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If you are here because you are confused about white papers, we welcome you to the club. In white papers, even experienced marketers often say: "Wait – what's another white paper?"

This is because not every company needs a white paper. You don't need your favorite coffee shop asking you to download the white paper to sign up for the weekly newsletter the next time you check out.

You want your delicious bean juice … no in-depth analysis of what you need to know about the future of the coffee industry. ☕️

But … you may be interested in Klayvio publishing a white paper on the future of email newsletters based on trends they see through their email clients.

Do you think your company needs to write a white paper? Let us consider what a white paper is and how to write one.

What is a white paper?

A white paper is content that your company has written as a report on a specific topic in your industry. If you think, "Who wants to read a report?" Let us explain why there are white papers.

What you are reading is an article. It is said to be published on a blog and written so that it is fun to read. The aim of this article is to explain what a white paper is – without making you feel knee-deep in statistics and terminology.

A white paper uses statistics and terminology to explain a topic related to a company's industry. If we were to write a white paper on white papers, it would be much more formal than this article, it would have extensive statistics to show why white papers are important to businesses, and it would not be afraid to use a lot of jargon.

Companies want to write white papers if they want to identify a problem that their company can solve. For example, Facebook 2007 could have written a white paper on how advertisers are not getting the conversions they have achieved through traditional television advertising and why this makes Facebook's new advertising platform a viable solution for advertisers in the new era of social media. (Facebook launched its ad platform in 2007 … how it feels before a lifetime).

Facebook's hypothetical white paper should have proven to advertisers that traditional television advertising was not where they wanted to spend their advertising dollars, but Facebook. They would have underpinned their point of view with serious statistics, graphics, diagrams and a lot of chic business language.

Why do companies write white papers?

• They show solid industry knowledge
• They can be used as a lead magnet
• They can be used internally by your marketing and sales teams

Now that we have narrowed down what a white paper is, let's look at writing a white paper.

How do I write a white paper?

When you're ready to write a white paper, buckle up. You want to spend a lot of time writing a detailed paper that shows how your company is leading in its industry. Writing a white paper is definitely a bigger task, just like everything else, but if we break it down into steps, it really isn't that bad. 😅

Step 1: choose your topic

The selection of the subject of your white paper begins with the action that the reader should take after reading it. In the case of Facebook, they would have liked their readers to feel much more motivated to shift part of their advertising budget from TV advertising to social media advertising.

Note: Let us be clear here: your white paper should not make people think something that is not true. A great white paper uses statistics and a lot of research to prove his case. If Facebook had written a white paper like the one we talked about, they would have shown how many hours people spend on social media each week compared to watching TV. That would have shown that Facebook is a great place to advertise. Not manipulated readers into thinking something that wasn't true.

Step 2: Do the research

With your topic in hand, it's time to find statistics and other relevant content that make up your white paper. Open Google Docs or your favorite note-taking app and get statistics and case studies to support your point of view. Make sure you save the links so that you can refer to these sources in your article (remember that this should be data-driven and proven, not fictitious or pulled out of nowhere).

Step 3: write!

Okay, time to write. 🤓 Keep in mind that your white paper should be very detailed, so you want it to be long. The goal is a length of approx. 10 pages (or longer, depending on the industry). You will also add graphics, charts and images. So keep this in mind when writing and aiming for a specific page number.

Step 4: make it pretty

The last step in writing your own white paper is to make it pretty with the above graphics, diagrams and pictures. These "extras" are intended to support the point you are addressing and to facilitate understanding. You also want to add a table of contents to help readers navigate your white paper.

You see, writing a white paper is not that bad, is it?

If your customers are interested in a white paper, use these 4 steps to create one so you can use it as a lead magnet, demonstrate your ideas, or work internally for your sales and marketing teams.