Five Myths about White Papers

By Al Kemp

A white paper is — in its broadest definition — a detailed and authoritative report. Many companies today use white papers to market technical products and services. A white paper may explain how a new technology solves business problems, and it may demonstrate how a new product implements the technology. A white paper may explain how a new methodology works, and it may document cost savings at organizations that have adopted the methodology.

Corporate decision-makers, business analysts, and technical specialists increasingly rely on white papers to evaluate new technologies as well as products and services based on those technologies. A well-written educational white paper exerts tremendous influence on its readers.

The popularity of white papers as a marketing tool, however, is generating a surprising amount of misinformation. This article debunks five common myths about white papers:

Business executives will not read a long white paper.
Audiences should read the entire white paper.
Never make assumptions about audience knowledge of subject matter.
To sell drills, talk about holes.
Everything in a white paper must support its abstract.

You won't fall for these myths if your goals, your audience, and your strategies to achieve your goals drive all the decisions you make as you write your white paper.

Myth 1: Business executives will not read a long white paper.

Frankly, business executives will not read any white paper - long or short - if the content does not interest them.

When writing a white paper for business executives, include a strong executive summary. The length of the summary depends on the length of the white paper and the complexity of the subject, but within reason, shorter is better.

As a general rule, use a top-down approach. Make your major points at the start of the white paper and then support those points.

If your executive summary makes strong, compelling points about the subject of the white paper, business executives will want to read more. Make the white paper easy to browse. Capture business executives' attention and they will read much - perhaps all - of the white paper.

What is the proper length for a white paper? The answer is simple: it is the minimum length required to achieve your goals. If you can do that in five pages, then eight pages is too long. If you need 30 pages to achieve your goals, then 20 pages is too short. One size does not fit all.

If the executive summary to a 30-page white paper makes business executives think that the white paper proposes a solution that can double their company's profits in 12 months, they will not hesitate to examine the contents closely!

Myth 2: Audiences should read the entire white paper.

First and foremost, a white paper should achieve its goals. Which would you rather have: an audience that reads a white paper in its entirety and then does nothing, or an audience that reads a portion of a white paper and then takes the action that the white paper advocates?

Myth #2 may tempt writers to organize their white papers to encourage reading rather than to achieve goals. For example, to encourage an audience to read a white paper, a writer may hold off presenting the solution to a problem. The writer hopes that the audience will be curious enough about the solution to read the entire white paper.

But audiences have many demands on their time. They want information quickly. A reader may examine the main points at the start of a white paper closely and then browse through the information that supports those points. This reader may overlook main points at the end of the white paper. Halfway through the white paper, another reader may be called away to other tasks. This reader may never finish the white paper. If the white paper makes its main points on the final pages, it will fail to achieve its goals with these readers.

In some situations, presenting the main points at the end of a white paper may be the best strategy. But it's not gospel, and often it's not good.

How do you determine the best place to present the main points? You identify strategies to achieve your goals with your audience, and you develop content based on the strategies.

Myth 3: Never make assumptions about audience knowledge of subject matter.

A corollary to this myth is: write for audiences who know nothing about the subjects of white papers. On the contrary, writers should analyze audiences in detail.

I understand the origin this myth: too many white papers assume that their audiences understand their subjects in the same detail that technical specialists do. If the audience is business executives, that assumption is misplaced. But business executives may have extensive technical knowledge. We won't know unless we analyze them.

Writers who proclaim that assumptions should never be made about audience knowledge usually assume quite a bit about business executives. They assume that business executives know what ROI is, what a CTO is, what B2B means, and so on. Business executives do know those things. But what else do business executives know? And who else is in the audience? What do they know?

An argument for writing to the level of a know-nothing audience is that the audience may include members that writers or organizations do not anticipate. If writers do not analyze the audience, most likely the audience will include unanticipated members. If organizations don't know their target markets, the marketing and sales departments have some underachievers, to put it mildly.

Certainly, the appeal of a white paper on a subject of general interest may extend beyond the target audience. If that happens, analyze the new audience, and if necessary revise the white paper or write a new one for the new audience. How do you know which alternative is best? Examine the white paper's role in the sales process.

Myth 4: To sell drills, talk about holes.

Like the other myths, there's a grain of truth in this one, too. Writers should emphasize value (making holes) rather than features (a great whirring noise).

Myth #4 seems reasonable only because most of us have never thought about the content of a white paper on drills. The absurdity of the myth becomes clear when we vary it: To sell airplanes, talk about flight. Prospective purchasers know that airplanes fly from one place to another. Cost, capacity, speed, safety, durability, fuel efficiency, and ease of maintenance are much more likely topics.

What should we talk about if we want to sell drills? In a white paper on drills or any other subject, we should talk about whatever we need to talk about to achieve our goals. Nothing more, nothing less.

How do writers decide what they need to talk about to achieve their goals? And how do they organize that content? I don't have a glib answer. Content development is a critical process; short change it at your risk. If you spend the time required to develop the content you need to achieve your goals, you will put your competitors at a disadvantage. They cannot achieve their goals by short-changing content development, either.

Myth 5: Everything in a white paper must support its abstract.

Nonsense! Everything in a white paper must support its goals. A white paper may have covert goals: goals that are never mentioned. Covert goals will not appear in an abstract. For that matter, an abstract is not mandatory - unless you are publishing a white paper in a white-paper repository on the Web that requires abstracts.

About the author:

Al Kemp owns Impact Technical Publications (http://www.ImpactOnTheNet.com). "Five Myths about White Papers" is from his free book, the White Paper Writing Guide. You can download it at http://www.ImpactOnTheNet.com/wp-guide.html. Al's white papers, product technical overviews, and business cases have helped secure $40 million dollars for high-tech start-up companies and advanced technology projects at Fortune 500 companies. He holds an M.A. in English from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in writing from the University of Illinois.