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Who do you trust for a white paper source?

newspaper with headline saying Fake News

White paper writers often ask me, “What makes a good source?” Especially in an era of “fake news” and “alternative facts”?! Deliberate falsehoods are spread by many sources today. Those include social media chatbots, agents of foreign governments, clickbait creators, conspiracy theorists—not to mention vendors lying about their products. With all this misinformation, a recent…

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12 steps to great white paper project management

A white paper project is a complex undertaking, with many moving parts. Here are 12 steps to an effective white paper project. We created each of these steps after going through a painful experience with a white paper that went off the rails A few were never even completed, despite my best efforts. So consider…

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Crossing the chasm with effective white papers

Crossing-the-chasm-book-cover

This is a tale of two white papers, and the companies that planned them. It shows how an effective marketing strategy can help you to create an effective white paper. And it shows how an ineffective marketing strategy can hinder your best efforts to create a good white paper. Along the way, we’ll review a few…

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5 questions about branded original research white papers

Ever heard of branded original research? It’s an up-and-coming type of content marketing.  To create it, a brand surveys their audience to develop content for prospective customers. And, unlike some space trip to Mars, it’s not far-fetched fiction. Branded original research is a hot format that’s becoming increasingly popular for marketing managers across industries. What…

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Top 10 tips for ICO white papers

graphic showing ICO letters over a stylized world

Every new cryptocurrency needs a white paper on how to explain and promote an ICO. So does every new token having an ITO. Industry experts are saying the era of big-money ICOs may be over, so ICO white papers must be better than ever. By this point, I’ve worked on 10 ICO white papers about…

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10 tips on writing bo-o-oring content

Photo of young business person falling asleep during boring slideshow

This guest post from B2B copywriter Steve Maurer turns the normal advice we hear about writing content on its head. We got a good chuckle out of this and we hope you do too. You work in an interesting industry. And you have an amazing product. If other companies buy it, they’ll get a great…

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11 ways to grab attention with a white paper

What are some tips and tricks for grabbing a reader’s attention with a white paper? I recently answered that question on Quora.  There are many things you can do to help get a white paper noticed, ranging from the cover to the structure to how you write the content. Here’s a more detailed answer, expanded…

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16 possible ways to structure a white paper

book-cover-presenting-to-win

You’ve probably heard my concept of the three “flavors” of white papers. But within these three, there are many different ways to organize a white paper.  Here are 16 possibilities, which I’ve extracted and expanded with thanks from one of my favorite books, Presenting to Win by Jerry Weissman. Weissman is a former New York…

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How to get great reviews for your white paper

Every white paper gets reviews, often by numerous people. But these reviews aren’t always helpful. To gain an effective review, a white paper writer or sponsor sometimes needs to take reviewers by the hand and give them a little guidance. This article includes five tips, plus a reviewer’s checklist you can download and circulate to your…

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