B2B Marketing Archives

Podcast 68: the best B2B content of 2018

Posted on December 17, 2018May 22, 2025 by Katy Eddy

Alarmingly, the end of the year is upon us.

To avoid thinking about the fact that January is looming, and we haven’t finished writing out our 2018 resolutions, let alone done any of them, we’ve been looking back on just some of the great B2B content this year has had to offer.

In our final episode of Good Copy, Bad Copy for the year, we’ve put together a deeply unscientific top 10 based upon nominations and votes from our esteemed listeners (plus some of our own favourites).

So, here’s to excellent marketing content (and here’s our list of excellent marketing content):

10. Arco: “Be Sure” safety campaign

Fresh from its win for “Best Thought Leadership” at the B2B Marketing Awards, our number 10 is Arco’s “Be Sure” campaign, created with Born + Raised, to make us think a little harder about the fact that not all safety equipment is created equal. You can read more about it here.

Thanks for the nomination, Adam Harper!

9. SI Partners: marcoms agency growth survey

Nominated by Grist’s Andrew Rogerson, number nine goes to the Marcoms Agency Growth Survey by SI Partners.

According to Andrew, it’s a “compelling, research-driven thought-leadership programme” – and we’re inclined to agree.

8. Goldman Sachs: interactive briefing on drones

Rocking up at number eight is Goldman Sachs with its “Drones: Reporting for Work” interactive briefing.

According to Paul Hewerdine of Earnest Agency fame, it’s worth overlooking the company’s “pantomime villain” reputation for content this well-written and visually compelling.

7. Ceros Originals: a decade of Bitcoin

Long-time Radix friend and head of writing at Velocity Partners Harry Kapur has provided us with lucky number seven, Ceros Originals’ “Riches and Regrets: A Decade of Bitcoin What Ifs”.

It’s another of those scrolly infographicy website thingies, which charts the peaks and troughs of the original cryptocurrency with a heap of fun pop culture references. (It’s sadly lacking a CTA, though. Rookie mistake?)

6. Three personal stories

In sixth place is a mildly self-indulgent three-way tie, nominated by our very own David McGuire:

Chris Marr’s Content Marketing Academy podcast, Pride: A Personal Story;
Sally Wright’s “Staying Human in a Corporate World” speech from B2B Ignite; and
Pauliina Jamsa’s refreshingly honest LinkedIn series about career mistakes. (Update: you can also find Pauliina’s career mistake posts on her new blog.)

They’re three of the content pieces that most challenged David’s thinking this year (but you’ll have to listen to the podcast to find out how).

5. Nokia Bell Labs / Lonelyleap / Reeps One: “We Speak Music”

From Ogilvy’s head of copy Glenn Sturgess comes our mid-point nomination, “We Speak Music” by Lonelyleap and Nokia Bell Labs.

It’s a huge project – a six-part documentary series in the making – about the future of voice. We can’t wait to see it in full.

4. Saxoprint: “Great British Postcard” competition

Rising to the top of a predictably crowded category, “Best Use of Content Marketing” winners Saxoprint and Freestyle’s postcard competition comes in at number four.

With an unexpectedly rock ‘n’ roll endorsement, they boosted the hell out of Saxoprint’s brand awareness on a paid media budget of basically nothing.

At the top of the list, things get interesting… with another three-way tie:

=1. Kingpin’s blog post about humour and marketing in B2B

Nominated by Yvonne Deegan and Evelyn van Kelle, “Is humour and marketing the new B2B double act?” from Kingpin is one of our top contenders.

“B2B content can be intelligent, informative and humorous at the same time.” – Yvonne Deegan

=1. LinkedIn’s Britpop-infused content creation story

With a double nomination from Sonja Jefferson and Jane Morrin, Jason Miller’s “How LinkedIn’s Lead Generation Went Supersonic” has got some good weight behind it.

“Always enjoy reading Jason Miller’s work.” – Jane Morrin

=1. Hubspot’s “Conversational Marketing” string

Yet another double nomination – and some cheeky self-promotion – Velocity Partners’ Rutger Frissen and Ogilvy’s Glenn Sturgess have thrown Hubspot’s hyper-visual conversational marketing slideshow into the mix.

“Maybe I’m just the target audience, but it’s got something to say. And the typography, the visualisations, and the format all amplify the message.” – Glenn Sturgess, Ogilvy

So, how to pick a winner?

To hear Fiona’s deciding vote – she is our new CEO, after all – well, you’ll have to listen to the podcast. (And you’ll hear a special, festive bonus: a B2B content poem, read by the amazing Molly Raycraft.)

As if all this wasn’t enough (you lucky things) David finally adds his nomination to the B2B Content Hall of Fame, the Maxon Motor Catalogue. (Bear with us; it’s far more interesting than a catalogue has any right to be.)

Want to contact the show?

We always welcome comments, questions and ideas (particularly if you think there’s excellent content we’ve missed).

You can send them our way via @radixcom on Twitter or [email protected] (or, if you’d like to add your voice to the podcast in a more literal way, you can even email us a voice memo).

How to listen

You can download the episode here (right click and select “Save As” to download)
Or you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here
Alternatively, add our RSS to your preferred podcast player
And excitingly, you can now follow us on Spotify

Credits:

Podcast editing and music by Bang and Smash

How to write great content about HR technology

Posted on March 24, 2021May 22, 2025 by Katy Eddy

In the past few years, organisations have started to embed more tech into their employee relations processes – using tools to centralise case management and self-service portals to engage employees.

That’s led to a crowded HR tech market. To stand out, you need content that’s sharp, relevant, and reflects the reality your audience faces at work.

In short, don’t be so focused on the “tech” part of the equation that you forget about the “human” bit of “human resources”.

Here are seven suggestions to help you get it right:

1. Understand your audience, and their skills

Globally, an average of just 45% of those in the people profession say that “human resources” describes their role most accurately.

That means there’s a lot of generalists working in the industry, especially in smaller organisations, and they’ll likely be most interested in tools that can make the more complex parts of their role easier.

Specialists, on the other hand, will be looking for hyper-specific tools that are catered directly to their skills, like learning and development.

Only a third of HR professionals say they have the skills to cope with more demanding duties beyond their current roles – which is the perfect starting point if the solution you’re marketing can ease their workload.

2. Recognise that all workloads aren’t created equal

It’s worth considering how busy your target audience is, and the size of the business makes a huge difference.

Small to medium-sized organisations often have a better HR-to-employee ratio – almost four in ten report having 1:20 or fewer, while a similar proportion of large enterprises have 1:100 or more.

Because larger organisations are more likely to stretch their HR resource, each exec will be dealing with far more people and have even less time to manage each case. So pay attention to that ratio, and consider how it affects their day-to-day role – and how your solution can help.

3. Don’t forget about line managers

HR tools aren’t just for HR personnel – and that means they might not be your only audience. A lot of employee relations tools affect the working lives of direct and line managers, who often handle frontline HR responsibilities like absenteeism.

For HR personnel, a key part of the role is equipping line managers to work effectively with their people, which in turn reduces the number of cases that need to be escalated to formal procedures. So, make sure your message clearly communicates how the benefits of your solution filter down through the reporting levels.

4. Balance the needs of people and the business

This is an incredibly complicated Venn diagram. While most departments in a business will be trying to balance profit with people’s happiness, HR is the place where those two factors face off directly – and an organisation’s HR personnel are caught in the middle.

A great HR tech proposition sits in the sweet centre spot where the circles overlap and you can help them support their people meaningfully while meeting their business goals.

The trick to writing effective HR tech content is to keep one eye on the business (processes, efficiency and cost savings) and the other on the people (employee satisfaction and engagement).

Research suggesting that happy workers are 13% more productive can help unify the two ideas. Which reminds me…

5. Statistics make for compelling messages

HR is a stat-friendly industry – and social proof is always a compelling way to communicate your message.

There’s always new research to draw on, both from the big analysts like Gartner and specialists like the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

For example, Gartner’s recent HR report, Top 5 HR Trends and Priorities for 2021, includes responses from more than 800 CHROs and other HR leaders from 60 countries, while CIPD has an extensive collection of research papers and articles covering all sorts of HR topics.

If you’re trying to get into the same headspace as your audience, that’s a good place to start – and a stat-packed infographic is always a good way to tip a prospect over the edge of the funnel.

6. Don’t get bogged down by tech talk

Fundamentally, HR is about the people. And that means you shouldn’t get shoulder-deep in the tech weeds (most of the time, anyway).

However, focusing on the people doesn’t mean ignoring the technical aspects of a solution entirely. When you talk around technology too much, you risk getting vague – and then you lose the sense of authority you’ve been working so hard to build.

So, work to establish the right level of detail for your target audience, whether they’re the CHRO, an HR manager, or a direct manager, clearly linking features to benefits. (Which, let’s face it, is best practice when you’re writing for any industry.)

7. Use writers that know the industry

It sounds like a cheeky point, but it’s true. Through our years of writing tech marketing for HR, we’ve learned a few things about what works (and what doesn’t).

Visit our HR tech sector page to see more about how we write compelling, valuable content for the HR industry – and which content types we think work best for getting your message across.

And, as always, if you have a product or service to sell to HR and lack the copywriter (or time) to do it, you can always ask us.

B2B Content Hall of Fame: Drawbotics’ hyper-detailed TV office floor plans

Posted on September 11, 2018May 22, 2025 by Katy Eddy

Everyone plays The Sims a little differently.

The Sims, if you’re not familiar, is one of the most popular video game series of all time. It’s a life simulator that lets you create your own people and live vicariously through them as they master skills, start families, become neurosurgeons in a few short minutes, flirt with the Grim Reaper (literally), and do lots of other totally normal human things.

For some people, The Sims is an opportunity to build a sprawling family tree. For others, it’s about finding creative ways to kill your digital darlings – perennial favourites include removing the swimming pool ladder or leaving ‘em in a windowless room.

For people like me, though, the real joy of The Sims is in the gently jazz-soundtracked build/buy mode, where you can pretend you’re on Grand Designs and create an obnoxiously high-spec home for your Sims.

The thing that’s always fascinated me about building in The Sims is the level of detail you can achieve. And so, by way of long, tangential introduction, we come to my nominee for the Radix B2B Content Hall of Fame: real estate marketers Drawbotics’ 2017 blog post, “Your Favorite TV Shows Brought to Life with Amazing 3D Floor Plans”.

The Drawbotics 3D floor plans bring together two of my greatest loves: procrastinating by creating opulent yet impractical buildings in The Sims, and procrastinating by ploughing through an entire season of a TV show in a weekend.

And from a marketing perspective, it does something many brands try – and fail – to do: sell you a product without you even thinking about it.

Marathon-based marketing

Drawbotics’ 3D floor plans of seven of TV’s most famous offices are what you get when you combine countless hours of marathon TV-viewing with over 200 hours of modelling work. They include advertising agency Sterling Cooper of Mad Men fame, and everyone’s favourite NYPD precinct from Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

So, what makes this great B2B content?

Firstly, this isn’t out-and-out marketing – which is refreshing – but it does function as a truly excellent showcase of one of the company’s premium services. Each floor plan is an example of the “Shoebox”: a 3D model of an office, shop or home, which companies can commission to show off their new developments before they’re committed to concrete. As you scroll through the blog, you’re learning about the product without even having to think about it.

It’s all in the detail

Let’s not forget, the good folks of Drawbotics not only dedicated over 200 hours of extracurricular 3D work to this project – they also had to sit through some telly of… shall we say… variable quality. (That first season of Parks and Rec was a little rough around the edges.)

And that commitment is entirely the point.

When I was building my houses in The Sims, the most important thing was the detail inside. The wallpaper, the soft furnishings, even the light fixtures had to be perfect. I used to have so much custom content installed that it took ten minutes for my game to boot. I even had a dedicated folder of carefully curated clutter. Clutter.

The Drawbotics floorplans aren’t just accurate and hyper-detailed; they have loads of easter eggs scattered around the offices for eagle-eyed fans to find, with a couple signposted in the description for the less observant. Notice little details such as Captain Holt’s pride flag from Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Leslie Knope’s framed photo of Hillary Clinton from Parks and Recreation, and Harvey Specter’s array of signed basketballs from Suits – and that’s just at a glance. It’s encouraging – and rewarding – engagement on a deeper level than simply scanning the blog, muttering “Huh. Neat.” and going about your day.

Plus, if they’re putting this much work into a side project, it’s probably a fair bet they’ll make the effort for their everyday work, too. And really, what’s a better advertisement for your work ethic than that?

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7 ways to write B2B marketing content that has real value

Posted on October 21, 2020May 22, 2025 by Katy Eddy

In B2B marketing, there’s almost always a vague urge to create a piece of content just because. Just because we need to fill out our blog. Just because one of our competitors is talking about this, and we’re not. Just because we’ve got a bit of budget left to see off before the end of the quarter.

It’s a hard temptation to resist. Often, businesses write something on the fly, and fill their websites with the content equivalent of used kitty litter. And that’s because creating content that’s actually valuable – something that hits a certain KPI, answers a burning question, or starts a promising conversation – takes work.

With that in mind, here are a few nudges to help you ensure every piece of content you produce offers value to your reader, and your business.

Define what “value” really looks like

The work starts with defining what “value” actually means. And it may feel a bit philosophical, but judging every piece of content by the same generic measure of value isn’t going to do you any favours.

Some content is designed solely to convert a reader into a prospect. Other pieces work best as an opportunity to raise your profile and show your company’s expertise in a particular area. Sometimes you want to share a new perspective on a current news item from your industry.

There are so many different ways content can function, and all of them bring a different kind of value. But if you know what you want a piece to achieve from the start, you can tailor it to that purpose.

Revisit your personas

Here’s a tip: the content with the greatest business value usually offers a lot to the reader too. If you’re giving them content that’s interesting, useful and compelling, they’re much more likely to follow your call to action.

But those needs vary. So to produce content that’s valuable to your business, you need to be certain you’re offering value to the right audience personas.

When you’ve had an established set of personas in your strategy for a while, it’s wise to go back and check on those profiles. If you haven’t revisited them for a few months (or even years), it’s easy to drift away from the key messages you want to communicate. In some cases, you might find those profiles just aren’t as relevant as they used to be.

Make sure you’re focusing on the right pain points and priorities and responding with something useful.

Align your priorities

In an ideal world, the Venn diagram of your internal stakeholder interests and your customers’ priorities would be a single, neat circle. But in reality, it tends to look more like two amorphous blobs that barely overlap – and that can make it difficult for your content to satisfy both.

It can be a fiddly business, but making valuable content relies on finding that sweet spot where the two blobs meet, and identifying the content opportunities that are hiding in that precious inch of overlap.

Stakeholders are far more likely to sign off on content – especially bigger pieces – if it reflects their requirements (and it’ll often benefit from their input too). On the other side, your audience won’t even consider spending their time on something that doesn’t talk about their challenges. By meeting them in the middle, you can get enthusiastic engagement from both sides.

Look for the unanswered questions

It’s getting more difficult by the day to create original content. When you’re looking at content put out by others in your market, it may sometimes feel like they’ve already answered every question or filled every niche.

But sometimes, all they’re really doing is papering over the cracks – answering top-level queries and offering generic responses. Dig a little deeper, and you’ll often find unique opportunities to add your own expertise, opinions and answers.

Primary research is your friend here; there’s no better way to identify your audience’s real, burning unanswered questions. A simple starting point is keyword research, to see which topics and queries people are plugging into Google, but you might want to dive into polls, surveys and social media too, for a more detailed overview.

Appease the gods of SEO

Once you have an idea that’s tailored perfectly to your readers’ expectations and interests, it’s time to pay your respects to the mighty SEO gods of the internet. By convincing the search engines that your content has value, your piece is far more likely to turn up in the top results, so you can see some real-world value in turn.

This is where that keyword research from earlier comes in handy – and an understanding of how latent semantic indexing (LSI) works.

Be warned: keyword stuffing is not the way to go. It’s ugly and doesn’t rank well with search engines anymore. With LSI, search engines also look for words that are contextually related to a particular topic. It’s rare to search using full, sensible sentences; we all use fragments and idiosyncratic phrasing, but by using words that frequently appear together in a sensible way, the search engine will recognise that you’re writing about a subject in depth.

So, you no longer have to squeeze an awkward sentence like “how to move to cloud” into your copy just because your audience types that into the search bar. The algorithm can also spot a combination of related terms like “public”, “hybrid” and “migrate”, which show you know about the subject.

Know where to share it

Getting that sweet, sweet ROI from your content means sharing it in the right places, so the right people read it. (Or hear it. Or watch it. I’m not the format police.)

Consider what you’re creating carefully. Does it work best on your own blog? As a guest post on someone else’s site? Are there industry publications that can lend your content an extra bit of heft? Is this a piece that would lend itself to being printed on heavy-weight paper stock and handed to your prospective customers in person?

Write copy that sings (very quietly)

Great ideas get lost in bad copy. Once you’ve identified your message, who it’s most valuable to share it with, and how to get it in front of them, you’ve got to write it well.

Whether it’s a blog, a video script, a SlideShare or a great big unit of a white paper, it’s all about clean and intelligent writing that supports your message without getting in the way.

And if the idea of actually doing that writing after all your prep work makes your fingers ache… Well, I know a few good writers who could help you out.

The B2B Content Audio Blog #13: how to run a B2B messaging workshop

Posted on December 14, 2018May 22, 2025 by John Kerrison

Successful B2B marketing requires everyone pulling in the same direction: sales, marketing, product specialists… everyone.

Which is why you can’t properly market your brand unless there’s alignment around your key messaging.

We’re increasingly asked to run messaging workshops to help our clients nail down a core set of wording they can use across all their external communications, sales collateral, and training. And this audio blog explains how these messaging workshops work, and why they’re so valuable to the business as a whole.

Hit “play” now to learn:

Who you should invite to your workshop
What to do before, during and afterwards
The key components of a successful messaging framework

“Looks like we got ourselves a reader…”

If you’d prefer to read Fiona’s original blog post for yourself, here’s What happens in a B2B messaging workshop?

This is the end of this podcast season, so if you’d like to keep hearing from us, you’ll want Good Copy, Bad Copy: the B2B Copywriting Podcast. (The next episode drops next week, revealing the best B2B content of 2018.)

How to listen

You can download the episode here, or stream it in the player at the top of the page.

Alternatively, you could subscribe to us on iTunes, or use this RSS feed here. You can also find us on Spotify.

Get in touch

Want to hear a second season of this audio blog? Let us know. Email [email protected], tweet at us, or leave an iTunes review.

Credits

Audio editing: Bang and Smash

Theme tune: “Chinny Reckon” by the Nye Bevans

B2BQ&A 105: How do you evaluate B2B content quality?

Posted on March 3, 2022May 21, 2025 by Claire Goodfellow

This month’s question comes from Caroline Robinson who, among many other roles, is the senior editor of the British Cartographic Society’s popular magazine, Maplines.

She wants to know: “What QA/QC processes do other people have for editing content?”

It’s a fantastic question. At Radix, we use a version of this 16-point copywriting quality checklist when editing each other’s work, but we were also super curious to find out what processes others use to ensure the quality of their B2B content.

So we spoke to Laurence Taphouse, Director of Digital Marketing and Content Strategy at Deltek‘s EMEA & APAC Demand Centre, to find out how she ensures consistent quality across so many writers, subjects, and territories.

We also called on the members and experts of B2B Marketing’s Propolis Hive for Brand and Content Strategy and got a detailed response from Scott Stockwell, Propolis Hive Ambassador for Strategy and Evolution. You can hear Scott’s process in full, later in the episode.

This week, our co-host is the luminous Katy Eddy, a Senior Copywriter here at Radix and editor extraordinaire. She recently gave an editing masterclass at a local university, and shares some of her approach.

And we have two excellent copywriting tips this month. Giles Edwards tells us how to keep our content succinct, and we hear the first of a series of tips on creating inclusive copy from language consultant Ettie Bailey-King.

You’ll find a full transcript of our podcast at the end of this post.

Laurence’s top tips for consistent quality

First, Laurence tells us how she achieves consistently high quality across Deltek’s varied content.

A consistent editor

“You need to have a consistent editor; I think it’s crucial,” Laurence explains. “For us, it’s our product marketing team. So when we do editing, it will be me; you always add a constant.”

Include someone with industry acumen

“You need a person who’s got all the industry acumen,” she adds. “Someone who understands their role in the industry, who can make sure the messaging is resonating the way it should be.”

Check – and check again

“Once all that is done, a second pair of eyes can check this is all good,” she concludes. “And then we go back to me for proofreading, making sure there’s no grammatical mistakes or anything like that. Once that is done, we all agree that the content is good to go. And we always follow the same process.”

Scott’s advice from a tech giant

Next, Scott gives us a sneak peak into the content quality process at a bona fide tech giant. And, like Laurence, he reveals that quality control starts much, much earlier than the final edit.

“Assets go through agency production, and then face a rigorous ‘go live’ test before they’re launched,” he tells us. “The ‘go live’ alone has 12 elements that are checked before an asset is signed off, including the brand guidelines, legal requirements, and SEO optimisation, among others.

“Much of this happens within a standard set of tools and apps that all the content team share along with supporting workflows. The squad of marketers working on the campaign… will all have an input into the content being made for the campaign and how it will be deployed. So that quick quality check is a final glimpse at a far more detailed journey that each asset has taken to get there.”

Radix’s Quality Assurance Checklist

At Radix, our content quality checklist consists of 16 questions. We check for accuracy, clarity, authority, empathy, and wizardry to make sure our content is as complete – and as appropriate for its intended audience – as possible.

If you’d like to adapt it for your own purposes, or even steal it wholesale, feel free:

(Click the image to open a printable PDF)

In this episode, you’ll find…

1:10 – We welcome this week’s co-host, Katy Eddy

1:55 – Our first copywriting tip from Giles Edwards on how to keep content succinct

2:10 – We put Caroline Robinson’s question to Laurence Taphouse

15:20 – David shares Scott Stockwell’s thoughts about how to keep quality in your content

17:35 – David and Katy discuss her three-stage content editing process

25:47 – We hear copywriting tips from Ettie Bailey-King about how to keep content inclusive

We want to hear from you…

Have you got a question for B2BQ&A? Or a copywriting tip you’d like to share?

You could be featured on our next podcast. Send us a voice memo at [email protected]. And if there are any other thoughts you’d like to share, you can find us on Twitter @radixcom.

How to listen:

You can download the episode here (right-click and select “Save As” to download).
Or you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts.
Alternatively, add our RSS to your preferred podcast player.

Credits

Firstly, thank you to Katy Eddy for your excellent insight and co-hosting skills.
Thanks to Caroline Robinson for your question. It was really interesting to explore.
And thank you to Laurence Taphouse for the insights into Deltek’s quality process.
Thanks to Scott Stockwell for your brilliant contribution, too.
And last but absolutely not least, thanks to Giles Edwards and Ettie Bailey-King for your brilliant copywriting tips.

Podcast editing and music by Bang and Smash.

Transcript: B2BQ&A 105: How do you evaluate B2B content quality?

Caroline Robinson: I would like to know what QA/QC processes other people have for editing content.

Katy Eddy: That’s a great question. Let’s ask Laurence Taphouse from Deltek.

David McGuire: Hello listener, you are extremely welcome to B2BQ&A, the podcast where we go in search of an answer to your question about B2B content writing. This is episode 105.

Katy: In a moment, we’ll ask Laurence Taphouse, Deltek’s Director of Digital Marketing and Content Strategy for EMEA and APAC, how she manages content quality, and get copywriting tips from Giles Edwards and Ettie Bailey-King. Plus, we’ll have news of a helpful new resource you can use to check your own B2B content quality. That’s a lot of stuff.

David: That is, it’s a lot, isn’t it? It’s a packed episode, I know. Before all of that, though, some introductions. My name is David McGuire. I’m Creative Director at Radix Communications, the B2B copywriting agency. And this month, our guest co-host is a familiar voice. It’s Radix Senior Copywriter, Katy Eddy. Katy, welcome back.

Katy: Thank you very much. It is good to be back.

David: It’s good to have you here. Before we go ahead and answer this month’s question, would you mind telling the listener how they can get in touch with us?

Katy: Yeah, of course. Listener, if you have any comments or suggestions you can find Radix on LinkedIn or Twitter @radixcom. Or if you want us to answer your question on a future episode, record a quick voice note and send it by email to [email protected].

David: That’s marvellous. Thank you very much.

Giles Edwards: Hello, this is Giles from …Gasp! My tip is: trim the fat. If you can take a word out and nothing is lost, you should.

Katy: Thanks, Giles, for that tip. Now it’s time to hear this month’s question. Who do we have?

Caroline: Hello, Radix Podcast. I’m Caroline Robinson, Marketing and Business Development Manager for Compusult Europe. I am also Senior Editor of Maplines, the membership magazine for the British Cartographic Society. I write and edit in different styles for my work. I would like to know what QA/QC processes other people have editing content. Love the podcast by the way.

David: Thanks, Caroline. That’s a great question. Content quality control is something we’re asked about a lot. And in a minute, Katy will explain how we approach editing here at Radix. First, I put your question to Laurence Taphouse, who’s Director of Digital Marketing and Content Strategy for EMEA and APAC at the global software company, Deltek. Laurence leads on content and digital strategy and works with stakeholders and writers around the globe. So I asked her what processes do you have to ensure that your content meets a high standard.

Laurence Taphouse: The process really starts with our marketing plan, when we decide to put in place a marketing plan to drive demand for some of our products. My role is to really do a content gap analysis. From this content gap analysis, I then decide with different stakeholders what type of content are needed. The type of content that are needed can be different formats to fit some of the digital tactics that we are using to drive demand. And based on that we do a content plan. So the content plan is very much around: “what do I want this content to achieve? Who do I want to read it? What do I want readers to think, feel, or do afterwards?” So if there’s any, you know, call to action? And then once I got all those answers lined up, is “what should this piece look like, really? When is the best time to publish it? What’s the best source of material? What’s the call to action? And then maybe where will the content be published?

Once I’ve got that it’s all started with a creative brief and a content brief and either we use, you know, writers in house or if we use third party writers, the content brief is the key for whomever is going to write the content, understand, you know, the audience to which the content will be targeted to. So normally in the brief you’ll have a synopsis, some key messages, the deadline on when we want the content to be created, the target audience, some of the source materials. Sometimes when we create these brief we also do a call with the writer to make sure that we go through all the detail and source material. So we give the opportunity to the writers to ask questions, and make sure that everyone is on the same page. So once we’ve done that, we are being really clear on the deadlines, any iteration will be done as well for that type of content. Because content is quite subjective. Some people might like it, some people might not like it, depending on the tone, and within the brief, you know, that’s where the standards come into play, to make sure that, you know, you don’t end up having 10 or 15 iterations, just based on the personal opinion, though, which is more… it needs to be around when, you know, you review the content around, “okay, this is for that, the format is that, the best practice is that, and the standard of the company is tone of voice should be that way, the way we address ourselves to the audience should be that way.” So once you’ve got all of that, then you can create this not rigid, but a little bit rigid deadline, where you say, “okay, and say three iteration would be the maximum that will be good for you”.

Then you need to have a consistent editor, I think is crucial. For us it’s our product marketing team. So when you do the editing it will be me. And then I will use some of my peers as well so I have, you know, other pairs of eyes as well on the content because it’s always great. But you always have a constant, you know, consistent editor, person with … generally a person who’s got all the industry acumen. So they understand their industry, they understand their work so that they make sure that the messaging is resonating, the way it should be resonating.

Once that is done, the second pair of eyes is there to double-check this is all good. And then we go back to me for proofreading, making sure that there’s no, you know, grammatical mistakes or anything like that.

Once that is done, that’s when we, you know, we decide that we’re all in agreement that this is all good. And we follow, you know, always the same process, the briefing, once the briefing is done, the deadline once the deadline is done… We don’t let writers just write right away, we usually ask for an outline. So the writer being an internal writer, or third party writer, we make sure that whatever is in his mind of how he’s going to structure the content. So it could be a blog, or could be a white paper, what is it he’s going to write in each of the different parts – we agreed on this outline. So we know that when he start writing, it should be pretty much what we asked him or her to do, you know, he’s not far off, he’s not going on a tangent, where we’re like, “oh, actually, we didn’t want you to really focus on that part”.

And then once we do all this editing that I was telling you about, and this proofreading and this peer review, where we have multiple pair of eyes, that’s when we go into market. And what we also like to do is to take time and reflect once things are in motion in markets. So how this is engaging? Is it engaging the right way? Could we tweak some of the promotional copy that we are creating?

So it’s not just once it’s launched is gone. There is a constant optimisation of the content. We have standards as well, when it comes to publishing online. It is important that we think about search engine optimisation. So it should not be, you know, the main focus when you write, you don’t want to just use keywords, you know, in the wrong way. It is important when you promote, for example, a blog, you know, to think about your title, to be engaging in your subtitle, you need to detail the backend, your backlinks, you know, if you are talking and referring to other research or content on the web to link that through your blog. So there’s a big best practice that we follow for different type of format content.

David: That sounds really comprehensive. That’s great. Thank you. Obviously, kind of, you work across lots of different geographies, lots of different kinds of locations and kinds of writers and that kind of thing. How easy is it to apply a consistent set of standards across different formats, subjects, locations?

Laurence: Yeah, that’s a really good question. So we normally got standards from our digital team, our corporate team, so you will have standard that you follow. So that process that I just explained to you is a process that everyone will do across the globe. However, there’s something there is very important when you talk to different markets when different languages. This is something that in our email and admin centre is crucial is one. When you write content in English, and you know that this content is going to be translated, you need to make sure that you don’t play with words. Often we like to play with word and we feel like they’re more engaging, if we make a touch of humour or make the title a bit punchier in English. That’s great, but it’s not always translates really well when you wanted to, you know, target another market. Also, you know, the content that we are creating is very thought leadership, is not so much product heavy. So it is quite easily transferable, I would say for other markets, but you always need to have a think of who is the target audience, if the target audience is the same, but the market is less mature, you need to make sure they you know, you got that point across. So, it depends on the type of content, I think content that is very high level, for a specific persona, should be able to work and follow the right standard and the right process that I just explained across the globe, really. If there is something that is more specific, you know, I’m thinking sometimes when we do a piece of content around survey research, or based on dates and key points, it needs to be, you know, obviously updated and to resonate with the other markets. But obviously, the standard of the best practice to make sure that the content looks good, should be able to easily be applied across the globe. Because the importance of knowing what’s good look like, is crucial. Because if not, you will never really make the decision to go into market. Because some people might have another opinion of what good looks like. And you’ve got a different line of businesses, which are hot, because you’ve got the content and marketers who think marketing content, and what marketing good content look like. And you’ve got maybe someone who is more an expert in the product, or maybe an expert in, you know, an engineer in the product, where he feels that they need to talk about something more technical, is actually what good content will be.

David: So when you’re trying to apply those standards, and agree what good looks like, between the marketing team and stakeholders in product or sales or, or wherever, how does that work? How do you reach agreement on what the standards are and what good is?

Laurence: So we do something called RACI. So when we do every piece of content that we do, and that we create, if we need to involve multiple stakeholders, they need to understand their role within the creation of that content. So RACI will be you know, the, are you responsible, are you accountable? Are you going to be just a consultant? Or is it just informative that we’re going to provide you this content? Based on the RACI, we’ll set the standard and the process on the brief. So that’s always on the brief. So the first step, and when we agree on that brief, then people understand what good looks like and what we are aiming for and what the objective is. If you miss that brief, and the brief is not clear, that’s when it gets really hard for everyone to be on the same page on what good look like for specific content or specific campaign.

David: Laurence, that’s brilliant, that’s absolutely everything that we needed from my point of view. Is there anything when you were kind of thinking about the questions and what you prepared, is there anything that I haven’t asked you about, that you feel is important in this?

Laurence: I think often people think that content is, you know, you need to be very creative, you need to be someone who likes to read. And it’s true, when you are content, you need to really like the wording and all of that. But I think when you write marketing content, you need to have also this view of not only writing what you like to write about, but always thinking about the customer, and what they’re going to want to write. So following the process, it looks like really heavy, but once you do it for longer and longer and longer. Yes, it seems completely obvious is like, you know, it’s like if you were going into market without having a marketing plan in place or without having a budget in place. If you don’t have this process in place, then, you know, everything would fall apart. So I would just suggest to everyone who wants to do content, to also have a good eye on you know, digital tactics and format. Content is the oil of the machine of demand. So you need to think about where this content going to go before you start writing. I think it’s crucial.

David: Thanks, Laurence for giving us such a detailed answer to Caroline’s question. We really appreciate your time. Katy, before we hear your approach to editing, I’d like to share a bit of further information on this. I asked the members and experts of B2B Marketing’s Propolis Hive for Brand and Content Strategy, how they approach content QC. And I got quite a detailed response from Scott Stockwell. And I thought it showed some real similarities with Laurence’s answer. Scott says the following:

This feels like one of those, it’s taken me five years to do this in five minutes. If you’re just considering content, that’s something that’s coming off a content production line, then quality assurance could be seen as the quality controller equivalent. A quick look from a trained eye at the finished products, able to spot what passes muster, and what needs to be rejected. As editor-in-chief for EMEA, that’s part of my role: to examine finished assets. But like the tip of the iceberg that doesn’t show all the work that went into designing and fabricating that product, and sourcing the ingredients before any components even set out on their path to becoming a product. Where I work, we have a three by three model, three briefs, three sessions, three outcomes. We have an input brief that researches the market, the customers, the personas within the customers, the local conditions, et cetera. That moves into a content strategy that looks at the high-level customer journey and the touches along the way. The concept brief comes next, and looks at the creative landscape and options for testing at the campaign level. A SWOT analysis examines the creative testing results and implications. And a greenlight meeting looks at what it will take for all the assets in the journey to deliver on the vision for the campaign. A content plan takes the defined campaign deliverables, and looks at all the components needed to create them, which are detailed in an asset brief for each asset. The assets go through agency production, and then face a rigorous ‘go live’ test before they’re launched. The ‘go live’ alone has 12 elements that are checked before an asset is signed off, including the brand guidelines, legal requirements, and SEO optimization among others. Much of this happens within a standard set of tools and apps that all of the content team share along with supporting workflows. The squad of marketers working on the campaign, across discipline and involved throughout and will all have a good view of and input into the content being made for the campaign and how it will be deployed. So that quick quality check is a final glimpse of a far more detailed journey that each asset has taken to get there.

So Katy, now you have insight into content quality control at two tech giants. And to me, it’s striking just how much work goes into getting things right before that final review. Did anything else stand out for you?

Katy: I think firstly, it makes me glad that we’re just the copywriters. The amount of work that goes in, you know, to prep a brief before it reaches us, and everything that happens to it after we’re done with it. That sounds exhausting. It’s really interesting to have that, that little bit of insight into where our little bit of writing and editing that we do slots into a much bigger thing. And it’s yeah, it is a big responsibility to take on, like a little bit of editing journey.

David: Yeah, ‘cause I mean, our review process, I mean, we have a checklist. But that really is, it’s more at the end of that final check – right? – of all the kind of elements that are already in the brief to make sure that everything lines up.

Katy: Yeah, everything we do is as much in line with the brief as we can possibly get it. And the other thing that I thought was really interesting that Laurence picked up on was talking about how you adjust things for different locations and different markets. I’ve been doing a lot of that recently. And it’s a difficult challenge because unless you’re going and you’re talking to every individual person in that market, you don’t necessarily get a full picture of how they like to talk about things and things that you shouldn’t mention for their markets and things like that.

So recently, I did a big project for five regions. And we set up a massive spreadsheet that had all our main talking points in it for UK. And we handed it to the teams in each of the regions and we’re like, what do you need to change? What don’t you want from us because it can be really tiny accuracy, things like stuff that’s hosted in Microsoft Azure here might be in a different cloud provider in Sweden, something like that. But then there’s loads of really tiny things. Kinda like we don’t like… humour. Like, don’t give us puns, don’t come near us with a pun, which you know, you’re pretty safe with me. I’m not a great fan of puns. But yeah, just those little things that I’m so used to editing for stuff for the UK and for the US. And that’s really where my expertise is. So bringing in other people’s knowledge for that is really useful.

David: Yeah. Now, you were talking about that editing process at a local university, recently. You were talking to the students about – you have a particular kind of structure and an approach that you follow when you’re editing someone else’s content. Can you give us a quick summary?

Katy: Yeah, it was a 45-minute talk. So I’ll try and condense it as much as possible

David: We haven’t got quite that long.

Katy: Yeah, the way I approach it, and I’m not sure if this is best practice at Radix but it’s the way I’ve found that most effective. For me, I take three passes at something. And it’s very much based on our quality checklist that you mentioned earlier. So the first pass I do is as a reader, and I don’t think about anything from a writing or editing standpoint. It’s just the really basic, does this make sense? Am I interested the whole way through? Do I want to do whatever I’m being told to do at the end of the piece? And at this point, I don’t do anything to the copy, I won’t start picking things apart. Because there’s no point editing something in paragraph two, if you get to paragraph five, and there’s a massive structural issue, that’s going to negate all of that anyway. So that’s one I’ll just drop the occasional comment on if there’s something I need to come back to.

And my second pass, I tend to look at it as a kind of content editing pass, which is where I start looking at the structure. Is the argument logical? Does it follow through? Does it go off on a weird tangent halfway through? Are there logical leaps where, you know, we haven’t quite explained our thinking. That’s where you start, maybe having to pull bits apart and restructure and move paragraphs around, that kind of thing.

And then, once you’ve done all of that, you come back around for the last pass, which is where you look for the typos, the grammar, the really like nuts and bolts things of copywriting craft, that when you’re writing a massive piece can kind of get away from you a little bit sometimes. And, you know, if you’ve done major edits at the structural point, you might have introduced typos, which aren’t the original writer’s fault at all. So that’ll be my last major pass. And I always give it a quick proof before I send it back to whoever is working on it, that kind of thing. And it’s not always me doing these changes. Sometimes if they’re very small, specific changes to make, I’ll do them myself. But if I’m reviewing somebody else’s work, and there are multiple avenues to go down for how you change something, I’ll bounce it back to them with comments and suggestions that hopefully give them some guide and some rationale, because the really important thing for me is that you always have to have a solid rationale for why you’ve changed something. You never want to give it back to somebody and they look at it, and they have no idea what you’ve done to it and why. Yeah, so for me being very clear and very descriptive of why you’ve made changes, or what changes you want them to make is really important, too.

David: Yeah, I mean, one of the big traps I guess you can fall into as an editor is “I wouldn’t have written it that way”. Rather than does it meet these criteria, yes or no. I think it’s interesting that when we look at our checklist, we, you know… If you like work our way up Maslow’s hierarchy of needs for copywriting, but you know, we start with the detail and work out to the picture, but you start with the big picture, and work backwards. So the total impression back from that to the structure, and then back from that to like, the detailed kind of words and commas and yeah, that kind of thing.

Katy: There’s no point editing the tiny bits if it doesn’t do what it’s meant to do. So if it’s, I mean, I’ve never seen this happen. But if you just look at it, and it’s completely wrong, and it has to go back and be rewritten from scratch, there’s no point spending, you know, 30 minutes fiddling around with semicolons. But yeah, it’s interesting you said that about not making changes just because you would have written it differently. It’s another point I had in my presentation I called editing without ego. Which is –

David: – it’s hard for writers.

Katy: It is hard and especially when you’re a content lead or a senior and you know something really well. You can get really protective over a topic or a client. But that doesn’t mean you’re always right or you always have the best answer or the only answer, so you’ve got to know when to loosen the reins a little bit on those things.

David: Sure. Listener, Katy mentioned the checklist that we use here at Radix to quality check the content we write for clients. I think we refer to it a few times, actually. And I’m delighted to let you know that we’ve actually just published a new updated version of that checklist that you can steal, and adapt and borrow for your own purposes and use it for your own content reviews. If you’d like a copy, just head over to radix-communications.com, and download it. And we’ll also put a link in the show notes.

Ettie Bailey-King: I’m Ettie Bailey-King. I’m an inclusive language consultant. And here are my tips on creating inclusive copy. Number one, ask people. Always ask people how they want to be referred to. For example, don’t think that you can guess somebody’s pronouns based on their appearance. There’s no way of knowing someone’s gender identity just from looking at them. So always check. Secondly, be aware that somebody might be out in the sense of out as having a particular sexual orientation or gender identity in one space, but not in another space. So always check, otherwise, you risk outing someone who might be let’s say out on a social media platform where you happen to follow them, but not out with their work colleagues.

Katy: Thanks, Ettie Bailey-King for that. We actually have a whole bunch of inclusive writing advice from Ettie, and we’ll be including that across our next few episodes. We’d also like to thank Giles Edwards for the tip we heard earlier, Caroline Robinson for this episode’s question. And both Laurence and Scott for answering it so thoughtfully.

David: Caroline, I hope you found the answer that you are looking for. And remember, we’ve published our revised content quality checklist so be sure to grab that, too. And thanks to you, Katy, you’ve been a wonderful co-host as ever.

Katy: Well, thank you for having me back, David. I think this was the one where I felt the most useful. So hopefully, I’ve given people some useful things to think about.

David: Absolutely. Listener remember, it could be your question we answer in a future episode. If you have a question for B2BQ&A to answer, email, a voice memo to [email protected]. Or find us on social media. Thank you, Katy. And thank you, listener. I’ll see you next time for another B2BQ&A. Until then, make good content. And remember, Hemingway may have said write drunk, edit sober, but he didn’t have HR to deal with.

David and Katy: Goodbye!

B2BQ&A 111: How can ABM content balance relevance and brand voice?

Posted on July 28, 2023March 17, 2025 by The Radix Team

Account-based marketing owes a lot of its power to the way its content can speak to this reader in particular, and address their unique needs. But how much tailoring is too much?

That’s the question we’ll be tackling in this episode of B2BQ&A, on behalf of Rhiannon Blackwell, Account-Based Marketing Leader at PwC.

Specifically, Rhiannon asked:

“How do you strike the right balance between your brand voice and messaging and hyper-relevance with a client, for example, by using their language?”

To answer Rhiannon’s great question, we’re thrilled to welcome two further well-known experts from the world of ABM. Our special interview guest is Andrea Clatworthy, Head of Marketing Transformation in Europe for Fujitsu, while our guest co-host Judy Wilks is International ABM and Executive Content Lead at Autodesk.

Along with Radix’s own David McGuire, we try to get to the bottom of how to show a customer or prospect you really understand them without being, well, creepy.

But wait; there’s more. You’ll also hear an essential copywriting pro tip from Sarah Mullaney, freelance copywriter and content writer, and owner of She’s a Writer.

You’ll find a full transcript of this episode at the end of this post.

Need to balance relevance for the client and your own brand voice? Here are the key takeaways from the podcast:

1. Use the client’s language

It’s important to mimic the language your clients use when they talk about their business. Make sure that everything you say to them, you put in the context of their brand – not your own. According to Andrea: “It could be as simple as just recognising whether a client calls their customers ‘customers’, or ‘consumers’, or even ‘clients’.”

2. Focus on your customer’s worries, not your brand

Relevance to the reader is all-important in ABM, but it can be especially tough to find that blend between what your brand wants to say – and how it wants to say it – and what the reader needs to read. As Andrea explains: “Whilst your brand is important to the customer, it’s not the primary thing that they are worrying about.”

3. Be careful how you use research

With a lot of B2B content, there’s a temptation to show more of your research than you should. But in ABM, the risks of getting it wrong are even greater, so be careful – if you tell your reader things they already know, you’re not going to get very far. And remember, there’s a fine line between “personalised” and “creepy”.

4. Understand how people consume content

Finding out how your audience consumes information can give you a good indicator of how to deliver your content. “It’s worth the effort to find out if a client is turned on by numbers and graphs,” says Andrea. “Or if they prefer video over written, or they like snackable content rather than long-form. Figuring that out can be really helpful.”

**5. Don’t tell the client you get them – show them**

This golden rule holds true for any writing, but if your ABM content can show an understanding of your reader’s business (without telling them their business) you can provoke a powerful response. As Andrea explains: “If you get it right, the reader or, if you like, the consumer of your writing, will have a positive emotional reaction. And they’ll be more likely to share content internally and be your advocate.”

Want some further reading? Here are the sources Andrea mentions:

For a great primer on ABM, Andrea recommends Bev Burgess and Dave Munn’s excellent book A Practitioner’s Guide to Account-Based Marketing.
If you want to gain an insight into how people like to consume information, a good starting point for Andrea is DiSC® profiling.

Here’s what you can expect in this episode…

4:01 – David poses Rhiannon Blackwell’s question to Andrea Clatworthy.

15:00 – Co-host Judy Wilks gives her thoughts on Andrea’s insights.

21:58 – Judy and David discuss the fine line between “personalised” and “creepy”.

24:23 – Sarah Mullaney from She’s a Writer shares a copywriting pro tip.

25:05 – David updates us on the search for the best B2B content of all time. Ever.

Got a question? We’ll find the answer.

To get your burning B2B content question answered, just send us a voice memo at [email protected]. And if there are any other thoughts you’d like to share, you can connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter: @radixcom.

How to listen:

You can download the episode here (right-click and select “Save As”).
Or you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts.
Alternatively, add our RSS to your preferred podcast player.

Credits

Thanks to Andrea Clatworthy for sharing so many ABM insights.
Heartfelt appreciation to Rhiannon Blackwell for her question.
Cheers to Sarah Mullaney for sharing a fantastic copywriting pro tip.
And enormous gratitude to Judy Wilks for being an excellent guest co-host.

Podcast editing and music by Bang and Smash.

Transcript: B2BQ&A 111 – How can ABM content balance relevance and brand voice?

Rhiannon Blackwell: How do you strike the right balance between your brand voice and messaging and hyper-relevance with a client? For example, by using their language.

Judy Wilks: Well, what a great question from Rhiannon, and something that’s very close to my heart. Let’s ask Andrea Clatworthy of Fujitsu, what she thinks.

David McGuire: Hello, listener, and welcome to B2BQ&A, the podcast where we go in search of an answer to your question about B2B content writing. This is episode 111.

Judy: Account Based Marketing, or ABM for short, relies on your content talking to a very specific audience about their very specific needs and concerns. But the big question is: how do you balance that with delivering your own messaging and brand voice at the same time?

In a few moments, ABM expert Andrea Clatworthy will answer that very question posed by our friend and colleague, Rhiannon Blackwell of PwC.

Plus, we’ll hear a copywriting pro tip from Sarah Mullaney and get an update on your search for the best B2B content of all time.

David: Before all that, let’s do some introductions.

My name is David McGuire. I’m Creative Director at Radix Communications, the B2B writing agency, and I’m delighted to say that we have another ABM leader as our co-host for this episode. It’s Judy Wilks, International ABM and Executive Content Lead at Autodesk.

Judy, thank you so much for joining us.

Judy: Thank you for having me. I’m very happy to be here.

David: That’s some job title. What does it actually involve?

Judy: That’s a very good question. So, in a nutshell, our team designs and creates content that does two things: content that fuels regional ABM programs and content that fuels global executive engagement within Autodesk.

David: So, from that point of view, as well as Andrea’s viewpoint, which we’ll get in a minute, you’re very well placed to help us answer Rhiannon’s question as well. So, that’s amazing. Thank you so much.

Before we get on to that, though, would you mind performing your first official duty as our co-host and telling the listener how they can get in touch with us?

Judy: Absolutely.

So, listener, if you have any comments or suggestions, you can find Radix on LinkedIn or Twitter: @radixcom. Or, if you want us to answer your question in a future episode, just record a quick voice note and send it in by email: [email protected].

David: That’s amazing. Thank you.

Judy: Now it’s time for our B2B Q&A for this episode. It comes from someone I know well from the ABM circuit; it’s PwC’s ABM leader for global marketing, Rhiannon Blackwell.

Rhiannon: How do you strike the right balance between your brand voice and messaging and hyper-relevance with a client – for example, by using their language,

David: Thanks, Rhiannon. It feels like we have a lot of ABM experts on the show today, which is great, because this really is an important question.

Relevance to the reader is all-important in ABM. When we’re writing ABM content, it can be especially tough to find that blend between what the brand wants to say and how it wants to say it, and what the reader needs to read.

So, how can you strike that balance? Well, I asked Fujitsu’s Head of Marketing Transformation in Europe and long-time ABM evangelist, Andrea Clatworthy. And I started by asking her Rhiannon’s question: just how do you balance client relevance and brand voice?

Andrea Clatworthy: This is such a great question. And it’s not an uncommon one.

It’s like a “depends” answer, which is never a good one, but I think it’s right to find the balance. And so thinking about it depends. For instance, if what you’re trying to do with your customer is perhaps reposition yourself, then you probably want to dial down your brand a little bit – without breaking the rules – and use more of the customer’s voice.

If perhaps it’s a new customer, or it’s new territory for you and you’re trying to break in, then perhaps you want to dial up your brand whilst recognising their voice. So it’s a really fine line.

And I find what we try and do when we’re creating the story and the narrative and the value proposition, we’re thinking all the time about what’s important to the customer. And whilst your brand is important to the customer, it’s not the primary thing that they’re worrying about. I would edge towards dialling it down just a little bit, but don’t break the guidelines.

I think it’s really important not to break your brand guidelines because they’re there for a reason. But you can stretch them. And you can take some liberties… perhaps.

Having said that, sometimes it’s appropriate to use some of the branding elements that your customer might have. So perhaps they’ve got an imagery style that you want to mimic rather than be 100% them.

Or it depends on what the communication is that you’re going to be providing. So, supposing it’s in the form of an infographic or something, as part of a conversation, and you want, you expect, and you’d love them to then use that asset, that you’ve created for them, with their stakeholders in their company, as part of their business case process if you like. Then you might want to make it slightly more their brand.

So, even though it looks like yours, and you’re suggesting this awesome thing, it’s easier for them to reuse that asset.

David: And that makes their life easier and turns them into kind of a representative of you. And I guess that goes for both brand elements, design-wise, but then also if they have a particular vocabulary, like a particular way of talking about a subject or an issue.

Andrea: Yes, there might be a project name that they use, or it could be as simple as just recognising whether they call their customers “customers”, or “clients”, or “consumers”? So, use the language that they use when they talk about their business.

David: Is there a chance, though, that a writer working on ABM Content could almost be too keen to show how much research they’ve done? And end up either telling the reader something they already know? Or just being a bit creepy?

Andrea: Yeah, that creepy thing is spot on, isn’t it? And actually, it’s relatively easy to get it wrong and I’ll give you an example of somebody pitching to me.

So, I’m a gamer. And somebody came in to see me, I reached out to them and said, you know, tell me stuff about your proposition. And they came to me, and they’ve ABMed and done everything personalised and tailored to me, which is great. And they focused on this gamer aspect. And I like a particular type of game, but they pitched to me using first-person fighter game, and they’re not the sorts of games that I like.

So they got the gaming bit, right, but they got the type of gaming bit wrong. So instantly, I’m kind of like: this is a bit creepy, and it’s wrong. So I gave them that feedback, you know, say thanks ever so much. It was so nearly right but made it completely wrong.

So using that research correctly is a trick there.

David: And I guess that must be easier – or maybe riskier – if you’re writing to accounts that you know well.

Andrea: If it’s an existing account, it’s much easier to get that balance right, because you know them and you’re in dialogue all the time, and you know completely what you’re doing. And the marketing part of that ongoing engagement will be reflective of the conversations that the account team or whoever is having.

So it’s much easier to get that right; it’s much harder when you don’t really know who you’re talking to. Then you probably edge a bit more on your brand, but reflect the language that you know that they use.

David: And when you’re doing your research in that case, and you’re thinking about the challenges they’re facing, and how your products and solutions can match that, how much are you thinking about the position that the company’s in? And how much are you thinking about the individual role? Like, are you thinking, “Oh, this is a company in the retail sector,” or are you thinking, “This is a CTO,” or whatever?

Andrea: It’s a bit of both to be quite honest. And then a bit contextual.

A company in the retail sector might be in growth mode, or they might be in massive reduction mode, as we’re seeing happening across the piece, they’re just reflecting where they are, because the language that you use might be slightly different.

If they’re in growth mode, and they’re being really prosperous, then they’re going to have a slightly different outlook on any future investments that they’re going to make, compared to if they need to reduce in one shape or form whether that’s people, or stores, or whatever. So it is both.

That persona piece is important too. So if it’s a CTO, then you know, there’s loads of work on personas and I think most people are probably reasonably comfortable with those.

But, then if you know who that CTO is, as a human being, then picking up on some of those things is equally important if you can get it right.

So I think that there are a few bits to this. There’s a bit about emotion. If you get it right, the reader, if you like the consumer of your writing, copy, assets – whatever it is – they have a positive emotional reaction, hopefully. And then they’re more likely to continue the conversation or, you know, share internally, and be your advocate. So, that’s a very clear signal.

David: I’m interested in the emotional response. What kind of response is that? Is that kind of a relief at feeling seen; that someone is recognising what they’re struggling with? Is it kind of delight and surprise, like, what sort of emotions are you seeing from the best content that you send?

Andrea: Yeah, those ones, and “relief” is a great word. Because actually, if you get the personalisation bit right, and what you’re suggesting you can help them with is right as well, then that’s the combo, because what you want people to do is to choose you above everybody else.

So, if you’ve delivered those messages correctly, you can kind of get a sense that these people get me and I can see how we could work together. And they’re going to solve a business problem one way, shape, or form, whatever that might be, with me when I choose to work with them.

So, it’s a bit of euphoria as well, I guess,

David: It’s not adding on something to make them feel emotional. It’s actually listening and thinking about what they really need, and then expressing that in a really kind of clear and impactful way.

Andrea: I think you’re spot on. That listening piece is really important, isn’t it? If you think about the old elephant adage: two big ears so do the listening first. If you get that right, then it can really help.

Now, how do you listen? That would be the next question.

We can read stuff, right? But quite often, if you’ve got an account team in with that account, they’re really getting to know those people, that person. So that they’re your primary source of that first-party insight if you like. It’s really important to include them in the process that you’re going through to create whatever it is you’re creating.

David: Okay, so we’ve thought about the branding, the voice, the vocabulary, and the kind of messaging that you’re aiming to deliver to make that connection. What else is important in ABM content that really works?

Andrea: Great question, again. I think it’s worth considering the format of the content that you’re going to be delivering.

Understanding how people consume information can give you a really good indicator of how to deliver that content. So, if somebody is very much numbers based, then think about making sure that there’s numbers and perhaps graphs.

If somebody likes to consume video over written, or perhaps they like snackable content rather than long form, and then working some of that out can be really helpful.

And clearly, you want to use omnichannel anyway. Don’t just rely on one thing.

There are some little things you can do. So you can use some DiSC profiling, for example, which will give you an indicator of the type of behaviours and brain workings, to use a non-technical term, that could determine how people like to consume information. So that’s quite a good starting point.

David: It’s really thinking about the individual and what they need, really in a kind of 360 way.

Andrea: Yeah, absolutely. And, we know, don’t we, as good marketeers, that different content and content formats work better at different stages of the customer journey. So, building that in as well to your comms plan is a good thing to do.

David: That’s amazing. Thank you.

So if the listener wants to find out more and really dive into the subject of creating really good ABM content, where do you suggest they go for more information?

Andrea: A really good starting point is a bit of reading. There’s a really great book by Bev Burgess called A Practitioner’s Guide to ABM. And it is a practitioner’s guide, so that’s a great place to start.

I’d also recommend reaching out to organisations like yourself, David.

David: [Laughs] Thank you very much; the cheque’s in the post

Thanks, Andrea, that’s great. It’s so helpful to know there’s no one right answer; you can dial your brand voice up and down – depending on the job your content needs to do.

Judy, what stood out for you there as an ABM leader?

Judy: Well, actually, “everything” is one answer. There was such a lot of great stuff in there and like a topic that I could talk about till the cows come home.

But there were two key things that Andrea said that I think are kind of foundational.

And number one is: never break the brand rules. That’s just a good starting point for any ABM. Not your brand rules, nor the client’s brand rules.

And then moving on, I pulled out this quote, and I wrote it down and I’m going to read it because I think it’s really essential to ABM.

Andrea said, “Whilst your brand is important to the customer, it’s not the primary thing that they are worrying about.” And that’s just absolutely crucial, you know. It’s a nice way of saying the customer doesn’t care about you or your brand. You have to make sure that everything you say to them, you put in the context of their business.

So what that means with getting that balance right between your brand and voice and theirs, is that if you, if your piece, either visually or stylistically shouts your brand, you’re actually not going to get your point across because your point in ABM is always: I understand your business. And if you’re shouting your brand, you’re not going to get that point across. So you need to think about that.

But, at the same time, it’s really powerful when you get it right that you can show the synergies between two brands.

David: So is it more complicated than the way the content sounds, the way the content looks, the vocabulary you choose, the register you write in, are maybe led by your brand, so that it’s recognisable, but the content, the stuff that you write about, the messaging, that kind of stuff is led by their priorities?

So maybe the content is about them, but the branding and the voice are about you? Or is it more nuanced than that?

Judy: I think that is your starting point. And then it depends.

I think you can look at it like a continuum. Absolutely, the content will always 100% be about them. That’s the starting point. But the continuum is then how much do you kind of shift the brand, the tone, the voice, the vocabulary, to reflect the customer, as well?

And that will depend on a couple of things. It will depend on: what is your level of awareness with that customer already, and what is the level of the relationship?

If, as Andrea said, you need to establish awareness with the customer, then you’re probably going to want to lean more towards your brand. But, if you’re at the partnership stage, then you might want to show how the two brands work together, so you really visually and stylistically get that partnership message across.

David: Yeah, and I guess, all of this with the proviso that when you talk about the vocabulary that you use, any specific terminology should be their terminology. So if they call their customers “clients”, or they call their customers “members”, for example, or if they have certain initiatives that they have their own language for, then you should absolutely adopt that rather than trying to impose your terminology on top of something that they would recognise.

Judy: Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I don’t really have anything to add to that. I 100% agree.

David: With a lot of B2B content generally, there’s always a temptation, when you’ve done your research, to show maybe more of that research than you should and end up telling the reader things that they already know, to kind of show off how much you know.

I guess that’s an even stronger temptation, in ABM, given how much you will know about your particular audience, right?

Judy: Yeah. And this is a podcast so you couldn’t see me smiling then. But yes, absolutely. That is a real danger because as you say, you do a lot of research into the company and their business and you know a lot about them. And it’s ABM, so you really want to show them we understand your business. But if you just tell them what they already know about their business, you’re not going to get very far.

So I apply the adage here that you don’t tell someone you’re funny, you make them laugh. It’s the same thing: you don’t tell them everything you know about their business, you show that you understand their business by the recommendations that you make in the content.

And, let’s face it, you’re never going to know their business as well as they do. But the value that you bring is that you are an outside perspective. So you show them you understand their business, by adding that outside perspective to what you know about them – and perhaps sending them something they hadn’t thought of before.

David: Yeah, it’s the same thing as when I’m training copywriters in general how to do this stuff. OK, you’ve got this knowledge about them. So what?

So it’s not, you know, “Ah, this company has workforces on three different continents” or whatever it is, it’s “Because you have a workforce on three continents, you will need to handle time zones in this way or handle collaboration – and here’s a way that we can help you with that.”

Like, we’ve done the thinking around the “so what?” about the information that we have – we’re not just parroting back the information.

I think that’s obviously all the more important in ABM, and I think in any B2B content, that’s useful.

Judy: Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, in any content, the more you talk about the customer, and the more you show an understanding of their business – without telling them their business – then it’s going to be more powerful. So yes, that is exactly it.

Which takes thinking. It’s one thing to have a load of data, it’s another thing to then analyse that data. So, suddenly the writer is not just a writer, you know, the writer is suddenly an ABM strategist as well.

And, I always say, “Writing is thinking.” It’s not just about putting words on a page, you’ve got to have those thoughts first before you can then articulate them nicely on a page.

David: Yeah. Do you have any advice on how much of your research it’s even okay to show before you start to kind of worry them that you’re getting a bit creepy?

Judy: Well, now we’re talking about talking to the individual, and as well as talking to the company. And, the topic of creepy personalisation, as I often call it, comes up a lot in ABM. And, I think one good standard is to think: how would I feel if it happened to me?

So, for example, on my Twitter profile, I probably say I’m a cat fancier. But if someone gave a business presentation, and it had cats all over it and used cat analogies, or gifs… is that going to make me like them more?

David: Of course it is! Be honest…

Judy: All right, well, even if you take cats out of the equation, you know, that’s creepy. And we come back to what is the one key word that sums up ABM? It’s relevance. Are cats relevant to that conversation? No, they’re not.

I think it’s much more powerful, if yes, you do your homework about that person, but you also try and understand their values. What are their motivations? What’s their personality type?

So, don’t just kind of look at what they do out of work, “Oh, David plays golf, let’s put some golf analogies in here.” That’s not relevant.

But, if you understand their motivations and the type of person they are, then you can tailor the content in the right way. So for example, if I think of myself as a bit of a change agent – and typically, I’ll have plastered that all over LinkedIn – it won’t be very difficult to find. If I’m that type of person, then you need to position whatever you’re proposing as some bold, exciting, disruptive move.

That’s much more powerful than putting some images of cats or golf into your content.

David: Before we finish this episode, there are a couple more things we need to do. First, it’s time for our copywriting pro tip.

Voiceover: Copywriting pro tip.

Sarah Mullaney: My name is Sarah Mullaney, from She’s a Writer, and my B2B copywriting tip is to have core materials about the values or proof points of the client within reach when you’re writing about them.

You can use these to focus less on what services or solutions the clients are offering and keep bringing the copy back to why the client is a leader in their field and why their customers continue to use them.

This will help you to get into the mind of the reader writing the most purposeful and benefit-driven B2B copy for them.

Judy: Thanks, Sarah. That sounds like a really useful tip for making sure that you can stay on track during the day.

So, David, I gather that you have something to ask the listener.

David: Yeah, I do… To mark the 10th anniversary of this podcast, we’re continuing our search for the best B2B content of all time.

Now, in particular, we’d like the listeners’ help finding the best blog posts, case studies, and web content. There’s so much to choose from out there, it’d be really helpful if anyone could tell us where to focus our search.

All you need to do is to jot down one or two of your favourites and email them to us at [email protected]. Or just fire them at us on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Anyway, Judy, thank you so much for co-hosting. It’s been so much fun to do this with you. I wish we had more time.

Judy: I know. Well, I’ve already said I could talk about this topic forever. So, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity.

And I guess while we’re at it, we should thank everybody else that’s been involved in this episode.

So, in no particular order, thank you, first of all, to Andrea Clatworthy, for answering the really great question. Thank you to Sarah Mullaney for the pro tip. And lastly, thank you to Rhiannon Blackwell for asking the question in the first place.

David: Rhiannon, I hope you feel that we have done you justice.

Remember listener, it could be your question we answer in a future episode.

Voiceover: If you have a question for B2BQ&A to answer, email a voice memo to [email protected]. Or find us on social media.

David: We’ll be back soon for another B2BQ&A.

Until then, make great content. And remember: a writer only begins the content; it’s the reader who finishes it. Well, either them or that stakeholder who won’t sign it off anyway.

David and Judy: Goodbye.

Podcast 91: the Best B2B Content of 2020

Posted on December 18, 2020January 11, 2025 by The Radix Team

Our final Good Copy, Bad Copy of 2020 is an extra special one. It’s our third annual Best B2B Content roundup – when we reveal what you’ve voted as the best content of the year.

And this year, through the joys of Zoom, David’s joined by an international panel of B2B marketing experts to discuss the results.

Meet our expert panel of B2B marketing all-stars

Maureen Blandford, VP of Marketing at Community Brands, joins us all the way from Chicago
We welcome back previous co-host and newly freelance B2B writing gunslinger, Harry Kapur
Danfoss’s senior copywriter and content marketing consultant, Lasse Lund, shares his perspective from Denmark
Head of Marketing for Turtl, Karla Rivershaw, brings an overview of what marketers have been publishing this year, along with her extensive knowledge of B2B marketing songs. (You’ll find more on Karla’s LinkedIn profile.)

We know we’re biased, but this year, our best content shortlist has it all. There’s brutal honesty. There’s outrage. There’s celebration. There are surprises. There are insights from industry leaders. And there’s a whole load of fantastic B2B content to talk about.

You can can see all the nominees in more detail here.

Plus, you’ll hear from our all-star panel on the B2B marketing trends that have dominated 2020, their top predictions and tips for the B2B content that could define 2021 – and why B2B content is such a level playing field.

So who have you voted the winner? You’ll have to listen to find out…

In this episode, you’ll find:

00.33 – Meet our all-star panel of B2B marketing experts

05:20 – 2020 in review: how do you make B2B content in a year like that?

12:05 – Our countdown begins: places 10-6

20:27 – We reveal places 5-2, including this year’s runner-up

44:26 – Honorary mentions: the content that didn’t quite make the top 10

46:18 – We reveal what you voted this year’s best B2B content

49:50 – Hear our panellist’s tips and predictions for B2B content in 2021

Tell us your joy, despair or outrage at the results…

How to listen

You can download the episode here (right-click and select “Save As” to download)
Or you can subscribe (and leave a review if you like) on Apple Podcasts
Alternatively, add our RSS to your preferred podcast player
And don’t forget you can follow us on Spotify

Credits

Hearty congratulations to our finalists, and a big thank you to everyone who sent in audio, nominations, or voted: Emily King, Doug Kessler, Joel Harrison, Paul Hewerdine, Giles Shorthouse, André Spiteri, Andrew Last, Eman Malik and so many more. We had an absolute blast looking through them all.

And thank you so much to the ABBA of B2B copy – our wonderful panel of experts. Maureen Blandford, Harry Kapur, Karla Rivershaw and Lasse Lund, it was great to hear your round up of the longest year ever, find out your honest opinions on our finalists, and get an idea of what’s coming up next. You should do this for a living.

Podcast editing, music, and festive sparkle by Bang and Smash.

Podcast 90: telling stories with data

Posted on November 30, 2020January 11, 2025 by The Radix Team

In this month’s episode of Good Copy, Bad Copy, we discuss how storytelling, data, and customer insights all come together to create engaging B2B content.

Guest co-host Ramon Vanden Brulle, Copy Director at Yesler (excitingly now part of Accenture Interactive), joins David to dissect why data and a well-structured, strong story are both components you can’t leave out.

Plus, you’ll catch an interview with Dr Christine Bailey, CMO and Managing Director SMB UK and Ireland for the payment tech company Valitor. With a newly-released book on customer insight strategies – not to mention an actual doctorate on the subject – Chris tells us how data and storytelling reinforce each other in your content. (And she shares a structured approach you can totally steal.)

In this month’s Anonymous Five, a Chief Marketing Officer at a large, UK-based telecoms distributor reveals whether their job makes them more judgemental about the marketing content they receive.

And *drum roll * voting is now open for the best content of 2020. We’ve compiled the most exciting and inspiring nominations into a shortlist. Now, it’s time to vote for your favourite – if you can choose, that is.

Blending data and storytelling? Use SCIPAB®

Christine explains how Mandel’s simple(-ish) acronym can help you add urgency and incentive to your B2B content, by prompting you to create a compelling structure infused with the right data points.

What do the letters stand for, you ask? Here you go:

Situation: Start by painting a familiar, comforting scene your reader understands.
Complication: Bring in the “but” – the issue disrupting the scene – complete with stats to back it up.
Implications: Discuss the fallout of this issue – and the opportunity it creates. Illustrate your point with infographics, statistics, or other bits of data.
Position: Introduce the good that can come from this opportunity – including success stories.
Action: Get into what your reader needs to do, and how you can help. (If it’s appropriate, Christine recommends including some funny stories here – like people who’ve really effed it up.)
Benefit: Tell your reader what’s waiting for them if they get it right, with quantifiable results.

In the interview, you’ll hear real-life examples of this in action.

Chris also dives into her new book: Customer Insight Strategies. She shares how you can find out what your customer actually cares about, and why you should use this information to build your value proposition and personas.

(Hint: it involves this TED talk by Simon Sinek.)

After, David and Ramon chat about championing the customer, and avoiding boasts and promises they’ve heard 1,000 times before. Ramon reveals his secret recipe for extracting the right data points from tricky clients… You lucky, lucky thing.

The Anonymous Five: Chief Marketing Officer, UK-based telecoms

Who doesn’t love a brutally honest answer – especially when it comes direct from a B2B persona you might be targeting?

This month, a CMO at a UK-based telecoms distributor tells us how they’ve changed tack to deliver digital sales enablement, why marketing technology is such a boon, and exactly how much of the content they receive is “woeful”.

(Thank you, anonymous CMO. We’ve donated to Downs South London Kids Walk 300 on your behalf.)

And the VOTING IS OPEN for the best B2B content of 2020

Don’t forget we have 15 inspiring examples of 2020’s best B2B content for you to choose from. (Well, they’re mostly inspiring. One of them just made us want to vomit and laugh at the same time.) Which will be your favourite?

Anyway, you have until the morning of Tuesday 8th December to cast your vote.

If you have thoughts on any of the nominees, record a voice memo and email it to us.

In this episode, you’ll find…

00.55 – Meet Ramon Vanden Brulle, straight from Seattle

04.19 – Where data meets story: an interview with Dr Christine Bailey

26.12 – Ramon and David chat about Christine’s pearls of wisdom

40.07 – The Anonymous Five: a telecoms CMO spills (some of) the beans

Send us your thoughts, feedback, or unwanted advent chocolates…

Contact us through @radixcom on Twitter or [email protected] (ideally, send us a voice memo so we can hear from you on the show).

How to listen

You can download the episode here (right-click and select “Save As” to download)
Or you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts
Alternatively, add our RSS to your preferred podcast player
And don’t forget you can follow us on Spotify

Credits

Thank you to Dr Christine Bailey for joining us; it was a joy to chat with you (and congratulations on the book). Also, a big hand to Ramon Vanden Brulle for being one of our best co-hosts yet. Thanks also to our anonymous CMO.

If you like the sound of Chris’s new book, you can grab your copy here.

Podcast editing, music, and natty new jingles by Bang and Smash

Podcast 80: Survey results special – barriers to effective B2B content

Posted on January 30, 2020January 11, 2025 by The Radix Team

This episode of Good Copy, Bad Copy is a bit special. It reveals the results of our survey into B2B content problems, and it’s also peppered with insights from some stalwarts of B2B marketing. As a result, it’s a little longer than normal, but we promise it’s worth your time.

At the end of last year, we conducted our first survey of B2B marketers and content creators to uncover the Barriers to Great B2B Content. More than 105 of them took part, representing every part of the industry.

(You can see the resulting research report for yourself, here.)

The survey unearthed some surprising findings – not least that nobody said they’re proud of all their content. Clearly, there are significant roadblocks preventing people from doing their best work, so we dug into the details to see what we could learn.

Crucially, we found these barriers aren’t just an annoyance for marketers. They can also significantly restrict content performance – reducing brand awareness and stifling business results.

The survey also revealed that:

Just 14% of respondents say that everyone in their organisation agrees on what good content looks like
81% of B2B marketers have to fight to publish their best work
Stakeholder interference and changing priorities can reduce content satisfaction by more than 25%
Only 44% agree that the best content gets the best results

In this episode of Good Copy, Bad Copy, David and Fiona examine the survey results in more detail, and unpack the six big content obstacles experienced by at least 75% of B2B marketers.

Listen now, and you’ll also hear what four top marketers think you can do to overcome these barriers, including:

Why Maureen Blandford at Community Brands believes there’s a healthy balance to strike between overcoming challenges and looking for a better place to work
What Doug Kessler from Velocity Partners thinks about stakeholder management
How Palo Alto Networks’ Mat Harper maintains the best conditions for creativity
Data-backed insight from Intel’s Shaema Shazleen Katib on the link between customer stories and content success

What you’ll find in this episode…

03:17 – An overview of the key survey results, including David and Fiona’s top takes

05:58 – Anonymous comments about nightmare stakeholders

07:19 – Maureen Blandford on inter-department issues and challenging cultures

21:12 – Doug Kessler says stakeholder alignment is your most important job

33:49 – Shaema Shazleen Katib brings a data-backed view on which content works

47:44 – Mat Harper talks about making space for creativity in a large tech enterprise

Tell us what you think of the results (or use us for content-related counselling)

How to listen

You can download the episode here (right click and select “Save As” to download)
Or you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes
Alternatively, add our RSS to your preferred podcast player
And don’t forget you can follow us on Spotify

Credits and resources

We released this report in a free webinar. If you like, you can watch it on demand.

Podcast editing and music by Bang and Smash

10. Arco: “Be Sure” safety campaign

9. SI Partners: marcoms agency growth survey

8. Goldman Sachs: interactive briefing on drones

7. Ceros Originals: a decade of Bitcoin

6. Three personal stories

5. Nokia Bell Labs / Lonelyleap / Reeps One: “We Speak Music”

4. Saxoprint: “Great British Postcard” competition

=1. Kingpin’s blog post about humour and marketing in B2B

=1. LinkedIn’s Britpop-infused content creation story

=1. Hubspot’s “Conversational Marketing” string

So, how to pick a winner?

Want to contact the show?

How to listen

Credits:

1. Understand your audience, and their skills

2. Recognise that all workloads aren’t created equal

3. Don’t forget about line managers

4. Balance the needs of people and the business

5. Statistics make for compelling messages

6. Don’t get bogged down by tech talk

7. Use writers that know the industry

Marathon-based marketing

It’s all in the detail

Define what “value” really looks like

Revisit your personas

Align your priorities

Look for the unanswered questions

Appease the gods of SEO

Know where to share it

Write copy that sings (very quietly)

“Looks like we got ourselves a reader…”

How to listen

Get in touch

Credits

Laurence’s top tips for consistent quality

A consistent editor

Include someone with industry acumen

Check – and check again

Scott’s advice from a tech giant

Radix’s Quality Assurance Checklist

In this episode, you’ll find…

We want to hear from you…

How to listen:

Credits

Transcript: B2BQ&A 105: How do you evaluate B2B content quality?

Need to balance relevance for the client and your own brand voice? Here are the key takeaways from the podcast:

1. Use the client’s language

2. Focus on your customer’s worries, not your brand

3. Be careful how you use research

4. Understand how people consume content

5. Don’t tell the client you get them – show them

Want some further reading? Here are the sources Andrea mentions:

Here’s what you can expect in this episode…

Got a question? We’ll find the answer.

How to listen:

Credits

Transcript: B2BQ&A 111 – How can ABM content balance relevance and brand voice?

Meet our expert panel of B2B marketing all-stars

So who have you voted the winner? You’ll have to listen to find out…

Tell us your joy, despair or outrage at the results…

How to listen

Credits

Blending data and storytelling? Use SCIPAB®

The Anonymous Five: Chief Marketing Officer, UK-based telecoms

And the VOTING IS OPEN for the best B2B content of 2020

In this episode, you’ll find…

Send us your thoughts, feedback, or unwanted advent chocolates…

How to listen

Credits

What you’ll find in this episode…

Tell us what you think of the results (or use us for content-related counselling)

How to listen

Credits and resources

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**5. Don’t tell the client you get them – show them**