A high-quality white paper can be extremely useful in B2B marketing. Our white paper writing services can be used as a key download to tempt leads that are past the initial phase of early solution research, therefore delivering high-quality leads. It can also be used as a tool that can remove barriers to sales, in effect an enabler to ensure the client believes your solution can deliver above the competition. But the quality must be high.
The Motion Marketing team specialise in the technical world where members of the team have education such as computing, product design, chemical engineering, manufacturing systems, plus of course marketing. We are used to applying a technical world to strategic growth B2B marketing.
Typical white paper copywriting projects for Motion Marketing would be technology overview white papers, digital transformation white papers such as enabling IoT, IIoT or Industry 4.0, industry market white papers or technology application white papers. Defining what questions your target client would like to answer is a key way of defining what subject matter you should be addressing.
With some clients, we have started our white paper technical writing process by creating a series of infographics that tell a story. Showing challenges, considerations and ideally application examples. This can hook in the skim reader. But not every industry or target stakeholder requires this additional time input so we also do more in-depth, text-heavy white papers as well. Some clients have a mix to meet the needs of different target audience tastes. It may be that a more infographics visual-based white paper will strike more effectively with management and procurement teams at your target client.
Certainly, your technical white paper must look professional and trustworthy and help guide the user through the reading journey and we can guide you with this.
Please see a couple of our white paper examples in the left-hand column.
We start our white paper writing services by creating a brief; defining the aims of the white paper, qualifying the target audience, qualifying the look and feel and layout, qualifying the key messages, researching the competition to both learn and ensure we can differentiate, and qualifying who we need to obtain information from in your organisation or from your partners. We would begin to mock-up the framework of a story. The white paper should take a user on an educational or enablement journey. This brief would come to you for approval, and we would typically expect some feedback.
The next stage is to complete any interviewing that is required, then start the design and white paper copywriting. To start with this may be an enhancement of the brief, notes for each item in the contents, and a mock-up for each planned page. If infographics are involved we may get these approved before starting on text content. It does depend on the complexity of the subject, but 3 phases of development is typical, brief creation, a conceptual phase and then a development phase. We would typically expect 2 rounds of changes with white papers, there are often several stakeholders and therefore multiple opinions. Typically a white paper project would last 3-4 weeks, it is better to keep the time limit to this to ensure the subject matter is near the front of mind for all of those involved.
As a team, we are equally comfortable liaising with your technical teams as well as your commercial teams.
After investing in our white paper writing services we can help advise on how best to use it. This can be from how to position it in your website UX journey behind a form, how to utilise it within a sales campaign on LinkedIn or with content syndication, or how your sales team should be utilising the white paper to close deals. There are several options depending on your industry. Often a white paper deserves its own website landing page, a page that tempts a user into filling in their details to download the document, this page may also give us greater SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) opportunities. Maybe we need to write a complementary blog that feeds people to the white paper.
Your white paper should be considered as a component of a bigger lead generation campaign. We offer a fully integrated marketing service to many customers so can engage your organisation in how it best fits your needs.
If you would like a quote please do not hesitate in contacting the Motion Marketing team for more information on our technical white paper writing services.
Complete the form below to request pricing options or learn more about our white paper writing services:
A white paper is an authoritative expert report on a specific technology, solution or industry trend. It is to enable and educate the reader on a specific topic. It can be used by a company to influence and guide a reader towards their solution rather than an alternative.
There is no straight answer, but it should appear to be longer than a blog or a press release. It should appear substantial, it should position your business as a thought leader or technically skilled organisation, bringing out your expertise. Somewhere between 1000 and 2000 words would be typical, but some can be far longer, depending on the complexity of the subject and the knowledge requirement of the end user.
Typically a white paper is about facts, about clarification of a technology or solution, it should not be too salesy. A white paper is not generally at the start of a sales funnel, the user has already considered your organisation in their shortlist. So they are already partly sold on your organisation, the white paper is to qualify that your solution fits their needs and does what it says. Being too “salesy” may reduce the trust level of the document.
Traditionally a white paper is not heavily branded, but it can vary a lot depending on the industry, the IT industry for example is typically more accepting of additional branding compared to the manufacturing and engineering industries. With an infographic-driven white paper, there is often more branding opportunity. The document is about creating trust, it should not look like a sales brochure, but on the flip side of that argument, you very much want a connection from the white paper to your company.
Probably. If you are a B2B company within the manufacturing, engineering, technology or IT industries you are likely to have a product or solution that needs explaining and qualifying. A product or solution that needs justifying to your target audience. The need for quality online downloads has accelerated greatly during Covid-19. People expect to do a lot of their own research before engaging with potential suppliers, and therefore if you are not providing this type of material they may get more confidence from your competitor that does.
What should be made clear is that there are often more important things to tick off before white papers, like overall solution website content, maybe datasheets or brochures, maybe an explainer video, but if you are trying to increase your quality lead generation and remove barriers to closing deals, a white paper is often a must investment.
This depends very much on where you are in the journey of your organisation or the sales journey of a specific solution or product set. If you are a start-up you may first need to create a high-quality company brochure that delivers trust and qualifies your organisations' goals and mission statement. You may also then want a specific investor presentation or brochure if this is your primary goal at this stage, a white paper may come after these elements to generate further trust and confidence.
If you have a lot of existing corporate tools in place at a high quality, a white paper could fit well into your organisation. Do you need to qualify your solution to a technical audience? Are you finding sales barriers in the middle to end of the sales cycle? Do you need a more technically advanced lead generation download on your website? Is the competition providing a greater arsenal of sales tools than your organisation? If the answer is yes to any of these a white paper could work well.
The Motion team also creates the following business tools that you may want to consider, they should work as a set to generate leads and interest, and to remove sales barriers throughout the sales funnel:
Please do not hesitate in contacting the Motion team for further discussions on what tools would be most suitable for your business and specific sales funnel.
The core reason is that we live and breathe a technical world. We have likely delivered marketing in an industry not too dissimilar to yours – so getting up to speed with your solutions should be fast with Motion Marketing, and the quality we deliver should be high.
We have dedicated in-house technical content and white paper copywriting specialists. You will also expect to have high-quality strategy influence, project management and overall performance optimisation for the project.
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At Motion Marketing we specialise in the Technology, Manufacturing and Engineering sectors. We speak your language and can work with you as a strategic partner or focus on specific areas.
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