White Paper Pundit

A frequently asked question of many “first-time” white paper marketers, is “How many pages should I have for my first white paper?”

The answer to this question depends on what you are trying to achieve. Is it at a macro level, such as establishing thought leadership in your industry? Or is it at a more micro level such as educating your audience to a new product, campaign, or strategy?

Is your audience throughly educated with regard to the topic, or are they new and basically unfamiliar with the issue?

Does your audience consist of technical professionals that seek detailed information or are they more business oriented that want bottom-line facts?

All of these issues have a bearing on the number of pages you will need to deliver as part of your ultimate white paper. Here are some guidelines that you can use to understand the relationship between white paper size and audience effectiveness:

The Bear Minimum – 4 Pages – Contains:

The Situation – One Page – (An Introdution that educates the reader on key background issues pertaining to the topic).
The Challenge – One Page – (No more than three key business issues that are related to the problem).
The Solution/Result – One Page – (How to resolve the challenge by the application of a subscribed solution and the benefits that are gained).
The Conclusion – One Page – (A brief summary of the main points in the white paper and bottom line benefits achieved).

The White Paper “Gold Standard” – 6 to 8 Pages Contains the “Bear Minimum” Plus:

An Executive Summary – One Page – (A synopsis of the entire white paper)
A Case Study – One or Two Pages – (An example of a customer’s experience before and after the solution)

The “Full Sized” White Paper – 10 to 12 Pages Contain the “Gold Standard” Plus:

An additional page to accommodate a greater number of Business Challenges
An additional page in the Solution area to address the challenges

Finally, shorter doesn’t automatically mean better. The way that text-based information is formatted, and the use of visual aids such as graphic elements plays a major role in how the white paper allows for the reader to grasp key elements.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 20th, 2008 at 5:13 pm and is filed under 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.