Common Mistakes When Creating a White Paper

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When creating content for white papers, authors step on the same rake. And these mistakes are quite critical: even one of them is enough to make the White Paper completely useless.

Self-praise

A white paper, although part of the arsenal of marketing tools, is not a type of advertising brochure or commercial proposal.

What does a reader expect from a buy a motorcycle owner mailing list white paper? Comprehensive objective information, useful advice, help. But not aggressive praise of a product or brand: such intonations immediately repel.

The information is poorly developed.

White Paper is a document that is expected to contain detailed, deeply researched information. In order to maintain the required level of quality, preliminary research, careful analysis, and search for solutions are necessary, but marketers do not always have time for this, so they get superficial texts, full of “water” and random data pulled from the Internet. Such a white paper will not improve the company's image.

Spend enough time collecting information, finding reliable sources, studying them painstakingly, systematizing information - in general, everything that journalists are taught. WP should become an authoritative source of knowledge for your target audience, and this authority must be earned.

Ugly design

In White Paper, of course, the content is the main thing, but the form is not in the last place. High-quality design not only pleases the eye, but also helps to highlight important fragments of the text, making it more readable. Infographics of various types, diagrams, illustrations, and schemes are appropriate in information guides.

Lacks narrative

It is hard for the reader to perceive dry facts and figures. Any White Paper, be it the results of research, problem-solution, background, etc. is a story.

There is a proven scheme for engaging readers:

we define the problem;

we outline solutions;

We provide successful and illustrative examples of each solution.

Too much theory

Many white papers remain theoretical collections rather than practical guides. Especially backgrounders.

For example, a huge amount of diverse content has already been created on the issue of involving employees in the work process: books and articles on how to form a team, why it is good for a company when people are rooting for a common cause, and bad when they are simply working off their salary, etc. But there are practically no recommendations anywhere on what a manager should do: how exactly to motivate employees, what algorithm to follow.

Ways to Promote White Paper
The information guide is distributed through the following channels:

through landing pages: the user, by subscribing to the newsletter, receives WP;

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through announcements (on the corporate website, in the blog);

via email;

through contextual advertising in search engines and targeted advertising in social networks;

sent directly to journalists and bloggers;

handed out at product presentations;

on all these channels simultaneously.

A quality white paper has “viral” potential: content that is truly useful and important is something that people are willing to share with each other.

Even the most unique and innovative product is useless if the company cannot sell it. One of the advertising and promotion tools is White Paper, which tells about the product or service as accurately and honestly as possible. It is noteworthy that white papers are effective in any industry, from infobusiness to spare parts trade.