Whitepaper Marketing: All you need to know
When you think of a successful marketing tool, memes, TV/ Radio ads, social media marketing, and viral marketing techniques would be at the top of your mind. As exciting and promising as these may be, several other powerful content marketing ways exist, including publishing whitepapers. Let us begin by understanding what a whitepaper is.
What is a Whitepaper?
A whitepaper is an extensively researched report written by a company or a not-for-profit organization to provide a solution for a specific industry problem. Whitepapers are written and used as a marketing tool by several industries. Companies illustrate their knowledge, research, and expertise through facts to structure a whitepaper.
It is like a guide informing readers about a complex business problem and presenting issuing bodies’ thoughts and solutions. Government and NGOs also use Whitepapers to gauge public opinion on new policies and reforms.
Whitepaper as a Marketing tool
With the changing digital scenario, companies are switching to newer, more comprehensive marketing tools like Whitepaper. A whitepaper is an effective tool for B2B (business-to-business) content marketing strategy. Written with a persuasive yet factual tone, a whitepaper is more than just an information piece nowadays.
An accurate and detailed whitepaper increases businesses’ chances to target and capture their market. A well-structured whitepaper communicates facts and in-depth information about a business problem and provides innovative solutions. The business’s nature can affect the whitepaper’s tone, but the structure and writing strategy remain the same.
Intended to educate and inform the target audience, whitepapers are trusted by more than 71% of companies as their most effective content marketing tool.
Tips to keep in mind while writing a whitepaper
A whitepaper should have well-researched information and a compelling narrative to grab the reader’s attention. Written in academic style with over 2500 words, a whitepaper discusses in detail the business problem and provides a solution to the brand’s products or services.
Writing from the B2B perspective, a whitepaper should discuss and promote the company’s products and services to its customers, stakeholders, and media. It strives to provide trusted expertise and guidance through credible research and reasoning.
Here are a few tips to pay attention to:
- Research to give wings to your Whitepaper: Research marks the beginning of any content piece. Comprehensive research sets the tone of the whitepaper. Knowing your customer’s needs and expectations from the business gives leverage and a competitive edge. Make sure you indulge in factual research and findings.
- Magic lies in the topic: The topic of the whitepaper is the first thing that interacts with a customer. Make sure it’s relevant, persuasive, factual, and engaging.
- Introduce like an attention-seeker: Entire readership of your whitepaper lies in the captivating introduction. Pique their interest and provide them with a constructive solution. Structure your whitepaper with an engaging introduction, an organized list of topics, and a persuasive conclusion.
- Keep it persuasive yet professional: Writing from a marketing perspective entails creativity. But while writing a whitepaper, keep in mind the professional tone of writing to sound more reliable and factual.
- Make it visually rich: Include infographics like charts, photos, graphs, pie charts, video links, etc., to make the content more captivating and grab the reader’s attention.
- Proofread your whitepaper over and over for better readability and easy understanding.
Whitepaper and Business Growth
A whitepaper is excellent marketing collateral that indicates your authority over the chosen niche. Companies, Governments, Universities, and Individuals have realized the benefits of publishing whitepapers to address a business problem and propose a solution.
A whitepaper is an effective and potential content tool providing solutions to the problems faced by the majority. Let us have a look over some of the several benefits whitepaper allow in inbound marketing and Content strategy:
- Generating Leads: Generating leads is the most popular benefit of using a whitepaper and helps your business grow and expand. A Whitepaper is a perfect mix of educative content in the form of long articles and marketing material, such as a corporate brochure. This perfect duo of learning and persuasion renders it a competitive edge over other marketing tools.
- Building Thought Leadership: Publishing a well-structured and researched whitepaper build a positive brand image with your readers. This positions your brand as a trusted advisor and a subject matter expert in the field, enhancing the reader’s rapport with your brand. Try to accommodate a small content piece about your brand’s thoughts on the problem and how its products can eliminate the problem at the end of the whitepaper to increase curiosity among the readers.
- Accommodating original research and expressing relevant facts: In the age of duplicate internet content, stand out by creating original content. Readers or possible leads appreciate original, relevant content that addresses their pain points. Gain a competitive edge by researching and creating compelling content.
- These are some practical ways your whitepapers can help achieve business growth. Follow these methods to increase your online presence, spread expertise, generate leads and conversions, and, most importantly, build trust with your readers or potential customers.
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