Get it Write: How to Use White Papers to Establish Your Expertise

Growing a business in today’s marketplace begins and ends with building trust with your customers.

There’s no more direct route to earning that trust than by demonstrating your expertise in your field. If you can convince a prospective customer that you not only understand their needs and problems but know exactly what’s required to solve them, then it’s hardly a big leap for them to believe that you’re the best one for the job.

White papers are a marketing tactic that provides a proving ground for your expertise. By conveying objective information, thorough analysis and useful insights, a white paper is an effective strategy for cementing your customers’ confidence and trust in the products or services you offer.

Here’s what you need to know to create a successful white paper that will help you capture and convert more customers:

What is a white paper, exactly, and how is it different from a blog article?

A white paper is an in-depth report on a specific topic. White papers differ from blog posts in tone, scope, length and audience.

Unlike blog articles, white papers are not designed for the casual reader but for one who is seeking comprehensive information in order to help them achieve a specific objective or make an important purchasing decision. Also, while blog posts are conversational in tone and based largely in opinion, white papers should be formal and fact based.

There is no set length that your white paper must be to qualify. Depending on the topic, a well-written, well-supported four-page document can be sufficient to get the job done; likewise, an exhaustive 10-page report is sometimes what’s needed to give the reader the depth of information they desire. The key is to be objective and thorough.

Target audience

Before you begin, you must define who it is that you desire to reach based on your business growth goals. This is key to determining both the topic you should cover and the approach you should take in doing so.

For your white paper to be successful, you need to make sure that it addresses a need or issue that is common among this audience and that it provides answers and insights in language and on a level they will find relatable.

For example, a white paper on social media aimed at reaching C-suite-level marketing executives would be much different than one on the same subject targeted to entrepreneurs who are launching a new business.

Content and voice

Your white paper must maintain a sense of objectivity. This is the time to persuade through logic, not emotion.

If a reader feels manipulated, then they will view your report with suspicion, and you will lose credibility by association – the exact opposite of the outcome you desire.

Establish a strong sense of credibility by covering all aspects of your chosen subject – both positive and negative. You may even go so far as to compare and contrast your product with others.

Remember to do your homework. Unlike a blog post that represents your own point of view, a good white paper should incorporate research from other respected sources to substantiate your points. Your job is to pull together the existing data and information on your subject, offer thoughtful analysis and provide your own unique insights.

Don’t be afraid to share the types of insider information you’d normally reserve for paying clients. Doing so will only whet your reader’s appetite to seek out more of your expertise.

Make sure you conclude with a call to action. Don’t go straight for the kill with a pitch like “For more information, call our sales department.” Instead, provide options that allow your reader to further their engagement with your brand, whether that’s by subscribing to your blog or e-newsletter, passing your white paper along to their friends and colleagues via social media networks or downloading other white papers on related topics.

Design

Keep in mind: it’s a white paper, not a bland paper. Just because it’s factual and objective in nature doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take care to ensure that the information is presented in a visually appealing manner that is a good representation of your brand.

Use charts, graphs and images wherever possible to illustrate your point. And make sure that your choice of typography and colors makes it easy to read, whether on screen or in hard copy form.

Marketing

Your job doesn’t end when you put the final touches on your white paper. After all, it can’t help you get customers if customers don’t know where to find it.

For your white paper to be read, you need to market it well and to the right audience. Promoting your white paper includes everything from having the right title to employing effective distribution methods.

Your white paper is more likely to be read if it is clearly labeled with a strong title. The title of your white paper must be focused and ultra-specific. It should be as concise as possible while communicating to the reader exactly what they can expect to learn from it.

When it comes to spreading the word about your white paper, there are many avenues you can take.

Include links to your white paper in your company’s e-newsletter. When you do so, boost your chances of a click-through by linking directly to a specific section of the white paper that’s most relevant to the content of your newsletter. Instant gratification works in your favor here.

Don’t forget to spread the word about your white paper to your fans and followers on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, using Twitter’s hashtag function to target users searching for a specific topic. Discussion boards focused on topics pertaining to your subject matter are another outlet where you can promote your white paper. You can also use pay-per-click advertising to put your white paper in front of people who are actively searching online for information about your topic.

If you have more than one white paper, make sure to provide responders with the opportunity to download other white papers that might interest them. Also, create a dedicated resource center on your own website where all of your white papers can live.

When in doubt, send it out. Direct mail marketing is not dead, so use email or mail to put your white paper in the hands of your target audience. And don’t be afraid to hit up the same list more than once. On the second pass, you might catch the eye of a reader who either overlooked your offer the first time or might not have been ready to act on it previously.

See your expertise transformed into leads

A good white paper does require a significant amount of time and effort to develop; however, the potential for return on your investment is great.

According to a survey published in October 2011 by Eccolo Media, technology buyers regard white papers as the most influential type of marketing collateral, with 65 percent citing white papers as “very” or “extremely influential” when making a purchasing decision.

If you select a topic that’s important to your target audience, provide them with information that’s truly valuable and useful and market your white paper effectively, you’ll have successfully built a powerful lead-generating engine, as more and more prospective new customers discover who you are and the wealth of expertise you have to offer.

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3 Simple Rules for Navigation That Will Boost Your Website's Performance

At the outset of every new website design project, I ask clients to list a few adjectives that would describe their ideal new site. Inevitably, “easy to use” is almost always at the top of the list. Naturally, no one wants their website to be difficult to use. After all, in today’s era of unlimited choice, a great user experience is an absolute necessity. You work too hard to attract visitors and prospects to your website only to drive them away because that site’s interface presents them with frustrations and challenges. In that vein, the ease with which visitors can navigate through your website and its content will have a significant impact on the success of your site. If users can’t quickly identify how to accomplish their goals – whether it’s obtaining more information or making a purchase – they are likely to make a quick exit, taking their business with them. It’s up to your site’s navigational structure to do the heavy lifting in supporting their objectives and answering their questions, guiding them through the site to find what they need and complete the actions appropriate to those needs. This could be purchasing an item, filling out a membership or information request form, or simply finding your phone number so they can call you and open the lines of communication with your business. Regardless of your site’s “win,” an intuitive navigation structure is what will lead them there, so make sure your website follows these three Cs of good navigation in order to ensure that you make the most of every opportunity to capture and convert new customers.

1. Be concise.

In his book The Laws of Simplicity, renowned designer and current President of the Rhode Island School of Design John Maeda offers the following advice as part of his First Law of Simplicity: “The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction.” When weighing various options, the fewer choices that are available, the easier the decision process becomes. Give me four items to choose from, and I will be able to select one much more quickly than if you present me with eight. The same principle holds true for website navigation. Presenting your audience with fewer choices will allow them to more easily identify the one that pertains to their specific needs. Considering how impatient typical website visitors are, this can have a very positive impact on your site’s user experience. Look again at John Maeda’s quote, and you will notice that he is not an advocate for arbitrary editing but rather “thoughtful reduction.” Paring down the elements of your website’s primary navigation structure from nine or 10 choices down to four or five is great, but you need to be strategic in how you do it. Start by looking at the pages outlined in your sitemap and deciding how they can be categorized or grouped together in order to reduce the number of topline options. One of my favorite examples of this practice is the common testimonials page. Businesses love to include a testimonials page on their websites, but based on traffic numbers, these are typically among the least visited pages on any site. Traffic numbers are the ultimate arbiters of value and importance. If your visitors aren’t accessing certain content, then that content shouldn’t be given the same prominence as those pages that they actively seek out and use. In the case of testimonials, removing that link from your primary navigation and establishing it as a subpage under your “Our Company” or “About Us” section works very well. The same applies to any pages that you have that are dedicated to company history, management team profiles, staff bios, your company’s mission statement and the like. While these items are valid information for someone who’s really digging in to vet your qualifications, the majority of your visitors will never look at them, so let them take a back seat to the content that’s really going to seal the deal. Of course, this is where the “thoughtful reduction” principle comes into play. While each of the examples above could be grouped together, that doesn’t mean it is the right choice for your site. The goal is to examine your sitemap with a critical eye and decide which elements are truly important to your audience, which ones are secondary, and how you can treat them accordingly to provide as few choices as possible within your site’s primary navigation.

2. Be clear.

Everyone wants their website to be unique. Sometimes, this leads to the temptation to try to reinvent the wheel when it comes to the organization and presentation of its navigational structure, whether that’s by replacing links with icons or coming up with clever names for major content areas. While this may sound like a great idea that will help set your site apart from your competitors’, it can easily backfire. Visitors want to make quick, logical choices as they navigate through your website, which means that the options presented to them need not only to be concise but also to be clear. The navigation on your website needs to conform to the expected conventions that your visitors instinctively know and recognize. This does not mean that your primary navigation should be designed to look like large, beveled buttons with faux‐3D effects. That treatment may make for an obvious “button,” but it is also not in keeping with the aesthetic of today’s Web. On the other hand, you don’t want buttons or links that are so subtle with so little contrast that they fade into the design to the point of becoming invisible. There is a happy medium to be achieved where all links can be obvious and attractive at the same time. Labels are also an important part of clear navigation. Having a navigation link labeled “About Our Company” directly conveys to users what they can expect to find on that page. Trying to be creative and instead name that link “Unlock the Magic” is anything but clear and will confuse and frustrate visitors who simply want to find more background information about your company. That’s not to say that exploring interesting and innovative avenues in the design of your website is always a bad thing. It can certainly help differentiate your site from others and make for a memorable experience. Just make sure that you are not sacrificing clarity for creativity and confusing the user experience in the process.

3. Be consistent.

The final rule of website navigation is consistency. If you’ve designed a clear, concise navigational structure that your visitors can quickly and easily understand and use, then it’s important to maintain that structure throughout the rest of your site. Your website is not a video game, where each level provides new challenges that are the purpose of the game itself. Your users do not wish to relearn how to use your site at every step along the way. They are there solely to obtain information or complete an action, and anything that gets in the way of their mission is reason enough for them to abandon your site. Consistency is about more than just your primary navigation, however. The way that submenus are presented on the interior pages of your site should remain the same from section to section as well, and the same holds true for treatment of text links or buttons. If you use a certain color for text links, consider using that same color for buttons. Users will quickly learn which color – red, for instance – denotes a clickable area, which will help them to continue moving through your site quickly and intuitively rather than being bogged down by simply trying to locate the pathways to their desired destination.

How does your site measure up?

While there are many factors that ultimately contribute to your website’s performance, a well‐designed navigational structure goes a long way toward ushering your visitors from point A (your home page) to point B (the point of conversion, whether that’s placing an order, sending you an email or picking up the phone to initiate conversation). Look at your site and evaluate its navigation based on the principles covered in this article.

1. Is there anything you can do to make your navigational structure more concise through thoughtful reduction?
2. Are there any changes you can make to make your navigation clearer to your audience?
3. Are you consistent throughout your entire site with the way navigation is designed and presented?

Even if you are not ready to undertake a major site overhaul, you can still refine and tweak your existing site to improve its navigation and realize the rewards of presenting a better user experience to visitors that have found your website and are looking to do business with you.

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