Make Your White Papers & Ebooks Work Harder for Your Brand
White papers and ebooks are two of the most popular ways businesses promote their brands online. Well-written, well-designed PDF or web-based white papers can go a long way in building brand awareness, boosting sales, and increasing retention for services and products.
But… but… A lot of businesses fail to maximize the value of their ebooks. They spend thousands or tens of thousands of dollars on detailed pieces of marketing collateral, but then fail to maximize their value.
In this guide, I’ll help explain how to make white papers that are:
Visually Engaging
Lead Capture-Focused
Designed for Maximizing Long-Term ROI
White Paper Or Ebook? Is There A Difference?
There’s a lot of overlap between white papers and ebooks.
Roughly speaking, white papers are research-driven documents that inform readers about a specific solution, service, complex issue, or industry trend. Businesses traditionally use them for thought leadership and influencing decisionmaking.
Ebooks, meanwhile, are educational and accessible overviews. Businesses traditionally use ebooks to teach, guide or explain a topic for purposes of audience engagement or brand awareness.
Examples Of White Papers
An industry trade group releasing a white paper about a new technical standard.
An ecommerce company turning a customer survey into a written report.
A cybersecurity firm writing about how a new DevOps tool compares to the competition.
Examples Of Ebooks
An industry trade group writing an ebook about why their field is so important to customers.
An ecommerce company sharing case studies from customers in a compiled PDF.
A cybersecurity firm explaining to non-experts how to protect from threats.
White Papers vs. Ebooks: Choosing the Right Format for Your Goals
White papers should be about authority, research, and persuasion.
Ebooks should be about education, storytelling, and engagement.
This means designing for readability and engagement. While you can successfully publish white papers with minimal design (no cover art, one- or two-column layout, few visual elements), ebooks typically require the following:
Consistent Branding – Use your brand kit or create a new one for the ebook in Adobe InDesign, Adobe Express, Canva, or another platform.
Readable Fonts – Avoid serif fonts because they look awful on mobile. Opt for sans-serif fonts like Open Sans or Roboto (Recommendations - H1: 26-32 pt, Body: 12-16 pt).
Clear Hierarchy in Text – Use bold headings, subheadings, and callout boxes or pullquotes for important takeaways.
White Space & Clean Layout – Avoid clutter layout and ensure easy readability on desktop, mobile or in print.
Short Paragraphs & Bullet Points – Make your ebook more readable for audiences with content formatting and condensed text.
Engaging Visuals – Use images, icons, and infographics to break up text and convey information.
Clickable Table of Contents – Offer easy navigation with internal links.
Call-to-Action (CTA) Buttons – Include CTAs like "Download Now" or "Learn More" to convert readers into leads.
Mobile-Friendly Design – Ensure proper text scaling and avoid overly wide or narrow text blocks.
Interactive Elements – Add embedded videos or animations in the web versions of ebooks for engagement purposes.
Visual Storytelling Matters
I’m a big fan of using visual elements in both white papers and ebooks to keep readers engaged. Successful white papers and ebooks are as much about the visuals as they are about the text.
Use relevant images and create multiple infographics for each ebook. White papers should have technical illustrations and reuse existing visual assets as appropriate. Choose a minimal assortment of fonts (3-4 per doc, including cover, at maximum) and a consistent layout scheme. Use the same column layout for each pages and a dedicated front and back cover for ebooks.
Make sure to break up text with callout boxes and pullquotes as well.
I have also had success with ebooks where we have used colors strategically in layout—using different colors to highlight key points and for breaking up long columns of text.
Leveraging White Papers & Ebooks for Lead Generation
Gating Strategies:
Ebooks and white papers are two of the best methods around for obtaining email addresses, phone numbers and social media profiles from potential customers. This is typically done by requiring readers to give their contact info in order to read a free PDF. This method, called lead generation gating, has advantages and disadvantages.
The advantages of gated PDFs are:
Easily obtaining contact info of potential customers.
Making sales to potential customers much easier.
The disadvantages of gated PDFs are:
Fewer people read them.
Lessened network effects—people are less likely to share them with their networks.
Gated white papers don’t usually show up in either web search results or genAI links or citations.
I usually recommend that my clients make a mix of gated and ungated PDFs to have the best of both worlds.
When gating PDFs, make a landing page for your white paper or ebook with the following components:
A catchy headline
A description of what the document is about
Copy about who the document is intended for
An attractive graphic
Sample pages attached so potential readers can commit to giving their info for a download
Trust-building text or pullquotes such as testimonials or data points
Minimal fields for gating—just require readers to give their first name, last name, company and email address
I’m also a fan of creating a process for entering lead info into CRM once readers sign up for a gated white paper. If it’s time effective, jump into Hubspot, Salesforce or your other CRM of choice to enter additional info such as social media accounts or job titles that may be useful for making sales.
Better Email and Retargeting Campaigns for White Papers & Ebooks
Once readers download your ebook or white paper, make sure your organization nurtures the leads and guide them towards paying for products or services. Your job is to plan a smart and well-structured email and retargeting strategy. I typically recommend my clients use existing tools like Squarespace, HubSpot, Salesforce, or other CRMs for automating follow-ups and personalizing engagement.
1. Nurture Leads with Follow-Up Sequences
Many leads who download your white paper or ebook won’t be ready to buy immediately. You want to create a follow-up email sequence which will keep your brand top of mind while gradually guiding prospects towards an eventual purchase.
Key Elements of Effective Gated PDF Follow-Ups:
Immediate Thank-You Email – Sent immediately after the download, this email should:
Give the reader a link to the PDF as well as the PDF as an email attachment.
Reiterate the value of the content.
Guide readers towards a next step such as a product demo or webinar signup.
Educational Drip Campaign of 2-4 Emails Over 2 Weeks:
Email 1: Reinforce the problem your ebook or white paper addresses with a case study or relevant anecdote.
Email 2: Offer additional content such as a blog posts or a short video that aligns with reader interest.
Email 3: Promote your product or service subtly, and show how it relates to reader challenge.
Email 4: Include a clear call to action—such as scheduling a consultation, signing up for a trial, or joining a webinar.
Final Follow-Up with a Soft CTA:
If a lead hasn’t engaged, send a final re-engagement email (e.g., "Still interested in [topic]? Here’s another great resource.")
Offer readers an easy way to opt out, which improves deliverability and maintains a clean list.
How to Automate Follow-Ups with Popular CRMs:
HubSpot – Use Workflows to automate email sequences based on actions like downloads, email opens, and link clicks.
Salesforce – Use Pardot (or Marketing Cloud) for dynamic email journeys with real-time engagement tracking.
Squarespace Email Campaigns – Generate automated sequences triggered by form submissions on your website.
Other CRMs – Look for “Drip Campaign” or “Lead Nurturing” automation features for scheduling follow-ups efficiently.
2. Segment Lists for Personalized Engagement
Not all leads from PDFs are the same—some leads are ready to buy, while others aren’t ready to buy yet. If you segment your email list, you can ensure each subscriber gets content that matches their interests and stage in the buying journey AND increase return on your marketing spend
Ways to Segment Your PDF Audience for Better Engagement:
Lead Source – Did readers visit your landing page via web search? From another email campaign? A LinkedIn ad? Your website? A webinar? Adjust follow-ups accordingly.
Engagement Level – Track who opened emails, clicked links, or visited product pages, and adjust your messaging for engaged and unresponsive leads.
Industry or Job Role – Send targeted messages to different industries or job titles such as C-level execs vs. mid-level managers or small businesses vs. medium-size businesses vs. large firms.
Behavior & Intent – Use progressive profiling to collect more data over time via cookies and other methods for refining content recommendations.
How to Implement Segmentation in CRMs:
HubSpot Smart Lists – Automatically update your contact lists based on actions (e.g., “downloaded ebook + visited pricing page”).
Salesforce Pardot – Score your leads based on engagement and trigger personalized email sequences.
Squarespace Forms & Tags – Use form submissions for categorizing leads into different lists.
Content Hubs Matter: Turn One PDF Asset into Many
One of the best thing about PDFs is that you can easily retool their content into blog posts, LinkedIn articles, short-form videos, social media posts, and even podcasts. This maximizes your return on content investment and helps your brand offer a useful and relevant content calendar.
Key Repurposing Strategies for PDFs:
Turning PDF contents into blog posts: Retool the introduction of your white paper or ebook into a blog post, or use individual chapters or the conclusion in a rewritten form as a blog post.
Turning PDF contents into LinkedIn articles: Rewrite parts of your PDF as LinkedIn articles and focus on rewriting the contents as a short, punchy <1000 word article.
Turning PDF contents into social media posts: Turn bite-sized insights from your white paper or ebook into posts for LinkedIn, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky, and other platforms.
Turning PDF contents into short-form video: Have a member of your team talk on-camera for 2-5 minutes about a topic your deliverable discusses for YouTube, TikTok, Reels, or LinkedIn video.
Turning PDF contents into podcast discussions: Have members of your teams and relevant thought leaders (customers? industry influencers?) discuss topics addressed in your white paper for an episode of your company podcast.
Long-Term Content Planning:
Use parts of your PDFs as components for building future content for your brand. Track performance metrics to see what resonates with your audience and what doesn’t, and pay attention to using PDF contents for building content calendars 90 days and six months out.
White Papers & Ebooks for Content Ecosystems
White papers and ebooks aren’t just one-time marketing assets. They are useful tools whhich drive brand awareness, generate leads, and fuel long-term content strategies. Businesses that invest in creating these assets should maximize value by:
✅ Designing for engagement – Use visual storytelling, clear content hierarchy, and mobile-friendly layouts.
✅ Leveraging for lead generation – Implement smart gating strategies and landing pages optimized for conversion.
✅ Nurturing leads effectively – Use automated email sequences and CRM-driven segmentation that guide prospects toward a purchase.
✅ Repurpose content into a broader content hub – Extend the lifespan of PDFs by transforming them into blog posts, videos, webinars, and social media content.
By integrating white papers and ebooks into a larger content ecosystem, businesses can extract long-term ROI from individual pieces of content, build thought leadership, and consistently engage audiences across multiple channels.
Remember: Your white paper or ebook is just the beginning. Think beyond the download and repurpose, distribute, and optimize your content for future impact.
Ready to put this strategy into action? The author of this article, Neal Ungerleider, can help your team with their content marketing needs. Fill out the form below for a free consultation:
