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What is a whitepaper and how to benefit from it?

Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 6:29 am
by Bappy11
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A whitepaper is a document structured as a guide and used to explain a topic, problem, or solution. It is characterized by its educational content and the guided learning it provides to readers. Whitepapers are manuals with instructions and key features that relate to a specific topic.

In this sense,The goal of a whitepaper is to delve deeper into a topic and teach others how to use a specific tool or platform.Whitepapers are widely used in inbound marketing , especially by brands with a B2B business model, i.e. brands whose potential customers are other companies in the market. Whitepapers are created with the intention of helping others solve their problems, through material that can be easily downloaded from any technological device (cell phone, computer, tablet, etc.).

What are whitepapers for?
Los whitepapers They serve to gain credibility and authority within a given community,since they are the result of a research process that shows how capable the members of a company are to produce that level of knowledge. On the other hand, they also serve to educate rather than sell , attracting the natural attention of potential buyers, who can become your leads.

Los whitepapers They serve the function of accompanying your readers through the different stages of the buyer's journey,Whitepapers can provide all the information your readers need to recognize, consider, and decide on something. In other words, whitepapers focus on your consumers' needs and represent strategically oriented guides to the stages (recognition, consideration, and decision) of the buyers journey .

Los whitepapers They are used to convert visitors to your content into sales opportunities.They will identify with your blog posts and want to download and access your research and documents. How do they do this? By clicking on a CTA (strategically positioned on your website or social network) and filling out a form with some of their personal information.

This way, they can access the downloadable material either on the thank you page or in their email inbox. At the same time, whitepapers serve to build a solid database for your company, where each of your potential clients gives you permission to send them relevant information related to the whitepaper .

Differences between ebook and whitepaper
It is very common for people to confuse these two terms, thus avoiding getting the most out of them. First of all,An ebook is a book in digital format that is offered to Internet users for free or for a fee, usually through an Internet download.Although they share with whitepapers the role of offering content and providing useful and valuable information to readers (in downloadable formats), they differ mainly in the way they are structured.

While whitepapers represent academic guides and user manuals, ebooks can present stories, japan whatsapp number events and informal texts.They are organized by indexes and chapters, while whitepapers have a more instructional approach. Whitepapers are characterized by their formal writing and focus on a single topic. Ebooks, on the other hand, tend to be more user-friendly and easy to read.

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If you want to create content that is exclusive to an academic audience (not like ebooks, which tend to be more open to their audience), choose to make a whitepaper . However, ebooks, given their similarity to books, tend to be longer than whitepapers . Ebooks can have an extension that can reach up to 200 pages, while whitepapers do not exceed 20. The former, by displaying a more accentuated editorial work, are strategically supported by graphic resources, while whitepapers are characterized by their minimalism in terms of presentation and design. They are usually made up of large paragraphs of text.

How to get the most out of a whitepaper?
In the methodology of inbound marketing and content marketing , whitepapers have positioned themselves as excellent content offers . They are mostly used in the conversion stage, where the goal is to turn a visitor into a sales opportunity. In this sense, to take advantage of a whitepaper , it is necessary:

Crafting an engaging CTA
Calls to action are links to external links that inbound marketing specialists suggest placing within content. The goal is to make a call to action (as indicated by its translation into Spanish) in which readers are invited to perform a specific task. For example, “Download our basic SEO guide here” is an ideal CTA, first because it includes a verb at the beginning that specifically explains what action visitors are going to perform and second, because it has a keyword specific enough to indicate to the reader what they will get in exchange for their click.

In this sense, your mission should be to create a CTA that not only has these two characteristics, but is also naturally positioned within the content, has an appropriate size, and contrasts with the rest of the information.An attractive call to action will help you take advantage of your whitepaper because it starts the conversion process that you need to obtain sales opportunities.

Develop a form with key questions
After the person has clicked on the external link to access the whitepaper, a form must automatically appear as a prerequisite for downloading. In this way, the whitepaper is nothing more than an excuse for you to collect important data from your potential clients, build more accurately the profiles of your buyer personas and generate a long-lasting relationship with them in the future.

In this form, try to ask for: name, surname, company or organization where your visitor comes from, email, position and phone number (optional). Providing this information will allow your visitors to finally receive the whitepaper (the SEO guide), either through an email or a thank you page containing the download link .

Spread the benefits of your whitepaper on social media
While conversion processes are most often generated from a blog post, social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are also preferred channels to disseminate and promote your academic content . In this case, the links that connect your followers to your form (landing page) will be disseminated through visually appealing social media posts.

Within inbound marketing , where the main objective is to empower and voluntarily attract buyers, giving away content offers is an excellent strategy to give valuable information to your potential clients. Remember that regardless of the content format you use (either an ebook or a whitepaper) and at what stage of the buyers journey you apply it, it is about providing enriching experiences to people and establishing a close relationship with them. Knowledge compels those who know how to take advantage of it.