Establish & maintain thought leadership within your area of expertise with clear and effective white papers
Wealth Adviser Copywriting creates technical research pieces — commonly known as white papers — in which Important and often complex financial topics are discussed in plain language and intuitive charts and graphs. White papers can help engage potential clients and provide value while positioning their author as an expert.
Obstacles. There are a several reasons why one does not find a great number of white papers authored by wealth advisers.
- Up until the credit crisis and market meltdown, many people assumed that the financial service “giants” would provide investment literature to individual investors.
- Once pen is put to paper, most non-professional writers run into difficulty after a paragraph or two.
- Most wealth advisers do not have time to outline, write and re-write papers.
- Most professional writers know very little about the world of wealth management.
The structure of a white paper. White papers are opinion pieces that educate, state a position, suggest a solution to a problem, or introduce a new technology or process. While they can vary in length nth and complexity, white papers should always contain the following sections:
- Abstract
- Problem Description
- New class of services and/or products
- Service’s or product’s use in solving problem\
- Conclusion
5 secrets to a successful white paper.
- The reader must be engaged by the very first paragraph; otherwise, the chances of coninuted reading are slim.
- Early focus should be placed on the worries and pains of the reader. The writer should express the reader’s anxieties clearly and in detail. A consideration of the consequences of failing to find a solution should follow, in order to connect with the target audience.
- The tone should always be educational, never self-serving or promotional. A white paper is NOT a press release.
- Objectivity, objectivity, objectivity. Just as the white paper is not a press release, nor is it an OP ED. The value of white papers is educational; hence, they should be packed with facts, quotes, statistics, and surveys.
- Beware of the white paper that is too short. “Short and sweet” is a dictum that certainly has its place in the world of copywriting. The risk of brevity in white papers however, is that the reader expects to learn something pertinent, and can come away feeling tricked when a piece is too skimpy to get to the heart of the matter.
