Gordon Graham (writer)

Gordon Graham is an expert on B2B content writing who has worked on 300 white papers.[1] as well as hundreds of other B2B writing projects since the 1990s. Graham was named 2019 Copywriter of the Year by AWAI, the leading training provider for professional copywriters.[2]

Gordon Graham
NationalityCanadian
Alma materYork University
Occupationcontent journalist
Years activesince 1984
Known forwhite papers
Notable work
White Papers For Dummies
Websitewww.thatwhitepaperguy.com

Graham has earned numerous writing and service awards from the Society for Technical Communication and the Professional Writers Association of Canada, of which he is a former president.[3] He has also taught business writing at Concordia University in Montreal and Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and through the AWAI. He is widely acknowledged as one of the world's leading experts in white papers.

Career

In his teens, Graham began writing for his CEGEP and university student newspapers. In 1981, he was a co-founder and first managing editor of NOW, the alternative weekly newspaper in Toronto. Since then, Graham has worked as a technical writer, freelance magazine writer, marketing executive, and independent copywriter.

Graham is widely acknowledged as an expert in white papers, which are now used by 65% of B2B content marketers.[4] He has been described as “the reigning guru of white papers” by author Peter Bowerman[5] and as "the leading expert in that field" by Canadian business writer Steve Slaunwhite.[6] Graham has written white papers for Fortune 500 companies including 3M, Google, HP, Oracle and Verizon as well as many other smaller firms, and taught marketing writing at firms including Cisco, Ericsson and Sprint.[7]

In 2013, Graham wrote a book, White Papers For Dummies, which has received more than 50 5-star reviews on Amazon. Reviewers have called it, “a must-read… an invaluable resource… a real treasure… terrific… outstanding… the best book of its kind… required reading… excellent in every way.”[8]

In his book and on his blog, Graham has defined the three most common types of white papers, what constitutes a white paper, and observed that white papers have become shorter and more colorful over the past 20 years.[9] Based on an analysis of his 300 white paper projects from 1997 through 2020, Graham has delineated the main reasons why white papers fail [10] or are less than effective.[11]

Graham believes that the white paper format will continue to evolve, but their essential goals—to help a business person understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision—will continue to be fundamental to B2B content marketing for many years to come.

Works
  • White Papers for Dummies, part of the For Dummies series. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2013. 1st ed., 384 pages. ISBN 9781118496923

Citations
  1. at ThatWhitePaperGuy. © 2005-2020 by Gordon Graham
  2. Graham, Gordon (May 2019). "The 2019 Copywriter of the Year Has Been Announced". AWAI. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  3. .
  4. http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2017_B2B_Research_FINAL.pdf
  5. http://www.wellfedwriter.com/blog/why-arent-you-b2b-writers-doing-more-of-these-lucrative-projects/
  6. http://copywritingtrainingcenter.com/10-minutes-with-gordon-graham/
  7. http://www.thatwhitepaperguy.com/white-paper-guys-clients/
  8. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1118496922
  9. Jonathan Kantor, "Some Opinions on Ideal White Paper Length" Archived 2014-02-19 at the Wayback Machine at White Paper Pundit. July 29, 2008.
  10. "6 reasons why white papers fail"
  11. "5 reasons white papers are challenged"
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