as researchers attempt to discover which kinds of arguments or information help buyers make purchasing decisions. This article focuses on recent findings in this area and suggests how the research could apply to the domain of white papers.

Here’s an important question: Should you tell your audiences only the good things about your offerings, or give them more of a complete analysis? Some of the answers come from the June/July 2008 issue of the User Interface Design Newsletter published by HumanFactors.com.

Which Kinds of Information Improve Persuasion?

Researchers have been probing whether one-sided presentations (only telling the good things about a product) or two-sided presentations (telling both the pros and cons) are the most effective in persuading consumers to buy a product.

One research team developed a series of experiments for products that ranged from cell phones to bicycles to toothpaste to portable DVD players to medicine. In half the tests, consumers were presented with only positive information. In the other half, consumers were given both pros and cons. Here are a few of the discoveries:

– Both one-sided and two-sided messages can increase positive attitudes toward a product.

– Two-sided messages are more effective at instilling consumers with confidence in that attitude.

– People who were exposed to both pros and cons indicated a greater intention to buy than those exposed only to pros — even though both groups had developed positive attitudes toward the product.

Another research team seemingly concurred that people who only see the positive information know consciously that they still need to come up with and analyze the drawbacks of a given decision. In contrast, people who are exposed to both the pros and cons have the impression that the information is complete. Therefore, they don’t need to put forth the effort to generate and then weigh out the cons before they can make a good decision. Somebody has already done that for them!

What This Research Could Mean for White Papers

For technical products and services, it could be argued that white papers and similar technical briefs offer a more objective way to help people make technology-based buying decisions than other types of sales literature.

Some people, however, feel that white papers often fall short of their potential. The topics are uninteresting, the titles are boring, and the content can appear either too superficial or too dull. Instead, technologists need the tools to help them present business cases to other stakeholders within the organization. The group needs to make educated and informed decisions, without having to wade through any hype.

So, how can a white paper do a better job of educating and persuading — without depending on a sales pitch?

Similar to the idea of presenting pros and cons, a white paper can help your audiences prescreen themselves to determine how likely they are to succeed with your offerings. Using this approach, the white paper aims to reduce a customer’s risk of failure by ensuring that potential buyers satisfy certain basic prerequisites.

This is very different from attempting to be persuasive in the typical sense — by aiming to attract anyone you can win over. Rather than trying to convince everyone to buy, you’re trying to convince people NOT to buy if they’re not good candidates for your wares. Your offerings will be ideal for the right parties. But how will people know whether their needs are a good fit?

You aid these people by stating the minimum requirements for using your offerings, including the combinations of products, services, and infrastructures you will and will not support.

For a technology-based product, the minimum infrastructure might entail high-end computing equipment, digital wiring, Internet connectivity, high bandwidth, or other factors. Explicitly stating these types of parameters up front is a common practice in a variety of industries, especially to realistically constrain the obligations of warranties.

Your white paper can therefore explain the product’s features, benefits, and parameters in such a way as to clearly assert: “Please buy this product only if you meet the prerequisites! If the shoes do not fit, we can’t be responsible if they hurt your feet!”

In this mode, you are using an approach that looks out for everyone’s best interests. It’s a conscientious and principled way to persuade others, using transparency and candor.

For those of you who remember songs from the 70′s, there was a tune by Paul Simon called “One Man’s Ceiling is Another Man’s Floor“. The lyrics meant that what one man thinks is stupendous is mere flotsam to another.

A good example of this sentiment applied to white papers is by a blogger name Jack Constantine from Live Journal, who is positively enamored with one he recently found. In his words:

This is probably the best White Paper I’ve read in a very, very long time. I haven’t bothered chasing down sources at all, but I’m deeply impressed.

For those of you to lazy to click through (or afraid of white papers), the article presents it’s thesis succinctly:

“ABSTRACT: This paper attempts to set out some general parameters for coming to grips with a central homeland security concern: the effort to make potential targets invulnerable, or at least notably less vulnerable, to terrorist attack. It argues that protection makes sense only when protection is feasible for an entire class of potential targets and when the destruction of something in that target set would have quite large physical, economic, psychological, and/or political consequences. There are a very large number of potential targets where protection is essentially a waste of resources and a much more limited one where it may be effective.”

Again, I highly recommend reading this.

Now if you follow the link you will see a very plain, text-based white paper, without any special formatting, design, or graphic elements. So my question to you is this:

Can a white paper be truly exceptional today based solely on the readability of its text content? Conversely, can a white paper be considered exceptional if it is absent any special formatting such as side bar callouts, graphics, bullets, etc?

Take a look at the white paper in the link above and let me know.

by Charles Brown, Dynamic Copywriting Blog

If white papers and case studies were siblings, the white paper would be the older, serious-minded member of the family, while the case study would be the younger, creative one who tends to color outside of the lines.

And yet, I would argue they are both members of the same family and are essential tools in making a complex sale.

Imagine you are an executive with a company that needs to buy a software program to solve certain problems. Your job depends on your due diligence and your attention to detail. When you make your presentation to the board, you had better have all your facts together with every possible “i” dotted and “t” crossed.

But that said, buying decisions, even at that level, are based on emotions.

This is why companies that only produce white papers, or companies that produce dry “business school style” case studies are missing the point. Even high-level board members are people too with all the emotions of an individual consumer.

I am constantly urging my clients to include fiction-writing techniques like suspense, characters and plots into their case studies. The more your case study looks (and more importantly feels) like a feature article the better.

In fact if you want an example of what a really effective case study should look like, read the Wall Street Journal’s middle column on its front page for a week. All of these middle column articles are features and many of them are case studies about companies that overcame – or are presently struggling with – serious challenges.

And they almost always include characters, suspense and plots. Stories sell. But dry, emotionless case studies of the type many marketers learned in business school, are a kiss of death. The writers of such case studies might as well have just written another white paper. But then, the white paper format does a far better job of presenting purely factual information.

If you only want to appeal to the buyer’s logical side, you are better off sticking with white papers.

So use the combined power of both “siblings” in your marketing. Let your white papers distill raw information, present the hard facts and persuade by logic and reasoning.

And let your wilder, creative case studies color outside the lines a little bit.

Are white papers most effective when you only state the positive perspective of an issue, or is it more effective to give your reader both the postive and negative perspectives associated with the topic?

This is the question posed by a blog site called the Global Entrepreneur, in a post entitled “How Can a White Paper Become a More Effective Persuasion Tool?”. In the post the blogger states his case by using the following case study example:

One research team developed a series of experiments for products that ranged from cell phones to bicycles to toothpaste to portable DVD players to medicine. In half the tests, consumers were presented with only positive information. In the other half, consumers were given both pros and cons. Here are a few of the discoveries:

– Both one-sided and two-sided messages can increase positive attitudes toward a product.

– Two-sided messages are more effective at instilling consumers with confidence in that attitude.

– People who were exposed to both pros and cons indicated a greater intention to buy than those exposed only to pros — even though both groups had developed positive attitudes toward the product.

Another research team seemingly concurred that people who only see the positive information know consciously that they still need to come up with and analyze the drawbacks of a given decision. In contrast, people who are exposed to both the pros and cons have the impression that the information is complete. Therefore, they don’t need to put forth the effort to generate and then weigh out the cons before they can make a good decision. Somebody has already done that for them!

I have a different spin on this issue. Presenting only positive information makes a white paper come across as a glorified sales pitch. This, as I have stated before, is the cardinal sin of white paper writing, creating the well-known affliction called “fluff marketing”. Once executed, fluff marketing destroys white paper credibilty. You typically don’t see many white papers that only present positive information, for if you did, they would no longer be white papers….they would become either product or ”sell sheets”, or solution guides at that point.

On the other hand, I haven’t seen a white paper that only presents negative information. Negative informaton is essential, especially in a business challenge section, where the downside of either not employing any solution or deploying a competitive solution is presented. Maybe it’s a reflection of our negative-oriented culture where we tend to bask in the delight of seeing others fail, or the motivation associated with the fear in failing. In either case white paper readers respond to the negative aspects of an issue more than they do with a positive one. Unfortunately, a document that presents only negative information becomes product review or critique, not a white paper.

So here’s the bottom line: Both positive and negative information are needed to effectively round out a white paper. Negative information is presented in a “Business Challenge” section, while positive information is presented in a “Solution Advantage” section.

Finally, don’t limit your white paper to only negative or positive information. Present both sides of an issue in your white paper, but make sure you effectively articulate the negative to make your argument for the positive aspects of a proposed solution that much more effective.

The Introduction of your white paper is one of the most important sections of a white paper. In this section, your goal is to present valid background and industry-specific circumstances that are causing the primary business challenge in the white paper.

Validating your business case in the Introduction can be accomplished in three different ways:

1. Industry Specific Analysts/Media/or Spokespeople - such as news articles, websites, white papers, and statistics.

2. Popular Opinion - polls that demonstrate a majority agree with your stated perspective.

3. Mini Case Studies - an actual testimonial or business story that validates your claim.

Items #1 and #2 are fairly straightforward which have used quotes, statistics and graphs, but item #3 is a completely different approach that has a greater impact for the reader.

Mini case studies use preferrable one, but not more than two paragraphs which are taken from a news articles or other industry-specific media that shows how a business or individual was impacted by the circumstances outlined in your Introduction. Typically these mini case studies show the negative impact by a company that either did not have a solution in place, or used a competing solution that was ineffective.

For example, if you were selling a data encryption solution for computer hard drives, a mini case study in the Introduction might read:

“An Idaho Power Company found itself in an uncomfortable situation as it attempted to track down several unscrubbed disk drives that had been sold on eBay. The drives contained confidential employee information, correspondence with customers and memos that discussed proprietary company information. The company said it hired an outside contractor to recycle about 230 SCSI drives. The contractor had sold 84 of those drives to 12 different parties using the online auction website. ”

Adding mini case studies such as this example at the very beginning of your white paper not only builds the case for your subsequent business challenge section, but also differentiates your white paper from the typical crowd of statistical sameness that is all too often used in the Introduction.

You can find stories like this via Google and/or searching industry specific magazines and media. Finding the best case study or news story may not occur after your first search, but if you alter your search terms eventually you will find one that fits your argument.

Try it for your next white paper and you’ll find that your reader will notice and enjoy the change.

Just as a final reminder, if you would like to learn more about how to add value to your white papers, I will be participating in a seminar tomorrow called, “Making Your White Paper Stand Out From the Crowd (Best Practices for Creating White Papers)”.

I will be participating in this seminar along with two additional top white paper writers, which is scheduled for Wednesday, August 13th at 11am Pacific, 2pm Eastern. This session will be hosted by the WhitePaperSource online forum, as part of their monthly white paper seminar curriculum.

For more information or to register for this seminar, please visit this link.

Speak to you then!

Jonathan

The WhitePaperSource monthly newsletter has published one of my recent articles, which is available for viewing and commenting via their website:

Imagine that a business writer is conducting a job search for a new writing position, and she runs across an ad for the perfect job that fits her experience and career goals. But instead of sending in a traditional résumé that lists the usual items: Business Goals, Years of Service, Experience, Awards, Education, and References, she decides to send something completely different to the employer.

In this case the writer sends a multi-page story describing her writing skills that reads like a good novel. This “new résumé” talks about how well she gets along with her fellow employees. It cites specific examples where she “saved the day” for her present employer by using an innovative problem-solving approach. Most importantly, it includes a number of accolades and “attaboys” that she received from her current manager and other senior executives over the past several years. This “new résumé” format closes with a flowery dissertation about her career goals and an emotional appeal for the company to hire her.

How do you think this prospective employer will react when they receive this “new résumé” format?

You’re probably saying to yourself, “What does this have to do with white papers?” Well, a lot in fact.

Businesses Have Expectations
The example above demonstrates how a standard document format plays an important role in facilitating business communication. Business executives expect information to be presented in a uniform and consistent format. If it isn’t, false perceptions increase, business communications break down and are disrupted, resulting in disconnects with a targeted audience.

Just as business managers expect a résumé to embody certain standards, business professionals who are making expensive, critical business decisions expect a white paper to have a certain number of familiar attributes in order to be legitimately interpreted as an authentic “white paper.”

The Possible Options
Unfortunately, the business industry today lacks any formal white paper standards. This absence has left white papers open to a wide range of sizes, scopes, and formats. Today, the only thing that is required is having the name “white paper” affixed to the cover of the document.

What about size? Is a one-page document a white paper? How about two or three pages? Is there a minimum number of pages that constitute a white paper?

How about content? If a paper exclusively talks about a solution, its components, features and what each one does, is this a white paper? Does a white paper have to discuss background or business challenges first or even at all?

What about format? Does a white paper have to be just text? It is possible to create a “graphic” white paper? What percentage of text versus graphics constitutes a white paper? At what point does the inclusion of graphics turn a white paper into a brochure?

So what’s the big deal if we don’t have any white paper standards? It’s the same “deal” as our professional writer in the above example had in sending in that “new résumé.” Your business audience expects to see certain attributes in a white paper when they see that name on the cover. If it doesn’t include a certain number of anticipated components, you will send that reader to a competitor for a white paper that contains the information they need to make their critical business decisions.

So the question is, should there be content standards for white papers just as they have existed for resumes?

The term “value” has been bandied about in marketing circles since the days of the snake oil salesman from the old west.

But while the term has been frequently been applied to price-oriented issues, it has been more difficult to pin down with more esoteric issues such as white paper marketing. For this, the term “value” typically falls into one of two camps:

1. The degree to which the white paper contributes to lead generation, or

2. How quickly the white paper can provide an ROI based on its development cost.

From my perspective, value applies to the end result, namely the degree that a core solution message is read, understood, and assimilated by a target audience. After all, if the white paper isn’t read, its not going to have the opportunity to be a lead generator or provide any measureable ROI.

Adding elements to your white paper that allow core messages to get read and therby add value is one of the key principles of high quality white paper development. Some of these items include elements such as summaries, pull quotes, design, concept graphics, and a host of others. The more of these that you can add, the greater the value.

If you would like to learn more about this and other principals that add white paper value, I invite you to attend an upcoming seminar called, “Making Your White Paper Stand Out From the Crowd (Best Practices for Creating White Papers)”.

I will be attending this seminar along with two additional top white paper writers, which is scheduled for August 13th. This session will be hosted by the WhitePaperSource online forum, as part of their monthly white paper seminar curriculum.

For more information or to register for this seminar, please visit this link.