Using White Papers to Market Your Business…

Using white papers to market your business © Jeff Miles

White papers are authoritative reports and are used for a variety of reasons.

Sometimes governments publish white papers to outline and further define a particular policy or an intent to pass a new law. Businesses use them to educate their customers and sometimes to collect leads and get new prospects. Professors and scientists write them to establish themselves as authorities in their field.

One of the most famous white papers was the Winston Churchill White Paper of 1922 in which he addressed the conflicts in Palestine. Another famous white paper was In Place of Strife, which argued to abolish the Indian Act in Canada and recognize First State as the same as all other minorities in Canada.

White papers have come to be associated more and more with marketing documents issued by businesses. Commercial white papers like these highlight the benefits of a particular product or a particular solution that the company can provide. These white papers are viewed as credible sources of information and are not sales pieces.

When using white papers to market your business you have to be persuasive yet, avoid using sales language. Be careful though, from a marketing perspective you will highlight the positive benefits and not mention or minimize any negative information.

In the opening pages of the white paper you should focus on the reader's needs otherwise they won't keep reading. You have to know what your readers are concerned about and zero in on that. Then you should define the problem that you are solving. After that, give an overview of the history of the problem. Then you can propose the solutions that your product or service will provide. Remember that the tone needs to be professional and should not read like a sales letter.

There are copywriters who specialize in writing white papers.

To ensure that your white paper has all the necessary elements, you should seek out a copywriter. If your business is a high-tech business you can find copywriters who are also technical writers.

 

A copywriter like this understands the marketing perspective while also understanding the technical material and knows how to present it.

Just because a white paper has to be professional doesn't mean it has to be boring. A white paper copywriter knows how to do this.

Once the white paper is finished you can offer it as a free report to your mailing list to help attract new customers to sign up for your list or as a giveaway to your current customers. You can send it to media outlets and also to colleagues. A white paper is a professional document and helps the image of your company. Your company will come across as one that is serious about research and not at all as a fly by night operation if, you add white papers to your marketing plan. Used correctly, you can even position yourself as a leader in your field through white papers.

(For more information about white papers, read Writing White Papers by Michael A. Stelzner).