White Paper

A white paper is your opportunity to tell your story, or answer your clients’ most complex questions, in an in-depth format. Typically you’ll see three uses of a white paper within marketing concepts.

Introduce your innovative solution to a problem

The first is when a business with a new, innovative, business model opens up, and they realize that before they can even make their sales pitch, they need to educate clients about the status quo and why it doesn’t work. Or, they just want to offer a robust, technical explanation of why their solution is necessary and how it works. These white papers live on websites, get published as sponsored content in trade magazines, or get printed for sales teams to pass out at conferences and after one-on-one meetings.

Keep your clients in the know

The second kind of white paper educates your clients about big changes in the industry that you’re not responsible for, but your clients look to you for help understanding. This is big with regulation. Think of your CPA sending an in-depth explanation of how the new tax law will impact small business. Or a manufacturer of software for fleet management sending an explanation of new ELD laws for trucking.

Capture visitors’ email addresses

The third kind of white paper is also often called a ‘digital upgrade’ or ‘digital asset.’ These are usually in-depth how-to guides, or checklists, or other educational or helpful information that you can offer up as a free download on your website in exchange for a reader’s email address.

You’re my ideal client if…

You need help introducing the world to your business model, or presenting research results, or introducing a new product or service, and you have a strong internal marketing team and a functional and efficient website. (If your website needs a rewrite, check out our website copy services!)

Why invest in white papers?

Develop your reputation as an authority in your industry
Educate prospects about your innovative approach to the industry’s toughest challenges so that they’ll be more confident in your approach, and better equipped to work with you
Capture email addresses of clients at the top of your sales funnel
Earn the trust of clients in the middle of the sales funnel by sharing useful information with them

Examples, please?

Here are a few of our favorite white papers from the Humanicity portfolio.