continuing education. In this competitive world, that’s one way to stay ahead of the competition. But continuing education doesn’t have to be in a classroom setting and you certainly don’t need to receive a grade or take final exams (although testing your newly acquired knowledge might indirectly do that for you anyway). Chances are if you’re trying to stay ahead, you’re looking for new and innovative ways to do things, looking for the latest trends to capitalize on, and you simply want to be better than the competition. Thanks to the World Wide Web, we now have a bottomless bucket of ideas waiting to be read, thought about, and put into practice. These ideas come from thought leaders and business executives in various aspects of the industry. But they can also come from you!
Today, white papers are one of the instrumental ways you can position yourself as a thought leader. The benefits are double. White papers, which are informational reports, are increasingly used to “sell” information, products. and services by providing more detailed information on a topic or problem. Also, including white papers on your website helps optimize your site: today’s search engines crawl white papers just like they crawl your blogs and other “live” information.
White papers are a great way to dig deeper into a topic of interest to a market segment. Explain the importance of this information and how the reader can use it within their business model or marketing mix. Where does your experience lie? On what topics can you provide information to your customers? Do they need to better understand a new technology and how it can benefit them? If you were a potential customer, what kind of information would you need to know to do business with a particular VAR? By presenting well-thought-out and well-written content, you’ll build your brand, but more importantly, you’ll position yourself as a thought leader among your peers and your customers. People will expect you to have the answer (or at least ideas), becoming the ultimate solution provider.
White papers can be tricky to write at times, so don’t be afraid to ask someone to help you collect your thoughts and put them on paper. Here are some tips to help you get started:
– Choose your theme. Are you going to write a detailed story about the latest piece of software, still in the prototype phase, that you just tested? Do you have a marketing promotion that worked well for you and are you willing to share that success with others? Whatever the topic, do your research and gather as much information as you can. Find facts to back up your claims, and use the knowledge and research of other thought leaders to support your position on the issue (just remember to attribute their ideas in your white paper). Of course, with the Web, there is an endless supply of information.
– Deliver relevant information. Doing a Google search for your topic could return hundreds, if not thousands, of results with information to use as part of your white paper research template. However, the facts and statistics you use must be relevant to the topic at hand. Don’t just throw out a bunch of information to “fatten” the white paper. If you do, you will confuse your reader and miss the point. Instead, focus on two or three areas of information that relate specifically to the point you’re trying to make. To determine what belongs and what doesn’t, start by defining the purpose of the white paper. Make sure all your information is related to that goal.
– Include useful tips and tricks. Everyone loves ideas, especially when they’re free. By sharing tips and tricks that have worked for you, you’re giving an inside look at how you solve problems while also providing some free advice. This aggravates your ability to be an opinion leader. Customers and prospects will come back to you for more if they implement your tips, and they work!
– Offer problems; then solve them using your approach. White papers should be designed to provide real life examples and situations that could occur. As the solution provider writing the white paper, you should tailor your answers to solve the situations, giving several examples of what works, but pointing the reader in the direction of how you would solve the situation.
– Embed keywords. This is the SEO part of why white papers work today. By using keywords that will appear in a search on a search engine, you can attract readers from outside of your existing customer base to visit your website. White papers help optimize your site. Think of keywords and keyword phrases that potential customers might use to find the information they need. Then incorporate them into your white paper (as long as they stay on topic), which will direct them to your website.
When writing technical documents, it’s easy to go overboard or sometimes fall short. Keep your papers to around 3,000 to 4,000 words. Each award must focus on the topic at hand and be relevant to the overall theme. Documents that are 2,000 words or less may not have the substance someone is looking for, while a document that is over 5,000 words is simply too cumbersome and may be better suited as a detailed eBook. But as long as the text supports your original goal for writing the paper in the first place, then you should be well on your way to becoming the next great thought leader.