How to frame your white paper around a nasty problem (part 1 of 4)
by Gordon Graham, That White Paper Guy
In your next white paper, why not go back to square one?
Why not start by describing the problem your offering was designed to solve?
"It's often effective to start by describing a predicament experienced by your target market," agrees Marcia Yudkin in a recent edition of her Marketing Minute newsletter.
"This creates rapport and sets up the value in your way of solving the problem."
In many companies, this problem "goes without saying..." because everyone is familiar with the oft-repeated pain points of your prospects.
But if your document simply describes your offering in glowing terms, it's not a white paper. It's a brochure or an advertisement or a product brief.
A problem/solution white paper is different.
A compelling white paper provides useful, educational content that helps a prospective buyer understand an issue, solve a problem or do their job better.
White paper experts Mike Stelzner, Perry Marshal and I all agree: It's really useful to frame your white paper around a nagging industry problem.
This approach accomplishes several things.
Gets people's attention: Bad news travels fast, as we all know. Remember what Apollo 13 said when they called Mission Control?
Builds credibility: Starting with an acknowledged problem shows your prospects that you understand their industry.
Proceeds in logical order: There can't be any "solution" without a problem. This approach presents material in logical sequence: problem, then solution.
And it provides a logical framework for the educational content that you are going to provide, i ncluding business or technical background and a context for locating your solution in a certain market space.
Slows down the sales pitch:Many marketing and sales personnel feel an irresistible temptation to jump into offering on the very first page of a white paper. But research shows that anyone who downloads a white paper doesn't want a sales pitch.
Framing your white paper around a problem—not your offering—slows down any tendency to make a sales pitch.
Are you convinced by now that this is the right way to go?
Then here are some tips on how to frame a white paper around a problem.
Step 1. Choose a big, acknowledged problem.
This should be industry-wide, perennial, costly and tough to solve. It should cause your prospects a lot of pain and keep them awake at night.
And of course, it must be a problem that your company can solve, ideally, in a very innovative or effective way.
For example, here are some problems I've written about:
- Contractors with good safety records pay too much for insurance.
- Small broker/dealers must comply with SEC rules for data backup or they could lose their licenses.
- Virtualization makes existing performance monitoring software obsolete.
- IT managers do not trust web-based software delivered as a service.
As you can see, a white paper problem can be either business or technical, or a little of both.
Step 2. Elaborate on the problem in detail.
Detail the problem on half a page or a full page, building up to the gruesome details. Paint a picture using shocking statistics, awful anecdotes and blood-curdling quotes.
Make it like the climax of a novel where the good guy (your prospect) is in a hopeless situation, faced with insurmountable forces threatening to pound him to smithereens.
Believe me, you'll have your reader's attention!
Then you'll be in a better position to slowly, gradually, tactfully begin to introduce your own particular solution to that problem.
But first, you have to demolish all your competitors. Part 2 of this four-part series shows you how.
Written by Gordon Graham, this article appeared in the August 2010 edition of the WhitePaperSource Newsletter.
To repost this article on your Web site, please e-mail a request to Gordon@ThatWhitePaperGuy.com.
