What is a White Paper and Why White Papers Are an Important Component of Your Content Marketing Arsenal

4 min readDec 11, 2017

What is a White Paper

If you search for “white paper definition,” you’ll quickly come across many different interpretations of the term.

According to Hubspot, “A white paper is a persuasive, authoritative, in-depth report on a specific topic that presents a problem and provides a solution. Marketers create white papers to educate their audience about a particular issue or explain and promote a particular methodology. They are advanced problem-solving guides.”

Investopedia defines a white paper as “an informational document issued by a company to promote or highlight the features of a solution, product, or service. White papers are sales and marketing documents used to entice or persuade potential customers to learn more about or purchase a particular product, service, technology or methodology. “

Personally, I like Hubspot’s take more. The goal of a white paper is to inform and persuade based on facts, not to tell people why your product is the best and why they need to buy it now.

Why You Should Spend the Time and Resources Creating White Papers

A well-written white paper will help:

Expand your brand presence and reach within your industry
Establish your company as an industry leader and influencer
Build credibility and trust
Reach out to other industry leaders and partners
Boost your audience’s engagement and encourage readers to share your content on social media
Generate leads and gather valuable information about site visitors
Generate inbound links from relevant sources and get cited.

More benefits:

White papers are great resources for sales teams
White papers can be repurposed and used in different formats; for example, infographics, slide decks, presentations, and blog posts
For readers, a well-written white paper can differentiate you from your competitors
White papers are the most influential marketing tools for B2B buying decisions.

What Are the Industry Standards for a Great White Paper?

According to Lindsay Colwich from Hubspot, an A+ White Paper should meet the following guidelines:

Length: No fewer than six pages, including illustrations, charts, and references. Papers can be upwards of fifty if the topic requires extra detail.
Structure: Usually consists of a title page, table of contents, short executive summary (optional but helpful), introduction, several pages educating the reader about the problem, several pages hypothesizing a solution, several pages offering an example of a company that used that solution to achieve results, and a conclusion.
Density: Typically denser than an eBook. White papers are not intended to be skimmed through easily. In fact, people need to read them more than once to extract every morsel of information.
Format: PDF in portrait orientation (8.5" by 11").
Style: Professional, serious, well written, well edited, and well designed.

Creating an Outstanding White Paper

Companies worldwide are using white papers to educate and provide solutions to customers. Nevertheless, to create an outstanding report and reach your content marketing goals, you will need some knowledge and experience.

The tips below will help you become an expert and start creating awesome, engaging white papers:

Do your research. Good white papers are fact-based and research-driven
Dig into other industry research reports
Check out white papers that are industry-recognized (https://www.thatwhitepaperguy.com/white-paper-guys-samples/)
Read articles on writing a perfect white paper by content marketing gurus like Rand Fishkin and Neil Patel (my favorites!)
View papers produced by your competitors. Then try to figure out what works for you as a reader and what doesn’t
Follow the industry standards for a white paper (see above)
Use ready-to-go white paper templates to kick-start your work

Any other ideas? Just drop them in comments below!

White Paper Examples to Get Inspired

Visually interactive content is engaging and provides great user experiences. Combining well-written research with interactive elements will make your paper more appealing, easily digestible, and useful — all while increasing ROI.

Excellent examples of interactive white papers can be found on Joomag. The platform masterfully educates its customers about its versatility, providing business solutions for content marketing, corporate communications, digital publishing, and sales engagement needs. Each white paper is jam-packed with useful information, including:

• Relevant industry trends, challenges, and solutions

• Thoroughly researched data and findings

• Key takeaways in an easy-to-read format

• Case Studies

Check them out, find the inspiration you need, and start creating your own!