Do you do these things with your white paper?

When companies decide to use a white paper, they often hastily write a few pages, convert it into a PDF, and then throw it out on the website. Then, a few months later, they start to complain that the white paper isn’t bringing in any results. Surprisingly, the results they have don’t match their expectations.

Here are several questions to answer before you launch into your campaign.

1) Who is my reader?

Try to define your reader as precisely as possible. Understand things related to their role in the company, their title and what that means, their biggest obstacle at work and their role. Know their basic job responsibilities and their daily operations. This information will focus your writing on your reader. Know your audience.

2) What are the pressures on my reader and how does my product help them?

Answering this question positions your product correctly. You can frame your writing in a manner that will have the most impact on the reader. Ignoring this question leads to a lack of focus, which causes the reader  to quickly discard the paper and move on to other things.

3) Is my paper written for them or for me?

Here’s the fastest way to tell. Have someone read the paper and count the number of references of ‘me versus you’ or ‘my product versus your problem.’ The numbers should be skewed towards the customer. Otherwise you are talking too much about yourself.

4) Where in my sales cycle does this paper fall?

This is probably the most difficult for people to answer. Sometimes it’s due to a lack of a funnel, more often it’s the writer isn’t aware of the process. Most white papers are used as lead generation – they are distributed to get people interested in the product. However, white papers are also useful in closing deals, providing additional social proof for a customer, or to justify the economic value of the product. Each of these applications falls into a different part of the sales funnel.

5) What are my intentions for this paper? Or, how will I know if this paper is successful?

If you don’t understand what you expect from the beginning, you’ll never know when you get there.

6) What is the next step I expect the reader to take after this paper is complete?

There are several additional actions you can have the reader take. You can take them to a special landing page, have them contact the sales person, send an email, or download a trial offer. However, you need to be specific in your expectations of the next steps.

Use this questions to help evaluate your use of the paper. You’ll have much greater success in the use of the paper.