Quick Tips
Quick tip: Make friends with your designer
When working with a designer, many writers just “throw their text over the wall.” They never talk to the designer who will work with that text. Yet somehow, they expect the designer to figure out what they want to see. This lack of communication can lead to some awful results, including white papers that are…
Read MoreQuick tip: Position your white paper draft for reviewers
Did you ever get a big PDF in your Inbox with a terse note asking, “What do you think?” What do I think? I’m think I’m busy. I think I already have more than enough things to think about. I think I want you to go away and stop bothering me. Sending your reviewers your…
Read More-Quick tip: Build your own widget for your call to action
For years, I’ve told clients that an ideal call to action gets prospects back to their website. And a great way to do that is to offer a little online calculator or widget. Then your call to action sounds like fun, not work. —Find out how much you can save using our new enterprise widgets!…
Read MoreQuick tip: Think outside the list
In an earlier tip, I described how to write better lists. But sometimes a list isn’t the best approach. Sometimes redoing a disorganized list as sentences makes it work better. I admit, this doesn’t happen every day. But here’s an example from the real world to show you what I mean. One of my B2B…
Read MoreQuick tip: Read your draft to your SMEs
Did you ever work with a SME who kept putting off reviewing a white paper draft? Maybe English wasn’t their first language. Or maybe they weren’t sure how to express their comments on your draft. But they were too embarrassed to admit it. Here’s a smart way around that: 1. Schedule a meeting or Zoom,…
Read MoreQuick tip: Make every bullet count
There’s nothing like a set of bullets to make a list easy to scan. But are your bulleted lists as sharp as they could be? Here are four tips to help make every bullet count. Tip 1: Order bullets for quick scanning It’s obvious how to arrange a set of bullets, right? You put the…
Read MoreQuick tip: Fix a draft white paper that’s too short
So you’ve written a draft white paper, but it’s way too short. Now your reviewers and your sponsor are complaining. Can you expand it? Yes, you can. And here are some practical tips on how. But first, check out these one-page “white papers” What do you think? Are they long enough to be convincing? Or…
Read MoreQuick tip: Fix a draft white paper that’s too long
So you’ve written a draft white paper, but it’s way too long. Now your reviewers and your sponsor are complaining. So can you shorten a draft that’s way too long? Yes, you can. And here are five practical tips how. What’s too long, anyway? Technical people may read a white paper 30 or 40 pages…
Read MoreQuick tip: How to layer information for multiple audiences
Ideally you can create one white paper for every segment of your target audience. But what if you can’t swing that? What if for some reason—time, money, or whatever—you need to reach more than one audience with the same white paper? In another article, I described how to “clone” one basic document for various segments…
Read MoreQuick tip: 6 easy hacks for ChatGPT [with sample prompts]
After using ChatGPT for a time, we learn a few hacks to get better results. Here’s a quick roundup of six easy ways to pump up your prompts: The first three are common tips you may have heard already. The last three are strange “emotional engineering” to push the AI further. Plus, a bonus tip…
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