4 Content Marketing Tips For Creating Successful Whitepapers

Content is one of the most important tools in a company’s marketing arsenal. Unless you have bucket-loads of cash, a unique and totally unrivalled product/service and you’ve already established strong personal links with your consumer base, you’ll need to use content in order to get your message out to the public.

There are two key components of Content Marketing which are Blogs and Whitepapers. While blogging is quite straightforward and fairly accessible as a resource, whitepapers give Businesses an added element through which to showcase their expertise and influence public perceptions of the products/services they offer. That said, ticking those boxes can be trickier than it sounds. Whitepapers are typically detailed, informative but they must also read well and engage the reader on many different levels. By following these four tips, you can create successful whitepapers and fast-track your Content Marketing Strategy to success.

Discuss

Before you sit down to construct the content of your Whitepaper, it’s crucial that you know what it is you’re aiming to achieve. By discussing objectives and ideas with co-workers, you can brainstorm what your whitepaper should look like and what it should cover. In doing so, you can establish a strategy that takes into account considerations such as whitepaper style, target audience, length, timescale and of course, who will be doing the majority of the researching, writing and editing of the paper. You must learn to walk before you can run and by acknowledging the need for a plan, you can take the very first step towards producing successful whitepapers.

Draft

Once you have identified the objectives of your whitepaper, you can set about compiling your ideas into an initial draft. As whitepapers are typically quite detailed and often focused on statistics, figures or cases, it’s vitally important that the draft process is carried out thoroughly. Combining your materials to produce an initial draft begins with delegating writing responsibility. You may choose to leave one person responsible for researching and writing the whitepaper, or you may prefer it to be a group effort, as is normally the case in editorial environments. The drafting process could take quite some time, or it could take no time at all depending on the level of research you have carried out. Either way, it is important to prepare for the revision process.

Discuss some more

And that revision process involves more discussion and more decision making. Constructing a first draft is like laying down the foundation of your overall strategy. Once you have done so, you can focus on building upon that structure and improving the message your whitepaper delivers. By discussing additional details such as style, branding and delivery, you can make competent additions to the whitepaper where you feel it may be appropriate. In many ways, the revision process is the most important aspect of your whitepaper strategy as it determines the final draft of your content which is what your target audience are going to access. Therefore, it is important to keep up the momentum when creating your whitepaper, otherwise quality will suffer and audience interest will most certainly wane.

Don’t be afraid to collaborate

If you are looking to really push the boat out with your whitepapers, then you shouldn’t be afraid to collaborate. Whitepapers are, essentially a collaboration of ides that lend themselves to your business and the service/products you provide. If you choose to ignore second opinions and go for broke with your own idea, your content marketing strategy may sail. But it may just as easily sink, and if it does, you’ll be out on your own, left to rue missed opportunities. By putting heads together and working through clashing opinions, you can guarantee a quality whitepaper that most importantly, delivers the message of the business.

Of course there are many other things to consider when setting out to create a whitepaper, however, these 4 tips are crucial for content marketers looking to produce successful content that entertains, informs and engages their target audience.

For further information on how you can produce successful content, download your guide to whitepapers for free.

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