The commercial case for investing in a business white paper

Work with a More Than Words business white paper writer to create one of the most powerful B2B sales and marketing tools available for companies selling complex or high-ticket products and services and SaaS/subscription services.

What is a white paper?

A business white paper is a long-form document containing in-depth, authoritative, detailed and persuasive content on:

• a problem or a challenge faced by the types of clients you work with,
• how your products or services helps clients overcome those problems or challenges, and
• the added commercial value delivered by your products or services.

They are particularly useful for generating leads and closing sales on products and services which have a direct effect on the overall efficiency and/or profitability of an organisation.

Our white paper writer service

There are three stages to our white paper writing service.

1. Understanding your need for a white paper

When you contact us, we’ll request information from you on the products or services you wish to promote with the white paper.

We’ll ask you about the problems your products or services solve or the opportunities they create for your clients.

We’ll also ask about the financial and operational costs to clients if these issues remain unsolved or opportunities unexploited.

Your white paper will examine in detail the reasons why your products or services are particularly suitable for your clients.

To help us better understand how to write your white paper, it would help us if you could provide us details on competing products and services to yours whose results are less satisfactory so we can compare and contrast them.

Once our research is done, we’ll outline a suggested structure and theme for the white paper together with a table of contents to show the narrative path we recommend.

2. Writing your white paper

White papers focus on the provision of often bespoke solutions to companies.

They do this by thoroughly examining:

• the causes of particular problems within certain types of organisations and
• the negative financial and operational consequences which arise because of them.

White papers detail your particular solution to a client’s problems by promoting the benefits of the particular product or service you offer.

Before your white paper copywriter begins work, we thoroughly plan the contents and the structure of the piece.

We agree with you the specific topics that you want to be covered and the products or services that you want to be promoted throughout the text.

Please note that while we are able to change direction to some degree on the structure of the white paper after work has commenced, an extra charge may be made if this creates significant extra work for our copywriters and researchers.

Although it varies between clients, a typical white paper template will contain the following:

• Objection-handling title – a title indicating to readers that you have a solution to a current issue they may be facing and how you would deliver that solution to them.
• Abstract and problem statement – a convincing and engaging opening description of the problem, the financial and operational consequences of the problem, and how to overcome it.
• Background – exploration of the historical causes of the issue in as clear a linguistic way as possible and the manifestations of the issue. There should be heavy use of evidence and/or customer anecdotes in this section.
• Solution – a persuasive argument on the solution the white paper is promoting based upon evidence and application.
• Conclusion – a summary of the findings of the white paper.
• References – collection and citation of all external resources used during the white paper. Multiple citations formats available.

Although a template white paper structure is often useful as a starting point, it is often the case that we will recommend a bespoke structure for your white paper.

3. Drafting, proofing, and sign off

At the outset and in conjunction with you, we will agree on a set of progress milestones for the white paper together with an agreed timescale for delivery of each milestone.

At each milestone stage, we will release the part-drafts for review.

As part of our working agreement, we would ask that you reply to us quickly at each stage so that momentum on the project is not lost.

During the process, we encourage clients to give us full, frank, and honest feedback at each milestone to help ensure that, when the first complete draft is ready, it is as close to the outcome you want as possible.

At the final stage, we perform final proofreads and resource checks before presenting the entire white paper to you for sign off.

Our white paper distribution and promotion service

If you want us to, we will organise and implement a sales and marketing campaign to guarantee maximum exposure of your white paper to the decision makers you’re targeting.

The greater the number of your prospective clients know that you have released a white paper, the greater the number of takers.

We exchange the white paper with your prospective client in return for their contact details so that your sales team can follow up.

The content distribution techniques we may use for you may include but is not limited to:

• the creation of specific sector-targeted landing pages,
• Google Ads campaigns,
• LinkedIn promotion,
• creation of presentation slides,
• creation and scheduling of social media posts,
• paid-for social media campaigns,
• promotion on Quora,
• creation of articles for posting to your blog or newsfeed,
• collateral for email marketing promotion to customers,
• prospects and subscribers, and
• press releases.

White paper writer pricing

In determining how much we charge for a white paper, we factor in the level of research and the length of the copy in words.

If you’d like us to promote and market your white paper, there will be an additional charge for this service.

As with all More Than Words’ charging structures, we are aware that the cost of our services will impact on the profitability of your campaign so we endeavour to keep our prices as low as absolutely possible for our clients.

Find out more

To speak with one of our account managers about creating a white paper for your company, please call us on 0330 010 3495 or email us by clicking here.

How does a white paper fit into your sales and marketing process?

The risks to a business or organisation of choosing the wrong product/service and/or supplier are great.

There will also be a substantial career risk to the person or people involved with making a wrong choice – this is often the most significant factor that sales and marketing teams have to overcome.

White papers start conversations.

They provide evidence of your company’s ability to deliver to a client’s needs and expectations.

They demonstrate the suitability and efficacy of the products and services you offer.

Companies using white papers early in their sales and marketing process do so to obtain decision maker contact details and to understand the decision making chain within the companies and organisations they’re targeting.

Your sales team can also use white papers much later on when a decision is close as a way of differentiating your company and its products and services from your competitors.

Contact us to discuss your project

We’re open during office hours between Monday and Friday.

Please call us, email us, or fill out the contact form and let us know more about your company, the products and services you offer, and your target markets.

We’re available on 0330 010 3495 or you can email our copywriting services team about hiring a white paper writer by clicking here.

We’re based in North Shields town centre if you want to come and visit us. There is plenty of free parking outside and we’re only three minutes’ walk from North Shields Metro station.