Creating professional-looking white papers and reports with Adobe Express.

What is a white paper?

A white paper is an in-depth and authoritative report that provides expert insight on a specialist subject or helps find a solution to a problem.

Marketers use white papers and professional reports to establish their expertise and offer thought leadership on a subject. These long-form documents are often more than 2,500 words or five to six pages long and can fall into two main categories: backgrounders and problem-solution papers.

Marketers and industry experts can also use white papers to help showcase the benefit of a product, service or methodology to potential customers and partners. An effective white paper can help foster credibility and trust and generate business leads.

How to write a white paper.

While white papers can help emphasise the value of a service or solution, they are not sales pitches. White papers aim to persuade and inform the reader using concrete research, data and evidence, meaning they can read more like an academic text.

That being said, a good white paper will also consider the overarching narrative of the report and how to keep the reader engaged.

Here are a few key steps to publishing a whitepaper:

Understand your audience.

As an industry expert, you’ll need to understand your intended readers to reach them with your professional report or white paper.

Analyse your audience to understand their pain points and what they find important. That way, your white paper can target their needs and interests. Buyer personas can be a helpful strategy to understand your audience.

Research your subject.

White papers are led by data and information, so it’s important to provide valuable research and evidence that positions you as an authority. It should also be a subject you’re qualified to discuss.

You can source your own research using:

• Original studies and surveys
• Specialist case studies
• Demonstrating an original process, methodology or project.

Learn from other industry leaders with existing examples of successful white papers on your topic. This can also help you find gaps in content and information.

Outline your structure.

Information-heavy white papers need to be readable and well-structured. Otherwise, you could risk confusing your audience with a mass of text, which can harm your credibility.

Lay out your professional report with the following:

• Title page
• Table of contents
• Abstract or summary
• Introduction
• Subheadings
• Footnotes and sources
• Conclusion.

Promote your report.

So, you’ve written the white paper – the hard work is done and it’s ready to publish. Next, it’s time to get the word out about your new thought leadership piece.

Build awareness and social buzz around your white paper with press releases, social media coverage and blog posts. Select key insights and infographics in your marketing campaign that will help draw customers and partners.

Best practice tips to create professional looking reports and white paper designs.

First impressions matter when it comes to professional business reports. Inconsistent formatting and lifeless layouts can make potential leads and business partners switch off faster than you think.

We’ve gathered a handful of tips to help you present and design your professional reports and white papers in the best way possible.

• Use consistent formatting. Carefully consider your formatting and stick with it. Choose two appropriate fonts – one for the body copy and one for your headings – and keep it consistent throughout. Be mindful of line and paragraph spacing too, as this can affect how busy and cluttered it appears.
• Create a clear text hierarchy. Break up your text with line breaks and clear headings in the correct heading hierarchy. It’s important to follow accessibility guidelines and inclusive design practices so everyone can read and benefit from your work.
• Use simple language. White papers can be heavily informational and technical, but they should also explain complex ideas in plain English. Well-written reports present their thought leadership clearly and logically.
• Visualise your data. Punctuate your white paper with images, illustrations, charts and diagrams to help contextualise and explain data visually. Not only does this make your report more interesting, but it can help emphasise key statistics and make the report easier to read.
• Treat it as a story. Hook your readers by presenting factual data through the art of storytelling. It’s an effective way to connect to your audience and deliver a memorable and persuasive message. Lay out the narrative with a logical beginning, middle and end, substantiated with data, anecdotes and case studies.
• Add value with every paragraph. White papers use hard data and research to deliver expert solutions. Unlike more informal reports and marketing blogs, there’s little room for excess padding, so make every paragraph count.
• Use callouts to emphasise key data. Make your infographics, icons and charts digestible with relevant callouts throughout the report. Callouts can take up a whole page or accompany paragraphs of text with attention-grabbing imagery.
• Make room for whitespace. Wide margins can help bring balance to the page and help important content stand out better. Overcrowding text and infographics can confuse your message and research.