Insights Archives

Thin Slicing: What B2B marketers can learn from the agile software development practice

Posted on November 27, 2023October 21, 2025 by Steve George

B2B marketers are great at coming up with creative campaigns and content ideas. But all too often, long approval cycles, restricted budgets, and the sheer scale and complexity of those ideas make them difficult to bring to life at speed.

Fortunately, marketers aren’t the only ones experiencing those challenges. Our colleagues over in the world of software development are up against them too, and they’ve devised some transformational new practices to help overcome them. And there’s one in particular that B2B marketers may be able to borrow.

Thin slicing is an Agile practice where large projects are sliced up into smaller deliverables and launched iteratively, rather than all at once. In our Turtl doc below, we explore how thin slicing can help B2B marketers both prove and improve the ROI of their campaigns and content.

Click to read Thin Slicing for Marketing

What is long-form B2B content, and why does it work so well?

Posted on August 18, 2021October 7, 2025 by The Radix Team

When you’re building a B2B content strategy, you need a mix of content lengths. Long-form and short-form content are both vital tools, and each has its own specific use.

If you want to present a snack-sized stat to your readers, for example, or to promote a new product or service, you’re likely to use social seeds or a short article, rather than a ten-page white paper. Likewise, tackling a subject like “Everything you need to know about writing a B2B case study” is going to require more than a 280-character tweet.

But there’s no doubt that across the B2B industry – and in content marketing generally – longer content is becoming increasingly popular. According to Orbit Media’s 2021 blogging survey, the word count of a typical post is up 57% since 2014 – from 808 words to 1,269.

So how exactly can we define “long-form content”? Why is it gaining in popularity as an effective marketing tool? And how can you ensure that even your longest pieces still have impact? I took a look at the research – and completed some semi-scientific studies of my own – to find out.

What is long-form B2B content?

For starters, it’s not just lengthy blog posts. Although blogs are still the most popular B2B content format, long-form content can many other formats, including eBooks and whitepapers, guides and tutorials, and webinars and virtual events.

Essentially, it’s any piece of content that educates your audience on a specific topic or answers a specific question – in an in-depth, informative way.

There’s also a lot of debate around how to define “long” word count, with definitions ranging from 700 – 1,200 words. In truth, there’s probably no set figure; it’s more about the role your content plays. But for the sake of this blog, and in deference to science, I’m defining long-form as anything 1,000 words or over. (Even if it is just to make the maths that bit easier in my own research…)

How can long-form content boost your B2B marketing?

According to the research, writing more long-form content could help you boost your online presence and even drive conversion rates. Here’s what the stats tell us:

Fact #1: Long-form content tends to rank higher on search

You’ve probably heard that long-form content ranks higher – but I wanted to know how true that is for B2B. So, I searched 16 common terms and phrases, like “writing a B2B ebook” and “original research for B2B content”, then recorded the word count of the top five results.
Here’s what I discovered:

Across all 80 results, 76% were over 1,000 words, and 31% were over 2,000
Of the 16 top results, 12 of the posts were over 1,000 words
On the longer end of the scale, 13% of the results were over 3,000 words – and just 4% were over 5,000
35% of the 80 results were between 1,500 and 3,000 words

So, it holds true: long-form content does seem to rank higher. But why?

Some studies suggest that it’s easier to grow organic traffic, and employ SEO tactics, as there’s more scope to include keywords or backlinks (more on this in a moment). But there’s also a simpler explanation: it gives you the opportunity to provide something of real, tangible value for your readers, that they’ll enjoy and want to share.

Fact #2: You can provide your customers with greater value – and showcase your subject authority

This year’s CMI B2B benchmarking report found that 83% of B2B marketers who reported high levels of success in 2020 said this was because of the value their content provides.

And long-form content is the perfect vessel for providing that value. It gives you the opportunity to create more in-depth content on a high-value topic or challenge that really matters to your customer – and (as long as it is genuinely helpful) build up a positive association with your brand in the process.

Side bar: When I searched for common B2B phrases, 44% of the top results were ‘How to’ articles (and all bar one were well over 1,000 words). Only 19% were listicles. So format is likely quite important – the value you’re presenting needs to be really obvious. My colleague Katy has written a splendid blog on how to achieve it.

Fact #3: You could get more traffic, more shares, and more backlinks

According to Semrush’s 2020 Content Marketing Survey, super long-form articles with over 7,000 words drive nearly four times more traffic, and 43% more shares, than shorter articles. And while it’s unlikely you’re going to be writing such bulky pieces on the fly, there’s a clear correlation between long-form content and the amount of traffic it creates.

On the other end of the scale, 59% of published content with between 300-600 words isn’t shared at all. And posts between 300-900 words are likely to gain 21% less traffic – and 75% fewer backlinks – than articles of 900-1,200 words.

And when it comes to Google rankings, backlinks are crucial. The top result on Google has an average of 3.8x more backlinks than the following nine – and the same study found that long-form content generates more backlinks than shorter posts.

So, how can you write long-form content with impact?

Knowing why long-form content works is one thing. Knowing how to write it in an engaging, impactful way is another. Hopefully, these tips will help:

Tailor your content to your audience’s interest

Reading takes time. So you’re asking your (probably very busy) reader to do a lot – especially if your content is above the 2,000-word mark. Make sure you’re rewarding them for that time, and providing information that’s genuinely helpful and tailored to their interests or challenges.

There are plenty of sites to inspire you, and help you cut to the core of whatever conversation is happening in that industry. AnswerThePublic is a great place to start, and BuzzSumo’s content search engine can help you see what articles your customers are already engaging with.

Make sure your content is easy to navigate and read

When you’re writing long-form content, presenting your reader with a wall of words is only going to turn them off. So it’s critical that you make your copy as easy to navigate as possible:

Break down sections into smaller, skimmable chunks or bullet out the key points or stats you’re making (see what I did there?)
Include headers and subheaders that summarise what’s contained in each section
If it’s a really long piece, you can create a content page, so it’s easy for your reader to skip to the parts that most matter to them

In short, make it easy for the reader to see the value of your content upfront, and help them find the information they need quickly.

Use tried-and-tested approaches to make your reader comfortable

Bit boring, I know, but there’s a reason that 44% of the top results were “How To” guides. Sometimes, the tried-and-tested formats just work the best, and are familiar and approachable for you reader.

Update your work regularly

According to Orbit Media, bloggers who go back and update old content are more than twice as likely to report “strong results”.

So even after you’ve written and published your content, go back and update it when necessary.

And remember…

Just because long-form content works, it doesn’t mean that everything you write needs to be over 1,000w. Sometimes, less is more – and padding out work with waffle, just to hit a word count, won’t go unnoticed by your readers.

Got any questions? Just email us at [email protected].

7 ways to make your B2B writing more inclusive

Posted on December 14, 2022October 7, 2025 by The Radix Team

The B2B tech industry isn’t run by robots (yet), but by actual, real people who exist outside of their offices and away from their laptops.

It can be easy to forget, but these people have interests, friends, and gender identities, as well as being executives and decision-makers at our favourite companies.

So if you’re a B2B marketer, inclusive language can play a huge part in ensuring your reader feels recognised and engaged.

To find out more, we spoke to Ettie Bailey-King, an inclusive and accessible communication consultant. Here’s what we learnt.

Why is inclusive language so important?

For starters, customer expectations have changed dramatically. The B2C market is rapidly adopting inclusive language, and it’s transforming the marketing industry.

If customers are used to respectful and inclusive communication in one industry, they won’t stand for less anywhere else – so B2B needs to keep up.

“We’re constantly surrounded by content – at work, at home, on social media,” says Ettie. “And thoughtful content makes us feel safe and welcomed. For example, an advert that says ‘everyone’, instead of the binary gender options of man or woman. Or an email that avoids gendered salutations like ‘Ms’ and ‘Mr’, and just says ‘Hi Ettie’. For many of us, those changes won’t feel like a big deal. But if you’re questioning your gender identity, for example, then those small changes can be the difference between a painful experience, and a safe and welcoming one.”

Even if you don’t think you’re talking to people who are trans, non-binary, or gender-nonconforming, that’s no reason to avoid using inclusive pronouns and language. According to Stonewall, around 1% of the UK population might be transgender, including non-binary people. Already, that’s roughly 600,000 people – but we’re a long way from knowing what the real figures look like.

“The comparison that activists always use is left-handedness,” says Ettie. “When left-handedness was stigmatised, numbers were around 2%. And when children were actually allowed to freely use the hand of their choice – if you look at the graphs, you’ll see an explosion in left-handedness.”

These days, around 12% of the UK write with their left hand.

There are so many reasons why inclusive writing is important – and they go beyond B2B marketing objectives.

“Inclusive writing is sometimes presented as a fun, happy add-on to make our businesses seem warmer. But it’s got a serious purpose. The world just isn’t safe for some people – for example, many transgender and gender non-conforming people are discriminated against, or at risk of terrible violence,” says Ettie. “It’s important to keep that in mind. So if we’re struggling to motivate ourselves to do the learning, we should remember that using LGBTQIA+ inclusive language has a real impact. For example, using someone’s correct pronouns can reduce their risk of suicide.”

As Ettie says, pronouns are incredibly important. To use them correctly, you’ll need to understand and be familiar with different types.

Let’s talk about chosen preferred pronouns

Pronouns are a big part of inclusive language and, for the record, they’re just that – pronouns. They’re not “chosen” or “preferred”, much like someone’s name isn’t “chosen”.

You might need to know your client’s pronouns (or your client’s client’s pronouns if you’re writing a case study about them). For example, “Matt’s Head of Copy at Radix Communications. He’s been in the role for 11 years.”

Or if you’re engaged in conversation and need to refer to somebody else: “Have you met Matt? He’s great.” Whenever you’re using pronouns, it’s important to do it correctly, even if they’re unfamiliar to you.

After “she/her”, “he/him”, and “they/them”, the most common member-defined pronouns on LinkedIn are:

“she/they”
“he/they”
“they/she”
“they/he”
“any pronouns”

There’s a reason LinkedIn has counted “she/they” and “they/she” separately. For pronouns like these, you can’t assume someone has a preference, or what that preference is.

“Everyone’s different,” says Ettie. “When someone gives mixed pronouns, it might be because they strongly prefer the first one, they’re equally happy with each, or they’d rather you don’t use the second one and it’s just there as a backup (for example, for people who struggle to use singular ‘they’). If you can’t check with someone, I’d use the first pronoun. But if you can, take a few seconds to check which one they prefer.”

Neopronouns like “xe/xem/xyr” (pronounced zee/zem/zeer) or “ze/hir/hirs” (pronounced zee/heer/heers) are examples of popular gender-neutral pronouns, and are often used by non-binary or transgender people. You can practice using them and other gender-neutral pronouns using this tool, made 100% by gender-diverse and same-sex-attracted youth. This table published by the Office of Intercultural Engagement at UNC Greensboro might also be helpful.

But while understanding different pronouns and how to use them is crucial, it’s not the only thing we can do to make our B2B writing more inclusive.

7 ways to make your writing more inclusive

Ettie gave us advice on some of the current best practices for inclusive writing, and other things you can do to make sure all your readers feel recognised.

1. Shift your team’s mindset

A lot of us have been trained to write in a gender binary way – think “ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls” – and need to go on a learning journey to transform our writing.

If you’re part of a marketing team, this shift in mindset needs to be a collective experience. Start with sharing resources like podcasts, make or join a book club, and help others get exposed to stories and people outside the gender binary.

2. Always ask if you can

If you’re not sure of someone’s pronouns (and you have the opportunity to), ask. And if you can’t, then default to gender-inclusive language until you’re sure of someone’s pronouns – which could be after you’re expected to submit a first draft.

“In B2B, it’s less likely you’re going to be speaking and learning directly from people,” says Ettie. “But describing people accurately is so important. If you don’t know what pronoun someone uses, or how they describe themselves, always check. And if you can’t – they’re unavailable and no one knows the answer – then use gender-neutral terms like ‘they’. Or, you could just use their name instead, like ‘Ashley is Sales Director and Ashley will take over the new team.’”

Ettie’s default in her own writing is to use “they”, and it’s something people have been doing since the 1300s. You can then clarify and correct pronouns in the feedback process.

3. Why default to “they” when you can use “you”?

Defaulting to “they” is definitely an inclusive option when writing about people. But if you’re writing content that’s directed to someone, you can go one step further.

Using second-person address is not only inclusive – “you” knows no gender – but also a great tool for engagement. When you speak directly to your reader, they feel involved and engaged. In short, it’s good copywriting.

Second-person address helps to keep things simple, which is also more accessible. “If there’s one rule, it’s to not overthink it,” says Ettie. “Sometimes, by trying to be inclusive we end up with long and elaborate phrases, which can weigh our copy down. For example, if you’re trying to write a concise slogan, do you need to say ‘people who menstruate’ or ‘people with a vulva’? Maybe you can just say ‘you’.”

4. Treat pronouns like names

If you’re confused or in doubt about unfamiliar pronouns, Lal Zimman, a sociocultural linguist, says to treat them like they’re names. Here’s a rundown of what Lal says:

You can’t tell what a person’s name is just from looking at them, so if you want to know it you have to ask. And asking someone’s name is a totally normal question. In fact, it’s more likely to be considered rude if you don’t ask for someone’s name when first meeting them.

Names are treated as facts, and people don’t generally argue about them. It’s important to remember names, even if they’re unusual, or hard to pronounce or spell. And it’s important to get someone’s name right, even if you don’t like it or them.

People don’t insist that there are a limited number of names, and they know there are names they’ve never heard of. And sometimes people change their names, too – for example, when getting married – and that’s totally accepted.

5. And if you mess up…

Politely apologise, correct yourself, and move on. And don’t forget to be kind to yourself.

“We do need to gender people correctly, because it really matters,” says Ettie. “But while we’re learning, we should give ourselves permission to find it difficult and confusing. It really can be! Don’t panic or overthink it. Be firm but patient with yourself – you’ll be amazed how quickly you can learn.”

6. Be a role model

If you’re inclusive with pronouns in your everyday life, in your work and in your style guide, then it’ll translate into the way you write.

You can normalise talking about pronouns by including them in your email signature, your on-screen nickname, on social media profiles and business cards, or by advertising them on your person (think badges and stickers).

And you can go one step further by incorporating pronouns into your marketing. For example, include guest speakers’ pronouns on event invitations and web content.

By being open with pronouns, you’re helping to avoid potentially uncomfortable and awkward conversations. For example, if you’re meeting with someone virtually who has recently changed their pronouns, they can just change their on-screen nickname.

The same goes for people you’re emailing. There’s no need to use “Mr” and “Mrs”, or “Sir/Madam” as your default address. You can just say “hi”, “hello”, “good morning”, or use their name if you know it.

7. Be flexible

You’re not learning a set of rules once and forever. You’re learning something that may be true for now, and might not be true in a year, and that’s okay. Society is changing, and with it people’s pronouns and best practices.

“So you might meet Ashley now, with pronouns ‘they/them’. In a few years, Ashley might be ‘he/him’. That’s okay,” says Ettie. “Don’t panic if people change their pronouns or names. Be grateful that they share them with you.”

Flexibility is a big part of shifting your mindset and changing your patterns. It’s about always putting people before any set of rules or guidelines – including this one. Because for every rule you can come up with, there will always be people who don’t align with it (and that’s okay too).

Here’s where to learn more

Creating inclusive content can make all the difference to your reader feeling accepted, included, and recognised – which is good news for your people, your marketing, and the world in general.

If you’d like to learn more about inclusive communication, check out Ettie Bailey-King’s website Fighting Talk or sign up to her newsletter for quick, practical tips on how you can make your content more inclusive and accessible.

From call to brief to copy – what’s the Radix copywriting process?

Posted on April 12, 2023October 7, 2025 by The Radix Team

Content marketing is by no means a niche service, but to our knowledge, Radix is something of a unique business.

Unlike other agencies in the B2B marketing sector, we dedicate ourselves fully to B2B technology copywriting. We’re driven to do the best job we can, so we focus on doing one job, really well.

While it sounds simple on paper, we’re often asked by prospective clients what it really looks like to work with us – and how their project will fit into our daily workflows.

Let me take you on a journey through a typical blog post project at Radix, and hopefully answer the titular question: “Just what is your copywriting process?”

Setting the scene: a new blog brief

It’s time for a little make-believe. Today, one of our regular clients needs a blog post about the latest digital transformation trends in their industry.

In classic Choose Your Own Adventure style, our client has two paths by which they can proceed:

Describe the required content to their Radix account manager so we can book time out with a writer best suited to the job and, if required, book in a briefing call.
Use the standardised Radix briefing template to send a full, written brief to their account manager. (Again, we can book in a briefing call if further insight is needed.)

In most scenarios, we’ll recommend the briefing call as this gives the allocated writer an opportunity to clarify exactly what is required, such as:

Who is the content for?
Where will it live?
What’s its purpose?

In cases where we are engaging with a new client, or it’s a more substantial project, the process can be a little more complex.

Account Director Sarah explains: “If it’s a complicated topic, or a new client, the project will first go to a content lead to evaluate. If needed, we may also arrange a briefing call before booking in time with the writer. Then, all that’s left before writing an outline or a first draft is to send the client a quote for approval and confirm the timeframe for delivery.”

Does your content need an outline?

So far, we’ve:

Received word of an exciting new brief
Identified the best writer for the job
(Probably) had a briefing call to clarify the story
Agreed on a quote and timeframe for delivery

Nice. Everything’s looking good.

Now it’s time for our writer to either whip up an outline or jump right into the first draft. With blogs, our writers will often have everything they need from the briefing (and maybe a little desk research) to begin the first draft.

With bigger writing projects – such as case studies or white papers – we tend to write an outline first. That way, changes in project direction or messaging can be easily identified and actioned ahead of any substantial copywriting – potentially saving time, money, and frustration.

Once you’re happy with the outline, the writing itself can begin.

*Intermission*

Delivering your copy

Upon completing the first draft, our writer will proofread your copy before passing it on to a content lead or appropriate peer to review. This is where our in-house quality control process begins (and, in the best-case scenario, ends).

If the reviewer spots anything that needs changing, the writer will be brought back in to make the necessary amends before notifying your account manager that your copy is ready to deliver.

Only when we’re completely happy do you get to read the first draft. If you or your stakeholders identify further changes, or the scope of the project changes, the account manager will reserve time with the original writer to revisit the content. We may also arrange a follow-up call to clarify what needs to happen next.

To ensure the piece is completed as efficiently as possible, we will always track our changes and, if required, explain the thought process behind any adjustments we’ve made – especially if the amends required a little compromise. In cases of scope change, this will likely require an additional call or written correspondence with the writer to set expectations.

Managing client-writer expectations

When it comes to the amends process, we recognise that we’re delivering a product and, as they say in retail, “the customer is always right”. While that’s true most of the time, we prefer to see our work as a collaboration in which both parties learn from each other (and in turn, get the best outcome possible: damned good copy).

We work really hard to make your copy as good as it can be. But if we’ve missed the mark, that’s on us; we’ll always swallow our pride and put things right. If we disagree with a change you’ve suggested, we may try to compromise with a different approach (and explain it in the comments). But as fellow writer Nick said in his write-up on lessons learned at the Copywriting Conference:

“If the feedback is along the lines of, ‘I envisioned something different’ then this should ring alarm bells for future projects, to make sure expectations on both sides are clearly set out from the start.”

Communication matters, so never hesitate to flag any concerns or queries with us regardless of progress through a given project. The most important thing is that you get the right content to achieve the results you want.

Working with Radix

Of course, this is just one example of how a project can go. To discuss our process in greater detail, or see if we’re the right copywriting agency for you, please contact us here or give us a call on +44(0)1326 373592.

Why it’s time for B2B marketers to enter the data mesh

Posted on December 15, 2023October 7, 2025 by Matt Godfrey

B2B marketers love data. Marketing was one of the first business functions to put big bets on analytics and automation, and today, the best B2B marketing campaigns are driven by data. It might not always be complete or accurate, but data helps talented marketers set the general direction of their campaigns and pin their instincts on something tangible.

But what if marketers could easily access trusted data (and lots of it) and use that data to deliver better results?

What if they could uncover new insights hidden in data throughout the business – and use them to create hyper-personalised content and more effective campaigns?

What if they could imagine possible futures for their campaigns and quickly test their hypotheses to see what works?

Well, in a data mesh, they can.

What’s a data mesh? And why should marketers care?

In large, complex organisations with monolithic data architectures, accessing timely, relevant insights can be a laborious process. It relies on specialist data teams to drag insights kicking and screaming out of a central data lake.

The data mesh approach helps overcome these difficulties by decentralising the data architecture and making each domain (marketing, sales, product, etc.) the owner of the data it produces. It’s an approach that’s been growing in popularity over the last few years (which explains why tech consultancies often ask us to write about it) as large enterprises look for ways to reduce organisational and operational complexity.

In a data mesh, the people closest to the data are responsible for managing it and using it to create “data products” that solve their most pressing issues or open up new opportunities.

Federated data ownership removes the operational bottlenecks of centralised structures, so marketers can access and use data how they need to, when they need to. And with data products visible and accessible on a self-service platform, everyone can access products built by other domains and combine them in useful new ways.

New marketing opportunities – and responsibilities – in the data mesh

The data mesh approach empowers marketers to cut out the middleman and start experimenting with their data to find ways to improve content and campaign results. When data users become data owners, the possibilities are limitless.

Marketers who build and own data products can understand their customers and prospects better than ever. They can optimise their campaigns on the fly and conduct low-risk, high-reward experiments with different approaches. They can even begin to create the kind of hyper-personalised content and communications that most marketers can only dream of.

More than most business functions, marketing thrives on data from across the organisation. Insights from sales, service, product, R&D, manufacturing, supply chain, and more can all add valuable context to marketers existing knowledge about their customers.

With a data mesh approach, marketers can easily access data products from other business functions to quickly create new capabilities. For example, combining product and sales data products with a customer-intent data product might help marketers target specific prospects with campaigns that are more likely to land.

But before we get too carried away, it’s important to remember that federated ownership also means federated responsibility. In a data mesh, every domain is a data custodian, so marketing becomes responsible for the governance, compliance, and quality of its data.

Meaningful change takes time

Adopting a data mesh approach requires a fundamental cultural shift; it’s a completely different way of thinking about data and how it’s managed, governed, and used.

This shift in mindset includes a switch to what technologists call “product thinking”, where success is defined by the outcomes products deliver, rather than the outputs of projects. It might also require changes in how teams are structured and how they operate. And it will certainly involve fostering a new culture of cross-functional collaboration, as different business units contribute to combined data products.

It’s not something that happens overnight, and it can take years for large organisations to successfully embed the data mesh approach. But if you’re looking for a long-term, strategic approach to getting more bang for your marketing buck, data mesh could be a conversation worth having with your colleagues in IT and elsewhere in the business.

Stay up to date with what’s next in tech

If you’d like to keep up with how emerging tech trends can have a big impact on B2B marketing – and get practical advice on other ways to maximise the value of your content – sign up for our newsletter.

Star power: Can nuclear fusion fuel the earth?

Posted on February 2, 2024October 7, 2025 by Claire Goodfellow

We spend a lot of time writing about the impact of global warming, from mitigating the risks of climate change to accelerating decarbonisation and renewable energy adoption. And if I’ve learnt one thing, it’s that if the world doesn’t speed up its decarbonisation efforts, humanity could be facing a desolate future.

Solar and wind power are both brilliant steps in the right direction, but when there’s no wind and the sun isn’t shining, we can’t use them to produce electricity. So, what are the alternatives?

Imagine if there was a way to power the world that was clean, carbon free, and possible whatever the weather.

The answer could be written in the stars.

These giant balls of plasma generate an abundance of energy through a process known as nuclear fusion. But is it a process we could ever recreate on earth?

We already have nuclear energy. So what is fusion?

Today, nuclear power plants use a process called nuclear fission to produce energy.

Nuclear fission uses unstable atomic isotopes (like uranium 235) and harnesses the energy they create as they decay. It’s highly efficient and doesn’t generate carbon dioxide. However, fission does create some pretty nasty waste products that can stay radioactive for millions of years.

Typically, power plants use geological disposal to handle this waste – burying radioactive material deep underground so thick layers of rock can stop radiation reaching the earth’s surface.

But if that doesn’t happen because of disaster or meltdown, it can be utterly devastating.

Instead of using elemental decay, nuclear fusion combines two isotopes of hydrogen: deuterium and tritium (which are abundant in water and lithium). This creates an atom of helium, a lone neutron, and a lot of energy.

In fact, fusion can generate nearly 4 million times more energy per kilogram of fuel than oil or coal, with no carbon emissions at all. There’s also no long-term radioactivity; only the beta-emitting ingredient tritium, which has a short half-life of just over 12 years. And there’s no risk of meltdowns, as fusion reactions can’t sustain themselves outside of a reactor.

It’s a lot safer than fission. But it’s also far more difficult to achieve.

Major developments are paving the way for fusion on earth

To make fusion reactions happen, scientists need to overcome deuterium and tritium’s natural electromagnetic repulsion. For that, they need to create a huge amount of heat and pressure.

Currently scientists are looking at two key methods to achieve this: magnets and lasers. And recently there have been major breakthroughs in both.

South Korea’s electromagnetic tokamak

South Korea’s “Artificial Sun” is a type of fusion reactor called a tokamak. It’s a donut shaped device that uses magnetic coils to create the intense conditions needed for nuclear fusion. These magnets produce a twisted magnetic field, causing deuterium and tritium atoms to collide and creating energy that heats the walls of the reactor. This heat can then convert water to steam which powers turbines and generates usable electricity.

In 2022, the Artificial Sun sustained a temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius for 30 seconds, and the team are aiming for 5 minutes by the end of 2026. It’s an unimaginable temperature. To put it into context, the centre of the Sun is only a puny 15 million degrees Celsius.

The lasers of America’s National Ignition Facility

In the US, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has used lasers to achieve the first ever net energy gain from nuclear fusion. Physicists fired 192 lasers at a target chamber containing deuterium and tritium, causing a huge implosion of energy that forced the atoms to fuse and release energy.

To be useful to humanity, the energy produced needs to be greater than the energy put in. And the US team has now achieved this not just once, but four times.

Nuclear fusion could be the future of clean energy

Nuclear energy is gaining traction worldwide. It was formally specified as one of the solutions to climate change in the COP28 agreement, and many governments are now pledging more funding for nuclear research.

Current fusion science is a far cry from the cold fusion controversies of the 20^th century, and every new development gets us closer to achieving a clean, carbon-free, and near-infinite energy source.

I’m fortunate enough to get to write about electrification and renewable energy in my work at Radix, and it’s so exciting to think that one day – albeit in a few decades – I might be writing about fusion energy in the same way.

If you’re a bit of a physics geek like me, and curious to learn more about nuclear fusion, the International Atomic Energy Agency is a great place to start.

What is synthetic data? And why should B2B marketers care?

Posted on February 19, 2024October 7, 2025 by George Reith

Like so many next-big-things, the generative AI wave is towing a host of cottage industries in its wake. One of the most fascinating is the synthetic data industry.

I think it’s worth the attention of any B2B tech marketer because it reveals the complex challenges, opportunities, and risks of generative AI in microcosm – and because the best content about AI acknowledges and navigates that complexity.

Synthetic data: a solution to AI’s biggest obstacles

All AI models must be trained on extensive data. And the more general the task, the greater the variety and volume of data the model needs before it can respond with accuracy and confidence.

But collecting data volumes from the real world poses several issues:

Sourcing huge amounts of data is time-consuming and really expensive.
It can be hard to find data on uncommon or edge-case scenarios (think MRI scans of rare medical conditions or images of a machine experiencing a one-in-a-million fault).
There are privacy and copyright issues with using certain online datasets (such as data gleaned from social media platforms).
Data produced by humans can carry human biases.

Synthetic data promises a solution to many of these problems. Unlike conventional data used to train AI models, synthetic data is artificially generated, so it isn’t bound by the confines of reality.

For example, if you were training an AI to assess fuel efficiency across different commercial aircraft, you could use synthetic data generated by flight simulators instead of collecting real-world aircraft telemetry data from hundreds of flights.

By creating artificial data at scale, you can get more data at a lower cost without the copyright complications or biases of human-generated data. And you can also design datasets covering phenomena seldom seen in real life.

Synthetic data’s ability to remove all these roadblocks is so great that last summer, Gartner predicted 60% of data for AI will be synthetic by 2024.

The use cases unlocked by synthetic data

Computer vision models, which need training on large volumes of high-quality images, have been one of the first forms of AI to benefit from synthetic data. But there are many other use cases for synthetic data in its many forms, including:

Genomic data to train AI healthcare solutions on rare diseases – without breaching patient confidentiality.
Images of different (and potentially unreleased) products to train automatic defect recognition on manufacturing lines.
Financial records to develop fraud detection systems without using personal financial information.

Whatever task you want to train an AI model for, it’s likely that synthetic data can help make that process faster, more consistent, and cheaper.

The risk of AI eating itself

With so many use cases for synthetic data, there’s naturally a lot of demand. And one way to meet that demand is… with the help of generative AI. We’re already seeing some vendors working to build a closed loop for AI – where generative AI creates synthetic data that’s then fed into other AI models.

But this Ouroboros model of AI has its critics. When researcher Jathan Sadowski looked into the phenomenon, he found models that were “so heavily trained on the outputs of other generative AIs that [they] become an inbred mutant”.

A consumer-facing model spouting nonsense might, at worst, damage a brand’s reputation. But such degradation in a model designed to detect security risks for IT systems or cancerous cells in medical imaging could have catastrophic effects.

The implications for B2B tech companies and marketers

We’re still in the early days of this new generation of AI and the synthetic data that will support it. And with the major NASDAQ staples investing heavily in the space, any problems will have serious resources and talent thrown at them until they’re resolved.

So perhaps in the future, we will have something approaching a synthetic data utopia that leads to unfathomably powerful AI. But for now, we have a fork in the road that everyone in the B2B technology sector must navigate carefully.

Any story about synthetic data must be embraced with positivity and the hope that it will crack the code of training society-enhancing AI models. But we must also be ready to ask the most pressing questions about how synthetic data production can scale. And the level of scrutiny must be dialled up as generative AI and synthetic data training increasingly come into contact with critical, high-risk sectors like healthcare, education, and government.

More importantly, B2B tech marketers must be ready to openly discuss these challenges in any content that speaks about synthetic data and generative AI. Our audience is clever, connected, and very comfortable managing risk. They won’t be put off by an acknowledgment of the potential pitfalls and challenges in the field. In fact, they may find the honesty refreshing and ultimately trust the message and the brand behind it all the more.

Podcast 89: B2B copywriting tools, tips and tricks

Posted on October 28, 2020May 27, 2025 by The Radix Team

In this episode of Good Copy, Bad Copy, we’re talking about copywriting tools, tips and tricks to make you a better B2B writer.

Our guest co-host, Radix copywriter and content lead Katy Eddy, speaks with Julia Pierce from Literature and Latte about whether a writing tool like Scrivener might be a serious alternative to Word. And four writers share what they learned at this year’s Copywriting Conference.

Plus, a Deputy Chief Information Security Officer gets brutally honest in the Anonymous Five, and we need your help to find the best B2B content of 2020.

Where professional copywriting meets creative practice

What can creative writing pursuits teach us about professional copywriting? Lots, it turns out. And here’s the surprising thing: that learning flows both ways. The habits and disciplines of the day job can make creative work more effective too.

But when it comes to software, most B2B copywriters consider Microsoft Word as the de facto tool of the trade (in fact, we have a whole blog post about Word v Google Docs). Specialist writing tools like Scrivener can often be seen as the preserve of novelists, screenwriters, and other creative types. But in our feature interview this month, Julia Pierce explains why that might not always be true.

Especially if you’re writing an ebook, a white paper, or any other piece that involves organising multiple reference sources, it a change of tool could be just the thing to help you see the big picture among the details.

(Also: if you’d like to know any more about NaNoWriMo, and how it can help you to write faster, you’ll find Katy’s blog about that here.)

What we learned at CopyCon: perfectionism, persuasion, reviews

Kudos to ProCopywriters for using the switch to digital events as an excuse to make the Copywriting Conference bigger than ever. At Radix, we got several writers involved in the training, as well as the day itself. Have a listen, and you’ll hear what they learned:

George shares how to harness systematic and heuristic decision-making
Lizzie reveals a coping method to overcome the perfectionist’s fear response
Ben muses on the importance of sharing with writers from other backgrounds
Kieran suggests you might want to ditch tracked changes, and have a call instead

The Anonymous Five: Deputy Chief Information Security Officer

In this month’s “Anonymous Five”, we get a brutally frank perspective from a Deputy Chief Information Security Officer (or DCISO for short), at a large US real estate firm.

Basically, if you write or commission cybersecurity content, you need to hear it.

(Thank you to our anonymous DCISO. We’ve donated to the charity of your choice: the mental health charity MIND.)

Here’s what you will find in this episode…

2.10 – Katy explains why everyone should be grateful to Goths

9.05 – Julia Pierce shares some of the more surprising uses for Scrivener

24.30 – Katy reveals which B2B content projects might benefit from new software

28.49 – Four Radix writers share what they learned at the Copywriting Conference

40:18 – The Anonymous Five: Deputy Chief Information Security Officer (DCISO)

Send us your thoughts, feedback, and favourite B2B content

In particular, we want to know about the best piece of B2B content you’ve seen this year.

How to listen

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

Credits

Thanks to Julia Pierce for your time and insights. We’ll definitely be giving Scrivener a go in the office, and we’ll let you know how we get on.

Thanks also to our anonymous DCISO, and all the speakers and trainers at this year’s Copywriting Conference. In particular Tim Fidgeon, Jo Watson, Honor Clement-Hayes and Hinrich Von Haaren.

Podcast editing and music by Bang and Smash.

What’s the big idea?

Posted on November 13, 2018May 22, 2025 by Steve George

Great content starts with a big idea. It’s the thing you want to say that nobody else has the experience, authority, or guts to talk about. It’s your unique perspective on the world you operate in. It’s your story.

The trouble is, when you’re operating in a crowded market – like, say, B2B tech – that angle isn’t always easy to find. You might have plenty to talk about, but still you may find you’re lacking that all-important hook that’s going to differentiate you from the crowd.

Similarly, you may find that you just don’t know enough about what others are saying and talking about to see where your unique opinions, viewpoints and messages lie.

But fear not. I’ve helped quite a few B2B tech companies find and develop their big idea, and I’m going to share some tips to help you do the same.

What do you think you do better than anyone else?

You might have a perfectly rehearsed elevator pitch for what your organisation does, and hopefully you understand which elements of your messaging resonate best with your target customers. But when it comes down to it, what’s the one thing your business really does best?

It’s a far more difficult question to answer than many people expect. It forces you to really get to the essence of what you do differently – and often, once you get there, the answer appears far less exceptional or exciting than you really want it to be.

Think about a huge global tech company for example. They’re built on a history of innovation, but today the cloud services they provide look pretty similar to the offerings of their competitors. It may transpire that the one thing they do better than the rest of their market is guiding and serving customers.

Every marketer in that company wishes with every fibre of their being that their tech was in some way superior to that of their competitors. But in this case, it’s not. There’s no unique story there. The thing they can really speak about with authority is the value of guidance and customer service – a concept that to most won’t seem very exciting at first glance.

But ultimately, the thing you do best is going to form the basis of your big content idea – assuming your customers actually agree with it.

What do your customers think you do better than anyone else?

New research from the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs shows 58% of B2B content marketers don’t talk to customers when they’re planning. That’s crazy.

When it comes to planning and creating content, interviewing your customers is one of the most valuable things a copywriter like me can do. Often, the positive thoughts and feelings they have to share about your products or services are remarkably different from what you’ll find in your sales team’s pitches.

Customers have a unique perspective on what it really is that your business does differently, because they see the context of your market – and they choose you. So if you’re struggling to find your own unique story to tell, it’s worth talking to them directly.

And similarly, if you think you’ve found your own big story to tell, you’re going to want to run it past some existing customers to make sure it rings true, before you push ahead with building a content program around it.

What are your competitors saying?

Once you’ve built a balanced picture of what you do best, your head will hopefully start filling with exciting ideas for stories and content you could create. But before you push that button, it’s worth checking out what your competitors are saying.

Maybe they’re not saying anything particularly special or inspiring, but its important to understand the nuances of the conversation, so you can stand out.

Firstly, it’s important for ensuring that what you want to say truly is unique. Secondly, it’s going to give you an idea of the sorts of myths and misconceptions that others are perpetuating that you may want to dispel as part of your big idea.

Where is your business (and your market) heading?

Looking at what’s happening today is important, but your big idea is going to fuel your content plans for (hopefully) months to come. The things you do right now may form the basis for it, but to some degree it also needs to be future-facing.

Do you anticipate major changes in your market over the coming years? Is your product strategy likely to change for any reason in the coming months? And if the answer to either of those questions is yes, why is that?

If you’ve identified changes that your business needs to react to, you’ve also identified valuable topics that you can start discussing in your content today – these are your best opportunities to own a significant conversation in your market.

Big ideas push you towards your best content

Whatever your big idea turns out to be – whether it’s a tough truth your market doesn’t discuss, or a big change that you think is going to impact your market or your customers – having one is going to help you build better content.

At the most basic level, coming up with a big idea forces you to think critically about which subjects are really worth discussing in depth. It keeps you away from creating content for content’s sake, and ensures a level of consistency across everything you produce.

Your big idea isn’t the only thing that your content will explore and discuss, but it is the thread that should tie all of your content together. As little ideas come and go, look at them through the lens of your big idea – identifying ways of exploring emerging topics and hot trends in a way that complements and aligns with the core of your content marketing efforts.

We asked, they answered: copywriting for B2B social media

Posted on September 30, 2019May 22, 2025 by Steve George

It’s understandable that clients often ask us for social media advice. We write social posts, and much of the B2B content we write gets shared online. But we’re always acutely aware that we’re only copywriters, and social media is a fast-moving field, with expertise and best practice all of its own. We can write you a great LinkedIn article, but we can’t tell you how you should use it.

So we were delighted when we were joined by social media expert Kate Stoodley from Comment Ground for episode 71 of our podcast. It gave us a great chance to ask all our most burning questions – but there was still loads more we (and our audience) wanted to know.

And so the idea for this pair of head-to-head blog posts was born.

B2B copywriters and social media specialists approach similar challenges in very different ways and contexts. There’s so much we can learn from one another. So, why not put each other on the spot with a handful of hard-hitting questions, and shine some light on what each side really wants to know about the other?

Here’s how Kate responded to the B2B copywriting inquisition. If you’d like to see how I answered Comment Ground’s questions, keep an eye on their blog: the Comment Ground Commentary. This blog’s twin will be appearing soon!

Question 1: How does the length of copy on a B2B social post affect its performance, and are there any clear trends in the data? (Also, how many hashtags is too many?)

Kate: There are many factors to consider when thinking about social post length; data and trends, the channel, the topic, the goal and of course the intended audience. While it’s absolutely worth considering best practices and guides (like this comprehensive one from Hootsuite), it’s equally if not more important for B2B companies to test, test and test again to determine what performs best for their content, audience and networks.

Across most social channels right now, there’s one clear trend emerging – that less is most definitely more. On LinkedIn, recent data found that shorter updates outperform longer ones, with 16-25 words being a general goal for B2B. Brevity also still rules on Facebook, where posts with approximately 40 characters receive 86% more engagement than their lengthier counterparts.

Interestingly, despite upping the character limit from the infamous 140 to 280, shorter tweets (100 characters and under) also still typically perform best. Hashtags can be used more liberally on this network – though we’re seeing marketers’ focus shift to quality over quantity, even on this rapid-fire platform, and especially for B2B.

Question 2: There’s a perception among copywriters that social channels are a good place to test the limits of a brand’s voice and tone. Is that fair, or is it better to be consistent with other copy?

Kate: Social is definitely a prime arena for testing brand voice and tone limits. In fact, we recommend crafting a social-specific voice to many of our clients. Simultaneously though, we also advise our B2B clients to ensure they keep the focus on what their customer wants, and how they prefer to be communicated with.

It’s tempting to view social as an opportunity to let the creative juices flow, and while that can be true, most B2B buyers aren’t looking for brands to stray too far from their core offering/messaging/style. Most B2B buyers report wanting to feel understood and in good hands – and to be able to quickly recognize a brand’s post.

Question 3: What things are B2C brands doing in social that B2B hasn’t caught onto yet? Can B2B ever be on the same level as B2C in social, given the personal nature of the channel?

Kate: To answer the second question first – Yes! B2B brands can be on the same level as B2C in most ways. However, B2B brands should not aspire to do something just because B2C can.

In terms of the personal nature of social, B2C brands are still definitely quite a way ahead of B2B. Generally, they’re doing a better job of personalizing copy and posts to resonate with consumer buying habits and different personas. However, we are starting to see exciting B2B personalized social content emerging, largely thanks to ABM’s rise in popularity.

B2C brands’ visuals tend to garner lots of attention. For B2B brands, the volume and quality of data at their fingertips presents an exciting opportunity to do the same. By grabbing a stat that their audience is really interested in and presenting it in a compelling way, B2B brands can create engaging visual social content that feels just as fresh as what B2C is doing.

Lastly, B2B is still in the early stages of effective employee and C-Suite social programs. Despite an almost over-abundance of thought leadership content and talk, there’s still a huge opportunity for B2B brands’ subject matter experts, sales teams, C-level leaders and other associates to showcase their brand’s culture and messages personally, in a way that will resonate with various target segments. After all, the people behind brands is where successful social is heading, regardless of industry.

Once again, we’d really like to thank Kate for her time and input. If you’d like to hear more from her, check out Good Copy, Bad Copy Episode 71, or visit the Comment Ground Commentary page.