7 steps for crafting an impactful company report or white paper
Which industry tool is so powerful that it can help increase sales, boost marketing efforts, support long-term strategy, and has even been credited with starting the cryptocurrency movement?
If you guessed ‘white paper’, you’d be right.
More nuanced than blogs, more dynamic than tweets, white papers can be invaluable strategic aides. By sharing expert insights, data-driven analyses, and forward-thinking perspectives, companies can build credibility and attract attention from industry peers and potential customers, creating a positive feedback loop for long-term success.
But an accessible, original and compelling white paper, published on time, is a resource-intensive process.
So, how do you write a white paper?
Planning will be your secret weapon. Aligning at the start with stakeholders – contributors, copywriters, editors, designers, and department heads – on a clear and comprehensive brief can help ensure the project stays on budget and on time.
These 7 steps can guide you in planning and producing a white paper that makes a splash:
Define your scope and audience
The first rule of white paper is you do talk about the white paper.
Before you begin research, it's crucial to understand what your white paper will cover and what it won’t.
Understand your audience thoroughly. Are they industry experts, who will breeze through complex terms and understand industry case studies? Are they outsiders, who would benefit from more guidance and a simpler approach? What problems are they looking to solve? What would they do with the information you’re giving them?
Brainstorming with experts at this stage can help. Including the kind of readers you’d be aiming to reach may give you additional insights, if you’re able to. Using their input, defining a working outline that sets out what topics you’ll cover and how they relate to each other can prevent scope creep or gaps in coverage.
2. Conduct firsthand and secondhand research
A white paper is an opportunity to highlight your company’s expertise and value. While external sources and data will add essential credibility, your organisation’s internal voices should be prominent in your white paper.
Get your senior leaders onboard, conduct interviews, identify stand-out quotes. At the end of your research process, you should all feel more familiar with the topic you’re exploring, understand what’s at stake in the industry, and be excited to share it with your audience.
But don’t rely on your organisation’s internal opinion alone. Approach researching your white paper like a journalist or scientist. Back up your assertions with data. Interview other experts. Cite external sources, real-life examples and wider trends.
A white paper that nailed research
Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week’s reports combine quotes from expert roundtables, data and insightful analysis for clear commentary on climate change and the energy transition.*
3. Be consistent in your writing style
Before diving into writing, organise your research materials. If you have interviews, submissions, or research findings, create a cohesive structure to ensure your content flows logically and engages readers.
Assigning a single writer or writing team can help keep the project on track and maintain a cohesive tone and style. Skipping from one writer to another can be jarring as a reading experience, especially if their voices are markedly different.
A white paper that nailed writing
The Inter-Parliamentary Union’s report Women in parliament 2022 took a clear-eyed, authoritative and accessible look at a complex, evocative topic.*
4. Create value-adding visuals
They say you can’t judge a book by its cover – but that doesn’t stop people from doing it. The same will go for your white paper. Your report’s design will be an integral part of its success.
To ensure your insights get the attention they deserve, allocate resources to design. Incorporate charts, graphs, and other visuals to enhance understanding. Consider additional assets like infographics and illustrations that complement the text and can be repurposed for social media.
Once your draft is complete, putting the complete text into layout will help designers create chapters that complement each other for maximum impact, rather than a piece-meal report that feels like it was sewn together.
A white paper that nailed visuals
The Adecco Group’s Global Workforce of the Future report uses striking imagery, engaging charts and digestible graphics to break down an extremely thorough set of research.*
5. Branding is important
Branding is more than adding a logo. It encompasses the writing tone, the visual design – and it may even impact the ultimate conclusions of the white paper itself.
Consider the message you want to convey through the white paper, aligning it with your company's branding. Define the tone of voice that suits your audience and ensures consistency with your overall brand image.
A white paper that nailed branding
Figma’s Business Value of Design is unmistakably the design company’s work, from the tone to the font to the unique designs.
6. Don’t let proofing delay the process
Proofing is more than checking for typos or stray fullstops. Relevant experts should review each chapter to check for accuracy and tone, and to ensure that the final product reflects their research and opinion. Other departments may need to be involved. Sales, legal and others may catch unintentional missteps.
Plan for proofreading well in advance to avoid unnecessary delays. Identify key stakeholders who need to review the whitepaper and establish clear deadlines. Help your reviewers to help you. Define the specific feedback you're seeking to streamline the revision process.
7. What next? Make it easy to find and consume
Once your report is researched, written, designed, checked, then re-checked, then approved, (then approved again), your job still isn’t done.
You’ve made a great piece of work. Now you have to make it easy for people to find.
Creating a dedicated landing page for your whitepaper helps your audience find your work easily, and adds extra value by letting you collect leads in exchange for your team’s valuable insights.
More than a piece you set and forget, your whitepaper can act as a fountain for smaller pieces of content which can fuel your content pipeline for months. Break down each chapter into bite-sized pieces for social media, create informative videos, and pull out impactful quotes. This maximises your return on investment, and multiplies the opportunity for people to discover your organisation and your insights.
Check out our blog for more tips about creating report-based content - or reach out to see how we can help.
Disclaimer: The Content Engine has partnered with Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, The Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Adecco Group, either in the past or currently.