Updated January 10, 2023

Tips To Tempt Your Audience

White papers are an excellent way to add a call to action (CTA) on your website. Perhaps your prospect isn’t ready to call you or hit the “Buy Now” button. Yet, they may be willing to share their email information in exchange for educating them. Here are three tips to make high-quality content to ensure that your white paper is worthy of a download:

1. Make It Valuable

A white paper isn’t a glorified blog post. Not to say that it can’t be a compilation of blog posts. Seth Godin is the king of pulling together posts and repackaging. That’s been his secret in creating such best sellers as Tribes. The point of a white paper is to share valuable information, solve a problem, and give your prospect a taste of what you have to offer. Don’t worry, you’re not giving away the store. Professional services, like what we at Spectrum offer, is more complicated that a simple how-to guide. Plus, DIYers are most likely not your best prospect or client. A white paper is meant to educate, offering sage advice and proving that you know what you’re talking about. There’s no way to include everything you know. It’s a sample, but make sure it’s a valuable one.

2. Make it Scanable

There’s a reason why “5 Tips to” fill in the blank headlines are used. Because they work. Aside from a sad commentary that we’ve reduced our reading skills to middle school grade level, most of us are busy. Yes, there are those in your target audience who will read every incredible word. It’s more likely that people scan. They’ll zero in on the parts they can immediately assimilate and use.

3. Make it Picture Perfect

Breaking up text with eye-catching images is one way to retain your audience’s attention. Other than creating a document that’s more visually pleasing, it can emphasize the fabulous points you are making. It’s also another way to show some personality (aka your business brand). In addition to graphics, use headings to your best advantage. Descriptive headers can tell a story. Call outs, block quotes, and bullets can make a lengthy text a joy to read. With Flickr and other image sharing sites, it’s easy to add eye candy to any document.

Brand Your White Paper

Your white paper is also a piece of your content marketing strategy. So, don’t forget to include a copyright or attribution symbol, logo, website address, and contact information. It does you no good if a prospective client downloads it and wants to connect with you later… only to find that’s it is not easy to contact you. It might be called a white paper, but you don’t have to leave it just as white paper. Add your logo and a footer with some basic contact information as a bare minimum.

Have a white paper on your website that’s a best seller? What’s your secret ingredient?

NB: As an aside, if you’re wondering why we haven’t mentioned “whitepapers” anywhere in this article on creating a good whitepaper, this is why.