White Paper Pundit

Why does it seem that every business writer today advertises themselves as a white paper expert? As the number of these so-called “experts” floods the Internet, so does the amount of misinformation, leading to greater buyer confusion and less effective white papers.

I submit for the court of public opinion one ‘case in point’: a blog called “Article Writing” on the domain: persuasivesalecopy.com. The post is called, surprising enough, “How to Write White Papers”, where the blogger provides his interpretation of the components of an effective white paper:

Introduction. This usually consists of a summary that quickly shows the reader what the document is all about.

Background. Here, you lay the groundwork for the solution by detailing the problem.

Solution. After giving the background into the issue, propose your solution.

Advertisement. Since most white papers are created as marketing materials, this is the section where you mention your specific products and services, which tie in tightly with your solution. You have to do this after presenting the main body, lest turn off readers by selling too soon.

Conclusion. Conclude strongly by providing the gist of what youve expounded on.

What’s the problem with this perspective? Here’s mine:

It is easy to assume that a writer with a domain called “persuasive sale copy” will have a tendency to look at white papers as “sales documents”. Unfortunately, this perspective has lead to an abundance of short (2-4 page) white papers with overt sales messages scattered across the Internet, and fostered the idea that white papers are slightly different from brochures. These short white papers typically mention a solution or product by name, which is one of the leading problems that most business executives have with many white papers.

One of the best surveys on this issue was taken last year courtesy of Information Week Magazine, called “How to Maximize the Use of White Papers In Your B2B Marketing and Sales Process”. The survey interviewed over 500 business and IT professionals who were asked several questions to determine their perspectives on white papers.

One of the best questions in the survey that stood out was, “In your opinion, what makes a great white paper?“

As you can see from their responses, the second most frequent answer was “Minimal Marketing”, meaning that business executives don’t want white papers with overt sales and marketing messages. As Jack Webb used to say in the old television show Dragnet, “Just the Facts, Maam”. When it comes to white papers, business decision makers want factual, education-related information to make informed decisions.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion when it comes to white papers. But at some point, there have to be clear lines between white papers and sales documents. When those lines get blurred, the quality of white papers usually suffers which translates into less effective lead generation tools.

That’s my perspective, what’s yours?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 10:19 am and is filed under WP Opinions, White Paper Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.