White Paper #1. Cardinal Sins Of Information Management: Fill & Download for Free

Apparently, the term ‘white paper’ or ‘whitepaper’ (as some people prefer to refer to it) originated from a document submitted in the British Parliament in the 19th century whose cover was blue, but probably the pages inside the manuscript were white in color. There may have been other forms of it, but this is the closest that we know about its origins. It began as a document for discussions at the government level, but has become a brilliant marketing tool for companies to showcase their expertise.What is a white paper?White papers are great examples of marketing collateral that exhibit your authority over a chosen niche. Essentially, they are long form content intended to educate the target audience, that delve deeper into a particular industry trend/issue, explain the causes behind it, its implications/benefits, and ways to go about it.Why do companies create white papers?Often, companies publish white papers to address an industry problem just in order to propose their solution to it. That way, their product/solution has better recall value than their competitors.Experts who have a topic authority over a particular subject area within these companies are identified to author these pieces, which is then handed over to designers to design it and later marketers & sales folks run with it to market it and let their customers/prospects know more about them.White papers are developed for one or more of these below objectives:To educate their target audienceTo look under the wraps of newer trends in the marketplaceTo predict the future of the marketing industryTo enable experts (such as CMOs/CIOs/CEOs/CFOs) take decisionsTo expand your brand presenceTo get inbound traffic at the top of your funnelTo generate leads for your businessTo publish results of a recently concluded primary researchWe examined the best B2B white papers across industries such as banking, insurance, healthcare, media, transport etc. to learn what makes them successful. Here’s the blog that can help you understand why these organizations are hitting the ball out of the park with their white papers.Irrespective of the reason that you choose above, content intelligence platforms such as Paperflite will tell you how exactly your target audience has interacted with your white papers no matter how long they are. With Paperflite, you know exactly how customers are engaging with your content - not just white papers or PDFs - it includes all forms of content in any form they are produced such as videos, images, PPTs, URLs, DOCX, GIFs etc.

Source: Publish0x.comWhen an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is released in the market, it always needs the ‘white paper’ to be successful. A white paper is a document specifying the problem which the project (in this case, the cryptocurrency) intends to solve. The solution is then elaborated along with the project description, the user interaction, and the whole project’s architecture.These industries, which are worth billions of dollars today, wouldn’t have become so successful if not for Bitcoin’s founder, Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper being a nine-page document published in 2009.The contents of the white paper include, but not exclusively certain points such as the disclaimer, project introduction, market description and the problem, solution to the problem, how funds would be used, FAQs, who are working behind the project, etc. This certainly helps the investors and the public as a whole to understand the nuances of the ICO, acting as an effective marketing tool. Further, they help in establishing the legitimacy of such projects. Simply put, the white paper acts as a pitch deck or a business plan for the cryptocurrency.Although not all ICOs release the white paper. Some private blockchains such as Hyperledger may not publish it. Similarly, Litecoin launched a simple project description on the forum Bitcointalk.The future of white paper is uncertain because alternative ways like press releases, publishing on crypto forums, interviews, posting on websites, GitHub, etc., are gaining momentum. But some people say the original white paper is here to stay.Source: A brief history of cryptocurrency and blockchain white papersWhat Is A White Paper And How To Write It

According to the B2B Content Marketing 2018 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends report, white papers emerged as one of the top 4 most effective types of marketing collateral that companies use with 71% companies preferring it.Here’s an easy guide on How to Write White Papers including free, downloadable templates for you to get started right away.At Paperflite, we compiled the best practices of the Top B2B White Papers created by various companies and shortlisted the ways a company can create a white paper.White papers are authoritative pieces that are compiled and published for a number of reasons, some of which are explained below. It primarily depends on your target audience on why you’re creating it.Implementation of a solutionCompanies are always looking for answers or best practices to implementing enterprise software such as CRM, ERP etc. If you are a company that sells such solutions or helps implement them, you may commission a white paper on it by either having an in-house expert author it or hire an external writer to do it for you. You could be impartial in your approach and really not talk about your solution, instead talk about the pitfalls to avoid while implementing it.Educating the audienceYou can educate the audience about stuff that they’re probably not aware of. For example, VansenBourne’s white paper on ‘How Banks can win New Small Business Customers’ produced in collaboration between Avoka explains customer acquisition and on-boarding journeys in financial services. It is compiled with responses to a survey administered to 300 small business owners in European countries laden with verbatim responses by respondents.Looking under the wraps of newer trends in the marketplaceThese sort of white papers explain the latest trends in the market. For example, Frost & Sullivan’s Digital Transformation in the Insurance Industry talks about how insurance companies can thrive in this changing industry landscape, and how technologies such as mobile, wearables, AR/VR are impacting the industry.Predicting the futureThese white papers make bold predictions. For example, Tony Seba’s white paper titled Rethinking Transportation 2020-2030 predicts the death of the automobile and the oil industry. These take a lot of expertise and experience to create and are rare path-breaking pieces.Take a look here at our blog on the best structures for white papers by B2B marketers across industries such as Financial Services, Insurance, Media & Communication, Retail, Technology, Transportation etc.