How to Craft a White Paper for the iPad

How to Craft a White Paper for the iPad:from White Paper Pundit by Jonathan Kantor

The success of the Apple iPad is simply phenomenal! While the device doesn’t fit into the traditional “tablet computing” category, within the limited time the device has been on the market, it is considered the market leader just as its smaller counterpart, the iPhone has achieved for smartphones.

To date, it is estimated that Apple has sold over 15 million iPads, and the number of customers of all ages who buy it and love it continue to grow, especially within the  business sector.

With the advent of desktop publishing in the 1980s, white paper marketers had to adopt their traditional paper-based formatting practices to accommodate the new medium. Document attributes that were once considered too difficult and/or costly to add could now be incorporated in a white paper with ease, such as changing fonts, inserting graphics, adding color, or self-printing/publishing. Desktop publishing certainly changed the white paper format from paper to on screen PDF.

Now its time to change the white paper model once again. Given the large and growing population of iPads, white paper marketers now must now consider adding attributes to their white papers that will take advantage of this new platform and attract the growing number of business readers who prefer reading a white paper on an iPad rather than holding a printed document.

Here are some attributes that white paper marketers should consider when crafting a white paper for the iPad.

1. Real Time Info Access - Chart, graphs, tables, and other data-intensive information can be updated on a real-time basis, making the relevancy of the white paper very current. This results in fewer re-writes and updates of existing information, lowering white paper production and development costs, and retaining prospects longer, since they won’t have to discard an older version.

2. Sidebar Video Callouts - Readers can now access short video callouts (no more than 2-3 minutes) in each section of the white paper which will reinforce and enhance text-based content. This can include industry analysts, celebrity spokes persons, animated charts and graphs with relevant information, or background/industry information to bring the reader up to speed on the topic. This will create a greater interest and incentive to read the associated text content on the page. The new version of Adobe Acrobat X Pro enables white paper marketers to easily add videos directly into PDF documents.

3. Language Conversion – There are several iPad apps that can easily convert text (with audio) and convert any language to any other language. The reader can now easily choose from and convert text content from several languages on demand. This enables white paper marketers to create one single white paper to satisfy world wide demand. This will increase the number of American white papers available in foreign languages besides English, but it will also dramatically lower the production costs typically associated with developing white papers for specific world markets, lowering production costs.

4. Reader Feedback and Measurement - Real time reader feedback and measurement will be provided to the white paper marketer, such as number of downloads, number of readers in each section, average time document has been opened, average time before closure, all things currently enjoyed with software applications, websites, and other online information. This will help marketers hone in and improve subsequent white paper content. A good example is a real time poll, which is highly engaging. Polls are a great way to engage readers and create an incentive to read the adjacent content in your white paper. The information that you obtain from a real time polls can be repurposed for other online content such as an email factoid, newsletter, and a blog or Social Media post.

5. Social Media/Blog Integration - White paper marketers will look to new ways to generate leads, and increase reader engagement. Improved lead generation can be accomplished via user feedback on the iPad by tying content to social media sites where readers can provide greater feedback to the marketer. By leveraging Social Media integration into the iPad white paper, marketers will be able to provide stronger links with their readers that will result will in better lead integration, while moving the reader closer to the next level in the business relationship cycle.

For example, imagine reading feedback from those that have already read a white paper just as you would for a book review on Amazon? A bad white paper would give the corporate sponsor that they need to rewrite the paper or lose target readers. A great white paper that has a large number of reTweets, likes, or positive comments could quickly go viral.

While the traditional PDF format will certainly be around for a while, the growth and popularity of the iPad will change the white paper from a static information medium (where information remains constant and the entire document must be refreshed periodically) to a ‘real time’ medium, where white paper information automatically changes as its referenced information changes. This could represent a quantum change in how we perceive and use white papers going forward.

If what we have seen from the iPad to date is any guide, the next decade should create an entirely new generation of white papers that will change the business information medium forever.