#003: White Papers: A Real and Lucrative Opportunity for Business Writers (Part 2 of 2)

Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast, helping you propel your writing business to a whole new level. And now, here's your host, Ed Gandia.

Hey everyone. Welcome to episode number three of the High Income Business Writing Podcast. I am your host, Ed Gandia and this is the podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to take their writing businesses to the six figure level, or the part time equivalent of that. Joining me today again is Gordon Graham, also known as that white paper guy and author of the newly published book White Papers for Dummies. And we're doing part two of our two part series on the topic of writing white papers. If you haven't checked out part one of this interview, check it out when you get a chance because Gordon and I get into a lot of detail in that conversation about the business of writing white papers. What they are, who's publishing them, the opportunity for writers, how much you can charge, and much more. And you can catch that first part of the interview@www.b2b launcher.com. episode two, the number two. In this final part of our interview, we get into actual white paper writing and specifically we're going to talk about the three flavors of white papers and how to determine which one is right for which situation. We're going to get into a detailed discussion about each white paper type, including length, tone, style, and how to effectively approach each of them. We're going to discuss potential pitfalls and land mines to watch out for, how to keep white paper projects on track and within scope, how to deal with difficult clients and edit happy reviewers, and even what a Google executive told Gordon about white paper writers that they've worked with in the past. Some very interesting information there. So we're going to get right to it. I hope you enjoy this interview.

All right, everyone, so I'm back here with Gordon Graham, author of White Paper for Dummies, and we're doing part two today of our initial discussion. If you haven't caught that yet, I recommend you do. We go through quite a bit about white papers. We talk about white papers, what they are, who uses them, the opportunity for white paper writers. Lots of great tips and information there, so make sure to grab that. And Gordon, it's great to have you back.

Yeah, thanks, Ed. Great to be here.

So, all right, so today we're going to talk about, we're going to get down to the nitty gritty of white papers and we're going to talk about the different kinds of white papers that you might run into as a white paper writer. And then we're going to talk about the process of planning and producing a white paper. But let's start with the types of white papers. This is something that I had a really hard time with when I was getting started because nobody had really defined this very well. And I love how you've broken this down into basically three different types. So why don't you maybe give us a basic overview of each and then we can start getting into a little bit of detail for each one.

Great, great. I love talking about this because this idea really came to me when I was going through and making a list of all the white papers I'd written. Because, you know, I was thinking, gee, you know, my samples are all over the place, I should put them all together. So I got up to, I think I cleared 100. I cleared 100. I was, I was amazed that, wow, I've done 100 of these. Now I've done, I'm getting closing in on 200. But the, I started, you know, as I went through each one, I thought about a little bit and you know, at that point people were saying, everybody was saying, myself included, this is probably three, four years ago. Everybody was saying, well, you know, there's eight types of white papers, there's 10 types of white papers, there's actually 14 types of white papers. Everybody had these long, long lists. And the problem is that they were really subtle little distinctions and it was really hard to remember. And if you're talking to a prospect on the phone and they say, well, what type of white paper should I do? And you're trying to go through your list of 14 different, that's really hard. So I started to think maybe there's some way to simplify this. And as I thought, they kind of just sorted themselves into these three big buckets. And then I thought as a way to just help me remember, I'll just call them different ice cream flavors. And that seems to, that seems to really resonate with people. People. When I give a workshop about that, people always come up and say, oh, that was so great. I love that about the ice cream. I can remember that, you know. So I started off with the most traditional old fashioned kind of white paper that I call a backgrounder. And this at one point, this is what every white paper was. It was basically a description, a factual description of a product or a service, you know, and I and called that vanilla because it's completely predictable. There's no surprises. It's quite product centric and vendor centric. There's no proof points Usually they don't take much external research or much web research. These are the kind of things that could almost be written by a technical writer because they're very, very factual and they talk about the features and the. The best ones also translate each feature into a benefit for the buyer. So that's the most basic type of white paper, a backgrounder. And I think of that as plain vanilla. These are useful at the lower end of the sales funnel when a company representative has to do a technical evaluation or a cost benefit analysis of the remaining companies on the shortlist of vendors. So they'll probably get down to the point where they've got two or three companies they're comparing, they need to compare them head to head. And this is when a backgrounder is really good and it could be considered a technical backgrounder or a business backgrounder, but it talks about the technical features and benefits or the cost benefits of using a certain product or service.

And this is really one quick point, Gordon, is this is really interesting that you say that this is used kind of at the bottom of the funnel when somebody' already shortlisted a few vendors. Because what I found is, myself included, when I was getting started on a lot of new white paper writers, this is the kind that tend to flock to at the top of the funnel when they're trying to generate leads. And that's a mistake. You got to be careful not to use this approach when you're trying to generate leads.

Yeah, it's funny, the biggest companies, I think maybe this is where people get this idea. The biggest companies generally put out nothing except backgrounders. If you're already the undisputed leader in the field, you're going to be on the short list of vendors. You don't have to work to generate leads. Everybody's always thinking about you. Oh, we'll see what HP is doing, we'll see what IBM is doing, we'll see what Microsoft is doing or what they have to say. We'll see what Oracle says about this. You're already on the short list, so you don't have to fight your way on. So bigger companies tend to do just about nothing but backgrounders. If you look at white papers from hp, they're all about their products, always all about their products, and that's fine because their products are going to be in the running. This type of white paper is really, really useful to support a technical evaluation. Another time that it's really handy is if you're launching a new product. So this is the type of white paper that you'll probably be called on to write. If somebody says, we got this new product coming out, we need a white paper for it. Well, you're going to have to give something out to people that are immediately interested in this. Also journalists, also analysts, also your business partner, your own salesforce. Everybody needs to hear what this product is all about. So a backgrounder is good at that point, just fine, you know, but, but you're, you're very astute to say if you try to generate leads with a backgrounder, it's not going to work that well. And I can tell you exactly why. Because people don't Google products. You know, we're up to the point where something like 90, the last survey I saw it was 96%, I think, of all business purchases start with a web search. You know, in the old days people used to go to a, go to a salesperson and say, well what have you got to help me with this? No way. The sales guy is gone now. It's, he's out of that process. People go to Google and they, and they search for things that can help them. Well, what do they search for? They're not going to search for, you know, HP da da da da. Model 472. They never even heard of that model yet. What they're going to search for is I need a large format, color inexpensive printer that can handle 11 by 17 inch pages. They'll Google the thing that they're looking for, the problem they're trying to solve. They may even Google print large blueprints or print large maps. They'll Google the problem they're struggling with. And that's when you need a different type of white paper to show up in those search results. Because even if your background shows up, it's too early to start talking about the features and the benefits and the feeds and speeds of that product. It's too early. It's not going to really pull people into your funnel that well. That's when I realized there's another type of white paper which is much more modern, which is much more effective for generating leads. And that's what I call the problem solution. And I think of this one as chocolate ice cream because it's really the richest and the most satisfying and the longest lasting. They're also the hardest to write. They take the most research, they require the most proof points, but they're the ones that you can command the highest fees for. And a product solution has a definite flow of the content. And I can give you an overview of that right now. It starts with the business problem, a serious business problem that a lot of people are struggling with. And it gives some shape and size and scope to the problem. So it may have some analysts saying, yes, companies in the United states are wasting $60 billion a year on this, not being able to find information they need. In fact, Most executives spend 12 hours a week searching for lost emails and lost reports, something like that. So the problem might be information overload or lack of management of docum, or just plain poor filing skills, or probably you could lump something like that under information overload. So what are people going to Google? They're going to Google, can't find my emails, can't find my reports. Information overload, too much information. They'll Google something like that and they're looking to do those things that I say a proper white paper does. Understand an issue, solve a problem, and make a decision about what to do about the problem. And if your white paper can answer those things, you'll have a good shot at developing a lead. So what does a problem solution white paper include? Well, it includes this definition of the problem that I've already talked about. And then this is actually my favorite part to write. You don't jump into the solution. You don't just go problem with solution. You go, hmm, how have people tried to solve that in the past? This is so powerful. How have people tried, how have other people tried to solve? How have other companies tried to solve that? And this is when you get to line up all of your competitors and take your best shot at them. And so this is really, really fun, you know, and if we keep going with that information overload thing, I'm thinking about a white paper I wrote that was for a document management system for these multi, multi billion dollar huge engineering projects. And these projects get, they get 100,000 engineering drawings and change orders and specifications and reports and surveys and stuff. They'll have 100,000 documents to organize. If they start bumbling and losing those things, I mean, they could build the thing wrong, they could get sued up the yin yang later because they built it wrong or didn't use the right materials or didn't put in the changes from the engineers or the architects. So they really got a. There's a good business reason to keep that stuff, keep track of that stuff. I looked at what are the traditional ways people used to organize information and exchange information between offices when there's a big project with a whole bunch of offices. So we looked at email and attachments to emails. We looked at faxes. We looked at Sending drawings around by courier and putting things onto flash drives. All of these things had defined drawbacks that we could knock down. So basically, in about half a page, I went through each of the existing traditional ways of organizing documents and said, the problem is you can lose the file. The problem is people are overloaded and they don't want, they don't like searching through their email, and it's not very organized. The problem is if you courier over drawing, you know, there's, the drawing could get lost or damaged or there's still only one master copy. And you don't, you don't see the changes on it. You know, it's, there's, there's drawbacks to what anybody else, what any other vendor has tried to do to solve a problem. And so that's when you shoot down all of them. Then you introduce, and you do that in terms not by naming vendors or naming products, but you class them into buckets. You class them into genres, categories, approaches, classes, some kind of groups of solutions. So you're not talking about what IBM does or what Microsoft does. You're talking about this approach and that approach as a technology or a methodology. And then you introduce, the next section is you introduce the new, improved methodology, but you don't mention your company name. You say, you know what, there's a better way to do this. And it would involve an online collaborative system where everybody could share, where there's no master copy of a document that could get lost, where there's no delay in accessing things. People see all the changes immediately. But you don't say, from Acme Online Collaboration Systems. You say, here is a new improved solution, and this is where you're providing some education. You're defining a market space and saying, here's all these other vendors and then here's. Or here's all these other ideas, and then here's a new improved idea, and it's over here, and it's got all these benefits. Does this better, does that faster? It's faster, cheaper, whatever. And only then at that point do you turn around towards the end and say, and you know what? Acme Online Collaboration Systems actually has a working system like this, and it's been installed in the field at 10,000 different companies and blah, blah, blah. To find out more about how this can help you organize your documents for a massive engineering system, you put in your call to action. So a problem solution is really powerful because it actually does provide a lot of informational educational content. And that's why I call it the chocolate flavor. And this is modern and really very challenging, but very, very powerful to write. Because as long as people have that problem, as long as anybody in business has that problem, this white paper can continue to generate leads. So these can routinely. A problem solution white paper is routinely on the web of the vendor for one to two years. Routinely. You know, it's not something you're doing just to just to put out in your blog here today and gone tomorrow. That's why the fees are nice and satisfying for writing a problem solution. And now somewhere in the middle is what I call a numbered list. So a numbered list maybe has a slightly different quality to the others. It's more a description of an approach than the content. But a numbered list I consider kind of light and lively and easy to digest, like strawberry ice cream. So a numbered list is like five things you must know before you buy an online document management system. Four hidden gotchas of online document management systems. This starts with a number and then it's some kind of roundup of points or questions or highlights or issues or concerns about some issue. And this again will interest anybody who is researching that issue. And in fact, it's probably the most attractive format to have because, I mean, I've had executives say to me, you know, I just love reading numbered lists because I know there's seven things and I get to number three and I know there's only four left and then, oh yeah, number five, I already know that I'm just going to skip past that number six, there's something good and I know I'm almost done because there's only seven. The third. The neat thing about a numbered list is the structure. It's like an insect, you know, with its skeleton on the outside. A numbered list. The structure is completely evident. You don't have to work, you know, there's 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 items and that's it. So they're really, really popular. They're the easiest for people to read and to scan. Their probably faster and easier to research and write than a problem solution. And you can really be a little more outrageous. A numbered list is very, very good for just making noise and for getting attention with a kind of provocative view. It's really good for attacking competitors, for casting the notorious fud. Fear, uncertainty and doubt on your competitors because you can say, like the four hidden gotchas or six things you must know before you sign to buy, or seven problems you probably haven't thought about. It's a great way to cast uncertainty on competitors. And they're Also really good for nurturing prospects once they're into your sales funnel. Because just about anybody can scan through a numbered list. And they will download and look at a numbered list more often than they will a problem solution that sounds like a lot of work or a backgrounder that sounds like too much detail. So these tend to be shorter and they have somewhere between three and nine numbered points and you get in and you get out, and they're pretty fun. And so there's our three. It's a backgrounder all about the product, problem solution all about the problem, and a numbered list somewhere in the middle. And then in fact, you can mash up a numbered list with either of the others. So you can have a numbered list combined with a backgrounder. It could be four key features of the Acme Scan O Matic 3500 or seven things that only Acme does with da da da da da. That's a mashup of a numbered list and a background. And what that gives you is the kind of light and lively structure of a numbered list with the detailed look at the features of the product. You can go the other way and mash up a numbered list with a problem solution. So then it could be seven things every manager should know about information management or seven ways to safeguard your information about your nuclear power plant construction program. You know, you kind of again, cast that light and lively structure of a numbered list on top of an industry wide, industry wide problem. So we've got three basic flavors and then two of them. The strawberry, you know, I think of strawberry can go with vanilla, strawberry can go with chocolate. But the two that don't mix too well are the chocolate and the vanilla because they're both kind of so strong in their own way that it's better to just serve them up separately. So it's very hard to combine a backgrounder and a problem solution. One reason is because they're aimed at people at different parts of the funnel. Right. So how can you write one document that appeals to people to pull them into the funnel and another that works best for people at the very bottom of the funnel? That's a big challenge. And trying to combine all three into one big mashup. I've had clients that try to do that. That's really tough. I mean, that's Neapolitan ice cream is a very popular ice cream flavor. But I'm afraid this is where that metaphor kind of breaks down and you just can't combine all three. How can you write something that is light and lively about a serious problem and about the ins and outs of a product that appeals to people at the top, the bottom, and the middle of the sales funnel.

It's too much. Too much. You know why I love this approach? Because it has really narrowed it down. Here's another way. In the first podcast we did, I talked about how I was stalking you for years and I just admitted that to you. And I was reading everything you were putting out there on white papers because you were one of the few guys who was actually publishing any information at the the time. One of the things I remember downloading from you was that the 10 types of white paper, I want to say it was 10, and I remember I had it laminated and everything. So when I talked to prospects and clients, but I remember having a hard time with it. And the reason I laminated is because it wasn't something you could memorize. There was a lot of overlap. It was complicated. I love having three. I can see the distinction. I can see that there could be some overlap in some cases, but for the most part, these are very distinct types or flavors of white papers. And I can see now if I'm talking to a client and they don't know exactly which kind they want, they just tell me what they want to accomplish. I can see how this would be a very useful tool to determine. Okay, Mr. Client, here's what I think you need and here's why.

Yeah, yeah, I'm glad you said that. And I, I went through the same path myself. You know, where I'd be on the phone with someone and they'd be, they'd be saying they want to generate leads. And then I'd be saying, well, you know, there's three, three or four types of white papers that are good for generating leads. Now I say there's one, you know, you want to generate leads. Hands down, it's the problem solution. And as I explain it, I hear people, I hear people going, yeah, yep, yep. I hear these marketing executives saying, yeah, you know, yeah, that's right. That makes a lot of sense. I think that there's a newer report that people could get called, that I call my ice cream report. So that's free on my website. That white paper guy. It's on my website. That white paper guy on the homepage, I used to be on every page. But I've put my book up for now for there. But you can get it from the homepage. And it's basically about a 15 page report that goes into these ideas. And then I expanded them in My book into like over 100 pages talking about these different flavors and when to use them and the ins and outs, what to include in each one, what to leave out of each one, how long to make them the main sections, the kind of typical sections to put in. So I really went to town with that idea because I think it is useful. I've used it myself for several years and I just hear people agreeing with me and saying, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And then it helps clarify a project because I have had projects where people are trying to do too much and when we get kind of bogged down, I think about it and I think, oh yeah, they're trying to talk about a product and talk about an industry wide problem at the same time. Why not just split it out and have two white papers?

That's great. I'll have that in the show notes as well for everybody who's listening and they're not in front of the computer right now. I'll have a link to your homepage where they can download that report. I've read it. I got it. It's excellent. It does do a very good job of explaining these. Just maybe real quick, Gordon, can you give me a general idea of length for each typical length for each of these three types? What do you see?

Well, the backgrounder is usually aimed at a more technical audience or it could be aimed at a business audience. But they're people that are deep in the funnel, right? So they can tolerate as long as it's useful, helpful advice that's helping them evaluate your product. They can tolerate a little bit longer. So we tend to say the typical white paper, six to eight pages of, of core content, a backgrounder is generally six pages to eight pages. Could be a little bit more, could be 10 pages, could be 12 pages. You won't lose people. As long as you're describing, you know in detail, factually the features and benefits of a product. If you start putting in hot air, you could lose people. So they tend to have a bit of an introduction, the features and the benefits of each feature and then a conclusion that wraps it all up. And they can be really longer than the other flavors. The numbered list is the shortest because really often on a substantial one, I like to break the page at the bottom of each point so you can just flip through the pages or scroll through the pages.