Oh God, here it comes. A product manager sidles over to your desk (or, perhaps more accurately, into your Teams or Slack messages), regales you with information about their latest product or feature, and notes, in passing: “Could be an opportunity for a white paper? I’ll leave it with you.”
The mere mention of the term ‘white paper’ can often act as a kind of literary lab coat – encouraging us as product marketers to adopt a serious posture, embrace complicated jargon we’ve never used in conversation, and take to our subject with a scalpel in hand, severing it beyond the consumer’s comprehension.
We set aside marketing principles in favor of formality, and the output doesn’t cut through as a result.
Over the last two years, I’ve been tasked with producing several papers to support Anthology’s approach to ethical AI use in education technology. Here are the top five tips I’ve gleaned from the experience, all of which have applicability to long-form content across various themes and product areas.
Do you have a point of view, or simply a product?
Writing that presents a strong opinion is always more interesting to read – even if it’s an opinion that the reader doesn’t share.
If you use your product as a starting point, as is the case in the supposed interaction with a PM detailed above, you might find it difficult to convert this into a point of view to justify a white paper.
Push your colleagues to go beyond simply what the product does, to understand the philosophy behind it, the true benefit for the user, and how this connects to larger, topical themes.
Here’s where it gets difficult. While you need to stand for something greater than just the product on offer, it’s important not to allow it to fall completely from view, either. Avoid the temptation of wading into trending subjects if they don’t ultimately have a clear path back to what you’re trying to sell.
Is your point of view interesting?
Much of what we marketers class as ‘thought leadership’ content is anything but – it’s a collection of existing thoughts, rather than a leadership position that sets the company apart. This includes research that simply re-establishes things that everyone already knows:
Marketer: Do you think pipes are important?
Plumber: Yep.
Marketer: Plumbers agree that pipes are important!
Differentiation is as important for white papers as all other parts of the marketing mix. Don’t fall into the trap of reiterating industry norms – look instead for subjects that haven’t been covered by competitors, or where you can offer a perspective that hasn’t been tabled elsewhere.
After completing steps 1 and 2, you should be able to write a concise summary of what your paper is about (and why it matters), which provides a clear direction for the piece. For example:
Many higher education institutions are experimenting with AI detection tools to prevent AI plagiarism in student submissions. Anthology’s research establishes that this is both inaccurate and unethical, with non-native speakers more likely to be falsely accused of cheating. We instead recommend focusing on authentic assessment practices.
Start strong
The above summary is from a paper I wrote in 2023 on AI and academic integrity. Then, higher education was awash with content around AI, almost all of which began with “AI brings both risks and opportunities” or a similarly cautious and generic phrase. I took a different approach:
Legendary basketball player Allen Iverson went by a couple of nicknames across his storied career: “A.I.” and, most famously, “The Answer”.
More than a decade after Iverson’s retirement, learners across the globe are turning to AI to find The Answer for common test and essay questions, while instructors and institutions look on in shock as formerly difficult assessment tasks are turned instantly into layups.
Time out on the basketball puns. The wide availability of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools for learners has ushered in a new era for academic integrity…
It’s a banal but true observation: your audience is busy, and you need to hit them with something interesting early.
Another tactic I like is to take a headline or quote from the press, as this immediately takes the reader to the emotion surrounding the issue. In a follow-up paper, this time on the future of assessment as AI access becomes ubiquitous, I started as follows:
“The College Essay is Dead” pronounced Stephen Marche in The Atlantic on December 6, 2022, precisely a week after the public release of ChatGPT.
He followed it with a subheading no less pointed, in which he identified the culprit for this brazen homicide and even alluded to a certain naivety on behalf of the victim: “Nobody is prepared for how AI will change academia,” he declared.
Provocative language aside, Marche’s article captures a consternation that has persisted in the higher education sector through the ensuing years…
Give your reader a role
As marketers, we too often defer to the second person when looking to engage the audience:
Do YOU feel stressed sometimes? (Yes, toothpaste brand, I do. Thanks for asking.)
This has its place, particularly in calls to action, but it isn’t the only option. An underused strategy is a short anecdote. Stories are an effective way to connect with your audience emotionally, and within the context of a white paper, they build a bridge between your data and the reader’s daily life.
Take this excerpt from a long-form piece about our CRM solution, which we present in the market as a tailored product for higher education (as distinct from better-known alternatives which operate across sectors):
A senior academic on the cusp of retirement was recently asked by a member of the Anthology editorial team what he would miss most about his job.
“The students,” he replied, without hesitation. “I’ve had the immense privilege of spending my entire working life surrounded by young, energetic, ambitious people. What could ever be better than that?”
His response reminds us that a campus isn’t just another office or job site, and higher education isn’t just another business vertical. It’s different. And it requires bespoke technology to be successful. Let’s look at four distinguishing features of higher ed, and how these should impact how you approach finding the right CRM partner…
A picture complements a thousand words
I’ll let you in on a secret, fellow Alliance members. The anecdote I’ve just proudly paraded before you never made it to the published paper.
When it came time for the final review, and the text was complemented by visual design elements, it was obvious that the piece was too long and that the sentiment we wished to convey didn’t require this part. So, out came the scissors.
Again, marketing principles apply, and a good white paper should include some visual emphasis to enhance your writing. Pull quotes, bolded statistics, numerical lists, clear subheadings, and more will all help to ensure your key messages leap from the page, even for a passive reader.
It’s essential to do a final review after design work is complete, and to not get so attached to your writing that you can’t make objective decisions. Sometimes, the bits that you’re most attached to – like that killer metaphor about the white paper and the lab coat – aren’t actually necessary to get your point across.
In summary, white papers needn’t be greeted with trepidation. Apply the same approach you do for other marketing materials – most crucially, with a focus on differentiating your company from the rest of the market – and you’ll already be one step ahead of the game.
From there, consider opportunities for creativity in both writing style and design, as these grab the reader’s attention and help the paper’s insights to land with impact.
