{"id":10579,"date":"2013-07-18T20:25:17","date_gmt":"2013-07-18T09:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/?p=10579"},"modified":"2025-01-02T21:21:26","modified_gmt":"2025-01-02T10:21:26","slug":"create-white-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/","title":{"rendered":"The Winning White Paper: Four Questions to Ask Before You Start"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

I’ve been writing white papers for B2B technology marketers for many years.\u00a0 It\u2019s a variegated format, one that serves different purposes in the marketing process.\u00a0 That variety is both a strength and a weakness for marketers, however.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s versatile, which is great.\u00a0 At the same time, the size of the blank canvas can be intimidating.\u00a0 Without good planning and direction, the white paper can become a costly document that does not achieve its desired marketing objectives.\u00a0 To help my clients avoid this trap, I’ve developed a white paper discovery process that consists of four questions. It pays to go through this discovery process before commencing the work itself.\u00a0 It\u2019s not overly elaborate.\u00a0 Rather, these four questions comprise a simple concept and positioning exercise that sets the project on course for best results with the paper\u2019s intended audience.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. What is the topic of the paper?<\/b>\u00a0 I like to ask this question first, but I know that the answer will change as we discuss the next four questions on the list. A white paper\u2019s subject is determined in an iterative process<\/a>.\u00a0 The topic evolves through the discovery process as you refine the purpose of the paper.\n

  2. What is the primary purpose of this paper?<\/strong> \u00a0\u00a0What are you trying to accomplish with this paper?\u00a0 A white paper needs a reason to exist.\u00a0 Is it for lead generation? Will it be a paper that is placed behind a \u201cRegistration Wall\u201d to induce potential readers to part with their contact info for a chance to see it?\u00a0 Is it intended to be a piece of sales support \u201cair cover\u201d that helps bolster a pending deal?\u00a0 Are you trying to assert thought leadership or showcase expertise in a particular subject area?\u00a0 Are you trying to offer in-depth technical education on a specific topic of interest to your clients?\u00a0\u00a0 Each purpose requires a somewhat different approach and execution.\u00a0 Your answer can of course be \u201cAll of the Above.\u201d It is possible to combine these goals, but the best papers are written for a specific primary purpose, with secondary agendas taken into consideration but not emphasized about all else.\u00a0 A related question is, \u201cHow will you promote this paper?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 A paper intended for lead generation needs to be sexier than a paper designed to show off technical expertise.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A lead generation paper should engender some intrigue and mystery.<\/li>\n
  3. What length do you have in mind for the paper?<\/b> This is simple question that requires a simple answer.\u00a0\u00a0 Beneath the surface, though, length is a proxy for many different issues that need to be thought through for a winning white paper.\u00a0 How deeply do you want to delve into your topic?\u00a0 \u00a0The answer should also relate to the previous question. What are you trying to accomplish? If you want to show off in-depth technical expertise, you won\u2019t do very well with a three page paper. Conversely, a 32 page doorstop won\u2019t do your sales team much good unless they are in a highly technical sales discussion with engineers.\u00a0 Then, there\u2019s budget.\u00a0 Length and budget go together. What level of investment do you want to make in the paper?<\/li>\n
  4. Who is the intended audience for this paper?\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>An effective white paper should be understandable to a range of different readers.\u00a0 \u00a0You won\u2019t manage to get every single reader to comprehend every nuance of the paper, but the paper should still be created for a specific customer persona.\u00a0 I have found the following buckets to be useful in thinking through intended audience types:\u00a0 Technical Decision Maker (TDM), Business Decision Maker (BDM), Senior Business Manager (C-Level), or specialized reader, such as developer, architect, network operations person, information security manager, and so forth.\u00a0 Some marketers like to use a common hundred-level shorthand to communicate the intended reader.\u00a0 A 200-level paper is relatively non-technical while a 400-level is for engineers.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    These four white paper discovery questions run together.\u00a0 If you do the process right, you\u2019ll answer each one more than once, learning and reshaping your answers as you hone in on the mix of topic, depth, audience and theme that will give your paper the most impact.\u00a0 Ultimately, the process is designed to give you the best results for your investment in a paper, landing your most important messages with the right people.<\/p>\n

    \"Hugh<\/a>

    Hugh Taylor<\/p><\/div>\n

    Hugh Taylor<\/b> is President of Taylor Communications.\u00a0 A twenty-year veteran of marketing communications, Taylor writes marketing copy for technology companies. Check out Hugh\u2019s new white paper, Getting to Yes with \u00a0 Business Decision Makers at\u00a0http:\/\/www.hughtaylor.com\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Twitter –\u00a0@<\/span>HughTaylor6<\/p>\n

    LinkedIn –\u00a0www.linkedin.com\/in\/hughbtaylor\/<\/a><\/p>\n

    Facebook –\u00a0https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hughbtaylor<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I’ve been writing white papers for B2B technology marketers for many years.\u00a0 It\u2019s a variegated format, one that serves different purposes in the marketing process.\u00a0 That variety is both a strength and a weakness for marketers, however.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s versatile, which… Read More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":10580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[433,432,434],"class_list":["post-10579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing","tag-marketing-communication","tag-white-paper","tag-white-paper-marketing"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Winning White Paper: Four Questions to Ask Before You Start - Creately Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"White papers are a great tool to use in marketing. Below are four questions you need to ask yourself if you want to create effective white papers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Winning White Paper: Four Questions to Ask Before You Start - Creately Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"White papers are a great tool to use in marketing. Below are four questions you need to ask yourself if you want to create effective white papers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Creately Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/creately\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-18T09:25:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-02T10:21:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d3n817fwly711g.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2013\/07\/creating-white-paper.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"661\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"439\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guest Author\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Guest Author\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Guest Author\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/441ac8b520a66f2dc4e83b22d058caba\"},\"headline\":\"The Winning White Paper: Four Questions to Ask Before You Start\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-18T09:25:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-02T10:21:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/\"},\"wordCount\":812,\"commentCount\":5,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/d3n817fwly711g.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2013\/07\/creating-white-paper.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"marketing communication\",\"white paper\",\"white paper marketing\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Marketing\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/\",\"name\":\"The Winning White Paper: Four Questions to Ask Before You Start - Creately Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/d3n817fwly711g.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2013\/07\/creating-white-paper.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-18T09:25:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-02T10:21:26+00:00\",\"description\":\"White papers are a great tool to use in marketing. Below are four questions you need to ask yourself if you want to create effective white papers\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/d3n817fwly711g.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2013\/07\/creating-white-paper.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/d3n817fwly711g.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2013\/07\/creating-white-paper.jpg\",\"width\":661,\"height\":439,\"caption\":\"Moving From Entrepreneur to Manager\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Winning White Paper: Four Questions to Ask Before You Start\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Creately Blog\",\"description\":\"Latest Product Updates and Tips on Working Visually\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Creately\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/d3n817fwly711g.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2023\/01\/creately-logo-symbol.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/d3n817fwly711g.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2023\/01\/creately-logo-symbol.png\",\"width\":430,\"height\":237,\"caption\":\"Creately\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/creately\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/creately\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/creately_app\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/441ac8b520a66f2dc4e83b22d058caba\",\"name\":\"Guest Author\",\"description\":\"These are awesome guest posts contributed by our users and technology enthusiasts. Do you have something interesting to share? Want to get exposed to a massive tech audience? Check out our Guest Posting Guidelines to how to proceed.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/creately.com\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/http:\/\/twitter.com\/creately\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/author\/guest-author\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Winning White Paper: Four Questions to Ask Before You Start - Creately Blog","description":"White papers are a great tool to use in marketing. Below are four questions you need to ask yourself if you want to create effective white papers","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Winning White Paper: Four Questions to Ask Before You Start - Creately Blog","og_description":"White papers are a great tool to use in marketing. Below are four questions you need to ask yourself if you want to create effective white papers","og_url":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/","og_site_name":"Creately Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/creately","article_published_time":"2013-07-18T09:25:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-01-02T10:21:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":661,"height":439,"url":"https:\/\/d3n817fwly711g.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2013\/07\/creating-white-paper.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Guest Author","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Guest Author","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/"},"author":{"name":"Guest Author","@id":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/441ac8b520a66f2dc4e83b22d058caba"},"headline":"The Winning White Paper: Four Questions to Ask Before You Start","datePublished":"2013-07-18T09:25:17+00:00","dateModified":"2025-01-02T10:21:26+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/"},"wordCount":812,"commentCount":5,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/d3n817fwly711g.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2013\/07\/creating-white-paper.jpg","keywords":["marketing communication","white paper","white paper marketing"],"articleSection":["Marketing"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/","url":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/","name":"The Winning White Paper: Four Questions to Ask Before You Start - Creately Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/d3n817fwly711g.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2013\/07\/creating-white-paper.jpg","datePublished":"2013-07-18T09:25:17+00:00","dateModified":"2025-01-02T10:21:26+00:00","description":"White papers are a great tool to use in marketing. Below are four questions you need to ask yourself if you want to create effective white papers","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/d3n817fwly711g.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2013\/07\/creating-white-paper.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/d3n817fwly711g.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2013\/07\/creating-white-paper.jpg","width":661,"height":439,"caption":"Moving From Entrepreneur to Manager"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/create-white-paper\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Winning White Paper: Four Questions to Ask Before You Start"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/","name":"Creately Blog","description":"Latest Product Updates and Tips on Working Visually","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Creately","url":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/d3n817fwly711g.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2023\/01\/creately-logo-symbol.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/d3n817fwly711g.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2023\/01\/creately-logo-symbol.png","width":430,"height":237,"caption":"Creately"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/creately","https:\/\/x.com\/creately","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/creately_app\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/441ac8b520a66f2dc4e83b22d058caba","name":"Guest Author","description":"These are awesome guest posts contributed by our users and technology enthusiasts. Do you have something interesting to share? Want to get exposed to a massive tech audience? Check out our Guest Posting Guidelines to how to proceed.","sameAs":["https:\/\/creately.com","https:\/\/x.com\/http:\/\/twitter.com\/creately"],"url":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/author\/guest-author\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10579"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31729,"href":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10579\/revisions\/31729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}