Creating Professional-looking White Papers and Reports with Adobe Express.

Summary/Overview

An effective white paper can help generate business leads by persuading and engaging potential customers and partners. It can also help establish authority in your field with original research and insights.

White papers and professional reports can vary depending on the industry and subject matter. Marketers might use white papers to present industry solutions and promote the benefits of services or products.

No matter how compelling your industry knowledge and data, without understanding how to write a professional report, it’s easy to fall short. Poor design can make your white paper seem unprofessional.

Read on as we explain how to write a white paper for business, including white paper design elements and tips. Get ready to create and edit branded white paper designs with Adobe Express for Business.

What is a white paper?

A white paper is an in-depth and authoritative report that provides expert insight on a specialist subject or helps find a solution to a problem.

Marketers use white papers and professional reports to establish their expertise and offer thought leadership on a subject. These long-form documents are often more than 2,500 words or five to six pages long and can fall into two main categories: backgrounders and problem-solution papers.

Marketers and industry experts can also use white papers to help showcase the benefit of a product, service or methodology to potential customers and partners. An effective white paper can help foster credibility and trust and generate business leads.

Get access to free white paper examples.

How to write a white paper.

While white papers can help emphasise the value of a service or solution, they are not sales pitches. White papers aim to persuade and inform the reader using concrete research, data and evidence, meaning they can read more like an academic text.

That being said, a good white paper will also consider the overarching narrative of the report and how to keep the reader engaged.

Here are a few key steps to publishing a whitepaper:

Understand your audience.

As an industry expert, you’ll need to understand your intended readers to reach them with your professional report or white paper.

Analyse your audience to understand their pain points and what they find important. That way, your white paper can target their needs and interests. Buyer personas can be a helpful strategy to understand your audience.

Research your subject.

White papers are led by data and information, so it’s important to provide valuable research and evidence that positions you as an authority. It should also be a subject you’re qualified to discuss.

You can source your own research using:

• Original studies and surveys
• Specialist case studies
• Demonstrating an original process, methodology or project.

Learn from other industry leaders with existing examples of successful white papers on your topic. This can also help you find gaps in content and information.

Outline your structure.

Information-heavy white papers need to be readable and well-structured. Otherwise, you could risk confusing your audience with a mass of text, which can harm your credibility.

Lay out your professional report with the following:

• Title page
• Table of contents
• Abstract or summary
• Introduction
• Subheadings
• Footnotes and sources
• Conclusion.

Promote your report.

So, you’ve written the white paper – the hard work is done and it’s ready to publish. Next, it’s time to get the word out about your new thought leadership piece.

Build awareness and social buzz around your white paper with press releases, social media coverage and blog posts. Select key insights and infographics in your marketing campaign that will help draw customers and partners.

Best practice tips to create professional looking reports and white paper designs.

First impressions matter when it comes to professional business reports. Inconsistent formatting and lifeless layouts can make potential leads and business partners switch off faster than you think.

We’ve gathered a handful of tips to help you present and design your professional reports and white papers in the best way possible.

• Use consistent formatting. Carefully consider your formatting and stick with it. Choose two appropriate fonts – one for the body copy and one for your headings – and keep it consistent throughout. Be mindful of line and paragraph spacing too, as this can affect how busy and cluttered it appears.
• Create a clear text hierarchy. Break up your text with line breaks and clear headings in the correct heading hierarchy. It’s important to follow accessibility guidelines and inclusive design practices so everyone can read and benefit from your work.
• Use simple language. White papers can be heavily informational and technical, but they should also explain complex ideas in plain English. Well-written reports present their thought leadership clearly and logically.
• Visualise your data. Punctuate your white paper with images, illustrations, charts and diagrams to help contextualise and explain data visually. Not only does this make your report more interesting, but it can help emphasise key statistics and make the report easier to read.
• Treat it as a story. Hook your readers by presenting factual data through the art of storytelling. It’s an effective way to connect to your audience and deliver a memorable and persuasive message. Lay out the narrative with a logical beginning, middle and end, substantiated with data, anecdotes and case studies.
• Add value with every paragraph. White papers use hard data and research to deliver expert solutions. Unlike more informal reports and marketing blogs, there’s little room for excess padding, so make every paragraph count.
• Use callouts to emphasise key data. Make your infographics, icons and charts digestible with relevant callouts throughout the report. Callouts can take up a whole page or accompany paragraphs of text with attention-grabbing imagery.
• Make room for whitespace. Wide margins can help bring balance to the page and help important content stand out better. Overcrowding text and infographics can confuse your message and research.

How to use Adobe Express to design professional looking reports and whitepapers.

Capture attention and generate leads with white paper design tools from Adobe Express for Business. Start projects from scratch or make changes to existing PDF documents. Once you personalise your white paper report, craft social media posts to support your campaign.

1. Make the most of Adobe Express white paper templates and reports.

Find inspiration with our wide range of white paper and business report templates. Create training guides, eBooks, trend reports and more from scratch, or customise an existing template.

Using templates can help streamline your workflow. You can even create your own reusable business template to lock down your structure and branding for future reports. Just design your white paper template, then use the duplicate tool to personalise and rename it for a new project.

2. Customise your design to align with your branding.

White papers are an extension of your brand, just like any other business output. Make sure your reports are consistent and recognisably yours by applying your brand kit to your project.

Publish creative report designs by adding branded fonts and assets in one click. Simply go to Brands, then choose which brand you wish to use. Select Apply Brand and watch your white paper design come to life with your branding.

3. Use infographics and charts to make data meaningful.

Design professional and original infographics to make your research more impactful. With Adobe Express, you can add your branding, colour schemes and logos and choose from thousands of templates to help unleash your creativity.

There are many ways to showcase your hard-earned research. From bar charts to donut charts, make your data stand out with branded charts and graphs.

4. Use compelling imagery.

Data graphs and icons tell just one part of the story. Weaving original visuals and stock images throughout can help make your paper more engaging and persuasive.

It could be a side-by-side of an infographic and a relevant stock photo, or the report cover design. Engaging imagery can help achieve a polished look, strengthen your arguments and support your brand identity.

Choose from millions of Adobe Stock assets, edit original marketing assets with the remove background tool, or generate all-new visuals with the text to image generator.

5. Collaborate with colleagues.

Streamline your workflow and workshop your white paper in real-time with easy collaboration tools. Write comments, tag colleagues and organise actions easily with relevant teams.

To invite collaborators to your project, select Share > Invite Collaborators. Then enter their name or email address with a quick message to loop them in. You get to choose whether team members can edit the report or simply leave comments.

Sign up for our Adobe Express Teams plan to access intuitive review and approval tools.

6. Edit professional PDF reports with ease.

Working with clients and stakeholders, or need to make any final amends? It’s easy to edit and restructure report layout designs and white papers with PDF editing tools.

Change fonts, add imagery and switch up your branding style in just a few clicks with Adobe Express.

Editable white paper designs and report ideas for your business.

Try Adobe Express for free now

Useful things to know.

Is a white paper the same as a report?

White papers are a type of informative and persuasive business report. They often introduce a problem and demonstrate a solution, or discuss the benefits of a product, service or methodology. White papers can be more technical than other reports, leaning on research and data to drive engagement and business leads.

What is the best format for a white paper design?

A well-written white paper design will follow a formal format of introduction and synopsis, overview, body content (highlighting key points and solutions) and conclusion. Following a consistent format will help organise your argument into an engaging narrative. You’ll often expect white papers to be in an accessible PDF format too.

How long should a white paper be?

The length of a white paper or professional report can vary depending on the subject. Most white papers are at least five to six pages long or more than 2,500 words. One of the key objectives of writing a white paper is to convey important information, so make sure to emphasise compelling insights with graphics so they’re not overlooked.

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