The Purpose and Importance of a Whitepaper
Many of you will be familiar with whitepapers. Indeed, you may have even written some yourself.
Like many sales and marketing collateral, whitepapers can come in different guises and serve varying purposes. Let me cover some of the most common ones here.
A Policy Document
Governments commission experts to produce White and green papers around new policies, policy adjustments, and research into important political, economic or social issues. You have heard the term “ the government has created a white paper on…” or see references to white papers as part of policy consultation and formulation. These documents tend to be lengthy as they are designed to provoke debate across the political spectrum, and can, therefore, be heavy reading!
A Sales and Marketing Tool
Whitepapers are commonly used as part of the sales and content marketing process. They provide a more detailed, often related to the composition of the product or solution in question, to prospective buyers.
Business benefits White Paper
This type of paper is aimed at a non-technical audience and tells customers how they will benefit from a certain product or offerings. A business benefits white paper can work at any point in the sales cycle. It is often used as a call-to-action — where a prospective or existing customer can download it and then be used as a means for follow up.
Technology Benefits White Paper
This type of white paper is aimed at a more discerning technical audience that is interested in the functionality of a particular solution or product. The whitepaper will go into more granular details about specific features and the benefits of those features to the customer. The level of detail can vary, depending upon the company creating it and the target audience. For instance, if it is targeting the technical day-to-day user, then it is likely to provide very specific details whereas if it is aimed at a senior technical decision-maker, then it is likely to prove a higher-level view.
Business and Technology Benefits White Paper
This type of white paper covers the best of both worlds — a high-level technical overview of the solution or product combined with the business benefits. This combined approach can serve multiple audiences — both technical and business decision-makers. It can be more generic and less targeted but address a wider group of readers.
The LYF White Paper
Actually, at LYF, we have created 3 versions of a white paper. We have a ‘One=Pager’ — which is a very high level, taster document for someone who just wants to get an initial view of the LYF platform. Then, there is the Business benefits version — which provides some level of technical detail but also includes our vision and of course the benefits LYF wants to bring to the marketplace. The third flavour, is the technical version, much more in-depth about the technology LYF is built upon, or, will leverage in the future as part of our vision, and the functionality that is or will be delivered. It also outlines our unique differentiators and what will set us apart from the also-rans!
Our aim is for transparency, which is why we have invested the time and effort to create all 3. It also means that there is a logical path for a reader to follow should they wish to do so — starting off with the One-Pager and then moving further down the granularity chain.
They are also designed for different audiences — ERC-20 Token Owners, ERC-20 token holders, novices in the crypto world or savvy professionals. This is because LYF has been created as a platform and ecosystem to bring benefits to the wider community and not just be limited to a few. This is another factor that makes LYF unique — as our slogan says — Crypto — The Clever Way!
