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Part 4 in a series of white paper outlines, each with a different structure and focus. Here, an outline for a buckshot-in-the-air white paper that scares readers toward innovation. What do you think about scaring your prospects and customers a little bit? How do you feel about getting them off the dime to buy your [...]
Part 2 in a continuing series of white paper outlines, each with a different structure and focus. Here, an outline for white papers that guide readers through revolutionary change. This white paper outline is about The Revolution that your new ideas and technologies ignite in your customers’ organization. Suppose you want your prospects to: replace [...]
Part 1 in a continuing series of white paper outlines, each with a different structure and focus. Here, an outline for white papers that educate readers on new technologies. If you’re writing a white paper for yourself, you can get away without writing an outline first, but if other people will approve the paper, you [...]
Don’t you wish you could be inside your reader’s head as he reads your content? What text could you throw away? What text could you monetize? Active listening is difficult. In fact, it’s exhausting, especially if you’re new to it. Do you know people who practice active listening? You’d know if you did. They begin [...]
“White paper” covers a multitude of formats, and it’s rare to find two people who take it to mean the same thing. Poisoned white papers harm the publisher more than the reader, but there are antidotes. I’ve looked at a half-dozen documents called “white papers” in the last few days and marveled at the variety [...]
Your marketing communications play a big role in earning your customers’ trust. Writers can help with this, but it’s not easy to get them to do so. With its 2010 Trust Barometer, the public relations firm Edelman reports that 83% of U.S. consumers value transparent and honest practices, and a company being a “company I [...]
Try to think of your ideal reader as a child. Have you ever met a child who preferred an explanation over a story? Explaining makes for lousy marketing. Dan Heath, Fast Company Writing for a Child As a marketing manager, have you ever thought of your ideal reader as a child? We learn not to [...]
Rescue your marketing communications content from the tar pit. Your readers can find it more easily and it will tell your story better. Around 1900, a few men standing near the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California, realized that there were animal bones in the tar. “What a find!” exclaimed the first. “We [...]
Before you try to write witty corporate or marketing content, know your ideal reader intimately. Otherwise, don’t even bother. Witty? Says who? Well, that’s really what it all gets down to, then, isn’t it? Who says your writing is witty? And who gives him/her the authority to judge it? “Give me a place to stand, [...]
Case studies can be low-hanging fruit for the marketing manager, but it’s easy to get them wrong and end up with ineffective content posing as a case study. “I’ve got a series of webinars that are recorded interviews with customers,” the director of marketing said. “I want to have the webinars transcribed, then turn the [...]
