The traditional white paper is detailed and complex by nature, pretty often perceived as needing to be a rather formal document with the focus on substance over style. Yet with such important content that you need to communicate, the trouble is very often that you’re asking your audience for a sizeable investment of time and concentration, which is a big ask for a busy reader!
We were recently tasked with a brief in partnership with our friends at 4 Roads to break the white paper mould for Hitachi Vantara. This got us thinking about the steps that everyone can take to level-up their own white paper communications.
As always, our take is that strategic design will maximise your potential to ensure that the eyes enjoy the view and the brain gets the goods. Here are our top tips…
Clear navigation
One of the best things anyone can do for their white paper is to open up the navigation. Don’t take the cover-to-cover read as a given – people are busy and distractions are everywhere, and some readers might only be interested in one particular aspect somewhere in the middle.
A contents page with links to each section might seem like the obvious solution to help busy people engage with your paper, but the problem is they drop readers into the thick of things without the context they need. With something as detailed as a white paper, sometimes too little can be just as much of a barrier as too much.
Effective navigation can help readers head straight for what they need, but it should also be able to guide them through the longer journey of the piece as well. It’s about creating a roadmap, not a teleporter pad, so that even if they’re jumping into a specific point they can find what they need and won’t feel lost.
Layer it up
White papers might be long reads but that doesn’t mean they have to flow in one direction from start to finish like a fictional narrative. That kind of linear flow only caters to readers who have time for the whole paper, but that’s only a fraction of your audience. You’re going to have 2-minute, 5-minute and 20-minute people – and you need a structure that will capture them all.
The best way to do that is to break things up and layer your content, from the top level down to the details. Think of how a good news story is set out. The key details are given up top, maybe summed up in just one paragraph, then the story is fleshed out as you get deeper into it.
There’s a hierarchy of information there with the content becoming more supplementary the further it is from the headline. It’s designed for people to grab all the necessary information in a short window if that’s all they have, or to get the full picture if they want to read on.
Helpful visuals
Navigation and levels of detail are great for making your white paper reader-friendly on a whole document scale, but considered design will also help you achieve that page-to-page as well. And when it comes to doing that, visual elements like infographics or even illustrations are like an oasis amongst all that rolling text.
Visual elements can serve a number of different purposes, too. Some might be more decorative, with a focus on engaging the audience, while others may be more directly useful to the audience, busting the complexity of a nuanced issue. At first glance, infographics and white papers might seem like opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of tone and size, but that doesn’t mean they can’t complement each other brilliantly.
The beauty of weaving in design elements like this is they’re not limited in use. You can repurpose them in any number of ways – in email campaigns, social media or as even as visual beacons on your website, drawing people in to download your paper and absorb the important information within.
One last question to ask…
As a final note, it’s also worth asking whether a white paper is really what you need. After all, they’re just one of the many ways of getting your information out to people. They’re a great fit for some audiences and sectors, but others might be better reached with embracing some interactivity or a series of infographics.
The key is always your audience – if you really understand who you’re trying to speak to, you’ll understand the best way to engage them. Because at the end of the day, it’s not just about getting people to finish reading your white paper. It’s an opportunity to build your reputation for creating white papers people really want to explore.
If you’re looking to get complex information across in ways your audience will love, get in touch!