What is a white paper?
A white paper is an in-depth report or guide about a specific topic and the problems that surround it. It
is meant to educate readers and help them to understand and solve an issue.
In the world of marketing, a white paper is a long-form piece of content, similar to an eBook. The
difference between the two is that white papers tend to be more technical and in depth. The facts and
opinions expressed in white papers are often backed by original research or statistics that the publisher
has aggregated from reliable sources. They often include charts, graphs, tables, and other ways of
visualizing data.
The term "white papers" originated in England as government-issued documents. One famous example
is the Churchill White Paper, commissioned by Winston Churchill in 1922.
Today, the term is most commonly applied to “deep dive” style publications. Businesses — especially in
the consulting, financial, or B2B sectors — use them to communicate their organization’s philosophy on
a topic, make the case for the superiority of their product, or simply to present research findings related
to their field.
White papers are no less editorial than other forms of content, but the depth of research lends them an
authoritative tone. For this reason, they are good candidates for promoting thought leadership.
Who uses white papers?
In the past, white papers were most often produced by governmental agencies, NGOs, think tanks,
consultancies, and financial institutions that needed to present the findings of their ongoing research in
a succinct format.
With the widespread growth and adoption of content marketing (the creation and distribution of nonpromotional content intended to generate interest in a business and its offerings), white papers have
become more common in other industries as well. Any organization that engages in content marketing
can benefit from producing white papers.
White paper content marketing cartoon
Their popularity across industries is due to their versatility. While all white papers have certain elements
in common, a B2B startup will use them differently than a large consultancy, and both will use them
differently from a governmental organization.
Types of white papers
There are numerous types of white papers a business might publish.
One type is the backgrounder, in which the benefits of their product, service, or methodology are
explained in depth.
Another is a problem-solution approach, which walks the audience through the solution to a problem
that is common in their industry.
Other types of white papers simply present a summary of useful statistics and information about the
state of a particular field or industry. An example of this would be the Content Marketing Benchmarks
Budgets and Trends from the Content Marketing Institute.
Whatever type you produce, the contents of your white paper should serve to showcase your expertise
in a given area. Your audience is searching for information, and will look for an authoritative source — a
business they perceive as having in-depth knowledge of a subject.
The contents of your white paper should serve to showcase your expertise in a given area.
The purpose of a white paper
White papers enable you to build trust with your audience. They show readers that you're reliable,
experienced, and adept in a given domain. When potential customers search for information to help
them understand a problem or opportunity they're facing, and you provide them with a quality white
paper that helps, they'll turn to you again in the future.
This perception of authority can also serve to boost sales in an organization. More than half the
respondents to the Eccolo Media B2B Technology Content Survey reported having read a white paper
before making a buying decision. Buyers prefer to purchase from vendors they trust and see as experts
in their field.
Finally, white papers are extremely useful for lead generation. The Content Preferences Survey from
DemandGen found that more than three-fourths of survey respondents were willing to exchange
personal information for a white paper — more than for eBooks, case studies, analyst reports, podcasts,
or infographics.
With all of these potential benefits, utilizing white papers in your content marketing strategy can
produce great results.
More than three-fourths of survey respondents were willing to exchange personal information for a
white paper.
2. White paper examples
When you think about white papers, you probably think of PDF articles with thousands of words. But
times are changing and so is the way we produce and consume content.
Nowadays, every marketing collateral (including white papers) needs to be well written, well structured,
and designed for every type of visitor.
Here are some great examples of white papers doing exactly that.
White paper example - CodinGameWhat Developers Want - CodinGame
This unique one-pager presenting findings from the Developers at Work Survey demonstrates how a
white paper should be done. The animated, interactive data charts show off just what's possible with
our embed feature.
Open white paper
White paper example - BDO GDPR
Privacy and the GDPR - BDO
This well-produced special edition produced by BDO and creative agency Monte Media does an
incredible job of turning a conventionally dull topic into a piece of content that's engaging and comes to
life.
Open white paper
White paper example - content-marketing-strategyBuilding and Applying a Content Marketing Strategy Foleon
This white paper is a step by step guide to succeeding with content marketing.
See more white paper examples
or
Start creating white papers with Foleon
3. How to write a white paper
Starting a white paper can be a daunting task. So much information and research are required that it’s
easy to get lost in that portion of the work and let it become a roadblock to actually putting things on
paper.
Hard at work writing
Even after the writing itself has begun, white papers are tricky to do well. Simply listing statistics without
some form of narrative arc is a surefire way to keep your white paper from ever being read. Luckily,
following a few simple guidelines can help keep a white paper engaging and make the process of
finishing it much easier.
Pick the right topic
This might seem obvious, but without a topic that resonates with your audience, your white paper is not
likely to be read. When choosing the right topic, you should consider three important criteria:
It should be something you are qualified to write about.
It should be something your audience is interested in.
It should address a topic around which little content has been written already and thus fill a "content
gap."
Naturally, finding a topic that brings points 1 and 2 together is vital. White papers are meant to be
authoritative pieces of content based upon the author's experience and expertise, so it's important to
write about what you know. But you must match this to the interests of your readers if you're to
produce something they'll be eager to engage with.
Don't be afraid to crowdsource information from within your organization. If the topic of a white paper
is related to engineering, why not interview an engineer or have them look over what you’ve written?
The same goes for other roles. Crowdsourcing knowledge means having the power of a true expert in
many fields.
Finally, filling a "content gap" will help your white paper get noticed and gain traction. By addressing a
topic no one else has written about definitely, your white paper will be more likely to rank highly on
search engines and even be featured elsewhere on the web.
Pro tip: You can even ask your audience what they would like to see in your upcoming white paper.
You'll get ideas, make your topic more relevant, and you'll generate buzz around your content even
before it's finished. In fact, we used the same method for this guide!
white paper promotion slack
Define your audience
Defining your audience goes hand in hand with choosing the right topic. But moving beyond your
audience's interests, it’s important to think of the kinds of people who will be reading your white paper.
Are they fellow professionals, well versed in your subject?
Are they likely to be reading something they are relatively unfamiliar with?
Knowing this helps establish the voice you should use and whether industry-specific jargon is
appropriate. It also narrows the scope of the research you should include. It’s always important to
ensure all arguments are logically sound and well supported, but the stats and information presented
should be relevant to the specific audience you're targeting.
Part of defining an audience in the age of Google centers around how people will find the white paper.
This means thinking about which platforms specific personas use for research and what search terms
they put in. Not only will this help a white paper get found by the right people, but it is useful when
outlining the white paper later on.
Optimizing for keywords is important, but remember to write for people, not for search engines. Google
is getting better all the time at understanding and matching search intent with relevant content.
White paper SEO cartoon
Wrap it in a great intro and outro
Like with all good writing, your intro should serve to captivate your audience, pique their curiosity, and
entice them to read further. It's good practice to provide a brief summary of what they'll find in the
white paper and to emphasize exactly what benefit they'll get from reading it.
Your outro is equally important, especially if you're using your white paper to market your products or
services. You should avoid any self-promotion in the body of your white paper, but you can certainly
mention your relevant product offerings and how to obtain them — perhaps using a compelling call-toaction — at the end.
Pack it with value
White papers are not meant to be advertisements for your company, and you should avoid any overt
promotion. Instead, you should provide plenty of useful information that will be valuable to readers
even if they don't become customers. Emphasizing value is the key to a great white paper that will get
shared and widely read.
Remember, white papers serve to showcase your expertise as a company or brand in a given field. Your
readers should come away having learned something useful and with the impression that you're a
reliable source of expert information. As pointed out earlier, generating this kind of reputation will lead
to greater business success as buyers are more likely to purchase from companies they trust.
Emphasizing value is the key to a great white paper that will get shared and widely read.
Don’t be scared of multiple drafts
No first draft is ever a finished work. Elizabeth Bishop, the renowned and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet,
wrote seventeen drafts of her poem “One Art” before it was completed. It’s now considered one of the
best villanelles ever written.
While a white paper may not need seventeen drafts, there will undoubtedly be points missed and logical
inconsistencies in the first version. Finishing a draft, stepping away, and coming back to it with a fresh
mind is the best way to ensure quality. If there’s another good writer at your company, getting another
set of eyes on it is even better.
Keep it interesting
White papers should be more detailed and thorough than blog posts or eBooks. This may cause them to
be more dry and formal, but this doesn't mean they have to be boring.
A trap that white papers easily fall into is using statistics as a crutch and not maintaining interest
throughout. Technical as it may be, you still want your white paper to be read. To make this happen, it’s
useful to borrow techniques from fiction and creative nonfiction writers.
There are lots of resources for learning about a plot, but generally, it has five parts, as illustrated in
Freytag’s pyramid:
White paper plot design
These won’t always correspond perfectly in a factual piece of writing like a white paper, but they can get
you thinking about how to create and hold interest. Use those ideas to keep readers’ attention until the
very end.
4. Mistakes a white paper should avoid
There are some pitfalls and common mistakes to avoid when writing a white paper. Each of these has
the potential to make an otherwise stellar piece of content into a wasted effort. Here's a brief list of
things to look out for.
Sounding like a sales pitch
When white papers are used as part of a marketing campaign where businesses showcase their product,
a common mistake is to make them sound like a sales pitch. Don't let this happen; it will immediately
turn your readers off. In a white paper, your audience is seeking unbiased, educational information that
will help them, not try to persuade them. Save the sales pitches for other content, like product
brochures.
Lack of adequate research
As previously mentioned, white papers should be well-researched documents. It’s true that conducting
lengthy original research may be outside a marketing team’s budget, but merely including a few stats
from the first page of a Google search simply won’t cut it.
Aggregating statistics and searching through scholarly work may take time, but the result will be worth
it. For your white paper to achieve its intended effect, It’s important to establish your content as an
authoritative source to which the audience would want to return.
Poor design
Bad white paper design
We'll go in-depth into design in the next section, but it's worth mentioning here. The written content of
a white paper is what matters most, but neglecting design is a big mistake. Designmakes your salient
points stand out and helps the reader understand what they're reading. Using visuals (like images,
videos, charts, and graphs) that support your arguments is crucial. Check out some white paper
examples built with Foleon to see examples from clients of ours who have an eye for design.
Not telling a story
White paper story cartoon
White papers are informative and factual. We’ve driven that point home already. That doesn’t mean
they should be boring. Backgrounders, problem-solution white papers, and research findings all have a
story to tell, and the reader is far less likely to make it through the entire piece without some form of
narrative to keep them engaged. Setting up a problem, elaborating on a solution, and including some
type of success story is a proven formula for making any type of content more story-like.
Leaving it abstract
Because most white papers will involve sharing research findings, it can be easy to leave them in the
realm of theory without explaining how to utilize those findings on a practical level. This is true more of
backgrounders but can be the case with problem-solution white papers as well.
Lisa Simpson
A good example is the abundant amount of content on employee engagement. Many B2B cases have
covered the importance of employee engagement and the pitfalls of getting it wrong. Too little of this
content goes further and gives concrete examples of what companies in specific verticals can do to
alleviate the problem.
5. White paper format
Before addressing anything else, we first need to talk about the format you'll use.
A picture is no longer worth a thousand words. Today, its value is in the number of eyeballs it can keep
glued to your content and the ratio of those viewers it convinces to click through to other sections of
your website.
Your carefully crafted copy and painstakingly gathered statistics won’t earn those clicks on their own.
The average human attention span is now less than that of a goldfish. And with 3.3 million Facebook
posts, 448,800 tweets, and 149,513 emails sent every minute, competition for your readers' attention is
intense, to say the least. Long form mediums like the white paper need serious sparkle just to compete.
You'll need more than just black text on a white background. Your design choices regarding things like
color, typography, and the use of visuals will play a prominent role in the success of your white paper.
Here are a few important principles to keep in mind for creating a quality white paper design.
Keeping mobile visitors in mind
More than 54% of internet traffic is now mobile, and web designers have adapted to this trend by
creating what's known as responsive design. Before this, web pages simply scaled according to the size
of a user's screen, retaining their layout. Naturally, this made most pages both unreadable and
unnavigable on smaller devices.
Responsive design solved this by allowing elements on a page to rearrange, resize, or be completely
hidden from view in response to the size of the screen. When a smaller screen is used, font-sizes
increase, buttons become larger for touch screens, and the entire layout adjusts to make the page
mobile-friendly.
But while this has become standard for web designers in a mobile-first world, producers of other digital
content assets like white papers have generally not adapted. Surprisingly, most companies that offer
white papers and eBooks on their websites still use PDF format.
PDF White paper example - Not responsive
The problem with PDFs is that they're unreadable on smaller screens. They're fixed-layout documents —
they can't adjust or adapt to different screen sizes. Reading them on a mobile device requires excessive
zooming and panning around, which is a terrible experience for users.
Start creating white papers with Foleon
Mobile traffic is ever-increasing. If you decide to produce your white paper as a PDF, you risk excluding
this vast segment of your audience. It's a design mistake that will cost you views and conversions.
Responsive white paper example - NGData
See examples of responsive white papers
Emphasis and readability
Because in-depth white papers contain lots of text and visuals, as well as supplementary information like
footnotes, figures, logos and copyright info, the danger is that your design becomes cluttered. Clutter
accumulates before you realize it. You may choose a clean layout and color scheme, to begin with, but
as you continue to add content, things can get crowded. Often, you must make tough choices about
what not to include to strike the right balance between completeness and readability.
Good design makes bold choices and prioritizes important information. These choices and priorities
affect layout, placement, color, font size, page order and more. Use these design elements to create
emphasis on vital pieces of information. But be careful. Emphasizing too many pieces of information —
or too few — will cause readers to struggle to discern what’s important.
Good design makes bold choices and prioritizes important information.
Have a look at what's trending
Bold fonts and color schemes are in. If you look at the hippest tech companies right now, you’ll see lots
of pastels and color gradients. Of course, all that might change tomorrow. But still, a great way to get
inspiration when you're just starting is to take a look at what design trends are currently popular.
U2's frontman, Bono, sings "every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief." And he's right. Good
designers are always drawing inspiration from other designers. The best way to create a successful
design is to spend a lot of time looking at what others are doing successfully. Use Evernote, or a
bookmarking service to save white papers and other exceptional designs that you encounter for future
reference.
Don’t know where to start looking? Dribbble and Behance are two networks where great designers
share their latest work. They consistently have material that’s on the cutting edge of what’s trending.
Design for your audience
While trends may inspire you, it's more important to align your design with your audience and your
subject matter.
Will you be addressing suit-and-tie financial executives or blue-collar management at construction
firms?
Are you writing about changes to privacy regulations in the tech industry, or about the effects of farming
on biodiversity?
White paper format and design
Your design should support and strengthen your topic. The colors and typography should be consistent
with what you're writing about, the tone you've chosen, and the audience you've defined. Writing a
white paper for a funeral parlor? Hot-pink headlines might be a bad choice. Taking color psychology into
account can help you achieve the look and feel you're after.
Brush up on the basics
No prior knowledge of design? No problem.
If you don’t have a designer working with you in-house, you can still teach yourself the basics of design
and check work against those principles. A big part of the battle is knowing the search terms that will get
you the knowledge you need. Luckily, good primers on basic graphic design are abundant.
After doing a bit of reading, start creating. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. If you create a white
paper and don’t like the design, try to pinpoint what it is about the design that needs improvement.
After the reading you’ve done, you’ll have the tools to critique your own work and the work of others.
This is the best way to improve and create well designed white papers.
Choosing the right tools
At Foleon, we pride ourselves on providing a tool that makes creating responsive digital white papers
easy, even for those with no prior graphic design experience.
Choosing a tool like this, which takes the guesswork out of design, will shorten the time it takes for you
to produce great white papers. There is a vast ecosystem of tools out there, each of which is geared
toward a different purpose and skillset. The right one will enable you as both a designer and a writer.
See how you can scale engaging content creation.
6. Gating your white papers
For most companies, lead generation and growing lists of contacts for the sales and marketing teams are
important activities. Attracting visitors to your site and offering them something of value in exchange for
their contact information is a proven method for filling the top of your funnel.
But for this type of inbound marketing to work, two things are needed: exceptional content that visitors
are eager to acquire, and a method for gating (or walling off) that content behind a form.
Gated white paper
Many brands skip the first part and move straight to the second. They quickly produce something
mediocre and put it behind a form. This might work in the short term for generating lists, but keep in
mind that users expect more from content they “pay” for. The quality of your gated content serves as an
indicator of the quality of your brand will affect your ability to turn prospects into customers down the
road.
So how do white papers fit into lead generation efforts? They may act either as lead generation tools
themselves or can be used to direct readers to other parts of a website that captures lead information.
What is gated content?
Walling expert content off behind a form designed to capture personal details is one of the most
common techniques for generating leads. Gated content is any content that a reader cannot access until
after they input some personal information, such as their name and email address. White papers and
eBooks are two of the most common types of content used for this purpose.
Typically, a company will create a landing page that includes a description — and perhaps a preview —
of what information readers can expect to find inside. The landing page will include a form for visitors to
enter their personal information and thus gain access. After entering the required information, visitors
are either presented with a download button or receive the gated content in their inbox.
There are plenty of variations on this formula, but the basic technique of providing “free” content and
asking readers to “pay” by providing their personal information has been very important part of content
marketing for a long time.
To gate or not to gate
While gating your best content is great for lead generation, there are some drawbacks as well. Walling
off your white paper will mean it gets read by fewer people as not everyone is willing to give away their
contact details.
An open-access white paper will be read by a wider audience. If it’s in-depth and authoritative, it may
also do well organically and improve your search rankings. Gating it behind a form, however, will
prevent search engines from indexing it.
It’s important to consider what the primary goal of your white paper is: disseminating information and
gaining brand awareness or generating leads. If the latter is more important, then gating is a great
option.
Semi-gating
Another variation on gated content — and one that’s growing in popularity — is semi-gating. This can
give you the best of both worlds by allowing your white paper to reach a wider audience while still
retaining the ability to generate leads.
Semi-gating gives readers a taste of your white paper without requiring them to give up any info. You
can, for example, make the first few pages of your white paper open access, and then make visitors fill in
a form to read more. This works well because digital content is so abundant and brands must offer more
for free or risk visitors turning elsewhere.
Allow your white paper to reach a wider audience while still retaining the ability to generate leads.
Offering more content for free also builds trust and brand loyalty among your readers. Let them know
your white papers are valuable and helpful, and they’ll be more interested in giving you their personal
information. You’re also more likely to gain qualified leads if readers have a chance to sample your
white paper before converting.
Of course, semi-gating doesn’t mean giving away your entire white paper. Typically, there’s at least one
section of the white paper that is exclusive to those who go through the gating process. Semi-gating can
help reach a wider audience, build trust and loyalty, increase lead quality, and still help you capture the
contact information you need.
Using social login
There’s a concept in marketing and design known as friction. Friction is anything that causes the sales
process to slow down. It’s like a roadblock that makes it less likely prospects will convert, sign up,
download, or purchase. It can be caused by a multitude of things including poor design, confusing
navigation, subpar copy, too many form fields, and more.
Your ability to generate leads with a gated white paper will largely depend on how much friction is
involved. Asking for more information than you really need is one common and unnecessary source of
friction that can lead to losing potential readers.
The entire field of conversion rate optimization is geared toward removing friction — or making user
interactions easier. CRO specialists make forms simpler, navigation more intuitive, and design CTAs that
are more likely to be clicked. Optimizing your landing page for conversions is a vital part of any lead
generation campaign.
But the reality is, asking for personal information will always be an obstacle for a large number of
people. So the key here is to make the process easy and noninvasive as possible.
An excellent way to do this is by using social login to gate your white paper instead of a traditional form.
This allows visitors to access your white paper with just one click.
White paper social login
Not only does this dramatically reduce friction, but it also gives you more information about your leads.
LinkedIn and Facebook integrations can provide a user’s name and email address, but also their work
history, educational history, skills, interests, and more.
Create white papers and eBooks that integrate with your favorite CRM or marketing automation
platform.
Get started
7. White paper distribution
So, after following the tips in this guide, you create an engaging, informative white paper that inspires
readers to take action and deepen their relationship with your company. You gate it with social login to
capture readers’ information and gain valuable insight into the interests and demographics of your
consumer base.
Now, you publish it on your website, sit back, and wait for your Pulitzer.
Only, the traffic never comes… Where did you go wrong? You didn't think about your white paper
distribution strategy.
The importance of distribution
The internet isn’t the same as it once was. Thanks to the massive amount of content produced every day
for and an ever-growing number of channels, it’s a lot harder to get noticed. Unless you’re Gabriel
García Márquez back from the dead, simply writing something and posting it online doesn’t guarantee
readership.
To get eyes on your white paper, you need to be smart not only about writing and design but
distribution as well. Some content marketing thought leaders go so far as to claim that you should spend
20% of your time on content creation and 80% on promotion.
white paper distribution
Distribution is all about identifying traction channels where your ideal customers consume content and
making your white paper highly visible on those channels. Depending on the audience you defined in the
beginning, some will be more relevant for you than others.
Social promotion
If you’re at all familiar with marketing, advertising, or online media, chances are you’re aware of how
important social media is to visibility. People from all walks of life, and from all over the world, are on
Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Ensuring that you share your content regularly on these platforms will
give you a solid base of promotion on which to build.
But it's not enough to simply write a post and tweet it into the void. Try to find communities like
Facebook and LinkedIn groups where your target audience is likely to congregate. Search for relevant
hashtags on Twitter and Instagram. Find subreddits relevant to your industry.
Once you’ve found your audience, it’s much easier to connect with them. If you contribute to these
spaces regularly, you’ll have an easier time keeping their attention and distributing your white paper.
Influencers and earned media
Public relations isn’t what it once was; influencer marketing has taken its place as the way to get noticed
by the masses.
These days, influencers — people with large, engaged followings on social media and email — are better
equipped to amplify your content than traditional journalists. They play a growing role in shaping public
opinion and even in setting business trends. Shares from an influencer can even help you land spots in
major publications the way press releases used to.
Influencer marketing
Social media is the best place to find influencers in your vertical. When you investigate the best
communities in which to promote your white paper, look for the content that people are already
referencing and sharing. Eventually, you’ll start to get a picture of who’s putting out content that’s
getting widespread traction. These are the people whose voices can amplify your brand.
Start by interacting with them. Begin a conversation, comment on their pieces with regularity, and give
them feedback on their work. There are great tools, like Voila Norbert and ContactOut, to help you
quickly track down email addresses.
After building enough rapport, try offering to collaborate on future white papers or other types of
content. This process can take some time because your goal here is to build a relationship.
Eventually, you can ask an influencer to share your white paper. You might even consider quoting them
in the white paper itself — anything that gives them an incentive to share your work is helpful.
Pro tip: Try to find an expert in your white paper related subject and interview them. It will add value to
your white paper and you'll increase the chance that the expert shares your content with his or her
extensive network.
Email marketing
The jungle of online content may thicken daily, but there are a few places you can still get readers’
attention. Email distribution has stood the test of time in this regard. It provides greater ROI than social,
and it shows no signs of weakening.
If the purpose of your white paper is lead generation, email marketing will not be applicable. But for
boosting sales, building trust, and establishing your brand as a trustworthy source of information, it's
important not to neglect your existing contact base.
Although email may not have the appealing viral possibilities associated with social media, it does have
other advantages. Namely, anyone who subscribed to your email list chose to be there. This means you
can expect a higher level of engagement from this audience than those who come in via other channels.
Capitalize on their loyalty and engagement by encouraging contacts to share your white paper with their
networks and thus multiply your distribution efforts.
This was discussed in the previous section, but it's worth mentioning again here: another big advantage
of Foleon's gating features is that when your existing contacts share your white paper with their
contacts, those people will be confronted with a login form that will allow you to capture their info and
expand your email list further.
Going beyond the basics
The techniques discussed above are essential items in your white paper distribution toolbox. However,
they’re not the only ones. The best way to distribute your white paper depends largely on your target
audience and the industry to which your content speaks.
Take some time to critically evaluate and research how knowledge is shared in your industry. Every
industry will be slightly different. Reaching people in these places is the best guarantee of effective
distribution.
8. Handling your white paper leads
As we've discussed, white papers can serve a variety of objectives. They’re commonly used for thought
leadership and to disseminate important research, relevant to a specific industry.
When it comes to content marketing, however, the most common use for white papers over the last
several years has become lead generation. In chapter 6, we discussed how to bring readers to your
white paper and capture their information.
Once you've properly gated your white paper and set up a solid distribution strategy, it's time to think
about how you'll handle the leads that come in. If not properly tracked and nurtured, leads will quickly
become cold and won't lead to increased sales for your company. So how do you follow up with leads
and maximize the opportunity you’ve created with your white paper?
How to track your white paper leads
The buyer’s journey outlines the steps a person goes through, from becoming aware of a problem they
have, to learning about different solutions to that problem, to eventually purchasing a product or
service (hopefully yours) that solves their problem.
White paper customer journey
To maximize the chances your new leads become paying customers, you must take the abstract concept
of a buyer’s journey and map it to your specific content ecosystem. The actions your prospects take on
your website can be indicative of what stage of the journey they're in.
For example, you may see someone read a blog post on your site, then come back a day later to get your
white paper, and then finally sign up for a free trial or an email list. After that, they might decide to
make a purchase. As patterns begin to emerge around the journey your customers take, you'll learn
what actions on your part can help them to advance.
There are many tools available to help you analyze this journey for yourself. Google Analytics is probably
the most widely used. It lets you track and compile data regarding user behavior on your website. You
can define goals and generate reports that will show you steps users tend to take before completing
those goals.
Targeting stages of the buyer’s journey
As it becomes more clear what actions visitors take before purchasing, you'll better understand where
to use your white paper in the buyer's journey.
The question you should seek to answer is, where does it provide the most value to your potential
customers? Do you see greater success when accessing your gated white paper is a prospect's first
interaction with your company? Or is it perhaps more effective to use it as an offer once visitors have
returned a second (or third) time to your site?
You can see that white papers don't exist in isolation but act as a member of an ecosystem. The related
blog posts, landing pages, emails, social messages, and follow up sequences must all be carefully
orchestrated and properly timed.
This process takes practice. It takes trial and error, and you must be a keen observer of trends. However,
that effort will pay off.
...white papers don't exist in isolation but act as a member of a content ecosystem.
Following up with your leads
Depending on where in the buyer's journey you use your white paper, the way you'll want to follow up
with leads will be different.
If, for example, your white paper targets the awareness stage and the leads you gather are relatively
unfamiliar with your company, it might be smart to enroll them in an email sequence that highlights
other pieces of content on your site such as blog posts that are relevant to the topic they showed
interest in.
If your white paper is for people in the consideration stage, and leads are already familiar with what you
have to offer, you might consider following up by sending them special offers or exclusive deals — again,
closely related to the topic of interest.
If you're taking a highly targeted approach to distribution and using your white paper to generate hot
leads that you think are already close to making a purchasing decision, the best way to follow up might
be for a sales representative to reach out directly by phone.
This is what it means to nurture leads. By proactively keeping in touch with leads and offering them
more relevant content, you maximize the likelihood of them becoming a customer.
Be prepared to write a lot more content
By this point, you should have all the ingredients you need to make your white paper a rousing success.
However, you’ll notice by now the reality that your white paper fits into a larger ecosystem of marketing
actions and content.
Kermit the Frog typing
In today’s business world, producing quality content is one of the best ways to get your target market's
attention. But not everyone will be ready for the same piece of content at the same time.
From white papers, to blog posts, to podcasts, the type of content that will drive conversions for your
business is something you'll discover over time. What’s certain is that one type won't satisfy all your
audience's needs. Because of that, you should be prepared to fill the rest of your buyer’s journey with
other appropriate content.
This means lots of writing. There’s no way around that. It means coming up with content ideas, creating
them, distributing them, and measuring their success — then rinsing and repeating. After this primer,
you should be fully equipped for success writing not only white papers but whatever content you choose
along your journey.
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