White paper design: 10 Tips & Best Practices

If you’re a B2B business focused on growing your online presence, chances are you publish or have considered publishing white papers. 

White papers are a powerful way to establish your company’s authority in your industry. Well-written white paper content makes complex information easier to digest and can help build your brand—if you have the right white paper design. 

In our experience of creating B2B sales and marketing collateral, high-quality white paper design that follows visual brand guidelines makes a great impression, boosts brand recall, and helps you get you the results you want. 

In this blog post, we’ll discuss 10 white paper design tips to help you get started. 

What is a white paper?

A white paper is a long-form piece of content that provides in-depth details about a particular product, solution, or topic. Typically, they are used to educate an audience, propose solutions to a problem, or provide relevant data and analytics that support a topic or business offering.

Importance of well-designed white papers

Well-designed white papers are beneficial to your business and brand for a number of reasons. White paper design can make information more attractive and engaging, and guide people through the content effectively. 

A well-designed white paper can also encourage sharing on social media, resulting in more downloads, more leads generated, and more potential customers. Learn more about high-quality white paper design.

A good white paper reinforces your brand identity and uniqueness, which can be the difference between the decision to purchase or move to a competitor. 

In short, a white paper can help you make a good impression, while establishing your value and authority and building trust in your brand.

Tip 1: Define your objectives

The first tip for effective white paper design is to define your objectives. Clearly outline the purpose of the white paper: What do you want the audience to learn or what is the action you want them to take after reading it? 

Have a plan for what you want to accomplish with the white paper before you start. From there, develop content that connects with your audience. To do this, you will need to identify the target audience and what they want to know, so the content is relevant and focused, not generic.

Tip 2: Organize content effectively

Organizing your content thoughtfully and strategically is the next step to creating a successful white paper. Using a clear and logical structure will engage readers and guide them through the material with ease. This includes using headings, subheadings, bulleted and numbered lists, tables, graphs, charts, and diagrams to organize data clearly.

Tip 3: Craft a compelling title

Crafting a compelling title is an important step for effective white paper design. The title should be engaging and grab the attention of your target audience while still communicating the main topic of the white paper. It should be concise and make the purpose of the white paper clear.

Tip 4: Use engaging visuals

As with a sales or marketing presentation, adding engaging visuals to your white paper is crucial to make it easy to read and understand. This includes sourcing and incorporating relevant images, charts, and graphs to help readers visualize complex information. Use data visualization to emphasize value propositions and core benefits to the reader.

Tip 5: Design for readability

Making sure that the white paper is readable and aesthetically pleasing is essential to its effectiveness. Choose legible fonts that are easy to read for both desktop and mobile users, and use consistent typography throughout. 

Ensure that the pages have sufficient whitespace to improve readability, which can be enhanced through proper formatting with bullet points, lists, text formatting, and more.

Tip 6: Add compelling CTAs

Including clear next steps for readers—such as encouraging signing up for an email newsletter or downloading additional resources—can improve lead generation and the number of people who follow through with their interest. Place these calls to action in easy-to-find places within the white paper, inviting readers to take the next step, so they are more likely to do so.

Tip 7: Optimize for online viewing

White papers can be downloaded and printed, but let’s be realistic—most people will be reading white papers online. As such, making the white paper easy and accessible to readers from all devices is crucial. 

Test to ensure that the white paper is optimized for mobile devices, laptops, and desktop computers. Insert hyperlinks to help readers navigate between different sections of the white paper, making it easier to find and return to specific sections.

Tip 8: Balance text and visuals

Too much text and too few visuals lead to lower engagement and overwhelmed readers. To avoid this, use visuals to complement and showcase the white paper content, to help communicate core messages. 

Visuals such as diagrams, charts, lists, and images can help readers understand complex topics more easily and remember key points more effectively.

Tip 9: Explore innovative formats

Many brands are moving beyond the simple PDF in an effort to engage users with interactive elements. By using interactive PDFs and other innovative formats, brands today are able to generate more leads and improve brand recall. Here are some great examples compiled by Shorthand: ‘10 engaging examples of white papers that aren’t PDFs’

Tip 10: Maintain consistency with your brand identity

Last, but certainly not least, is making sure that the white paper design is consistent with the branding of your company. The color scheme, fonts, and images should be cohesive with your company’s style guide. 

Consistency helps to build trust and strengthens your brand identity, all while making your white paper’s design and tone more memorable and effective.

Conclusion

As with all your marketing collateral, effective design is crucial if you want your white paper to establish value and maximize audience interest.

With proper outlining, clear structure, easy-to-read information, compelling visuals, clear call-to-actions, mobile-readiness, and accurate messaging, you can create white papers that are both effective and engaging. 

Remember to also proofread text sections and images carefully to eliminate typos and grammatical errors. Ensure accuracy in data, referencing, and formatting. Keep the tone and style consistent and correct any inconsistencies in formatting.

In the long run, following these 10 white paper design tips will reinforce your brand image, establish familiarity with your brand, and make it the preferred choice for your readership. If you’re looking to publish white papers and other marketing collateral to stand out in your industry, speak to our design experts.