But comparing vendors is like apples and oranges. Some quote an hourly rate, while others quote by the project. Others may price projects on a per-word or per-page basis. How can you tell which one can create the most value for your investment?
Step 1 - Project overview and scope
First, we ask you to provide background information on your organization and tell us about your audience, industry pains and trends, why businesses need the kind of solution you propose and the benefits of your product/service.
From the interviews and source material we gather for your white paper – articles, web content, development documents and more – we create a formal outline. The outline details all the sections and key points, illustrating the orderly flow of information that will be presented in the paper. The outline gives you a good idea of the final page count of the project.
You will review the outline and change, add or delete items as needed. We will start writing the paper only after we have your approval for the outline.
Step 2 - Estimated number of pages
Next, two to three weeks after you approve the outline, you will receive a first draft of the white paper for review and revision. After we receive your revision, the final number of pages will be determined based on the word count.
We define a white paper page as comprising 400 words. That's a standard page of text in Microsoft Word, using the default margins settings. Word is the most popular business application today, so you can easily see what a page of text looks like.
For example, if your white paper contained 4000 words (as shown using the MS-Word "File-Properties" command), we take that figure and divide by 400 to calculate the total number of pages in the project, in this case 10 pages. We multiply that number of pages by the agreed per-page design rate.
Step 3 - Choose your white paper design
After the copy and supporting graphics have passed all rounds of edits, a final design is added. We offer either a basic "all-text" format for organizations that have their own internal creative resources, or a "text/graphic" format where we produce a professional layout design, along with all supporting business and concept graphics. The all-text format carries a different "per-page" rate from the text/graphic format. Please Contact the Appum Group, your professional white paper experts to receive more information about our rates.
You can also view and download samples of our white paper designs from our case study web page.
In most cases, development of the white paper design takes place concurrently with writing and reviewing. Graphics are developed in the same timeline as the writing and copy reviews, so they will be available when the final copy editing takes place
