How to Start Your White Paper Off on the Right Foot

One debate I see frequently on the blogosphere is about how white papers should begin.

One camp advocates kicking off white papers with an air of mystery, attempting to draw people in by not providing too much information up front and not tipping your hand as to where the paper will go.

The other camp suggests that you begin with an executive summary. The idea is to let your readers know right up front what the paper is about before they start to read so they know whether or not they want to continue reading the paper.

My vote?

Go for the executive summary.

Why?

The mystery approach may be great for consumer marketing, where people are more relaxed and are looking to be entertained. But all the business people I work with are beyond swamped. Overwhelmed people are likely to find the mystery approach annoying. And if they’re annoyed, they’ll simply stop reading.

The best way to tempt them to read your whitepaper is by creating a brief executive summary that describes, up front, the specific business problem that your white paper addresses and states that you have a clear solution.

Ironically, rather than tipping your hand too soon, describing a problem people have will create just the right amount of mystery to draw readers in.

As Chip Health and Dan Heath state in their book,“Made to Stick,” which describes ways to make your ideas memorable, “We can engage people’s curiosity over a long period by systematically ‘opening gaps’ in their knowledge—and then filling those gaps.”

The way you open gaps is by providing “context,” in this case, the description of the problem and why it hasn’t been solved until now. Now they’ll  look for ways to “close the gap” by reading the rest of the paper and learning about your solution.

This approach shows that you understand your customers’ problems and that you respect their time. Ultimately, that’s the kind of vendor with which they’ll want to do business.

How do you start your white papers?

 

 

Comments

[Ross Burdick]

Good call. I agree with the executive summary approach. In most cases, people are viewing the white paper because they have a problem to solve or questions they need answered. Since, as you mentioned, time and attention spans are short, providing clear reasons why the reader should invest the time is key.
The mystery approach could also work if the white paper is short and easy to scan so readers could get the gist at a glance, but that's rare in this medium.
The most difficult part I have found, however, is the language/content that is used to get readers to open/download the white paper in the first place. Depending on the information design, this makes the name and description of the white paper even more critical.

[Cheryl Goldberg]

Ross,

You're absolutely right about the title of the white paper being critical. I was saving that for another post. Stay tuned....

Cheryl

[Lloyd Lemons]

Creating mystery in B2B communications of any sort is counterproductive. It makes people work too hard for their information--and they won't do it. Give your white paper a good title and tell an interesting story that delivers real value. Don't tease them, please them.

[Cheryl Goldberg]

Lloyd,
Well said. Thank you. Again, look for a future post on titles--they are indeed critical.
Cheryl

[Malin Johansson]

As a marketer and a user I could not agree more: with the limited amount of time we all have at our hands there is no time for being mysterious and playing games. It is far more relevant with an informative exec summary to draw the reader into the story.
Also, thank you for an overall very interesting and pragmatic blog!