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White papers can and should play a role in the content marketing strategy of your business. White papers\u00a0can show potential clients why you are the thought leader in your field. They\u00a0can be used: to answer common questions or problems that arise in your industry, as case studies for a recent success, or to\u00a0share relevant research done by your company. Whatever you choose to write about, white papers\u00a0can be\u00a0hosted on your website and shared with potential customers. What most businesses\u00a0don’t realize\u00a0is how to make white papers stand out and actually be read. Here are the three most important elements to keep in mind:<\/p>\n
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Content:<\/strong> Design and Layout: Interactive Elements:<\/strong> Forms right in your PDF\u00a0are a great way to capture a\u00a0reader’s name, email, and phone number. And when they click “submit,” all of that information is sent back to you. This can all be done within your white paper, or you can advertise your white paper and grant usage of it only once the information is captured through a page on your website.\u00a0The biggest thing to be added to PDF\u00a0capabilities is embedded video. You can now create a PDF\u00a0that has playable video<\/strong> right in it. Instead of referencing a video on YouTube and possibly losing your readers’ attention when they leave to go watch it, you can contain\u00a0the video and make it playable within your white paper design. You can dictate\u00a0if you want the video to auto-play, show player controls\u00a0\u2013\u00a0all the same things you can do on a website’s embedded video.<\/p>\n All in all, you need to use your white paper to show\u00a0potential customers that you are a thought leader\u00a0in your category. A white paper is the perfect place to create that\u00a0story and capture some information about your prospects at\u00a0the same time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" White papers can and should play a role in the content marketing strategy of your business. White papers\u00a0can show potential clients why you are the thought leader in your field. They\u00a0can be used: to answer common questions or problems that arise in your industry, as case studies for a recent success, or to\u00a0share relevant research […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[244,241,243,242,166,240],"class_list":["post-11603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marketing-strategy-2","tag-b2b-content","tag-b2b-white-papers","tag-effective-white-papers","tag-interactive-pdf","tag-thought-leadership","tag-white-paper-best-practices"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mgb2b.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mgb2b.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mgb2b.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mgb2b.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mgb2b.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11603"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.mgb2b.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12794,"href":"https:\/\/www.mgb2b.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11603\/revisions\/12794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mgb2b.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mgb2b.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mgb2b.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe simplest (and most important) thing to remember is to write something that will actually be useful to read. While the benefits of working with your company\u00a0might seem really interesting to you, they probably aren’t to everyone. In all<\/em> of your marketing efforts, and especially when creating white papers, you should put yourself inside the mind of your potential customer. Think about what problems they are facing, and write about how you can help them solve it. If you are going to write a case study, present the problem or challenge that you faced when working on the featured project before diving into the solution.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>The first step is to say something great, the next step is to present it in a way that keeps your reader intrigued. The unfortunate reality is that attention spans\u00a0today are\u00a0small and getting smaller. You have a better chance of keeping your reader engaged if you present your content within a good looking design that contains a visual hierarchy, images, and graphics. White papers are an effective\u00a0medium where you can\u00a0have fun with infographics, show product features, and include anything that will lend\u00a0visual support to the words on the page.<\/p>\n
\nThis is the new stuff. In the past few years, PDFs have become more dynamic, allowing you to add features that give your white paper depth and drive readers back to your website. One of the simplest and most important features is the hyperlink. If you are referencing something on your site, don’t write out the whole url. Make a text reference and use a live link, or if you are using graphic, include clickable buttons that take readers\u00a0where you want them to go.<\/p>\n