Technology white paper writing
White papers have become one of the most sought-after and useful sources of information for business buyers of technology products. For example, an Information Week study says that 76% of technology buyers use white papers for general education and 73.8% use them to investigate possible technology solutions. So it should come as no surprise that, according to research performed by Webtrends, using a whitepaper as the opt in can double the response of a technology marketing campaign.
But what type of whitepapers provide the best response? Prospects are very busy and confronted with many different reading alternatives. So you have to hook your reader very quickly.
1. The first and most important step is to develop a subject that provides useful information to the reader such as explaining how to solve a common problem or how to improve a common business process.
2. Next develop a short, compelling and non-promotional headline that offers a benefit to the potential customer. MarketingSherpa research shows that the most popular titles are those that promise concrete benefits.
3. Expand the headline into a one- or two- paragraph executive summary that leads off the paper and should ideally be available without registration.
4. When writing the paper, deliver on your promise to the reader by providing detailed technical information. Be subtle about introducing your product as the solution to the problems addressed in the white paper. Also provide additional hooks to draw the reader into the text including descriptive subheads, illustrations with captions, quotes in call-out boxes and a conclusion that echoes the executive summary.
5. Ideally, the writer of the whitepaper should be someone that combines in-depth understanding of your technology with professional writing background.
Jerry Fireman has written over 2,000 white papers for large technology companies ranging from giants such as Oracle, IBM, and Honeywell to start-ups with just a few people. His technical background comes from over 35 years of writing about a wide range of technical subjects. We can help you at any stage of the process of creating a great white paper. You can bounce topics off us or we can come up with interesting topics ourselves based on our background in producing white papers in nearly every area of technology.
We can conserve the time of your subject matter experts by getting all the information we need to produce a professional first draft in 1 to 2 hours of interviews plus our own research. We have the technical background to write about virtually any area of technology - ask us for examples. We will produce as many drafts of the paper as are needed to make you happy at no extra cost. The cost of this service is $300 plus $1 per word; for example, $2300 for a 2000 word white paper. We also offer the service of promoting your white paper by placing it in industry publications and portals.