Whitepapers are a B2B marketing workhorse…
B2B buyers are different from B2C consumers. The former makes an informed decision with the help of the information available. As a result, B2B marketers curate whitepapers to pitch their brand sales.
The sad part of the story is that most of the whitepapers end up as a piece of boring content that does not appeal to the readers. As you aim to curate informative and interesting whitepapers and engage leads, we will share a few tips in the next section of the article that will help.
B2B buyers, especially technology buyers, rely on whitepapers for in-depth information while making their purchase decisions.
As per a survey, 71% of B2B buyers have taken help from whitepapers to make a purchase decision. B2B buyers read white papers across all stages of their purchase journey – from awareness to the final decision.
Whitepapers are essential in B2B and the only catch here is that they should be done well with a plan and objective in place. When you accomplish this goal, they offer continuous support for your products and services.
We see hundreds of whitepapers that are created half-heartedly, and they miss the mark. As a result, they fail to engage high-quality leads.
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Here are the common mistakes B2B content marketers must avoid while creating whitepapers:
1. Failing to align the whitepaper with your prospect’s buying journey
Your buyers will be interested in reading your whitepaper only when it is relatable to their journey. So, you must create a whitepaper keeping a prospect’s buying journey in mind.
To create an effective whitepaper:
- You must have clarity on your audience’s problems, goals, and needs.
- You must understand each stage of the buyer’s journey in a sales cycle.
- The information must cater to the early-stage leads or later-stage leads accordingly.
2. Failing to arouse interest in your core brand theme and topics
Why would someone read a piece of information if it is not interesting?
Well, this is one of the trickiest parts to create a whitepaper – choosing an interesting topic. As you are struggling to find one for your whitepaper, here are some tips from our side:
- Choose a topic that addresses the concerns of your audience.
- Research the trending posts, and articles liked and shared by your audience, and create your topic around the same trend.
- Try to address the top challenges faced by your audience.
- Choose a topic that may create a huge impact in the future.
3. Your language tone is incorrect
With the help of your whitepaper, you are trying to connect with your audience. So, never try to sound like a machine. Whitepapers shouldn’t be written in an overly corporate voice. At the end of the day, you are still dealing with humans.
- Ask your writing team to read the whitepaper aloud, they will understand the gap and improvise.
4. Missing out on adding quotes and interviews from experts
Many content marketers miss out on adding quotes from industry experts. Quotes, facts, and figures can play a key role in the popularity of your whitepaper. Incorporating quotes and figures in your whitepaper will substantiate your point in front of your reader.
Such concrete information will enhance the credibility of your white paper and people will believe your content automatically.
5. Focusing on the past and not on the future
A common mistake that we come across in many whitepapers is that the brands keep boasting about how they achieved success. They try to overemphasize their past and after a certain point, people get bored of reading the piece.
Most of the time content marketers overlook the simple fact that a loyal customer of your brand is already with the brand for some time. Instead of overly talking about the past, we must show them the bright path of the brand’s future.
6. Holding back on the product’s USP
Top management always pressurizes content writers not to reveal company secrets in any form. As a result, the writers refrain from talking about even the USPs of the product or service in their white paper.
Hoarding on the USPs will do more harm than good. Let people know what you are offering, why you are offering, and why you are better than the other competitors in the market.
Start Improvising from now…
In the earlier days of content marketing, any idea you could execute was a good one. However, this no longer holds true. Everyone is doing content marketing, and as the competition heats up, the bad ones will soon sink to the bottom. If you want your long-form content like whitepapers to pay off, you must pull out the most hopeful, authentic, and relevant ideas to the table.
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