In almost any survey of B2B marketers, whitepapers show up as one of the top sources of B2B leads. Other than webinars or tradeshows, in fact, it’s hard to think of anything else that is so effective as a lead generation tool. As a result, you can’t squander the opportunity – you have to create an amazing whitepaper that will maximize the number of your B2B leads. Here are three tips that can guide you:
Tip #1: Choose a topic that resonates with your audience
The first rule of writing an amazing whitepaper is that it should be all about them, not all about you. In other words, the whitepaper should not be a piece of overt advertising for your company’s products; instead, it should focus on the needs and concerns of your audience. Maybe the whitepaper can address problems or questions that they have. Maybe it can provide a case study.
The core idea of the whitepaper is that there needs to be a clear value proposition for the reader. It should provide valuable information, tips, or insight that can’t be found anywhere else. The place where you “sell” your product is at the very end, in the summary. After you work through the problem, analyze possible solutions and illustrate why some solutions are better than others, there’s place for you to mention your company’s solution (which, presumably, is the best possible solution). And, be sure to include a call-to-action (CTA) at the end of the whitepaper so that your audience can learn more and follow up with you.
Tip #2: Hire a designer
All-text whitepapers are the worst. Even worse are the text-heavy whitepapers with the really bad Excel graphics or the stock photography images. (No, those beautiful, smiling employees aren’t employees at your company!) That’s why you’ll want to hire a designer to make the document “pop” off the page. A designer can choose the optimal layout for the document, come up with graphics for charts and illustrations, and make the whole document something that people would actually want to read and show their friends!
Tip #3: Optimize the content for mobile
At a time when so many people are consuming content via their mobile devices, it only makes sense that people will also want to consume whitepapers on their mobile devices. What, you think people are going to print out a 20-page whitepaper so that they can read it at their desk or on a train?
You have to go with a mobile-first mentality. That means more than just creating a nice-looking PDF document – it has to be a nice-looking PDF document that also looks nice on mobile. Charts and graphics should be easy to read and easy on the eyes – people shouldn’t have to pinch-and-zoom repeatedly to see all the details. Make it easy for people to scroll down to read the next page. That’s where your designer can make all the difference – using principles from “responsive design” they can ensure that everything looks as amazing on mobile as it does on paper!
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With those three tips, you should be well on your way to creating an amazing whitepaper that people will actually want to read!
Image: Designed by Freepik
Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.