Differences between White Paper and similar tools
Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2025 9:11 am
In the modern infobusiness, such distant semblances of a real White Paper as howtoguides, instructions, electronic booklets and books distributed free of charge are actively circulating. They have serious differences from white papers.
Ebook is a more general concept than White Paper: it is all electronic books in general – from adventure novels to textbooks. Marketing ebooks are often informational in nature, contain too much “water” and too little specificity on a particular issue to be considered white papers.
WP is an e-book, but it has its own buy a motorcycle owner mailing list unique format and conceptual framework. Its key difference from other e-books is the usefulness of the information and its presentation in a very concise, concentrated form.
A brochure is even harder to confuse with a White Paper. Brochures usually contain more visual information – photographs, diagrams, drawings, infographics – than text, since this publication is purely advertising in nature. A brochure openly promotes a product or service, encourages you to buy, and does not try to teach you how to solve your business problems.
The White Paper contains ideas, approaches and developments that can be used in practice immediately, and it is not necessary to order any product or service for this.
Recommended articles on this topic:
Company Marketing Plan: Double the Company's Profits
KPI for the sales department: how to calculate and implement
How to get 3 times more clients for 2 times less
Assessing the need for a White Paper for a company
To understand whether you need to prepare your own White Paper, answer three questions:
Are you selling a new product?
Is it difficult to understand, unusual, or requires special knowledge?
Is it expensive?
White papers are a great tool for B2B businessmen who are launching an innovative, high-tech or expensive product. White Paper will help you attract potential buyers, become a market leader, and close several large deals. And it doesn’t even matter whether you offer services, a proprietary methodology or a technical device. White Paper will come in handy in any case.
Differences between White Paper and similar tools
Are you selling a new product?
If you have developed a completely new product that is unlike anything else, it is difficult for the consumer to immediately understand what it is and how it will be useful to them. After all, there are no articles written about this product in scientific journals, there are no reviews on commercial portals. Even on forums and industry portals - complete silence. No one has yet promoted anything like this.
Your task at this stage is to educate the consumer: to give him as much detailed, clear and comprehensive information as possible. If you work at Google and, for example, launch sales of Google Glass, it is easier for you: it is enough to shoot an exciting two-minute video and show in it how to use the new device.
But if your company is not so famous, and the product is highly specialized (for example, it is professional software, agricultural technology or a method for conducting online exams), then you will have to try: talk in detail about all the advantages of the product, attach technical descriptions.
In general, White Paper is irreplaceable when launching a unique new product or service, when you need to introduce users to it. When the product enters mass use and becomes popular, the white paper will give way to other formats.
Ebook is a more general concept than White Paper: it is all electronic books in general – from adventure novels to textbooks. Marketing ebooks are often informational in nature, contain too much “water” and too little specificity on a particular issue to be considered white papers.
WP is an e-book, but it has its own buy a motorcycle owner mailing list unique format and conceptual framework. Its key difference from other e-books is the usefulness of the information and its presentation in a very concise, concentrated form.
A brochure is even harder to confuse with a White Paper. Brochures usually contain more visual information – photographs, diagrams, drawings, infographics – than text, since this publication is purely advertising in nature. A brochure openly promotes a product or service, encourages you to buy, and does not try to teach you how to solve your business problems.
The White Paper contains ideas, approaches and developments that can be used in practice immediately, and it is not necessary to order any product or service for this.
Recommended articles on this topic:
Company Marketing Plan: Double the Company's Profits
KPI for the sales department: how to calculate and implement
How to get 3 times more clients for 2 times less
Assessing the need for a White Paper for a company
To understand whether you need to prepare your own White Paper, answer three questions:
Are you selling a new product?
Is it difficult to understand, unusual, or requires special knowledge?
Is it expensive?
White papers are a great tool for B2B businessmen who are launching an innovative, high-tech or expensive product. White Paper will help you attract potential buyers, become a market leader, and close several large deals. And it doesn’t even matter whether you offer services, a proprietary methodology or a technical device. White Paper will come in handy in any case.
Differences between White Paper and similar tools
Are you selling a new product?
If you have developed a completely new product that is unlike anything else, it is difficult for the consumer to immediately understand what it is and how it will be useful to them. After all, there are no articles written about this product in scientific journals, there are no reviews on commercial portals. Even on forums and industry portals - complete silence. No one has yet promoted anything like this.
Your task at this stage is to educate the consumer: to give him as much detailed, clear and comprehensive information as possible. If you work at Google and, for example, launch sales of Google Glass, it is easier for you: it is enough to shoot an exciting two-minute video and show in it how to use the new device.
But if your company is not so famous, and the product is highly specialized (for example, it is professional software, agricultural technology or a method for conducting online exams), then you will have to try: talk in detail about all the advantages of the product, attach technical descriptions.
In general, White Paper is irreplaceable when launching a unique new product or service, when you need to introduce users to it. When the product enters mass use and becomes popular, the white paper will give way to other formats.