The 3 Key Elements of a Highly Effective Executive Summary

The 3 Key Elements of a Highly Effective Executive Summary:from White Paper Pundit by Jonathan Kantor

It’s funny how some marketing terms evoke vastly different responses. Ask 10 people what a white paper is and you’ll probably get 10 different responses. The same holds true for a key element of that white paper, the Executive Summary.
Some view an Executive Summary as another form of an Introduction, providing the lead-in and background information for the primary white paper content. To others it serves the same task as a product “sell-sheet”, providing reasons why a reader should buy or implement the advocated solution.
To me, an Executive Summary serves a multi-faceted purpose for a business reader. A well-written white paper Executive Summary should contain three important elements:
1. A One-Page Synopsis of the entire white paper that includes bottom line solution advantages. This enables the reader to determine if the benefits that will be achieved by implementing the advocated solution will be worth the investment of their valuable and limited time to read the rest of the white paper in greater detail.
2. An Orderly and Logical Flow of Information from broad, high-level industry/market issues, to more detailed problem/solution oriented issues related to the topic. This process makes it easier for a business executive that may not be as familiar with the subject (such as a technical white paper), to either read the entire paper themselves or forward it to another employee/manager that is part of the decision making team within the enterprise.
3. Bottom Line Business Benefits translated into some form of a monetary, time, or resource gain that can be spelled out in greater detail later in the white paper. This doesn’t mean giving away all your solution advantages up front, but it does mean providing enough information that will entice the reader to read the rest of the white paper and find out what those benefits are.
For example you can say that implementing the solution will generate a cost reduction in the Executive Summary, and then explain the specific details behind those cost reductions later in the solution section of the paper. Similar to the role of a good movie trailer, if an effective enticement is made up front, the viewer/reader has a greater chance of engaging with the content later on (buying a movie ticket/reading the white paper).
So if you want to engage today’s busy executive reader to read your entire white paper, add an Executive Summary up front, and make sure they have these 3 elements.