4 TOP TIPS TO WRITE B2B CONTENT PEOPLE ACTUALLY WANT TO READ

How many times have you read a company blog that almost put you to sleep? If you have, you already know how vital it is to write truly engaging content if you have any hope of implementing an efficient inbound marketing strategy.

With more and more companies turning content marketing as a method of generating quality inbound leads, you need to stick in the minds of your clients, for the right reasons. If you operate in a market that is highly technical or niche, you might find it difficult to write truly engaging content marketing.

But content marketing done right can help you create awareness, build trust and loyalty, establish your brand as a thought leader in the industry and best of all, generate quality inbound leads. We’ve outlined 4 top tips to help you create B2B content that people will actually want to read.

Be the expert

One of the most effective ways of building trust and loyalty is to demonstrate your expertise by sharing your knowledge with potential clients. An important element of B2B content marketing is thought leadership, that is, creating valuable content that taps into the experience, knowledge, and passion of your team to educate your potential clients.

Thought leadership content is becoming increasingly important for content marketing, as it is often the first touchpoint for your target audience in the research stage, and allows you to nurture inbound leads in a more meaningful way. Thought leadership is different to SEO-focused content, its purpose is to share expertise and is more likely to create quality leads, though you can weave SEO keywords in your content to improve search visibility.

But remember, you don’t need to overcomplicate your content to sound more knowledgeable. When writing, think about the copywriting principle K.I.S.S (keep it simple, stupid). Great B2B content is able to take a seemingly complex topic or challenge your customers are facing, and make it accessible to anybody at all, regardless of experience.

Keep it Natural

It’s a common mistake for B2B businesses to believe that because they’re selling to other businesses, their content must be formal. Obviously, you do need to be professional, but there’s no need to be stiff. If people feel like they’re reading something a robot churned out, they might just switch off and forget about your business completely.

B2B content marketing is the perfect opportunity to develop a brand voice that will help your content shine, as well as highlighting thought leaders in your business who can be the ‘face’ of what you do best. When writing, think about how you talk to your customers on an everyday basis; aim for friendly, informative and approachable.

Even if you’re writing SEO-focused content, producing quality content should come before keyword stuffing. You’re writing for people, not just the algorithm, and if your content doesn’t resonate with the reader, you’ll actually do more harm than good. When it comes to inbound marketing that drives traffic to your website, the quality of leads is more important than quantity, and well-written B2B content will help you achieve this.

The Decision Makers

Both B2B and B2C marketing campaigns require hyper-targeting in order for the campaigns to be effective. However, B2B marketing requires a lot more specific research on companies and especially on their decision makers.

If you think about it, when producing your B2C campaigns, it has the potential to reach any potential customer that is interested in what you’re offering, even if that person isn’t theoretically the buyer. For example, if an individual sees something online that they like, they may send the link to their significant other who would end up purchasing the product – resulting in a sale even though the Ad appealed to someone else who may have not been the primary buyer.

That’s why, when it comes to B2B marketing campaigns, you must appeal to a very specific group of individuals – the decision makers of the business. Therefore, you must get your Ads and other campaigns in front of those decision makers – because, even if you’re selling a coffee machine and your advertising has made the whole office want to buy it, unless the management decides they are getting one, you’re not making a sale.

Offer and Solution

Your audience may be well-versed in what you’re talking about and as tempting as it is to reel off every single feature, it’s also a fast way to make potential customers click away. Step away from jargon-heavy technical posts, intimidating feature lists, and overcomplicated language.

Focus less on the practical elements of what you offer and instead, think about what those amazing USPs will actually DO for your potential customer. Can you streamline a complicated process? Automate their CRM? Make teams more productive? Hone in on their pain points to demonstrate your value.

They’ve come to you because they want to solve a problem, so emphasise how you can improve their day-to-day, acknowledge the challenges they face, and position yourself as the perfect solution to whatever problem they’re looking to solve. If you can do this in a memorable and maybe even entertaining manner, your customers will love you even more.

Mix It Up

One of the best ways to spice up your B2B content is to experiment with different kinds of content. You’re selling to people, and people like to consume different content, if the boom in podcasts is anything to go by.

For example, for an SEO-optimised blog post, you could add images or video to make it more interesting. You could also create long-form content such as a whitepaper or an eBook, try hosting a webinar, create your own podcast or even something as simple as a weekly digest newsletter highlighting industry trends.

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel to create interesting content, you can even repurpose content that already exists into interesting new formats, such as turning that popular blog post on your website into a shareable infographic for social media.

Now you understand the essentials of great B2B content marketing, you’ll be able to produce content that gives your customers a reason to stay wide awake. Learn more about our services for further insight into how we can help you.

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