Getting Your White Paper to Perform Double-Duty

Getting Your White Paper to Perform Double-Duty:from White Paper Pundit by Jonathan Kantor

The tech sector is by far the business industry that has used white papers longer than any other. Going back to the 90′s, the tech sector was producing white papers before the idea of using it as a marketing vehicle was a twinkle in the eye of other business industries that now rely on them.

One of the things that makes a white paper in the tech sector different from other industries is the dual audience comprising both business and technical professionals.

Back in the 90s, the technical professional (MIS/IT Director, CIO, CTO, etc) was the primary audience for a white paper. As white papers became an accepted and popular form of thought leadership, a non-disclosure closing tool, and a way to disseminate highly technical information to an IT audience, it gradually became a part of product and image marketing for the business side of the enterprise house to use for their technical marketing purposes.

Today, when an technical solution vendor decides to produce a white paper, the question must be asked, “Which audience? Business or Technical?” For many enterprises, the answer quite frequently is “BOTH”! Hence, the need for two white papers produced from a single topic.

If done well, producing two white papers for two completely different audiences is not that difficult. Of course, like all well written and organized white papers, you will need access to highly qualified Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) from both sides to provide  highly accurate and timely information that reflects the needs of each target reader.

Here is how you can tailor the content from one white paper into two white papers for both business and technical readers:

#1 – The Business White Paper:

Business Introduction – The business marketplace and the dynamic issues impacting the reader’s business environment

Business Problems - Identify the specific business challenges related to the topic and the pain points associated with them

Business Solution – Describe the business vision, business solution framework (from a high-level business perspective with business features and benefits), add a business concept graphic of the framework, and describe how this framework solves the identified business problems/challenges.

Business Case Study – Add a case study of an actual business that experienced the identified problems and the benefits they achieved as a result of implementing the advocated solution.

Business Conclusion – List three bottom-line business benefits gained from the solution (time, money, ROI, use of resources, etc.)

Now for the technical audience use this same structure, use some of the information from the business white paper along with the information provided from the technical SME to form a new, additional technical white paper:

#2 – The Technical White Paper:
Technical Introduction - The technical environment (from an internal enterprise IT perspective and how it impacts the business side)
Technical Problems - Identifying the specific technical challenges (either using existing solutions or without an existing solution), and how the these technical challenges impact the business.
Technical Solution - Describe the technical solution model and each of its components, the role of each component and the technical benefit associated with each one, how the framework solves each of the identified technical challenges, how the framework as a whole supports the larger enterprise business goal.
Case Study - Add a technical case study (if one exists) of an actual IT department, why the solution was chosen, how the implementation was performed, how the IT environment improved, and the ultimate benefit of the technical solution on the business.
Conclusion - Translate solution into three bottom-line technical benefits (time, use of resources, impact on IT budget/new projects, etc.)

There is additional benefit to your audience of having two different but related white papers for two different audiences.

Invariably, a business executive will forward a good business white paper to a technical professional as part of the decision making process. Sometimes (although rarely) the other way around as well. By hyperlinking the two white papers to each other, each audience can see the same information presented from the other perspective and they can draw parallels to better understand the business and technical perspective of the same issue.

Getting both the business and technical side of the customer’s business on the same page is a huge win and this is one way to achieve it. If written and designed well, these similarities should help to push the advocated solution in the white paper closer to closing the sale. It will most certainly open the door for further discussions with both the business and technical readers at the target enterprise customer location.