Ultimate Guide for Preparing a White Paper

When it comes to copywriting, we often end up with common marketplaces like health, financial, self-help and nonprofit. You can also carve a great living as an expert at a unique domain. Several copywriters start writing auto-responder copy as a very fulfilling and profitable niche.

Currently, we are going to discuss yet another niche opportunity of the same kind – white paper writing. It takes around 30 to 50 hours to write a white paper, according to the amount of research required and complexity of the topic.

Typically, the cost of writing a white paper is around $2500 for each white paper. The figure rises as per the skills of a marketer. When you exceed your fourth white paper, you may ask for $4000 per paper. After a year, you may charge up to $5000 for each white paper. The more you do, better and faster you can get with it. You can write at least 3 to 4 white papers per month.

You should know your target audience before writing a compelling white paper.  Know all the potential readers beforehand. Usually, their needs are also very important. 

Suppose it’s about writing any accounting program, a CEO will need to know whether it can improve ROI and an Accounting Manager will want to find out whether it has great tech support and easy to understand.

 Ask the best and responsible people in your client company to interview. Ask for the names that may help you speak with. Do your research online to find out who can help you and be interested to discuss the Topic with you.

Search for other white papers, analyst reports, case studies, and industry articles. Check out the white papers, competition’s site, and news releases.

Read on to complete each section of your whitepaper. Take a deep insight on each area given below –

Whether a white paper is exceptional or so-so depends upon the title. Take your time crafting the title so well that it can grab the attention of your readers and make them read and share it.

• Review these questions while brainstorming to prepare for the title –
  • What are the major needs, pain points, and interests you should address?
  • What is your target niche?
  • Why your audience should read your whitepaper?
  • What are the major search terms you want to target?
• Bold title to grab attention – Make sure your title represents what your audience will actually get. Focus on the needs of your audiences, not your own will. Skip buzzwords and stick to easy and clear language, unless it’s a highly technical niche. Stick to standards but don’t lose the opportunity to make your whitepaper stand out.
• Make it SEO friendly – Use tools like Google Keywords Planner to find out the most searched phrases and words. Your title should be short and to the point. Take your time to create more meaningful, shorter title.
• Analyze the Successful Titles in Your Industry – Find out which kinds of titles have seen most success, i.e. from the competitors, through social shares and Google search ranking. Also, assess the aspects that made them stand apart.

It gives yet another way for you to grab the attention of the readers and convince them to read your whitepaper. Like the title, you also have to take time making a concise, clear and to-the-point abstract.

• Write abstract after completing the whitepaper.
• Create your abstract in a direct structure, and add most attractive findings, recommendations, and insights.
• Keep it simple and short, i.e. up to 150 to 250 words.
• Add Call to Action link to the complete white paper and save as PDF.
• Ask someone, especially those who have keen eye for detail and who knows your audience very well, to read your abstract and review.

After creating the attractive abstract and title, your readers can easily get into your story. Basically, the introduction is another level from the abstract. It is the way to introduce your readers to the issue, pain or need which is the basis of the whitepaper and relevant solution. All you need to grab the attention of your audience and lure them to read more.

• Within a just first sentence, you need to grab your visitor’s attention. Be sure to make the best first impression. Use a bold or controversial statement.
• Set up the need, problem or main points up front.
• Provide extra detail in the abstract but don’t get into more detail. Save specifics for further sections.
• Indicate objectives of white paper and what is to be added in given aspects. Your audience can go through your thought process when you provide structure or map in the introduction.

Make an outline before the beginning of writing process and it can take form as the table of contents.  With this outline, you can get a map and the trails to stay on the actual path to meet the objectives. This way, you can ensure that your content and messaging are correct and information flows with ease.

Here’s how to get the ideal starting point –

• Don’t Skip the Outline – It is the very first step. Never skip the process of making an outline. It takes time and delays the process of writing. But it can save a lot of your time in the long run and have a better end product.
• Fulfill Your Audience Needs – It is important to create a white paper based on the interests, needs and major points of the readers. Consider the non-egoistic approach to creating your content.
• Connect with Team to Create Outline – As the key to create a white paper, it is important to modify your course instead of changing direction after writing the paper. Add the team members as part of the review and development of outline.
• Plan on Revisions – It is very iterative to create an outline. Be sure to modify the design in the process.
• Make it Flexible – Though the outline is supposed to be the blueprint or map of the whitepaper, be sure to make it flexible so you can adjust the outline once you start writing.
• Map out subsections and sections – Break up your text into various sections, such as subheads and section headers in each section. It improves readability and your reader can easily skim along the document and read sections more easily.

In this section, you have to give an overview of the whitepaper. You can expand more on overview and define the problem or background. 

Here’s what you can answer here –

• What are the key challenges for individuals and companies?
• What’s going on in the market these days? What are current trends?
• What are the main things and problems, or needs?
• How addressing such main things, problems or needs may benefit you? By answering this question, your readers will be able to understand the solution and keep reading it.
• What can models and/or frameworks be used to enhance understanding of the readers?
• What can data points help support the questions?

In this section, you can get into the specifics of possible solutions. 

• Introduce the possible solutions, with a clear framework or model, and clear definition.
• A detailed description of each aspect of the solution – Use the required subcategories to attract readers to draw unique boundaries between several aspects of the solution. With the help of subcategories, your audience can easily absorb the content and go through your thought process.
• Be specific to the benefits of solutions – Mention how it impacts your audience specifically.
• Target solutions to various segments to improve the relevancy of your content.
• Provide real world and specific examples to justify the solution. You can give another way to connect with various segments of the audience. You should provide cases based on three different personas of buyers.
• Create table and figure as a specific sheet to help your readers visualize the solution. With the help of this sheet, you can help your readers.

So you have been told what you want to share in the introduction, abstract, outline and what you want to tell in problem and solution sections. 

In conclusion, you can summarize the objectives of your white paper, review the problem, and highlight the solutions and how it can help your audience. Be specific about how it can address your problem. Then, you have to finish it off using a bold statement, such as how they can find out new solutions themselves, chances for future solutions, and where they can get other resources and information. 

Here, you have to provide the list of resources available to your audience. It may have resources sourced from the white paper.