Lately (say, for the last three years or so), we’ve been writing an awful lot of B2B web copy (as opposed to a lot of awful web copy, hopefully). In 2016, it was up 60%. So it’s as good a time as any to talk about what makes B2B web copy work. (We even wrote an ebook about it.)
What’s driving the surge? Could be that mobile web usage has been on the rise since 2013, while desktop use has been slipping. And changes to Google’s search algorithm have been extensive over the past five years, so many enterprises still have to update their online content accordingly.
Undergoing a website refresh is no simple task, but why do so many brands leave web copy to last when it plays such an important role in user experience and SEO? And does it have to be this way?
Join Fiona, David and me as we discuss how to make the most of your web copy, giving it the attention it deserves so it gets the conversions you need.
Listen in now and find out:
- What’s different about B2B web copy projects
- Why your homepage should always come last
- How to plan content around users and not you
- … and more
Plus: we look at several B2B websites to see what they’re doing right…. or otherwise.
You can download the episode here (right-click and “save-as” to download). Or stream the episode in the player at the top of the page.
(Or you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here. Alternatively, add our RSS to your preferred podcast player.)
Music by Industrial and Marine.
If you’d like to play along, here are the web pages we discuss in this episode…
www.grammarly.com – shared by Giles Shorthouse, The Octopus Group
https://www.topazlabs.com/remask – shared by Joanna Weibe, Copyhackers
https://velocitypartners.com/ – shared by Shelly Lucas, Dun & Bradstreet
http://universe.consignor.com/ – shared by Sean Fleming, Enigma…
…plus one we didn’t quite have time for this episode…
http://www.sdl.com/languagecloud – shared by Bojan Ambrus, SDL Managed Translation
(Bojan explains that these are landing pages for a marketing campaign, and performed particularly well. We appreciated the puns, and wondered how they’d work for people who weren’t native English speakers… or whether perhaps that’s the point.)
http://sciencecanchangetheworld.org – shared by Paul Hewerdine, Earnest
(Paul says: “This is my favourite B2B site. Its aim is to celebrate the unsung heroes of science, but it is in fact a fine piece of content marketing and community building by a company called DSM (who from what I can gather are scientists for hire used by big brands to do R&D work). Anyway it’s based on a brilliant insight that the science industry is full of bright, passionate people who are out to change the world – but no one’s really championing their cause… until now. The current campaign is essentially a competition to get ‘Bright minds’ to put forward renewable energy solutions – where others can vote on them & the winner gets $100k worth of hours (presumably from DSM) to make it a reality. Real content with a real purpose. Like.”)
Free ebook
If you’d like to get your hands on the ebook we discuss in this episode, you’ll find The Nine Sacred Principles of Badass B2B Web Copy here.
And there’s a Video series available here.