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How To Use White Paper To Build Authority
Why do companies on top of their industry establish brand authority?
Are you looking for a cost-effective way to build authority in your niche, attract new leads, and increase organic traffic?
As researched expert content, authoritative papers can position your business as a trustworthy authority in your industry.
Though a position paper is not used as a direct sales tool, it helps gauge client interest and generate potential leads.
In fact, these documents are considered the most influential type of content by B2B decision-makers.
A white paper that provides solutions to your prospects' pain points helps position your brand as an authority in your niche.
Without brand authority, your company gets no respect.
Even when you’re the top dog of your industry, there’s always another company trying to take over your position.
And that's why every company, on top or bottom of the niche, needs to build and maintain brand authority.
One of the best ways to do that is with a position paper.
This article will help you learn how to use white paper to build authority in your niche.
Let's get started.
How To Create White Papers That Build Trust
White papers aren’t direct promotional content.
But they are crafted to support the goals of both marketing and sales.
One of the most important reasons for creating the content is to build a perception of thought leadership and expertise on a specific topic.
The more you position your brand as a trusted advisor, authority, and expert, the sooner your prospects will trust and do business with you.
According to a 2021 Edelman + LinkedIn Insight report, B2B thought leadership, when done well, significantly influences brand perception and buying behaviors throughout the entire decision process.
The report also mentions trust as the number-one factor when closing a deal.
Pricing and ROI are important.
But many B2B companies value stable, reliable relationships with companies that conduct their business fairly.
Authoritative, problem-solving content, cements the association of those qualities with your brand.
The Brands Using White Papers To Build Authority
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In the past, when you thought of white papers, you thought of authoritative papers produced by governmental agencies.
Others that used these documents include NGOs, think tanks, consultancies, and financial institutions.
They use the content to position themselves as thought leaders.
However, content marketing has made position papers commonly used in other industries as well.
That means that any brand that engages in content marketing can benefit from using the content to become thought leaders in their industry.
Because these research papers educate by going deeper into issues, trends, and policies, and explaining their causes, B2B companies use them.
B2C brands use these long-form documents also to build authority but to a lesser degree.
According to the Content Marketing Institute‘s 2018 B2C Content Marketing Trends report, 35 percent of B2C respondents use white papers.
On the other hand, according to the 2018 B2B Content Marketing Trends report, 71 percent of B2B respondents use white papers.
Among B2B marketers, position papers are the fourth most popular type of content.
The statistics show that your competitors use these documents to help them build brand authority.
Are you?
Now:
How can you use position papers to build brand authority in your industry?
Here are some practical ways:
#1. Partner With Subject Matter Expert Copywriters To Craft White Papers That Build Authority
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Do you have a new gadget that works so much better than your competitors?
That's great.
But explaining to your prospects how your gadget solves their problems is much better for the bottom line.
Though authoritative papers don't directly pitch sales, you can have your copywriting subject matter experts partner with the engineers that designed the gadget to produce an authoritative.
And there are good reasons for this collaboration.
For instance, your copywriting team might not know the scientific reasons why your new gadget works so much better than your competitors’ devices.
But the engineers that designed it do.
Get the engineers and copywriters together in your content planning sessions.
Define and give them the task of doing a comparative study on the gadget.
Then, ask your copywriting team to create a position paper that explains the study in easy-to-understand language.
After the white paper is crafted, don’t stop there.
Promote the information from the study in your videos, podcasts, blog, and social media posts that attract influential prospects.
What if your in-house team cannot produce an authoritative white paper?
Then, outsource to a professional copywriting agency.
Another way to position your brand as an authority in your niche is to:
#2. Become An Authority In Your Industry By Providing Solutions To The Pain Points Of Your Customers
Sales teams can help you understand the problems that prospects want to solve.
Then, the sales and engineering teams can figure out the best way to explain the solutions to the customers' pain points.
Identifying a problem and offering a solution is one of the most popular ways to establish brand authority in any field.
It’s a sales tactic that marketers use all the time because it works.
White papers are produced with authority content in mind.
The best white papers always identify pain point that is common to a specific class of decision-makers.
Then it gives an in-depth discussion of the pain point and offers a solution to the problem that decision-makers can identify with.
Good long-form content of this type is written without mentioning the name of the brand or specific product.
Done right, well-written position paper attracts media attention.
And this is especially true when your study provides the solution to problems that nobody else has the solution to.
It is also newsworthy when the study helps people gain more knowledge, or do their work more efficiently.
Some newsworthy topics that get media attention may also go viral.
And that helps to establish and extend your brand’s authority in your niche.
Additionally, the media coverage introduces and attracts tons of prospects to your company and its products or services.
Being prompted by the media, the prospects build more trust in the brand and its products or services.
All the media attention and response from the prospects, help the brand build more authority.
Moreover, when trusted media sources link to your website, search engines consider you a trusted brand.
This helps you build brand authority online.
And the more authoritative sites that link to a white paper, the higher your content will rank.
And when authority websites link to you, search engines consider your website an authority in your niche.
#3. Establish Brand Authority By Writing A White Paper On Issues That Face Your Industry
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Every industry has its challenges, and you can build your brand authority by offering an in-depth solution to the problems.
Determine which of your in-house subject matter copywriting experts can best do the research.
Find out also if she can provide the solution to the pain points of your prospects.
However, the most in-house content marketing team cannot write an engaging, authoritative, and persuasive white paper.
Then outsource to a copywriting agency.
Pick one of the most nagging challenges that nobody has addressed in your research.
Do industry-academic paper research.
Then, ask your outsourced subject matter expert copywriting agency to conduct scientific research on your chosen topic.
If your research is credible and compelling enough, it can be published in an academic journal.
However, if you are looking to be published in academic journals, make sure that your topic solves a challenge that grabs the attention of serious researchers.
Partner with professors and researchers from nearby universities to give your white paper the academic prestige journals demand.
Being featured in academic journals solidifies your position as an authority in your field.
#4. A White Paper That Builds Authority Goes In-Depth With One Specific Topic
Your white paper should focus on only one pain point and provide effective solutions for it.
How long a white paper needs to be depends on the topic.
It also depends on the solution, the brand that is publishing it, and your budget.
Because they have long-form, in-depth content, authoritative papers have no specific length.
So you're not obligated to write a 50-page document when your topic only requires only 10 pages.
Your white paper exists for one reason alone.
And that is to solve the pain point of your prospect well.
And the length doesn't matter.
Whatever length your white paper ends up in addressing the pain points well is exactly the length it needs to be.
Longer white papers require more research and more time.
It also requires more money to craft.
However, they could also pay off well in building authority for your brand.
The best authoritative paper is an in-depth discussion of one specific topic.
#5. White Papers That Build Authority Are Written Objectively
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For the most part, your blog posts are opinion pieces.
On the other hand, white papers are like academic papers.
They are written objectively with a specific audience in mind.
Another way of looking at this type of long-form document is journalistic articles that look at a specific topic from many angles.
The author is seen as knowledgeable on the topic but without biases.
Similarly, a position document that builds trust and authority should be written objectively.
#6. Authoritative White Papers Are Not Self-promotional
Well-written white papers cover a topic deeply without being self-promotional.
It highlights a pain point and offers a solution without mentioning your brand or product or service.
Lack of bias and not sounding promotional builds trust and authority.
It also endears your prospects to you.
#7. White papers Are Backed Up With Correct Data
Great white papers are produced based on excellent research.
To build trust and authority, you MUST cite your sources.
Have the mindset of a historian when writing your content.
For instance, a historian records the facts and figures of history.
He also writes about a particular period in history, or event.
But, to build credibility with the audience, the historian must cite the sources of his information.
He uses primary sources.
Also, he uses secondary sources to fill in the gap where necessary.
He uses them to back up the main points of the paper.
Similarly, citing your sources in a well-research white paper makes you more credible with your audience.
Doing so ensures that they can cross-check your work to see if what you have written is so.
Backing your document with solid data is the best way to build authority with your audience.
#8. White Papers Position You As A Thought Leader
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White papers are excellent for communicating the results of deep, academic-level research to a non-scientific audience.
A well-written paper positions your brand as a thought leader in your niche.
Schedule a content collaboration session with your subject matter experts and your copywriting teams.
However, writing this unique long-form content is hard.
Most brands outsource the writing of their white paper to an agency or capable freelancer.
After the content collaboration meeting, your subject matter experts present all the information for the copywriting team to understand.
The copywriter writes the content in the language your target audience speaks and understands.
Though the writing is formal, a copywriter writes in a way that an average corporate executive can understand.
Caution: white papers should not be sales pitches disguised as research.
They write primarily to solve the problems that keep your target audience late at night.
The solution to these pain points forms the topic for the long-form content.
Use a catchy headline and grab your readers’ attention with a compelling introduction and ending.
If you use an abstract, make it short, sweet, and to the point.
Tell a compelling story in your long-form content.
Format your white paper.
Make generous use of authoritative spaces and subheadings.
Include data in easily digestible form like visuals - graphs, infographics, images, and tables.
Additionally, visuals break up the monotony of long-form content. Moreover, 65 percent of the population are visual learners.
Most of your readers will remember more of the information presented in both words and pictures.
Studies show that the brain can process images and videos 60,000 times faster than text.
That makes visual communication remarkably valuable.
Authority White Paper Copywriting Process
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Our content creation process starts with a strategy.
Before we start writing, we help you map out how to use your document to generate leads or achieve any other goals you have in mind.
We help you develop topic ideas.
The topic ideas are generated based on hard data. The research identifies the pain points of your target audience.
We look at their search engine queries and search intents.
An effective position paper provides innovative solutions to the pain points of your target audience.
Our copywriting team works with your content marketing team to map out your content needs.
Our focus is on how your long-form document relates to your target audience. It also helps your reader understand your products or services, and your commercial goals.
Our writing team works hard to ensure that your brand is the thought leader in your niche.
After Thoughts About How To Use White Paper To Build Authority
A white paper is one of the most effective pieces of content you can create.
It influences buying decisions.
It positions you as an authority in your industry and even improves credibility and trust.
To get the most out of white papers you need to:
Write on a serious pain point.
Write about one specific topic.
Support your facts with data.
Make it easy to read.
Take advantage of the media and academic journals,
A good white paper will appeal to your target audience by strengthening its arguments with great research.
Provide good sources of information with citations.
Produce your white paper with an objective writing style.
If you follow the steps mentioned in this article, your white paper will help you become an authority in your niche.
Are you looking for a white paper writer?
Outsource to Anaconda Marketing.
Our copywriting team of subject matter experts will craft your white paper to help you build your brand authority.
To craft an authoritative persuasive white paper that engages with your readers, contact us.
WhatsApp us at: +234 080 331 75396 or +234 080 579 37786
