B2BQ&A 104: How can you keep your B2B content fresh?

Nobody likes B2B content that’s repetitive. It’s boring to write and – more importantly – it’s unlikely to be successful if your audience feels like they’ve heard it all before. But if you often have to write about the same products, services and ideas, keeping your content fresh and compelling is easier said than done.

It’s a problem B2B marketers and content creators face all the time. So we were delighted when Chelsea Groome of Fierce Content gave B2BQ&A the perfect excuse to go in search of an answer, by asking:

“If you’ve been working with a client for a long time and their product hasn’t changed much, how do you keep their content fresh?”

Not to brag, but we think we found the *perfect* expert to respond to this.

When you think of an (essentially) one-product B2B brand that still always has a mountain of relevant and valuable things to say, Xero has to be right up there. And Content Strategy Lead Richard Allardice (or “Dice” to his friends) agreed to dive into what marketers and writers need to keep in mind… with bonus insights from his colleagues Amy Stephens and Sarah Webb.

Joining us as guest co-host this month (and sharing some great insights of her own) is Kate Terry, Head of Demand at Turtl. Kate gives her perspective on personalising content down to granular levels and in using analytics and insights to constantly update and improve content.

We also have the joy of hearing from Claire Goodfellow, a copywriter at Radix, for the copywriting tip of the month. Stay tuned to learn the secret to clear, concise sentences.

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

So, just how do you keep B2B content fresh?

Between Dice, his colleagues, and Kate, there’s plenty of advice in this episode. Here’s a handful of suggestions…

1. Consider the wider landscape

Your product might not change much, but the challenges your target audience face probably do. So think about the wider context: where, how, and why your product is used.

“Your product isn’t the only thing that changes,” says Dice. “The people who use your product will change; what they understand will change; things in the world will change.”

Remember, the information your customers need extends beyond your specific product. So if you’re struggling to keep your content fresh, consider angles that might be indirectly related to your main focus. Use your organisation’s broader sector expertise, and you’ll likely build up a relationship of trust between your audience and your brand.

2. Lose the “publish and done” mindset

With all the work that goes into creating a content piece, it’s easy to get into the habit of publishing, promoting, then moving on to the next one. But often, digital content can be updated after the fact – so even after you’ve published it’s always a live project.

Kate sees Turtl users doing exactly this. She remarks: “We see people doing things like changing the order of the content, changing the title, trying out different tests to see how the changes make an impact on readership.”

Dice goes further, and says every content team of a certain size needs to have someone who is specifically tasked with revisiting each piece, and ensuring it’s always up to date.

3. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it

Having said all this, it’s worth remembering you’ll likely get bored of your content before your audience does. Not everything needs to be improved, and not always in the way you might think. So look at the data, and understand what’s working.

“Sometimes the answer is ‘no’,” comments Dice. “Sometimes a feature has not changed, we’ve written it up really well and it works… But things change around that; the context changes. Your company’s style might change, and you might want to weave that back in because otherwise that piece of content is going to start to sound a bit stilted in comparison.”

In this episode, you’ll find…

1:00 – We welcome our co-host Kate Terry, Head of Demand at Turtl

4:00 – We put Chelsea Groome’s question to Dice

22:55 – Kate and David share their highlights and thoughts

28:10 – Our copywriting tip of the month: write succinctly

Have you got a question for B2BQ&A?

We’re here to help! 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 LinkedIn, or tweet at us: @radixcom.

How to listen

Credits

  • Firstly, thank you to Kate Terry, for all the insight you shared as co-host.
  • Thanks to Chelsea Groome, for your brilliant question.
  • A massive thank you to Dice, Sarah Webb and Amy Stephens for giving us the benefit of your experience.
  • And Claire Goodfellow, thank you for that essential copywriting tip of the month.

Podcast editing and music by Bang and Smash.

Transcript: B2BQ&A 104: How can you keep B2B content fresh?

Chelsea Groome: If you’ve been working with a client for a long time and their product or position hasn’t changed much, how do you keep their content fresh?

Kate Terry: That’s a great question. Let’s ask Dice from Xero.

David McGuire: Hello listener, you are very welcome to B2BQ&A, the podcast where we go in search of an answer to your question about B2B content writing. This is episode 104.

Kate: In a moment, we’ll ask Xero’s Content Strategy Lead Richard Allardice, or Dice to his friends how you keep content fresh when you only have one product. And later we’ll get a copywriting tip of the month from junior copywriter, Claire Goodfellow.

David: Before that some introductions, my name is David McGuire. I’m Creative Director at Radix Communications, the B2B writing agency. And this month, our guest co-host is Turtl’s Head of Demand, Kate Terry. Kate, thanks for joining us.

Kate: Hey, David, thanks for having me today. It’s really great to be here.

David: Oh, it’s fantastic to have you here as guest co-host. Lots of change going on a Turtl and kind of new products and surfaces and things, I understand, lots for you to do.

Kate: Yeah, a lot to do. That’s for sure. We’re in kind of high growth mode right now. So we’re really excited about some of the new product developments that have come out and new ways that we can help people make amazing and engaging B2B content. So yeah, lots coming out of Turtl these days, but all good stuff.

David: Yeah, we talk about Turtl a lot on this show. Listener, there’s no kind of affiliate relationship going on, I promise you. But there’s lots of new things there where there’s kind of more like a personalization, kind of ABM type vibe to it now.

Kate: Yeah, that’s right. So what you can do with Turtl is actually personalise your content at scale down to the individual or account level and you can use all of your data and insight and intent data you have, connect that up and turn that into a really automated process. So it’s a huge leap forward if you’re interested in personalising content down to your end user and then getting data back from them on how they’re engaging and kind of getting really granular account insight.

David: Yeah, I mean, anything that contributes to the death of the PDF is okay in my book. Kate, in your first official duty as guest co-host, would you mind telling the listener how they can get in touch with us?

Kate: I’d be delighted. 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 on a future episode, record a quick voice note and send it by email: [email protected]

David: That’s brilliantly done. Thank you very much.

Kate: Right, it’s time to hear this month’s question. So who do we have?

Chelsea: Hello, this is Chelsea Groome from Fierce Content. And my question is, if you’ve been working with a client for a long time, and their product or position hasn’t changed much, how do you keep their content fresh?

David: Thanks, Chelsea. That’s an important question and something copywriters and marketers have to think about a lot. Though, if it’s okay with you we’ll broaden the terms from talking about just clients, so we can help our in-house listeners too. I’m chuffed to say I got my absolute first pick to answer this question. Because when I think of a brand that’s created a mountain of really fresh content around essentially one product, I think of Xero.

So I was knocked out when their Content Strategy Lead, Dice agreed to tell us how they do it. This is a little longer than one of our usual interviews, but he had so much good stuff to say I think you’re going to want to hear it. I started by asking Dice Chelsea’s question: just how do you keep content fresh?

Dice: Yeah, so I spent a bit of time thinking about this, it in some ways does depend on the size of the company, or the size of the client you’re working with. Because one thing that you know, I’ve experience lately working in a bigger place is that to keep something fresh, it needs to be someone’s job. So someone needs to be tasked with looking after that page or that product or keeping across what’s changing needs to be someone’s responsibility.

And that sounds like a really, you know, obvious thing, but a lot of the time, you know, companies I’ve worked with in the past sometimes people don’t do that. They put something out there excited. It goes out into the world, but it’s not someone’s job to look back and say, “How’s that thing going and does it need changing, and does it need improving?” So I think it’s really important to make it someone’s job to own it, be responsible for it and have the clout to be able to change it.

And another really good point that Amy Stephens who’s a Content Strategist on my team made as well, when we were talking about this, is that part of that job needs to be helping your organisation or your company be comfortable with making changes over time.

So sometimes, if you are working with a client or a company, and there’s a lot of approvals, a lot of review needed, that process is really unwieldy, there’s a bit of a reluctance to change it. Now that we’ve said it live, we don’t want to go back over that again. So part of the job of owning it is to prepare your company or client for the fact that things need to change and be flexible and, and adapt to what’s happening out in the world or happening with your product.

And I guess the other part of that is that it’s not just enough to be someone’s job, that someone needs to be watching regularly, you need to be monitoring. And so what are you actually monitoring, before you put it out there, you need to think about what is effectiveness or success going to mean for this particular thing, and what kind of metrics might be looking at, and you actually need to go and look at them, you know, sometimes I think people, you know, rest on their laurels a little bit, put something out there, it’s beautiful in the moment. But don’t watch to see what happens.

The founder of AppSumo, a guy who I follow called Noah Kagan, he talks a lot about this idea of what you track will grow. So it’s not his own idea. It’s one that he adopted from someone else. But the idea is that if you’re looking at it, and you are paying attention to it, and you’re interested in the numbers, then they will grow because you will, you know, take action or do things, even if they’re minor to, to move those things onward. So what you track will grow, and I’d add to that what you track will improve. So if you are looking at it and monitoring it, then it’s going to get better, as long as you are doing your due diligence.

And I think that if it’s a product, that might mean checking in with the team, and forming a relationship with the team, who build the product, so that you can keep each other abreast of, for example, what’s changing with your target audience. So your product isn’t the only thing that changes, the people who are using your product will change, what they understand will change, things in the world will change.

A really good example of that for us, as a UK example, is Making Tax Digital. So that wasn’t a thing X number of years ago, but then it became a big UK government initiative. And it’s highly related to our product. And so we need to be talking about that, and being really up to date with what has been said about Making Tax Digital, because that’s what our target audience need to know in the hearing. And then they need more information about it.

So you need to be looking at it connected to that product team. So you know what changes are coming ahead of time, you don’t want to be behind there. And you need to be connected to your audience, you need to be talking to them and finding out what they are hearing or not understanding, not just to do with your product, but to do with the landscape. You know, what else? What else is entering that information landscape that they might need to know? Or you might need to adapt according to.

David: Yeah, absolutely. So it’s the product, but it’s also the context in how it gets used and who’s using it and what they’re using it for. And those kinds of things on the kind of copy level, if something is not changing that much like, you know, say there’s a feature in Xero, that’s a popular feature, it’s always been there, and it’ll always will. Is that something where you would change, just kind of on the writing, on a copy level, you’d change up how you write about it regularly? Or is it something where you’re kind of refining it, you’re testing and learning? And if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and you can kind of you know, afford to talk about the same thing that the same way.

Dice: I think that there’s something really important in the “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” thing that you just said. There’s a temptation, I think, when it’s your job to write or refine – or if you’re trying to get work with a client, you know, because you are inherently motivated to get more jobs and do more work – to make change, yeah, to change things and tweak things and carry on.

And I think that impulse is a good one. Because most of the time things can be improved. You know, perfection is hard to achieve. What does perfection even mean? You can improve things but I think that there’s also something that people need to think about is that it doesn’t need to change. Sometimes the answer is no, sometimes it’s a feature that has long acted in the same way, has not changed. We’ve written it up really well and it works.

But you know, like I said, things change around, that the context changes. So your company’s style might change, you might change some things in your style guide, words that you might use or phrases you might use or a proposition or some nicety of language that you might start to use. And you might want to weave that back in. Because otherwise, if you don’t, that piece of content, even if the product stays the same, it’s going to start to sound a bit stilted in comparison to the other stuff.

So what can happen is on a bigger website, the top line pages, the landing pages, the home page, get the latest and greatest sort of brand propositions and feel really fun, if that’s the tone of voice for your company will feel really fresh, out of the deep pages of the product that we built 10 years ago, we generally not specifically Xero, you know, doesn’t have that same tone or the same messaging. And so while the facts or the accuracy might stay the same, the way you talk about it, your tone of voice, and your flow, and your style might need to change as well.

The other thing that happens in a large company is that writers change. So you know, the team of writers or the writer that worked on something a year ago might have changed. And so that’s where, again, this depends on the size of the company, the role of an editor really comes in when you’re looking at your publication, and you’re looking for that evenness.

So I’m the editor, I’m looking at this publication. I often try to think of a website as a publication and you know, having and editor who’s always looking at their publication, and to try and keep it as fresh and interesting. And what have we published before can we bring to the front? What are we trying to push out there that’s new? But you also don’t want to have unevenness, where part of your website is losing connection with what people need, and a part of it is really well connected.

So that might be slightly long-winded answer to your question. But essentially, like I think, yes, you would be careful, you want to just change stuff for the sake of it. And, but you also want to make sure that when new writers come in, and new ideas come in that you actually allow those to come to the surface.

So if a new writer comes in and provides a new perspective on a page, maybe incidentally, “Hey, I’ve just been looking at this page, you’re my colleague, I see that you wrote this a year ago, I think it’s awesome. But I think that, you know, we’re kind of moving to the style of shorter sentences, more clipped. And some of these longer sentences, you know, like, there’s a bit of research out there now that says that people find that kind of hard to read in a digital context. So like, how about we update that based on this new style guide entry we have now which says, we’re trying to aim for sentences of 20 or fewer words.”

Kind of an abstract example. But all of those things together, yes, you should be looking at them and monitoring them. But the level of change should be based on, you know, a few things, including whether it’ll have any impact and whether it’s actually needed.

David:  One of the things that really strikes me about Xero is that in terms of the content that you cover, the field of subject seems to be really pretty broad, but the audience seems to be really clearly defined. So it feels like almost anything that you might want to know about running a small business successfully, you can find on the Xero website. There’s a lot of small business information on there, obviously, there’s, you know, a lot of partner stuff as well.

Is that kind of a conscious thing to kind of own that space, because a lot of your customers are kind of, you know, owner/managers of businesses, so to kind of be a one stop shop like that?

Dice: Yeah, Xero’s business and accounting software, and it does a lot of stuff. You can add any number of, you know, 1000 things to it, you can integrate, almost, you know, so many things with it. And I think that I guess one of the challenges probably in the early days is when people hear accounting, with it comes with some perceptions for a small business person, genuinely of perhaps fear or concern or you know, or a lack of understanding.

So I think what’s really important if you are trying to help people use or promote or get people to use your product, if it’s an area that people may be a little bit anxious about or unsure about, you need to build up trust and authority you need to help people understand or see or get the feeling that you know what you’re talking about.

And so you’re right on the website, there’s a lot of information about our particular features because it’s a very featured product. There are a lot of things that it does. But the other thing we need to do is to help – we’re going back to that idea of the context of that landscape. The landscape in which we exist as a small business, trying to keep across the records and the finances, and you know, it’s a busy time, there’s a lot going on when you’re running a small business, or if they’re an accountant trying to make sure that they are keeping a record so when it comes to them to do their returns, it’s not, you know, problematic.

And so the landscape is already a complicated one, you’re running a business, it’s a lot going on. And so what we need to be able to do, and the content we provide is to assure people, “Hey, we’ve got some products that can help you out, use this product for X thing, we’ve got that covered. Hey, if you are a small business, and you’re trying to run your business, here’s how we can help you do that, here’s how you can choose a business name or here’s how you start a business in this particular country”. And, you know, with the side benefit that if you use Xero that will actually be easier as well. So it is a conscious thing.

So Xero, like many other companies, you know, take one of these strategies on board, which is to both inform people on their product, promote it, and help people within the wider landscape in which they work.

So really, like that depth of content is about generating trust, it’s also about generating awareness. So I might know about the company Xero, and I might go look for it. But I might not know about Xero, I might just have a problem. So my problem is, when I go to my accountant, at the end of the financial year, with a plastic bag full of receipts, they get a little bit irate with me, and suggested that I do something more digitally and modern focused. And so the problem is, you know, how do I do accounting? Or like, how do I keep my record straight, and so they know their problem, they don’t know that we that we have a solution for it.

So if they are looking for that problem, and then we would like to help them with that problem, we would also like them to know that we are a good solution to their problems. So you know that is why, you know, on a website like Xero’s, and this is not a strategy specific to us. You see that different content because we’re trying to solve the “do you know about a product? What does that product do?” problem or question, answer their question, but also answer the like, the use case question of like, “I have this life or business challenge, can you help me out with that?”

David: And there are so many challenges involved in running… I guess that also – going back to the original question – gives you loads of space to find ideas and find new and interesting and fresh perspectives and things to say.

Dice: Yes, yes. Like I think there are lots of different ways to help people feel assured, or calmer or feel like their financial records are taken care of. But also, it’s also worth saying that there are like really classic common things as well, that don’t really change that much.

For example, in these, when it comes to surprise, anybody starting a small business from a single person operation through to 10,20,30, 40 people, like they’re really really busy, you know, there’s just a lot going on, and they don’t have a lot of time, and that I don’t have a lot of time, it’s not something specific to us or our product, it’s just a, like a business challenge. And a difficult thing, because there’s just so much going on.

And in the beginning, you’re really just winging it, you know, especially if you’re just one person. And so while yes, we can put a different spin on or a fresh angle on being across things and being up to date and being ready for tax time. And we do that regularly. Some problems, or some challenges are kind of evergreen, which is that if you’re a business person, you are time poor. And so that’s kind of like a thematic thread that might go through a lot of content for any company publishing for small businesses, including ours.

And so like you kind of have this sort of like deep themes, and then on top of that, you might have a fresh angle. The latest campaign the New Zealand based one is taking tax out of the sort of too-hard basket, their angle is that, you know, people that get feel like taxes and returns are complicated and too hard. And you know, what we are saying is that doesn’t need to be you know, and so that’s, you know, it’s a fresh angle, but on a classic take, which is: tax is complicated. You are busy. We can help you.

David: Yeah. So you’ve been talking with your team. What other practical tips have you got for the listener about how they could keep their content fresh?

Dice: Sure. Okay, so, a couple of great points from Sarah Webb and Amy Stephens on my team. Amy talked a little bit about not just understanding your target audience but understanding the industry,  you know, the wider industry and what’s happening in that area. So what is changing in terms of the words that are used, what is changing in terms of the language or the themes that are emerging in terms of the technology, and what’s available to people.

So obviously, you need to be aware of that as a business where your business sits in there anyway. But as a person dealing with words, you need to also be listening for what language is changing. So you can appear up to date and modern and fresh, as you say.

Another good point that Sarah and my team made was you have to think about being proactive and reactive. So proactive measures of keeping fresh, going out and finding out industry trends, talking to users, monitoring different sources of data. So this is an interesting one that we could do a whole podcast on, which is, how do I listen or understand what people are saying.

So it’s things like looking in search logs, or looking at surveys or looking at other data that people have created, gathered other research that people have done, to understand what people are thinking, what their mental models are, what they don’t understand. So that’s proactively understanding your audience.

And then there’s some reactive stuff, which is when people write to you or say something to you, or you hear customer feedback. And sometimes that customer feedback depending on the size of the company won’t necessarily come directly to you. So you might need to, you know, ask around, is there a source of customer feedback? Do we do surveys, do we have any NPS data, any NPS feedback that we might make use of that’s really…? You want to get that pipeline of information coming towards you, or go and find it.

And also, in terms of being reactive, or proactive, you need to keep across, if you’re not writing everything on your website, which often is not the case. Or if it’s small, maybe you are, you need to be looking across what’s going on everywhere else and making connections.

So if someone else is running the blog, and you’re working on the feature information, you need to make sure that you are sharing notes, and putting things out accordingly so that you are not publishing disparate information, and that actually, they complement each other, you know, so things appear smooth, so that it makes sense when someone lands one in one place versus another and that as a person goes between them it feels coherent, and created deliberately.

David: That’s awesome. Dice, if people want to get more wisdom from you on content, and copy and more stuff like this, where’s the best place for them to hear from you?

Dice: If you have a question, and you want to reach out to me, feel free to follow me on LinkedIn and drop me a message. Always happy to chat.

David: Thanks, Dice for giving us such a full and well-thought-out answer. And thanks to your colleagues to Sarah and Amy, hello to you. Plus, thanks, Chelsea, of course for asking the question in the first place. Kate, there’s a lot in there. Could you pick out something that stood out for you?

Kate: Yeah, definitely. I really liked everything that Dice was saying. And one thing that I think is particularly interesting is this idea that your product isn’t the only thing that changes, I think it’s weirdly easy to forget that if you’re a team who actually is quite focused on what you’re doing, and what you’re bringing to market, and that’s a great place to be in, especially for myself, in demand working with sales, they’re really interested in what exactly we want to say about our product.

But I think you know, from a marketing and content perspective, it’s really important to remember the context that your audience is in, that the individuals you’re speaking to are in. And I really liked that focus that he had on kind of, you know, understanding the context and keeping up with the changes that are happening in the space that everyone’s operating in.

David: Sure. I mean, so much of it is about defining the space where you’re going to write content and understanding what your clients and your customers and prospects want to know about that you know about, as well, you know. For them, it’s, you know, it’s how to run a small business a lot of the time or, you know, and other elements of that.

And then I get, you know, for Turtl, you know, there’s a lot in there about just kind of the psychology of content, and that stuff that people will find interesting. I think one of the things also that I found interesting about Chelsea’s question is where she was saying, “how do I keep it fresh, I keep writing about the same thing all the time”.

And obviously, if you’re writing about the same thing all day, every day, but somebody is reading, once in a while, maybe the stuff doesn’t get as stale as quickly as you think. And maybe you don’t need to change it as quickly as you think. And that was one of the things that I thought was interesting. We’re always more focused on our stuff being the same all the time than perhaps the audience is.

Kate: I think that’s so true. And it’s again, such as easy mistake to make where because it’s not fresh to you, you assume that it’s not fresh to your reader, when actually, it might be working just as well as it did on day one. So I liked what he said about understanding what you do need to change and you know, reinvent and make sure it’s keeping up to date.

But actually, there’s some things that you might not necessarily need to change. So that kind of links up as well to understanding the data and making sure that you are actually tracking what is still working, what is still engaging people versus what might have dropped off and is no longer really resonating with your audience.

David: For a lot of people, of course, it’s all about the content production. And then you know, when you publish the piece that feels like the end of it, and you know, what Dice was saying about having someone whose job it is to go back and check.

One of the things that can be really interesting that you might have a perspective on is, obviously Turtl is a format that you can keep changing stuff live, after you’ve published it. And I’m kind of interested, do people actually go back and do that? Or do they have this attitude that once it’s done, it’s done and they’re on to the next thing?

Kate: Yes, people definitely go back and change and update and tweak their content. It’s something that we really encourage our customers to do. And it’s something where they’ve never really had access to the data to be able to do that in a meaningful way. So it’s pretty exciting, because it gives you a new way of working where instead of, you know, we like to think about the kind of old school publication mindset versus this more evergreen mindset.

And it actually changes the way you think about content all the way from when you’re creating it down to when you publish it, because if you publish it with the idea that you can go back and update it in mind, you’re going to have more, you know, it just informs how you actually write it, the kind of way that you write it, maybe in a way that you can either go back and regularly update it to keep it fresh, or just recognising it as like a pillar piece of content that you can create other things off the back of.

So what we see is people doing things like changing the order of the content, changing the title, trying out different tests, where they’ll run and see how different changes make an impact on readership and on the different pieces of the content that people engage with.

And even things like images, you know, you can really get as granular as you want to with testing things out. But one of the things we really like to talk about is this evergreen strategy, and how can you actually repurpose the content you already have and make the most of it?

David: Yeah, I think that’s probably a whole different podcast there. But that change in mindset from publication and done, to “this is a thing that’s live and your contents a thing that you have to keep working on”. I think some people… “I’ve not got time to write the stuff that I’ve got to write now, let alone keep it up to date!” But, you know, that’s absolutely the case that now that we’re in the digital world, there’s no reason for it to be one and done, I guess.

Kate: Yeah, exactly. Now it’s time to hear our copywriting tip of the month. So it’s from a Junior Copywriter at Radix, Claire Goodfellow.

Claire Goodfellow: Hi, I’m Claire, a Junior Copywriter at Radix. And my favourite copywriting tip is to use fewer words. Read over your sentences and ask yourself, can I say the same thing in less words? The chances are that if you can, it will make your writing clearer, more readable, and more concise.

Kate: Thanks, Claire. I love that tip. Brevity is so important. And it’s really great advice that I’ll pass along to my team as well.

David: I’m sorry to say that it’s all we have time for this episode – already! Kate, please would you thank this month’s contributors.

Kate: I would love to so thank you to Chelsea for such an awesome question. And of course, to Dice for answering it with help from Sarah and Amy, and thanks to Claire for the great copywriting tip.

David: And thank you, Kate, you’ve been an excellent co-host. It’s like you do this all the time. I hope it hasn’t been too painful.

Kate: Not too painful, no. Thanks so much for having me. I really enjoyed it and learned a few great tips to take away as well.

David: Oh, thank you. It’s great to have you here. 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.

I’ll see you next month for another B2BQ&A when we will try to answer the question: how do you measure content quality? Until then, make good content and remember, do one thing every day that scares you. BOO! There; there’s today’s. You’re welcome.

Kate and David: Goodbye!

 

Our favourite B2B marketing insights from Ignite London 2021

For obvious reasons, the B2B Marketing Ignite London event was held virtually again this year – which gave me an opportunity to go and see what all the fuss is about, without even leaving Cornwall.

Ignite is a place where all the big thinkers and experts in the B2B marketing world meet up, network, learn and keep pace with new developments and practices.

And this year, for me, three key themes stood out: likeability, bravery, and the opportunity to boldly go where no B2B brand has gone before.

Amid a packed, two-day schedule, here are my three biggest highlights:

1. Sage “bossing it”, by breaking new ground for B2B

Sage’s Vice President UKI Marketing, Kirsty Waller, opened the keynote sessions with a surprising case study.

You probably know Sage as the safe accountancy software company that makes life that bit easier for small business owners – but Kirsty showed us how Sage’s marketing is anything but safe. She walked us through their groundbreaking “Boss It” campaign, and how she made the decision to boldly go where young entrepreneurs hang out but no B2B brand has gone before: TikTok.

Far from being a gimmick, the #BossIT2021 campaign was an object lesson in doing your research and meeting your customer where they are. Small and medium-sized businesses ran with the idea and revealed, using Sage’s #BossIT2021 theme tune and hashtag, how they’ve been thriving (or “bossing it”) over the last year, to win £5,000 of home office gear.

Sage is clearly “bossing it” too, as the move proved a really popular way to involve SMEs. The results were impressive: 1.3 million hashtag uses, 2 million engagements and 8.5 million impressions.

It demonstrates the potential of TikTok in B2B marketing if you’re bold enough… and if you get the planning right.

2. Social issues: B2B brands need to stop sitting on the fence

Next up, Dara Douglas and Stefan Doering of PwC discussed why B2B brands need to be braver in challenging times. Pandemic, climate change, and global disruption has changed the landscape forever, and B2B marketers must change with it.

Dara and Stefan talked about being less impartial, taking a stand and, most importantly, taking practical action to help solve some of the issues we all face. Playing it safe is no longer an option for B2B brands, and the risk of upsetting some customers – in order to stand up for others – is one worth taking.

They encouraged B2B brands to become more purpose-led, because brands driven by their own, authentic values are best placed to elicit change. That change might be creating more opportunities for people from underrepresented backgrounds, forging a culture of inclusivity (NB: we have a whole podcast about how to make your content more inclusive), being carbon neutral, or deciding not to work with customers who have a detrimental impact on the planet.

They offered some key steps towards becoming an authentic brand with purpose:

  1. Decide what matters to you, your people, and your customers.
  2. Walk the talk – so what your organisation presents to the world aligns with what’s inside.
  3. Empower your people to have their own voice.
  4. Build a community based on trust and shared values.

This inspiring keynote got me thinking about where we need to take action and what we can do to be braver and more authentic in our marketing. Because however long it takes to go reach a “new normal”, people will always want to work in and with businesses that actually make a difference.

3. People don’t need to love your B2B brand – but they do need to like it

Rooster Punk’s Paul Cash had some fantastic insights into brand likeability and why it matters. As he put it: “People do business with brands and people they like.” Likeability builds trust, which means sales… and repeat sales.

Paul seemed to agree with Dara and Stefan, saying: “People don’t want to buy from you any more, but they do want to buy into you,” and sharing research that shows 81% of people need to be able to trust a brand to do what’s right.

To achieve that, and build a brand that’s likeable, you need to have authentic values, and stand for something real. Or as Paul put it “Stop chasing ‘likes’ and start doing more likeable things.”

The more digital your market, the more customers interact with your brand online before they talk to anyone from your business. So what they see is extremely important. Your brand’s values, and what you stand for, must be obvious – and the content you produce should aim to initiate an emotional response, build a rapport with your customer, and focus on their feelings over any product features.

Paul shared five steps to build a likeable brand. Namely:

  1. Your brand needs a meaningful purpose, an identity, and a clear, relevant vision.
  2. Your content must have a point of view, and be interesting, meaningful, and helpful.
  3. Your culture has to be visible and celebrated.
  4. Your storytelling should be about people, not products.
  5. Your marketing needs to harness the power of emotion.

Being likeable is key to customer trust, loyalty and advocacy; clients who like a company enough to recommend it are the golden ticket for any B2B marketer. We need to stop being limited by “business to business”. In B2B, we are all humans who act on our emotions and decide who we want to work with and who we can trust.

Be bold. Be authentic. Be likeable.

For me, the key takeaways from these sessions are that B2B marketers need to deliberately eject ourselves from our comfort zones and try something new. Let’s stop being so afraid to mess up and aim to do things differently.

That might mean taking a stand to win over your stakeholders or challenging the norm by running more provocative, honest or emotional campaigns. On platforms we’ve never used before.

Let’s pick a side, and try to build purpose-led B2B brands that take action to help tackle the societal issues we all face. That might feel risky, but when people perceive your brand as disruptive, diverse, and dynamic, it benefits your organisation, your people, and your marketing.

We can also strive to be likeable. For too long, B2B has been perceived as boring and sterile – but that’s not true. And there’s no reason we can’t be both competent and human, right? That’s allowed. We can shift the focus from products to people. We can have a purpose and embed the power of emotion and storytelling throughout our marketing. And having attended Ignite, I feel fired up to give it a go.

(I might just need a lie-down first…)

Will your B2B blog post perform better as a LinkedIn article? Let’s investigate.

It must’ve been four years ago when I first heard that B2B blog writing was on its way out. But here we are in 2021 and I’m writing this, a blog.

Of course blogs didn’t die. But they did change.

In fact, B2B blog content has only gotten longer and more versatile, with the average blog post now hitting 1269 words. And of the 94% of B2B marketers using the format, many seem to be spending more time than ever ensuring their blogs provide genuine value and, in turn, deliver stronger results.

To get those results, though, you need to put your content in the right place.

The B2B content dilemma: dedicated blogging vs LinkedIn articles

Where should your blog posts live to perform at their best? It’s not the simple question it once was.

In B2B, you have a couple of strong options. You can publish content on your dedicated business blog, or as an article hosted natively by LinkedIn.

Let’s weigh up the pros and cons of both approaches.

The dedicated B2B blog: expertise where it counts

For many businesses, an on-site blog is more than just a means to share thought leadership and respond to the latest industry trends; it’s an SEO powerhouse.

Even back in 2017, our Creative Director David noted that search algorithms were increasingly rewarding quality content. And that’s as true as ever for your blog content today – especially since Google E-A-T and YMYL came on the scene.

What is Google E-A-T – and why should a B2B marketer care?

According to Google, “E-A-T” stands for “expertise, authority, and trustworthiness”. And that’s what your content needs to successfully rank where you want it to.

It’s also one of the three guidelines used by Google’s human search evaluators when assessing whether its algorithms are doing their job properly. It’s easy to get lost down a rabbit hole here, so let me break it down for you: E-A-T works to stop Google from serving you rubbish content.

Today, approximately 86% of content marketers include blogs as part of their marketing strategy. And when companies who do so are likely to get 97% more links to their sites compared to those who don’t, it’s easy to see the appeal from a marketing perspective.

The proof of the pudding

But remember, your blog is also evidence of your expertise; it’s proof that you have the knowledge to really deliver the goods. When a technical expert publishes a blog sharing their expertise, it’s more convincing than just saying how smart they are.

A dedicated blog is also a means to take ownership of your content, giving you full authority over how it looks and feels. And because it sits on your website, with your look and feel, there’s an immediate association between the quality of your content and your brand.

So, if it’s easy to just share a URL to your dedicated blog, why on earth would you post your content natively on LinkedIn instead?

The LinkedIn article: building networks and conversations

Just to clarify, as this can get a little confusing: when we talk about posting a LinkedIn article, we don’t mean lifting your blog’s URL and sharing it socially. We mean your blog is published on the LinkedIn platform – that’s where it lives, and it’s tied specifically to your account.

(If you happen to remember LinkedIn Pulse, that’s exactly what I’m referring to. Except they’ve now retired the Pulse name and integrated its features into the standard LinkedIn experience.)

Anyway, before we go on, let’s pull out some statistics. Mull over these for a moment:

What’s more, 91% of decision-makers consider it the place to find valuable content. And it’s not hard to see why.

LinkedIn encourages awareness, networking, and discourse. It’s easy to share your opinion, and it’s democratic too – it must be one of the only places online where you’re likely to see an enterprise CEO discussing content with, say, a graduate developer in a public forum.

So, back to our original question: what’s better – posting your blog as a LinkedIn article, or on your website?

What’s best on LinkedIn: native content vs external links

On LinkedIn, you’re serving people content where they already are. They don’t need to click out to your site to read your blog. What’s more, you’re creating opportunities to build your personal network, and even sell socially.

For example, when people comment on your content, they create visibility for you on their own network – often, likeminded people, in similar sectors and roles. This helps your content to extend its reach, and with luck, attract the kind of lookalike customers you want to appeal to.

Most importantly, it plays to how LinkedIn decides who sees what. In May 2020, LinkedIn engineers kindly published the details of their new algorithm, and for some, it held a few nasty surprises. You see, LinkedIn largely determines content visibility based on the amount of time people spend interacting with it – that includes likes, comments, and shares. Now, this has a knock-on effect: it means external links will be penalised. Why? Because they pull users away from LinkedIn and decrease the time they spend on the post.

Ouch. That’s a score for posting content natively if ever there was one.

But then again, with LinkedIn articles, the content is associated with you – an individual – and there’s no immediate indication that it’s tied to your brand. Even with a powerful call-to-action, there’s still no guarantee they’ll click through to your site. Chances are, they’re in browse mode, and they just want something to read while eating lunch at their desk. And that means they’re not being reeled into a buying journey.

And maybe you risk your content getting lost in a sea of voices, because, hey, if anyone can post an article here, what’s to say they’re the real deal?

Can we have the best of both worlds? I think so.

Is there any reason you can’t just use your blog in two places at once?

Well, having hunted around online for a definitive answer – all for the sake of this blog, of course – I concluded that there’s no harm in doing both. Albeit, posting two ever-so-different versions of the same blog.

The relentlessly helpful John Espirian covers this approach really well (both in a LinkedIn article and on his blog, of course). But very briefly, here’s how it works:

First, publish the full-fat version of your blog as you normally would, on your website. This gives you all the benefits I mentioned earlier, like SEO authority, brand association, and greater control over how it looks and feels. Then, for optimal visibility, share it on your preferred social media platforms.

Next, create an abridged version of your final draft. One that delivers the same value but isn’t likely to supersede your original post in Google’s rankings. Not necessarily because duplicate content can score you poorly, but because – as Google’s John Muller testifies – its algorithm will always try and promote the best matching page to a user’s search, and you want them to find your site first.

Once you’ve done that, publish your second draft as an article on LinkedIn where, with any luck, you’ll reap the benefits of a larger audience and maybe get some killer conversation going too.

You do you.

Where do you prefer to post your blog content? Does our research line up with your experiences, or is there a smarter way to solve this puzzle? Or maybe we’ve got this whole LinkedIn business totally wrong? Let us know.

You can tweet us at @radixcom, pop us an email at [email protected], or join the conversation over on (where else?) our LinkedIn page.

How to write great content about HR technology

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.

Podcast 91: the Best B2B Content of 2020

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

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…

Contact us through @radixcom on Twitter or [email protected] (you could even send us a voice memo).

How to listen 

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.

10 things I learned about B2B content marketing in 2020

2020. What a year to try to learn a new job, a new company culture, a new niche. Meeting my new colleagues through little black squares on the screen, with only the cat to bounce ideas off or ask pertinent questions.

Lisa: “Where is the podcast file?”

Cat: *Look of disdain*

Luckily, the team I joined at Radix are very understanding, professional, flexible, and THE VERY BEST at what they do (hey, I’m new, so I still get to boast about my colleagues, OK? I’ll try not to make a habit of it), so what had been weird quickly became my new normal.

And what did I learn by diving into B2B content marketing in 2020?

1. Being adaptable counts

Every event, conference and face-to-face meeting across the globe was shut down by the pandemic from March onwards. Virtual team meetings, events and webinars became the norm, and, until the vaccine gets rolled out to most of the population, will continue for a good while yet.

That means our marketing schedule went out the window – and the really epic secret thing at the centre of this year’s plan had to be cancelled. Instead, we hosted a series of informal webinars and Q&A sessions – B2B Content Tuesdays – each of which then became a blog topic.

It was lo-fi, shoestring stuff, mostly intended to help people feel connected in the early days of lockdown. But it helped grow our audience in some unexpected ways, and also happened to bring us a brilliant new client. Turns out it’s good to listen to your gut, and give your audience what you feel they need in the moment – even if it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles you’d usually expect.

Question is, why didn’t I buy shares in Zoom, and hand sanitiser?

2. Remote working demands high-value content

Everyone is working from home. They’re distracted and maybe they’re anxious, alternating between watching doom on the news and then discussing it online. Meanwhile, marketers can’t reach them in person… so every B2B brand has turned to content to fill the gap.

Cutting through all that noise is no easy feat; you have to work even harder to make sure your content resonates with the reader, and shows them exactly what they’ll get for their time. So I was really interested to read my colleague Katy’s handy guide to writing B2B content with value.

3. “Niche” is a superpower

One of the trickier things I’ve needed to get my head around this year is the niche where we work. Not all of marketing, but copywriting. Not all of copywriting, but B2B. And not all of B2B, but B2B tech.

But as I’ve come to understand that niche, it has become clear what an advantage it is to have a clearly defined specialism. It means I know exactly who our marketing is speaking to at any given time, and what their challenges are likely to be.

And when our marketing does generate a good lead, the conversion rate is really high – because the marketer has a clear idea of what we do, and we already have the expertise to do the job well. Having a niche creates a platform where my colleagues can be genuinely world class (OK, that’s the last boast, I promise).

4. Social responsibility isn’t just an external issue

Global pandemic? Check. Climate change? Check. Socially responsible? Check.

2020 was the wakeup call that showed us now more than ever that we are completely vulnerable as a species. Companies who promote the environment and implement socially responsible practices will clearly benefit from a better, more human brand.

But it’s not just about perception outside the business. Since joining Radix, I could also see how important our social stance is to our own team – and how people can be motivated by being part of a company that tries to make a positive difference. If anything, that’s even more important because you can’t fake it.

5. A little more conversation

This is the first time I’ve dealt with a podcast, and I can already see it’s a great marketing tool. You don’t need a fancy recording studio; just Zoom or a smartphone, something interesting to say and someone interesting to talk to.

It takes those niche B2B conversations on Twitter and turns them into interesting, downloadable recordings for people to listen to as and when. For us, the podcast has been invaluable in reaching our audience this year.

(And here’s a secret tip: it also gives us a perfect excuse to start conversations with smart people we’d like to meet.)

6. Show don’t tell

Quietly letting the content do the talking; that’s how we like to reach our perfect client.

There are two parts to that. First, addressing their challenges in thought-provoking and interesting ways – be it via a podcast, a blog, a newsletter, a Turtl story or a white paper.

But we also need those thoughts to reach them where they are.  So we aim to get our content published on third-party platforms and publications, and write guest blogs for B2B institutions, as well as speaking at events and running workshops.

7. Good feedback is the best marketing

Getting good client feedback is THE most satisfying barometer of measuring success. There’s nothing we like more than when we’ve made a marketer look good, and we can all congratulate the colleague who did the work.

But it doesn’t just feel great; it’s a vital step in our own marketing. Even if we can’t always create a full case study, testimonials from our best clients are extremely powerful in persuading other, similar marketers that we can help them too.

8. All for one and one for all

Working from home can make us all a bit isolated at times. So, as a newbie, having the whole team cheerleading behind our marketing endeavours feels really good. And it demonstrates to clients that our whole team is committed to the cause.

Our team write the marketing blogs, often co-host the podcast, and get involved in conversations on social media. They are our brand ambassadors. It shows our personality and it’s essential to growth… as well as being a great help to me.

9. Personas non grata

We’re not satisfied with concentrating on the vague personas we want to target. Instead, we are laser-focused on finding real-life people in real jobs of the companies we want to work with.

This year, we’ve tried to make content that speaks to the right person, in the right job, in the right company, in the right format at the right time and the right frequency. That’s a lot to get right. But that’s our mission, and we choose to accept it.

The idea is not necessarily that we’ll attract that avatar marketer, but that we might reach someone like them. And it works, too. We’ve had a brilliant crop of new clients this year, many of them closely aligned to our checklist of what an ideal client would look like (yes, we have one of those).

10. What you measure is what you get

Like everyone, we watch the data to understand which content performs for us, and do more of what works. But because we have a very niche B2B tech service, we have to think carefully about what that measurement looks like.

That starts by aligning our marketing KPIs to our company’s business plan. For example, we’ve been deliberately growing our international business, so website sessions from outside the UK are a key indicator for us.

And we know our success depends on our reputation among B2B marketers, and that they tend to group in industry networks, so we look for the content that brings us the most social and referral traffic.

Prioritising those metrics means we automatically double down on the content that helps us achieve our broader business goals.

A momentous first year

2020 was a disrupted year on a biblical scale, and it’s one I won’t ever forget.

That disruption made the B2B marketing world adapt quickly to new technologies, strategies and ways of working. And I had to adapt too – and learn some lessons I’ll find helpful as we venture into the unknown territory of 2021.

So from the cat and me, home alone in my Christmas jumper, have a wonderful break. And a cheerful and positive new year.

Writing for the public sector? Follow these six tips from sector experts

“The public sector.” Those three words should be a delight to see at the top of a brief or content plan. It’s a sector that delivers meaningful improvements to real people’s lives every day. It offers the kind of human stories every content marketer dreams of sharing.

But the reality is very different. All too often, content targeting the public sector falls short, failing to home in on what really keeps its decision-makers awake at night.

I wanted to find out why, and how to make public sector content that really sings. So, along with Radix Creative Director David McGuire, I asked public sector employees – and the gurus that market to them – how to get it right.

We ran a whole podcast on the topic. But I still felt there was more concrete advice to share, and that’s where this blog comes in. I’ll share six tips based on interviews with industry experts and my own experience writing for this extraordinary audience.

1. Make sure you really understand your audience

You can’t create something that resonates with your reader unless you know who they are. That’s true for any content. But for the public sector, this kind of specific audience knowledge is even more important.

In fact, it’s really more than one audience. The public sector is vast and varied, so if you don’t know whether you’re talking to a local council or a central government department, you’ll have no way of speaking to the unique challenges each type of institution faces. Instead, it’s important to map those challenges out, so you can tailor the right message to the right person.

“It can be tempting to want to create noise in the market, but I’d never recommend taking a scattergun approach,” says Shona Wright, Public Sector Marketing Lead at Microsoft.

“Taking time to create a messaging framework (and training your people on it) is often an overlooked step, but I think it’s essential for anchoring your content and having a cohesive impact on your public sector audience.”

2. Use the language of the sector, but don’t over-use jargon

Specific info on who you’re targeting helps you get the specificity your content needs. But you still have a tough task ahead of you: making sure your content is written in a language that really speaks to your public sector reader, and focuses on the topics close to their heart.

Most B2B brands have a whole roster of tried-and-tested terms and topics they can lean on when speaking to the private sector. However, many of these translate poorly to public sector readers, or at least need some finessing before they’re fit for purpose. For example, some might detest the word “customers”.

While it’s important to speak your audience’s language, Lynn File, Founder and Managing Director Brand Innovation reminds us it’s essential to keep your content human: “The public sector is full of jargon and acronyms. These should be avoided at all costs. If you start using public sector jargon, all the power and emotion drains out of your content immediately.”

3. Get to the purpose behind your audience

But it’s not just language that’s different in the public sector; there’s also a different motivation to their work.

Lynn continues: “By definition, the public sector is there to serve their public and, in my experience, most of the people who work in the public sector are very committed to delivering that. You can latch into what they see as their overall purpose and reflect that back at them.

“So, for example, the NHS at heart is all about delivering great patient care. To be effective, marketing communications have to promise to contribute to that goal. When marketing to them, you should speak about the big picture and the benefits their role ultimately delivers.”

4. Learn from commercial enterprises

While it’s crucial you get the tone and language right when speaking to the public sector, you shouldn’t discard your knowledge of the private sector completely.

Shona says: “Local authorities could learn a lot from disruptive retailers in delivering great customer experiences. As public sector marketers, we need to have the courage to look across industries and help our public sector audiences open their eyes to what they can learn from commercial businesses.”

The way you present this information is crucial. A message that’s overly commercial can turn a public sector reader off – but show them how a private sector solution can be adapted to help them achieve their own public-facing goals, and they might well listen.

5. Balance positive and negative messages

While much of the public sector is about building a better society, some jobs are focused on avoiding a negative outcome rather than pursuing a positive one. But how much can you (and should you) dwell on the risks in your content?

“Risk is an inherent concern in the public sector, and I don’t see that dramatically changing,” says Shona.

“But I do believe we have a viewpoint on the changing landscape of risk. Moving the conversation, from ‘on-prem is safer than cloud’ to understanding the risk of not transforming, is key. Also, I think the role of the public sector CIO has changed. They need to be aware of financial, commercial and reputational risk more now than ever before.”

Where possible, then, discuss the wider elements of risk rather than focusing on one specific area. Beyond this, it’s also important to see where you can flip negative messages around to something more aspirational – showing the reader you understand the importance of their job.

“I think marketers should get fired up and share the enthusiasm that the best public sector workers have for their role,” Lynn suggests.

“Use upbeat exciting language; be positive; be optimistic. Emotion beats reason when it comes to content. Believe in the better future society your audience wants to deliver and show how the product or service you are marketing will help them do that.”

6. Think carefully about the decision-making unit

One anonymous source from the UK civil service explained how the complex decision-making process in some parts of the public sector can be a barrier to common marketing approaches.

They said: “Procurement is a lengthy process, so standard marketing techniques are unlikely to get most companies anywhere. There’s also very little that I can actually act on because the final decision-making power does not sit with me. And I’m someone who was used to having sign-off in private sector roles. So, for the civil service at least, I would suggest that the rulebook doesn’t apply.”

We spoke with another anonymous source with experience working in parliament, and they offered concrete advice for handling the complex tech sign-off process: “In general, there’s very little understanding of what IT solutions are out there. And, unlike the private sector, few have the spare time or dedicated roles required to research the technologies available. If you can show what the options are quickly, and why they should care, and make it easy for them to share this info with decision-makers, your content will go down much better.”

Different audiences, different advice, similar themes

Not all this advice above will apply to every public sector audience. Much depends on what type of organisation you’re targeting – and what their mission is.

However, there are a few constants that can help all public sector content hit a little closer to home:

  • Don’t use jargon as a substitute for communication – both public and private sector buzzwords won’t get you very far
  • Believe in your audience’s mission – and avoid trying to frighten the reader with risks; chances are they handle them every day
  • Be clear and helpful – by openly educating the reader about the options available, and the benefits of each
  • Use examples from other industries – but be very clear about how it applies to public sector objectives

Remember, many public sector audiences face an uphill battle every day, to justify their budgets, their objectives, often their own jobs – even though they’re only working on behalf of the public, to make society better. As private sector marketers and writers, you and I can’t claim to know what that’s like. But we can write content in a way that makes the job a little easier, and shows the reader we’re on their side.

If you need a hand writing public sector content that resonates, reach out to our team.

Podcast 90: telling stories with data

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 

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

The best B2B content of 2020: cast your vote now

By rights, 2020 should be a landmark year for B2B marketing content. The best content can educate people about new challenges, help them implement change, and release strong emotions about work. It also fights hard to secure engagement in the face of other distractions.

To put it mildly, this year has presented plenty of opportunity to do that kind of work.

So we asked friends and colleagues around the industry to nominate their favourite piece of B2B content from 2020… and compiled 15 inspiring nominations below.

After last year’s best content nominations, we were excited to see what you would send us this time around. In a year that has been straight-up weird, would 2020’s B2B content follow suit?

Spoiler alert: pretty much. This year’s shortlist includes everything from a homemade productivity-rewarding cookie dispenser (yup, it’s exactly as it sounds) to an erotically-charged cyber-security Q&A that’s almost as informative as it is disturbing. Almost.

Thankfully, the nominations you sent us aren’t all about COVID. But they do all show the real value B2B content can have in a crisis – and many creative ways that marketers have addressed the unique challenge of speaking to B2B audiences in a year that changed work forever.

Here’s the full list of 15. Enjoy.

(Alternatively, if you already know your favourite, you can skip straight to the voting.)

A) Apple: The whole working-from-home thing

Seven-minute video story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_pru8U2RmM

Emily King, Senior Writer and Editor at Bluefruit Software, says: “It’s chaotic, human, relatable… just a joy to watch. One of the few pieces of content relating to the events of this year that didn’t make me want to pull my hair out.”

B) B2B Institute / LinkedIn: 2030 B2B Trends

In-depth research report

b2b institute 2030 trends reportRuss Powell, Managing Director and Founder at Sharper B2B Marketing says: “My nomination is the 2030 trends report from the B2B Institute at LinkedIn. It backs up what we’ve been saying to our clients about the long term approach needed in B2B, and gave me some ideas around targeting and personalisation. A useful report that we can use to build into our strategy for the next decade.” 

C) Bottomline Technologies: Think These 5 AP Opportunities are Myths? Think Again

Horror-themed assessment quiz

bottomline.comLizzie Cresswell, Junior Copywriter at Radix Communications, says: “Bottomline make complex business payments simple and secure for organisations across the globe (cash management tools/payment automation etc). This is fun, and on-brand with their tone – it takes a boring subject and creates an interactive piece of content marketing that is both informative and engaging. Plus it’s a bit weird, so right up my street. Looks at the ‘myths’ of AP/revenue opportunities you might be missing, with a series of mythical creatures featuring on the way. Yes, it’s a little cheesy in places, but its good fun and, for a subject that is (let’s face it) a tad boring, it’s genuinely engaging.”

D)  Cognizant Center for the Future of Work: After the Virus

Part Turtl story, part prophecy

after the virusNominated by Karla Rivershaw, Head of Marketing at Turtl.

A history lesson from the future – telling the story of what happened in the five years after COVID. It includes some pretty bold predictions.

E) CyberOff: Meet the Bearded Babe

Nausea-inducing cybersecurity video (you have been warned)

Nominated by Giles Shorthouse, Head of Business Development & Marketing at Octopus Group.

(So blame Giles, not us. Now, has anyone seen my mind bleach?)

F) Google: What board members say about the CMO—off the record

Long, scrolling web page

Google CMO Insights ContentAndrew Last, Managing Director at Harvard, says: “I nominate ‘Think with Google’ for their industry insights on the role of the CMO. Fortune 1000 board members discussed the CMO role anonymously. They gave Google over 100,000 words with insights. Google then distilled them into one single paragraph: Great expectations: What the board wants from you…”

G) LinkedIn Marketing Solutions: An interactive video content experience for B2B Marketers

Interactive explainer video

an interactive video content experience for B2B MarketersNominated by Giles Shorthouse, Head of Business Development & Marketing at Octopus Group.

Unusual concept, this: a mash-up between an explainer video and a choose-your-own-adventure game.

H) McKinsey: These eight charts show how COVID-19 has changed B2B sales forever

Data-packed article… and a whole body of work

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/these-eight-charts-show-how-covid-19-has-changed-b2b-sales-forever#Paul Hewerdine, Strategy Partner at Earnest, says: “My favourite content this year is not one piece, but a whole body of work. For me, McKinsey has completely bossed COVID-19 with its regular briefings and insights. They’ve become a go-to source, a real barometer of the state of play out there and how business leaders need to adapt. This is a really prime example, it’s Informative, enlightening, and thought-provoking. But it’s not all COVID-related content; they recently launched their McKinsey for Kids series (for an example, see “Hungry fish, baffled farmers, and what happened next”) which definitely appealed to big kids like me. It looked like it started as an initiative aimed at kids of McKinsey employees to explain what their parents do, but it’s got far wider appeal. Beautifully executed and again truly insightful. McKinsey = content marketing team of the year.”

I) Megan Rose: Looking for examples of great content and tone of voice?

Blog post with practical examples

Tone of Voice - Megan RoseAndré Spiteri, Director and Chief Copywriter at Maverick Words, says: “This is amazing. It’s a bit meta, granted (as it’s by copywriters for copywriters) but I think it’s a fab one for the swipe file.”

(Think that’s meta, André? Try including a best-practice roundup post in a best-practice roundup post…)

 

 

 

J) monday.com: I built a cookie machine to motivate people at monday.com. It didn’t work.

Man annoys colleagues on video

Doug Kessler, Creative Director at Velocity Partners, says: “It’s about someone who invented a machine that delivers cookies to people’s desks whenever a project is completed, and it’s funny!”

K) Nationwide Children’s Hospital: PediaCast CME

Podcast for paediatricians

https://www.pediacastcme.org/Kerry O’Shea Gorgone, Educational Content Director at MarketingProfs, says: “This podcaster didn’t even realize his show is B2B! Dr Mike Patrick is a board-certified paediatrician and Fellow of the American Academy of Paediatrics. He’s done a show called ‘PediaCast’ for parents since 2006, then in 2015 he started a show for paediatric professionals. This is AMAZING B2B content, sponsored by Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio.”

L) Profitwell: COVID basically doesn’t exist in B2B SaaS

Twitter thread and video

https://twitter.com/i/status/1316385881188708352

Harry Kapur, B2B tech marketing consultant and freelance copywriter says: “Patrick Cambell, CEO at Profitwell, reveals that their B2B SaaS index hasn’t been affected by COVID and new revenue has accelerated.”

M) Turtl: Spock vs Homer and the psychology of personalization

Blog post and presentation

Spock v Homer

Joel Harrison, Editor in Chief at B2B Marketing, says: “I loved the piece by  Turtl on different buying decision making – Homer versus Spock.”

 

 

N) Xero Accounting Software: Capture bills and receipts in a snap

Cute, funny video ad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFmC8PejW30

Lisa Woodruff, Marketing Manager Radix Communications, says: “This ad is great because it addresses the pain that most sole traders feel, spending time doing paperwork. It’s funny but it works.”

O) xiQ: New-Age B2B Marketing – Innovate or Die

Post-COVID infographic

Covid B2B Marketing InfographicNominated by Eman Malik, Client Success and Support Manager at xiQ.

(There’s nothing in the rules against nominating your brand’s own content if you’re proud of it, especially if it’s as timely and informative as this.)

 

Found your favourite? It’s time to vote…

Simply click your favourite in the form below and hit “submit”… then sit back and wait for December’s edition of Good Copy, Bad Copy: The B2B Copywriting Podcast, where we’ll be joined by leading B2B marketers to count down the top ten… and finally reveal the winner.

You have until Tuesday 8th December at 09:00 GMT.

Or, if you think we’ve missed the year’s piece of standout B2B content, let us know on social media or [email protected]!

7 ways to write B2B marketing content that has real value

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.