For the jobbing copywriter, White Papers are wonderful ‘meaty’ projects that can yield good returns – for most, I charge around £2,000 and for one, an annual paper, I charge as much as £6,000. If you are lucky enough to bring with you from your previous work an expertise (accountancy, financial services, information technology, pharmaceuticals, logistics, engineering etc.) then you should be able to move into the White Paper arena fairly quickly. If you don’t have such expertise, still read on as this is something you could eventually grow into. In the next chapter I will explain how to write esoteric copy even without any previous knowledge of the subject!
What are White Papers? Essentially, they are valuable, authoritative, management briefing documents on topical business issues. Your clients will be in the B2B arena (selling their products or services to other businesses). For a freelance copywriter, B2B clients can be much more profitable and less hassle than B2C clients (companies selling to consumers). White papers first took off commercially in the IT sector, but are now popular right across the B2B sectors.
Why do clients like them?
A recent Forbes magazine survey of top decision makers revealed that:
White papers are also an excellent means of lead generation for your client. The problem with traditional direct mail is that, even when a recipient likes what they read, inertia sets in - I'll deal with that later. The true reason for not responding is the knowledge they will have to speak to a salesman.
Using an offer of a White Paper / Management Discussion Paper / Management Briefing / Survival Guide (same thing) has the following benefits as a lead generation technique:
Remember, in the B2B environment, the objective is simply to get prospects to identify themselves, not overtly to sell products/services. Once identified, then your client can call in the sales team.
Clients also offer downloads of White Papers from their websites - but prospects have to register first!
What do White Papers look like?
There is no formal structure, no set length. I have written papers that are just four pages long, others that are forty pages long. Sometimes they begin with an ‘abstract’ – a paragraph summarizing what the paper will cover. Whether you title it ‘abstract’ or ‘management summary’, this is a good principle.
You will often face a dilemma with clients who are publishing their first paper. They will want you to focus on their product, their solution, their company. This is a mistake – the paper then becomes little more than an extended sales brochure. A white paper should be a more subtle ‘sell’. It should simply describe the issues or problems the product will overcome, together with a strategy for solving those issues – not mentioning the product itself. By appearing to be unbiased, white papers become much more effective than any sales brochure. They add value. Readers of white papers want to be educated, not sold to.
When clients are really determined to feature their own product, I recommend that they do so as an appendix, keeping the main body of the document sales-free. It is your role to try to steer the client in the right direction
Non Disclosure Agreements (NDAs)
Because white papers go much deeper than sales literature, clients will often have to reveal commercially sensitive information. To protect themselves, they may ask you to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement – a legally binding document in which you agree not to disclose any anything you learn, except within the paper itself. This is fairly standard practice.
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What are White Papers? Essentially, they are valuable, authoritative, management briefing documents on topical business issues. Your clients will be in the B2B arena (selling their products or services to other businesses). For a freelance copywriter, B2B clients can be much more profitable and less hassle than B2C clients (companies selling to consumers). White papers first took off commercially in the IT sector, but are now popular right across the B2B sectors.
Why do clients like them?
A recent Forbes magazine survey of top decision makers revealed that:
- 63% use white papers or case studies to evaluate products and services
- 78% pass white papers and case studies to colleagues.
- 93% felt that high quality vendor white papers positively influence a company's image.
White papers are also an excellent means of lead generation for your client. The problem with traditional direct mail is that, even when a recipient likes what they read, inertia sets in - I'll deal with that later. The true reason for not responding is the knowledge they will have to speak to a salesman.
Using an offer of a White Paper / Management Discussion Paper / Management Briefing / Survival Guide (same thing) has the following benefits as a lead generation technique:
- It is not pushing a product or service - it is offering something of value. Information. Free of charge
- Offers of a Business Document stand a much higher chance of getting past the gatekeeper than a product/service sales mailing
- It is non-threatening. Instead of having to speak to a nasty salesman, the prospect is simply going to receive a valuable report (clients make it easy to respond, without human contact. Given the option, no-one uses the phone to request the paper – almost always email)
- It meets emotional as well as rational needs - eg Fear (of making a wrong decision), Kudos (displaying their new-found knowledge to colleagues), Laziness (not having to research information for themselves)
- Once written, it is incredibly low cost and can be used in campaigns over and over again (one client has been using what is essentially the same White Paper - a Survival Guide - for more than 10 years).
Remember, in the B2B environment, the objective is simply to get prospects to identify themselves, not overtly to sell products/services. Once identified, then your client can call in the sales team.
Clients also offer downloads of White Papers from their websites - but prospects have to register first!
What do White Papers look like?
There is no formal structure, no set length. I have written papers that are just four pages long, others that are forty pages long. Sometimes they begin with an ‘abstract’ – a paragraph summarizing what the paper will cover. Whether you title it ‘abstract’ or ‘management summary’, this is a good principle.
You will often face a dilemma with clients who are publishing their first paper. They will want you to focus on their product, their solution, their company. This is a mistake – the paper then becomes little more than an extended sales brochure. A white paper should be a more subtle ‘sell’. It should simply describe the issues or problems the product will overcome, together with a strategy for solving those issues – not mentioning the product itself. By appearing to be unbiased, white papers become much more effective than any sales brochure. They add value. Readers of white papers want to be educated, not sold to.
When clients are really determined to feature their own product, I recommend that they do so as an appendix, keeping the main body of the document sales-free. It is your role to try to steer the client in the right direction
Non Disclosure Agreements (NDAs)
Because white papers go much deeper than sales literature, clients will often have to reveal commercially sensitive information. To protect themselves, they may ask you to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement – a legally binding document in which you agree not to disclose any anything you learn, except within the paper itself. This is fairly standard practice.
Click to read all Writer's Tips Blog posts