Sound tips for producing white papers that resonate
Unless you are completely ecstatic with the white papers your firm produces and the results they deliver, you’ll want to check out “Reengineering the White Paper,” a 3-part series published by The Bloom Group consultancy that offers a prescription for how to produce more compelling white papers and ensure they get in the right hands.
Part 1 of the series focuses on “Developing a Compelling Point of View,” and offers a prescription for ensuring that your white papers actually say something interesting and have a “novel point of view,” as Bloom principals Bob Buday and Tim Parker put it.
Most white papers, the authors contend, “are treated as writing projects, not as structured initiatives to develop a compelling point of view. Their emphasis is on phrasing an argument, not on building it.”
The key to developing a paper with a point of view is to sketch out your argument by addressing a series of issues, including: the target problem, shortcomings of current solutions, an overview and detailed explanation of your new solution, barriers to adopting the new solution and how to overcome them, followed by a call to action.
While I completely agree with that approach, I was a bit taken aback by the insinuation that companies aren’t already following a similar approach when they produce white papers. In my experience, that’s pretty much exactly the tack most companies want to take – and they get no argument from me.
Buday and Parker go on to tout the importance of concrete evidence to back up assertions in the white paper, with the most forceful being customer case studies. “Several surveys have shown that what managers value most in white papers is learning about how other companies solve problems,” the authors say.
I couldn’t agree more and this is an area where many companies do indeed fall down. Lining up customers to reference in white papers typically seems to be an after-thought. It’s a topic I always bring up on a project kick-off call, and one that typically results in silence or low groans on the other end of the line.
Yes, it can be a chore to get customers to agree to play ball, but the payoff is enormous. If you play your cards right, from a single customer phone interview you could not only get valuable content for your white paper, but a standalone case study, numerous customer quotes for various marketing materials, perhaps even a podcast. It’s true that some companies have strict rules about not appearing to endorse products but most don’t. Generally, IT folks are more than happy to opine about their vendor choices and enjoy seeing themselves quoted, especially when their results have been positive. The exposure puts the IT exec in a positive light as much as it does your company.
And exposure is exactly what you’ll both get if you follow the advice in part 2 of the Bloom Group paper, which discusses various ways to use social media to spread the word about your white paper to the right people. Go beyond the bloggers, the authors advise, and come up with op-ed pieces drawn from the original ideas in your white papers that you can pitch to the online editors of leading business publications.
You can even build web sites around the point of view represented in your white paper to generate an online community of people interested in the topic. “This means a white paper marketing campaign never needs to end—as long as the service or product that it supports is still being sold,” the authors say. Food for thought indeed.
Part 3 in the series has yet to be published but will focus on the biggest obstacles to producing and marketing white papers in the manner the authors describe. I’m guessing time and resources will be two big obstacles, but will keep an eye out for the last installment to make sure.
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