Guidelines for writing a compelling White Paper

A White Paper is a crucial marketing document for any ICO; it plays a significant role in communicating your Blockchain-based business to the world, convincing them of its potential, and motivating them to contribute towards its development. Thus, the document must be carefully planned and drafted, keeping in the mind the target audience, which is usually the crypto-community looking for the next big Blockchain project to invest in, and the stakeholders of the industry that the Blockchain project is aiming to revolutionize.

A White Paper must find a sweet spot between being a technical research paper, a business report, and a buzzword salad. Here are a few things you need to keep in mind while drafting a powerful White Paper -

Have a compelling abstract - An abstract outlines the problem you are aiming and the solution being offered by you in a few lines. An abstract is necessary because it helps readers decide if they want to read the entire White Paper or not. If an abstract is interesting enough if it will pique the interest of the audience, and chances are that they will read the whole White Paper. So, spend some time drafting the abstract and make sure that it doesn’t extend over a page.

Establish the Problem & Solution clearly - The magnitude of the problem is important to establish. If the problem that you are trying to solve is substantial and affects a large number of people, chances are that your project will be able to a gather great support because more people will be able to relate to it and appreciate your taking the pains to develop a Blockchain-based solution for it. Once the problem has been established, the solution must follow. The solution must be practically viable with the technology available at that time because investors would want to invest in an idea, which actually has the potential to become a full-fledged product, be put into use, and earn revenues in the foreseeable future.

Cite all numbers - Citations help build the credibility of White Paper. When you say that your revolutionary product is going to impact the $XX Bn industry, you must be able to reference the $XX Bn figure. The more the citations the better it is, because it shows that -

You know your industry well. You did your homework before writing the White Paper.
Your data is not made up; your figures are not imaginary.
Your calculations around the target market size, projected revenues, etc. are based on authentic data.
Wikipedia is not a go-to place for data. Refer to research papers, journals, business reports, articles & books from experts in the field for obtaining reliable information.

Include good graphics - While graphics add to the aesthetic appeal of the paper, their purpose is much more profound than that. They add to the White Paper’s readability. A reader might not have the time to go through 4 pages of your detailed solution, but he can study the diagram that’s accompanying it and gather the gist of your solution. Similarly, one can get the crux of the entire White Paper if there are well-made graphics accompanying each section. So, make sure to have ecosystem diagrams, pie charts, and graphs, illustrations, and icons, wherever possible.

Don’t forget to include Team profiles - What you can’t do in the Lite Paper or on the website because of insufficiency of real estate, do it here - have detailed Team profiles. When the Team members are not internationally well-known people, it is difficult for the crypto-community spread across geographies to put their trust in them. Detailed profiles help in building credibility in the team working on the ICO project. So, talk about the work experience and educational qualifications of your team members, underline their achievements and the recognition they’ve won. Last but not the least, personalize them by talking about their passions, ambitions, and interests.

Draw a clear Roadmap - This is another important credibility-building measure. A sufficiently detailed development roadmap helps the audience recognize why the ICO team needs to raise such large amounts of money. It helps them understand how and when the money raised will be utilized for different phases of product development. If the roadmap is ill-defined, then it means that the ICO team has not been rigorous enough in drafting the blueprint of its developmental plan. And if that is the case, then the money that the ICO team wants to raise will not get justified satisfactorily.

Justify the need for Blockchain - Your White Paper must clearly be able to justify the organic need for Blockchain in your project. If it is unable to do that, then it probably means that you yourself don’t have a very clear understanding about the role of Blockchain in your product. Also, dedicating a paragraph to the generic features of Blockchain and signing off saying that it will “revolutionize” your concerned industry will not do. You must write about how and where exactly will Blockchain fit in into your ecosystem.

Check the message - After you have finished the White Paper, compare it with your message planner. Have you covered all points of the message planner in your White Paper? Is your White Paper catering to all your audience segments? Have all the aspects of the problem been addressed by the solution you have provided? This exercise will help you to find the gaps in your White Paper and fill them before it goes live.

Don’t make it too long - A White Paper, on an average, is made up of 30-40 pages, but sometimes, it can go up to a 100 pages or even more than that. If it really lengthy, chances are most readers will just skim through the White Paper or skip many parts of it. Some might not even read the White Paper. If you feel that your Tech sections are taking too many pages, then perhaps, you could have a separate Technical White Paper for your tech-savvy audience, while the Business White Paper can have only an outline of the technical solution.

Edit it - Last but not the least, edit and proofread your White Paper before you publish it. A clean copy conveys your sense of meticulousness to your audience. If you have spent time to make sure that the White Paper is as high-quality as possible, you must have ensured the same about your product blueprint as well. Check for grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, stylistic inconsistencies, awkward phrasing, and typos. Go through the paper a few times to make sure that it is organized well, and the transitions between different sections are smooth. If possible, get a professional editor to look at it because software can point out grammatical and spelling errors, but it can’t comment on the quality of the paper. Once that’s done, you have a White Paper which is ready to be made live for the public.

Turing Labs has helped numerous ICOs conceptualize, create, edit and publish top-quality Technical & Business White Papers. If you would like us to assist you developing your ICO White Paper, get in touch with us on [email protected]