Irresistible “White Paper” Takes Startup to the Next Level

PROBLEM The founder of an innovative startup company in the photography space told me that he wanted a “white paper” — to educate (establishing thought leadership), persuade (pointing readers toward his product) and generate leads.

One initial challenge was figuring out which subniche of his target audience — photographers — would be best to focus on. We eventually settled on wedding photographers, a group that seemed to be just the right size, neither too large nor too small. The company’s product, a new kind of flash diffuser, could be of immense benefit to them.

The next challenge was the specific topic. It had to be sufficiently interesting and innovative to interest his target audience, yet not so technically intimidating that it would be of limited appeal to the group as a whole. We settled on a relatively simple color correction technique that solved an important problem frequently encountered by wedding photographers: extensive post-processing time devoted to color correction. SOLUTION Through brainstorming, we came up with a catchy, memorable title: “The Sky Is Blue and So Is the Ceiling.” I developed a simple, clear USP (“unique selling proposition”) to encapsulate the product’s benefits, presenting it at the conclusion: Now You Can Finally Make Your Flash Do What You Want It To

The white paper had to be written in a way that was not just interesting, with a clear benefit to the target audience, but also easy to read and completely comprehensible in spite of the somewhat technical subject matter. I located several good images to help make the necessary points and enliven the presentation.

Similar to the items in the Goldilocks story, the length of such a report must be not too short and not too long but just right. I find that every story, told as concisely as possible, has a natural rhythm. It’s second nature for a trained ear to tell when the length is “just right,” which in this case turned out to be seven pages.

RESULT

The term white paper has become popular in recent years, often used in place of “special report,” even when the latter term may be more appropriate (which in my estimation it would be in this case). Regardless of the terminology used to describe it, you can view a copy online here.

“The Sky Is Blue” proved irresistible to the target market, with copies being downloaded like hotcakes wherever it was made available, and product sales skyrocketing as a result.

As with all the other case histories presented in my portfolio, multiple factors came into play in arriving at the desired end result. But what ultimately made my work product successful was its high degree of persuasiveness. THE SAME GUIDING PRINCIPLE PROBABLY APPLIES TO WHATEVER PROJECT YOU MAY HAVE IN MIND AT THIS TIME: Regardless of the nature of the project, success will hinge upon effective messaging — PERSUASION of your audience, in other words, into believing what you are telling them. That’s the name of the game. It’s what I do and why they pay me the big bucks, so to speak.