White Paper Design Tips, Sidebars
Attract and keep white paper readers by using sidebars--short text and graphic elements--to build and maintain your reader's interest
The design of your white papers plays a big role in the success of your white paper marketing. Sidebars placed in the white space to the left of your text columns can greatly increase your white paper's marketing power. These sidebars are also easy to format and add to your white papers.
Sidebars make it easy for you to reinforce your white paper's main points and add details.
Readers like sidebars because they're short and to the point. Here are some sidebar content and design ideas that will multiply the effectiveness of white papers.
Use bulleted or numbered lists as sidebars in your white papers. Sidebars permit you to communicate a lot of information in a short space.
- Resources. Add short lists of recommended books or websites. To reinforce your "expert" status, add a line or two explaining each book or site's relevance and what you like most about it.
- Glossaries. White papers are often read by prospects unfamiliar with the terms and acronyms they encounter. They'll appreciate short definitions of important terms.
- Questions. White paper readers appreciate lists of questions to ask, or things to look for, when making buying decisions. Or, help your prospects qualify themselves by including self-assessment questions.
- Cautions, hints, and steps. Lists make it easy to communicate actionable information in a logical sequence.
You can also use sidebars for 2 to 4 paragraph "mini-features." For example:
- Case studies and profiles Use sidebars for short "mini-stories" that provide examples and reinforce your white paper's recommendations. These gain impact to the extent your prospects can identify with the problems and the steps taken to overcome them.
- Interviews. Ask the leading experts in your field for their opinions on topics like the challenges and trends prospects should know about. Their comments will enhance your white paper's credibility.
Visuals communicate at a glance, and are more noticeable and easier to remember than words. Options include:
- Photographs. Whenever possible, add photos of the individuals you're quoting or profiling. Photos add specificity to your white papers.
- Charts and graphs. Translate comparisons and trends into charts and graphs, which communicate far more effectively.
- Illustrations. Illustrations, like cycles, make it easy to communicate sequence.
Pull-quotes make it easy to add visual interest and reinforce important points.
To create a pull-quote, locate the sentence, or quotation, that best summarizes the most important point covered on the page.
Use pull-quotes for sidebars on pages where lists or visuals are not appropriate.
Here are some ways to set your sidebars apart from the main text of each page:
- Headlines. Use headlines to introduce each sidebar. Headlines should be bold and-possibly-set in a color that contrasts with adjacent text.
- Fills. Consider setting sidebar text against a lightly-colored backgrounds.
- Borders. Use borders to emphasize photographs and illustrations.
- Pull-quotes. To make your pull-quotes stand out, set them in a large, contrasting typeface, type size, and color. You can also add style options like italics or bold.
- Consistency. Use the same text styles and colors for the headlines and text of your sidebars. Don't use borders around some graphics, for example, but not others.
- Placement. Sidebar content should relate to the topics covered on each page. Readers shouldn't have to refer to sidebar text or graphics located on different pages. Review your sidebars after you have finished editing the text.
Before you begin to write your white paper, prepare a list of possible sidebars based on the above ideas.
Refer to your list while writing and formatting each page. Add sidebars to each page as you write and-later-edit it.
For more information
White paper marketing success begins with choosing the right title.
For help choosing white paper topics, refer to my Content Catalyst. My Content Catalyst contains over 400 topic ideas for white papers introducing new products and services, or new technologies.
In addition, click here to find out how mind mapping can help you to write white papers. Or, to view the map I used to plan and write this newsletter, click here.
E-mail me, or call 603-742-9673, for more white paper copywriting, design, and marketing assistance.
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