How to "clone" a white paper for multiple audiences

by Gordon Graham, That White Paper Guy
 

Most white paper readers want content directed right to them. Fair enough.

But what if you have two or three different audiences, in different roles or sectors?

How can you engage them all?

Sure, you can always write a separate white paper for each audience.

But what if your firm (or client) can't afford that?

Or, you can provide information for different audiences in the same document through sidebars (separate mini-articles in the same piece), in-line definitions and a glossary of terms.

But this may look clunky and interfere with your message.

So why not "clone" one basic white paper?

That way, you can create another version of the same basic document for each different audience.

It's not hard to do if you plan it from the start. And this strategy often works out better for everyone: reader, writer and publisher.

For example, I recently prepared a set of white papers for a vendor of point-of-sale software.

This company has three audiences:

fast-food outlets

independent sit-down restaurants

small restaurant chains.

Here's how we cloned one white paper for all three segments.

♦ Step 1: Develop an idea that works for every audience

We came up with the title "Seven Ways to Build Better Profits with Today's Integrated Point-of-Sale."

Since almost every restaurant has been hit with a drop in sales during the recession, that idea appeals to everyone in that space.

♦ Step 2. Research the idea for each audience

We brainstormed ideas and I researched some more and we ended up with seven concrete suggestions that fit this topic.

Then we realized that six out of seven suggestions applied to all three audience segments, but one didn't.

A typical restaurant bar suffers 25 percent loss through over-pours, giveaways and theft. So the two white papers for table-service restaurants would cover alcohol costs.

But fast-food outlets don't serve alcohol.

For those readers, I researched kitchen video monitors that help cooks save time. These are little screens that can show six orders at a time, so, for example, the cook can add ketchup to three burgers in one go and save a few seconds.

♦ Step 3. Write one white paper, then "clone" it Draft your white paper, remembering each audience as you write. In my white papers, I wrote "You should" for the independents, and "Your managers should" for the chains. To do that, I just typed in both versions of that text: "You/your managers should..." But 85 percent of the text was the same in all three versions; that was deliberate. Hint: Try to contain any differences to as few places as possible. In Word, I highlight any differences in yellow, so they're easy to spot. When you're ready, break your original document into the required number of "clones." Save it under three different filenames, then remove the bits of text that don't apply to that clone.

♦ Step 4. Make your "clones" easy to review

With software like FrameMaker, you can set up "conditional text" and turn it on or off to generate different versions of a document.

But I believe this is overkill for white papers.

For this set of white papers, I submitted all three as separate documents in Word.

My reviewers simply marked up one version and then checked for yellow highlights in the other "clones."

That was simple and idiot-proof, for all of us.

♦ Step 5. Tweak the titles to be more engaging for each audience

For instance, we explicitly named each audience in the subtitle of each different version shown here: "A special report for [audience]."

♦ Step 6. Design each "clone" with a different cover

Make your "clones" easy to differentiate at a glance.

My client has a different graphic for each audience, so we used those on the covers, as shown here.

I suggested a different color for each cover, so a salesperson could quickly grab "the orange one" for the fast-food audience.

But my client wanted to use the same corporate colors on each cover. So be it.

♦ Step 7. Publish and promote to each audience

The whole point of having multiple white papers is to reach multiple audiences. So don't line up all three on the same web page.

Have a separate landing page for each audience and promote each "clone" to its own audience.

This is what my client is doing and these white papers are reportedly doing very well for them.

Why bother "cloning" white papers?

For a white paper writer, cloning means you can afford to supply two or more white papers for much less than double or triple your normal fees... but you can certainly charge a little extra.

For a vendor, this results in much better-targeted content at an attractive discount.

For a reader, they get content aimed directly at them.

So "cloning" can make everybody happy: reader, writer and publisher.

To repost this article on your Web site, please e-mail a request to Gordon@ThatWhitePaperGuy.com.