How NOT to Format a White Paper!
One of the things that I have been passionate about is the use of formatting elements designed to grab executive attention and deliver critical business messages in today’s white papers.
My reasoning is simple: Keep it simple and straightforward (K.I.S.S.) if you want your critical business messages to be clearly understood by your reader!
The limited amount of time that today’s busy executive has set aside for reading complex information limits their attention span. If your most important business solution messages are buried deep inside pages of left flush paragraphs that require more of their valuable time, then you are making it harder for that reader to quickly understand those bottom-line points of interest.
Over the years, I’ve tried to show you examples of what you CAN do to format your white papers for this ‘short-attention span’ reader. Here’s an example of what you SHOULD NOT do that limits that ability to attract executive attention. The paper is entitled “Who Really Knows Enterprise Data?”, by Chuck Backus, the Chief Technology Officer at Qbase, Inc.
Setting aside the issue of white paper graphics, the formatting mistakes in this white paper include:
1. No Summaries - either Executive or Concluding Summaries making it difficult to deliver important ‘walk-away’ messages.
2. No Sidebar Callouts/Pull Quotes - the paper is devoid of any sidebar white space to accommodate these essential elements.
3. Lack of Section Headers – that would separate content about business challenges from key solution messages.
4. Insufficient Length – the paper is about 3.5 pages, hardly enough space to effectively educate an uninformed reader to all of the issues surrounding the topic.
5. No Shaded Text Boxes – the skim reader has to read the entire document to understand the bottom line message, something that hey are unlikely to do.
6. A Lack of Basic Formatting- no use of bold, italics, underlining, bullets, etc make the document very boring.
This is a great example of a misplaced resource that has taken on the responsible for white paper writing. I’m sure this CTO is a great subject matter expert that knows a lot about his company, industry, and solution. Without an effective way to present those nuggets of wisdom via a well formatted white paper, his chances of getting reader attention become significantly reduced.
White papers like these are one of the reasons I started the newsletter, “Short Attention Marketing Tips”, to help today’s white paper writers add these essential ‘attention-grabbing’ elements so that key B2B messages will be quickly and clearly received. If you’d like to learn more about how to use elements like the ones I’ve listed above to make your white papers more effective, and avoid mistakes like this white paper, then my newsletter is for you.
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