Strange as it may seem, there was once a time where the idea of B2B marketing just didn’t exist. So, from that bleak, cold world, how has B2B evolved into the innovative, passion-led industry we know today?
In this episode of Good Copy, Bad Copy, David and co-host Jane Morrin, EMEA Director of Marketing at Udemy, take a look at the pivotal moments in the B2B industry’s history, what it could look like in future, and the dramatic changes taking place today.
And who better to ask than the editor-in-chief of B2B Marketing, industry founder, and B2B evangelist (his words, not ours), Joel Harrison?
From pub conversations to a lively, booming industry
The interview is truly inspiring, with deep insights into the foundation of the B2B industry, and its evolution. You’ll hear:
What inspired Joel and co-founder James Farmer to create B2B Marketing
How they built a thriving community around B2B Marketing’s content and events
Why B2B demands a deeper emotional connection than B2C – and why they should remain two separate entities
How two periods of inflection have shaped the industry: the 2008 credit crunch, and this year’s COVID crisis
What Joel loves about the industry – and his biggest pet peeves
How the B2B industry needs to evolve from here, and the importance of greater diversity
Plus, David and Jane share their thoughts on the interview and discuss under-representation in the B2B tech industry, and how 2020 will change the industry forever.
Jane chats about Udemy’s own focus on diversity, and the recent virtual event by Tile’s Jossie Haines on equality and inclusion. (You can still catch up here – it’s well worth a listen.)
The Anonymous Five: small business owner, UK
For this month’s “Anonymous Five”, the face behind the curtain belongs to a small business owner, at a UK-based womenswear company.
They tell us what a nightmare day would look like, and why marketers should take the time to find out where a small business is in their journey – and the specific challenges they’re facing – rather than just assuming the owner is overwhelmed.
Thank you, anonymous business owner, for your time. We’ve donated to the charity of your choice: The Wave Project.
Here’s what you will find in this episode…
1.00 – Jane Morrin chats about changing jobs during a pandemic
5.00 – Our interview with B2B founder, Joel Harrison
24.46 – David and Jane add their thoughts on the evolution of B2B marketing
36.51 – How this year will change the B2B world forever
47:38 – The Anonymous Five: a small business owner
Send us your thoughts, feedback or cute pet photos…
Thank you to Joel Harrison, it was fantastic to share some of your pet peeves, and hear you get so passionate. Also, a big thanks to Jane Morrin for being a wonderful co-host. You’re both stars.
But not all research is the same. To have impact, you need to ensure yours is valuable, credible and substantiated.
As part of our B2B Content Tuesdays webinar series, David put together four steps to help your research-based content pack a punch. Some of them are from our own experience, and some insights we’ve shamelessly stolen from B2B research expert Simon Hayhurst, business consultant at Coleman Parkes, whose brain we were lucky enough to pick for our podcast.
Plus, we’ve summarised David’s chat with marketing consultant Luan Wise, who’s just completed an exciting new research project of her own…
Four steps to better research-based content:
1. Figure out what your audience wants to know – and what no-one else has answered
Whatever research you’re carrying out, it has to be relevant to your audience. Otherwise, no-one will want to spend their valuable time reading it.
Start by considering who your audience are, what content they might be interested in, and where knowledge gaps exist. Is there a particular stat missing they may want to know about, for example?
2. Devise a credible way to answer that question, based on the resources available
Although surveys are sometimes seen as the Holy Grail of B2B research, they’re not the only way to do it.
Once you know what gap your research is filling, think about the best way to get that information. Sure, a survey could work. But so could A/B testing, aggregating publicly available information, crunching your own numbers, or doing qualitative interviews with a small number of highly relevant people.
Bonus tip: when you’re thinking about which questions to ask, keep the end content in mind.
3. Test an attention-grabbing hypothesis
We asked 105 B2B marketers if they agreed with this statement: “If nobody else had to sign off our content, the results would be a lot better.”
Now, we can say that nearly 60% of marketers think their own sign-off processes make their results significantly worse. How’s that for attention grabbing?
4. Slice and dice your results every way you can
Once you’ve finalised your research, there are tons of ways you can atomise the results into smaller content assets. Take key data points and specific stats, and turn them into blog posts, infographics, LinkedIn posts, T-shirts – you name it. Each one leads back to the main report (except the T-shirts).
David talks to B2B marketing consultant Luan Wise about research
David: “Welcome, Luan! I hear you’ve been collecting data for a new research project. Do you mind telling us about your experience?”
Luan: “I’ve been working with Warwick Business School (WBS) on a piece of research, as part of their Marketing Insight Series programme. The programme aims to bridge the gap between academia and the real world.
“Following frequent discussions with lecturers and academics about the world of B2B social media, they suggested we do some research. And because it’s an academic study, I got quizzed on what I wanted to test, what I wanted to find out, and what I wanted to know.
“Our data collection questionnaire is 60 questions long, so it’s a chunky piece of research. But because we have the WBS name behind it, people know it’s an academic piece – and are happy to complete it.”
David: “Before the questions went live, was there a testing process – a control test for instance – or were they just internally reviewed?”
Luan: “Before the WBS would put their name to the research, it had to go through the WBS ethics committee approval process, so the questions were rigorously tested before we put it out. One of the challenges was balancing the non-academic and academic – and that requires a lot of testing – so I asked a few trusted friends to try the questionnaire out before publishing.”
David: “That’s a great process to go through, because it makes the final piece, and the end content, really credible and bomb-proof. Did you find that the things that were right ethically were also right for businesses?”
Luan: “Yes, it was really interesting to have that balance of ‘These are the questions that mapped to different studies, what do you think?’ But as a marketer, I have no way to answer that. So hopefully we’ve balanced the academic and non-academic well. And luckily for me as a marketer, I don’t have to do the data analysis – I can just come in and say ‘This means X, I’d advise Y.’
“And the collaboration with WBS is great, because they bring a level of academic credibility to the party that I, as an individual marketer, can’t.”
David: “Without giving away spoilers, have you got the great stories you need from a marketing POV?”
Luan: “We’ve got some great stories. Because the approval process was a long one, we thought we would be releasing it in February originally. Then something happened with the world!
“So when we sent it out, we had to add a disclaimer saying ‘We’d like you to answer this with a pre-coronavirus business mindset’, and include a final question on what had changed for them in the past few weeks.
“And actually, this turned out to be a quick win. What was going to be one white paper, albeit a chunky one, will now be two. The first will be based on the changes the coronavirus has bought about, almost as a teaser, then the second will be bigger and built out with interviews.
“I’ve already got my three key takeaways, and will be writing them up next week – so keep an eye out for when it’s published!”
Thank you, Luan, for your time. You can find out more about WBS Marketing Insight Series here, or watch the webinar in full below.
Here’s a cold, hard fact for you: video content generates more clicks, traffic, shares and sales than written content.
That might be an odd thing to hear from a copywriting agency, and it’s not to dismiss the value of the written word – a good marketing strategy should contain both, of course. But, today, more and more marketers are adopting a video-first approach to their campaigns. And for good reason.
For a lot of people, video is just a more accessible way to consume information quickly. And it’s a habit we’re already familiar with. In fact, it’s estimated that people will spend 100 minutes a day watching online videos by 2021.
There are measurable returns, too. 91% of marketers say video has increased their website traffic. 95% say it has increased understanding of their product or service. A further 96% say it has directly helped them increase sales. And 92% say video gives them a good return on their investment.
However, what I’m telling you isn’t a secret. Right now, video marketers feel the level of noise and competition has increased. So, the challenge isn’t just creating videos that your audience love, but creating videos that stand out in a world of video content.
The big question, then: how the hell do you do that?
Well, all great videos start with a script, and at Radix we’ve spent years perfecting the art of writing video scripts that cut through the noise and speak to your audience. Along the way, we’ve learned there are five things that every B2B video script must contain.
1. The ideal structure
A video can be used for all sorts of reasons in B2B marketing. It can be an advertisement, a case study, an explainer or a deep dive into the specifics of your product. But regardless of the purpose, having the right structure is key to delivering the information with impact.
At Radix, our writers know story structure inside out – whether it’s applying the traditional three-act structure to a case study video, or knowing the best way to frame the story of your product or service, so your audience sits up and takes notice.
The techniques we use can be traced back to Aristotle’s Rhetoric – an ancient exploration of the art of persuasion that’s well worth any writer or marketer exploring.
2. A perfect balance of show and tell
Video is a multi-dimensional format and a good script has to describe what your audience will see and hear at all times.
As with all good writing, the rule of thumb when scripting a video is “show don’t tell”, but knowing how to get that balance right is a fine art.
Just like in films, long chunks of exposition will stand out a mile off, so finding an interesting and visually stimulating way to impart information is at the heart of any good video script.
3. Access points for directors, animators and voice-over artists
The script is just the very first stage in your video process. Once completed it will be passed on to a director or animator whose job is to interpret your script and bring your video to life.
For that reason, it’s important your scriptwriter is able to convey their visual ideas clearly and concisely. A familiarity with screenwriting language is a big plus here.
They probably don’t need to know about contrazooms or lap dissolves, but things like establishing shots and cuts can help make sure that the vision spelled out on the page looks the same on screen.
4. Sharp, succinct timing
By far the biggest challenge in writing a video script is writing to a tight timeframe.
Every second of animation or live video costs money to produce. More to the point, your audience doesn’t want to bed in for a three-hour epic. They want to be told what they need to know as quickly as possible. Each frame needs to pull its weight.
Writing a script that’s simultaneously concise and engaging – and still delivers all the required information – is a skill that comes with experience.
5. An in-depth understanding of your audience
This applies as much to any kind of B2B marketing as it does to video, but knowing the audience you’re speaking to – and what their challenges, wants and needs are – is integral to producing an engaging piece of work.
Before they put pen to paper, your scriptwriter should have a good understanding of the industry your targeted persona works in, where they are in the sales funnel, and what it is they’ll want to take away from watching your piece.
The more direct you can be with these messages, the more likely your video is to result in clicks, shares and conversions.
It sounds like a lot, but we can help
At Radix, we have years of experience writing video scripts for organisations of all sizes in all industries, and for a wide variety of purposes – from five-second social media GIFs to product deep-dives.
B2B blog writing has changed. Once thought of as filler, or a cheap SEO tactic, blogs are now a cornerstone of B2B content marketing; an efficient, flexible way for B2B marketers to self-publish content of all kinds. But with 4.4 million posts published every day, how do you make yours stand out?
We could talk about blogs all day – so when we were asked to cover the topic in our B2B Content Tuesdays, we jumped at the chance. The only problem was squeezing everything into a short webinar and Q&A. So in this blog, we’ll dive a little deeper, and give you a crash course in writing a great B2B blog post. We’ll also answer some popular blog writing questions.
B2B blog writing: four tricks of the trade
1. Know your audience
Ask yourself: Who is my reader? Or, more importantly, who is NOT my reader?
When you aim your content towards a niche audience, it’s more likely to be relevant and helpful to your target readers. And it’s easier to explain the value you’ll deliver. A broad-brush approach is tempting because it addresses a larger audience, but super-specific content makes a more direct appeal to the community you really want. As a result, it’s more likely to actually get read.
2. Provide clear value for the reader
Ask yourself: What will this audience get from reading? Why would they want to spend their time?
Ideally, every blog post should provide some kind of utility; it could be advice, information or something they can use. It might even be fun. But you need to know what that value is, so you can to make it abundantly clear to your reader too.
For example, we’ve got a blog post that provides a basic blog structure, so you can write more easily and provide that value in a clear, logical way. Pretty useful, eh?
3. Nail the voice and tone
Ask yourself: Would our audience recognise our blog posts a mile off? (Even if you covered up the branding?)
Think about how your blog sounds. If your market is crowded with similar brands saying similar things, one way to differentiate your content is to have a distinct voice – a way of handling language that’s uniquely you. Velocity Partners does a great job of this (a little profanity goes a long way).
Especially where you’re looking to establish subject matter experts within your own business, a bylined blog can allow you to show a bit more character in your writing.
4. Start strong, and prepare the ground
Ask yourself: Have I demonstrated the first three tricks in the first 30 words?
The introduction is the most important part of your blog post – it defines whether the reader will spend their time and often, in social posts, whether they’ll even click.
So, ensure the value of reading is obvious, make it obvious you know your reader inside out, and help the reader get to know your style. In doing so, you lay a solid foundation to build on.
Your B2B blog writing questions answered
Q: How do I make super-technical topics more approachable without inflating word count?
David: “Long blog posts are more common than you think – and there’s a time and place for them. So if it’s realistic that your reader will sit down and read all of it, there’s no problem with 2,000, 3,000, even 5,000-word pieces of content.
“However, I would suggest making it clearly structured and easy to navigate, with clickable links to each section so the reader can scan easily and jump to the bit they need.
“Or, if you want to break it up into accessible chunks, turn the topic into a series of blog posts. These can then be wrapped up into an eBook, so you have a longer asset built of shorter, standalone articles that can be read independently or together.
“And there’s no need to stick with PDFs – other formats can provide granular data about who actually read what. Using something like Turtl can help you break down your reader’s experience – from what, when and where they are reading, to average reading times.”
Q: What is the ‘three-act structure’ in blog writing?
David: “The three-act structure is one of the most basic aspects of storytelling; essentially, each story has to have a beginning, middle and end. Anything that follows the natural shape of a story feels familiar and satisfying.
“You’ll likely follow this structure, so the first 25% should be setting the stage. Something exciting happens, that the hero has to respond to, so about a quarter of the way through, the hero ventures out into a new world.
“In the next half (from 25% to 75%), your hero faces a series of challenges. In most stories, the stakes get higher and higher – and around the 50% mark, there’s usually an “oh shit” moment. The twist usually happens here also, and what you think is the problem turns out not to be. And at this point, it often seems like the hero won’t win.
“Three-quarters of the way through, the hero finds a new plan and fights back. In the last quarter, there’s a do or die moment, the hero usually wins out, and then you go back to see how the hero has changed now as a result of everything that’s happened.
“Although we’re not writing Hollywood movies, our multipurpose blog structure works in much the same way: set the scene and introduce a challenge, explore potential issues and obstacles, then bring it full circle to see what we’ve learned, and suggest next steps.
“I’ve actually written a whole blog post for B2B Marketing about how to use this structure in B2B content, so do check that out if you’d like to know more.”
Q: A lot of blogs I read are quite long, and often there’s very little in the way of obvious structure. Could subheadings be beneficial – and why?
David: “Absolutely. Subheadings are really important when making content scannable and thinking about SEO.
“You can also make them summarise and interpret the content underneath, so if your reader scans down, they’ll still get value – even without reading content fully.
“When writing subheadings for SEO, the questions function in Google searches can be really helpful. You can see what your audience wants to know and make the questions your subhead. Then, if you’re writing a short, pithy answer, you might end up being the first search result Google picks out.”
Q: The subject I’m writing about has so many technical terms. How do I increase or decrease readability scores?
David: “There are three aspects to complexity in content. Technical specificity is only one of them. So, you might need to think about balancing the complexity of your technical terminology by simplifying the language that surrounds it.
“The water cooler test is a great way to do this. Imagine you are standing by a water cooler, where your engineers or experts are. They’re talking about a problem – and while they’ll use very specific technical terms, the language they put it in will be simple: ‘The vintage tomographer has broken again. I thought the hazmat switch might be jammed so I tried toggling it, and it still wouldn’t work.’ The specifics are technical, but the rest is very readable.
“The vocabulary that you use is only one part of the equation – you also have to think about sentence structure, and the other words you’re using. Try to avoid nominalised verbs, long or list-heavy sentences, and any complicated words that aren’t essential. There should only be one idea per sentence, so you may want to think about splitting longer sentences into two or three smaller ones.”
Q: When I’m writing content in one language and then translating it, the translated copy isn’t always as clear and effective. Do you have any tips?
David: “This is a hard task to get right, and a lot of it depends on the company you’re working with and the budget you have.
“In some circumstances when we work with companies where the content will be delivered multi-lingually, we’re asked to leave out any figurative language, humour or idioms, because they don’t always translate well. Keeping it factual ensures it can be translated at a lower cost using tools already available – Google Translate for example, or another piece of software.
“Other times, the process is more complicated. I once worked for a company where we would write it in English; it would be translated by a specialist, then reviewed by a subject matter expert in the target language and then edited by a journalist in the target language. It’s not cheap, but the results were great, and you had a lot more freedom with the content.
“Usually, the process is somewhere in between those two extremes. A human translator will likely understand most colloquialisms and can translate them easily. But this kind of translation is often software-assisted, and chargeable by the word, so it’s more about not using too many synonyms to say the same thing, and making sure UX stays streamlined – as other languages often use more letters than English.”
Thanks again to everyone who attended the webinar, and took part in the Q&A. Here’s the full discussion:
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