Category: Radix Podcast

Podcast 47: Chatbots and virtual assistants are still young – it’s down to copywriters to help them grow up

Posted on by The Radix Team

We’ve all seen the media hype about how robots are going to take over the world like SKYNET. But while some people may worry about Arnie turning up at their door, copywriters need to stay grounded and focus on making chatbots genuinely useful through great copy.

Chatbots and virtual assistants (VAs) might be new, but the theory behind them has been a big part of websites, search and gaming for decades.

Think of a chatbot or VA as an elaborate search bar on a website. You ask it questions, it finds the answer and fires it back to you in the blink of an eye. But what if I use the word pants instead of trousers? (I hear you ask). This is exactly what any self-respecting search bar (or chatbot, or VA) should account for and learn from.

In our latest podcast, Emily, David and George discuss all things bot, and where copywriters fit in to this brave new world.

They take a look at:

  • The difference between a chatbot and a virtual assistant
  • Top tips for writing for chatbots and VAs
  • Why fun interactions with bots have a serious side
  • Fiona’s interview with tech entrepreneur, Wo King of Hi9
  • The best and worst bots around today

Disclaimer: As Chatbot Champion (yes indeed!) for Radix, George has come up against a fearsome array of bots. Cortana tried to defend herself and Alexa refused to comment – so if this podcast goes a bit Jeremy Kyle, don’t blame us.

Download the episode here; right-click and use “save as” to download. Or listen in the player at the top of the page.

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

Alternatively: add our RSS to your preferred podcast player.

Music by Industrial and Marine.

Build a bot

Thanks to Samphire Amps, of Electric Dialogue, for pointing us towards Chatfuel.

If you want to send in bot name and personality suggestions, you can email them to [email protected].

Podcast 46: Time to give B2B web copy the attention it deserves

Posted on by The Radix Team

Lately (say, for the last three years or so), we’ve been writing an awful lot of B2B web copy (as opposed to a lot of awful web copy, hopefully). In 2016, it was up 60%. So it’s as good a time as any to talk about what makes B2B web copy work. (We even wrote an ebook about it.)

What’s driving the surge? Could be that mobile web usage has been on the rise since 2013, while desktop use has been slipping. And changes to Google’s search algorithm have been extensive over the past five years, so many enterprises still have to update their online content accordingly.

Undergoing a website refresh is no simple task, but why do so many brands leave web copy to last when it plays such an important role in user experience and SEO? And does it have to be this way?

Join Fiona, David and me as we discuss how to make the most of your web copy, giving it the attention it deserves so it gets the conversions you need.

Listen in now and find out:

  • What’s different about B2B web copy projects
  • Why your homepage should always come last
  • How to plan content around users and not you
  • … and more

Plus: we look at several B2B websites to see what they’re doing right…. or otherwise.

You can download the episode here (right-click and “save-as” to download). Or stream the episode in the player at the top of the page.

(Or you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here. Alternatively, add our RSS to your preferred podcast player.)

Music by Industrial and Marine.

If you’d like to play along, here are the web pages we discuss in this episode…

www.grammarly.com – shared by Giles Shorthouse, The Octopus Group

https://www.topazlabs.com/remask – shared by Joanna Weibe, Copyhackers

https://velocitypartners.com/ – shared by Shelly Lucas, Dun & Bradstreet

http://universe.consignor.com/ – shared by Sean Fleming, Enigma…

…plus one we didn’t quite have time for this episode…

http://www.sdl.com/languagecloud  – shared by Bojan Ambrus, SDL Managed Translation

(Bojan explains that these are landing pages for a marketing campaign, and performed particularly well. We appreciated the puns, and wondered how they’d work for people who weren’t native English speakers… or whether perhaps that’s the point.)

http://sciencecanchangetheworld.org – shared by Paul Hewerdine, Earnest

(Paul says: “This is my favourite B2B site. Its aim is to celebrate the unsung heroes of science, but it is in fact a fine piece of content marketing and community building by a company called DSM (who from what I can gather are scientists for hire used by big brands to do R&D work). Anyway it’s based on a brilliant insight that the science industry is full of bright, passionate people who are out to change the world – but no one’s really championing their cause… until now. The current campaign is essentially a competition to get ‘Bright minds’ to put forward renewable energy solutions – where others can vote on them & the winner gets $100k worth of hours (presumably from DSM) to make it a reality. Real content with a real purpose. Like.”)

Free ebook

If you’d like to get your hands on the ebook we discuss in this episode, you’ll find The Nine Sacred Principles of Badass B2B Web Copy here.

And there’s a Video series available here.

Podcast 45: Is BOFU content sexier than TOFU? Ooft, absolutely.

Posted on by The Radix Team

After a hefty winter break (and far too many of Matt’s yuletide treats), the Radix team are back in action (albeit slightly bloated) for another year of B2B content adventures.

And we’ve been thinking hard this past week about BOFU content –why all the ambivalence towards it? The bottom of the funnel is where all that hard work pays off and the money comes rolling in; what’s not to love?

Case studies, product sheets, implementation guides – for us, these are the poster boys of content marketing. Shexshy.

You probably think we’ve lost our marbles; how can a case study be sexy? But bear with us: check out the latest episode of Good Copy, Bad Copy with Emily, Fiona and David.

Tune in now to discover:

  • Our favourite examples of great BOFU content
  • Why BOFU content is just as glamorous as TOFU
  • At least three actionable BOFU tips
  • The right content to use with a ‘freemium’ signup model
  • Why David is so worryingly attached to Maxon’s latest motor catalogue?

Alongside insightful chatter on Xero’s frankly excellent case studies, Emily and David finally acknowledge Bee Movie and its (totally justified) influence on our writers’ relationship with Slack.

(If you happened to have missed the recent buzz around Bee Movie, born from the internet’s most asinine depths, click here – but be warned, a tolerance for memes is essential.)

Finally, if you’d like to guess how many pages are in the Maxon 2016/17 Motor Program as asked by David (it will make his day if you do), please tweet us @radixcom.

Download the episode here (right-click and “save-as” to download). Or stream the episode in the player at the top of the page.

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

Alternatively: add our RSS to your preferred podcast player.

Music by Industrial and Marine.

Podcast 44: Our roundup of this year’s B2B content marketing predictions

Posted on by The Radix Team

Yes, it’s that time of year where people eat and drink too much, catch up with family and, of course, make wild and ill-advised predictions and wishes about what the next year will bring B2B content marketers and copywriters.

And what could be more seasonally appropriate than a roundup podcast where Fiona, David and Emily reflect on the B2B marketing content predictions we made in 2016, and offer up bold forecasts and Christmas wishes for 2017.

(Turns out a surprising number of our predictions were proved correct this year. Perhaps the most important was about content going longer: research from Andy Crestodina states the average blog post is now over 1,000 words for the first time.)

We also react to a whole bunch of listeners’ predictions and Christmas wishes for 2017 – featuring:

(We’d like to thank everyone who took the time to submit a prediction or wish – we’re sorry we couldn’t use them all.)

Inevitably, there were some wishes and predictions from 2016 that (sadly) did not come to fruition. The word “impactful” still survives, and B2B Expressive Dance has yet to take off as a content medium. Maybe next year…

Download the episode here; right-click and use “save as” to download. Or listen in the player at the top of the page.

(And for anyone struggling to find Doug Kessler a present: Ardbeg. And socks.)

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

Alternatively: add our RSS to your preferred podcast player.

Music by Industrial and Marine.

Ed: If you’re wondering what the header image is – that’s the top of our Christmas tree with a fairy that has John’s face on it.

Podcast 43: Content writer v copywriter – is there a difference?

Posted on by The Radix Team

Does your project need a copywriter or a content writer? Or does it need both? Could you hire one and not the other? Or are they basically the same thing?

These were just some of the questions we were left asking at the November Bristol Content Group’s Big Content Skills Debate, organised by Valuable Content and hosted at The Real Adventure Unlimited.

Clearly, different writers’ strengths suit different tasks. A writer who’s excellent at writing blog posts may struggle with writing an ad, for example.

In the US, copy is often seen as persuasive, sales-focused writing, where content is more informative. Could that same distinction help marketers in the UK to hire the right kind of writer?

Knowledge gap

In this episode of Good Copy, Bad copy, I talk with Fiona and David about this issue, and also the wider subject of The Big Content Debate: the skills gap currently facing marketing.

It includes interviews with:

  • James Ainsworth (Head of Content at The Real Adventure Unlimited)
  • Matt Turner (co-founder of Writers Ltd)
  • Chris Hull (Director of Marketing Communications at RedstoneConnect plc)
  • Sonja Jefferson (Content Marketing Consultant and Trainer at Valuable Content)

Listen now to find out:

  • Are copywriters and content writers suited to different tasks?
  • Is copywriting purely about persuasive writing?
  • Does content marketing try to sell?
  • Are there types of content that marks out content writers from copywriters?
  • What skills are needed for today’s content marketing?
  • How important is collaboration in writing and creating content?
  • … and more

Download the episode here (right-click and “save as” to download). Or listen in the player at the top of the page.

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

Alternatively: add our RSS to your preferred podcast player.

Music by Industrial and Marine.

Podcast 42: What does the 2017 B2B Content Marketing trends report mean for copywriters?

Posted on by The Radix Team

The new 2017 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends report for North America from Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs has already caused discussion about what is and isn’t content marketing.

The report showed that 37% of B2B marketers in the US now have a documented content strategy, a five-percentage point increase from the 2016 report.

(In case you don’t know: I attribute a lot Radix’s own content marketing success to us having a documented content marketing strategy.)

The report also suggested that 39% of US B2B organisations are planning to increase their spending on content marketing over the next 12 months.

And interestingly, certainly for copywriters, was the news that 76% of B2B content marketers in the US are planning to prioritise quality content over the volume of content they produce.

Welcome to the future

There are a host of other insights in the report that are of interest to those of us who work in B2B marketing.

In this episode of Good Copy, Bad Copy, I talk with David and Fiona about what the report’s findings mean for copywriters and marketers.

Listen now to find out:

  • Why case studies may no longer be considered content marketing
  • Could UK content marketers actually be ahead of the US?
  • Whether there’s an identity crisis for white papers and ebooks
  • If B2B marketers killed infographics
  • Why there could be blogs galore in 2017
  • … and more

Download the episode here (right-click and “save as” to download). Or listen in the player at the top of the page.

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

Alternatively: add our RSS to your preferred podcast player.

Music by Industrial and Marine.

Podcast 40: How I made content marketing work for our small B2B business

Posted on by The Radix Team

Google “benefits of content marketing” and you’ll be served up a host of articles explaining why it should be a part of your overall marketing strategy.

But in the four years since I joined Radix, approaches to content marketing have matured and evolved. Today it’s not just enough to be producing content; you need to have three things:

  1. A content marketing strategy to keep you focused
  2. Great content that sets you apart from your competition
  3. Reliable ways of measuring your content’s effectiveness

This may seem difficult, if not impossible, for small businesses to reach for.

I’m here to tell you it isn’t impossible for SMEs to do effective content marketing.

In this episode of Good Copy, Bad Copy, I talk to Fiona about my approach to content marketing for our own 12-person business. I explain how I’ve made content marketing work for Radix Communications since we started our programme in 2012.

Listen now to find out:

  • Why you need a content marketing strategy
  • Which free or low-cost tools you can use to run your content programme
  • Where to find the best content advice
  • How to overcome the challenges of creating good content
  • How to figure out your niche
  • … and more

Download the episode here (right-click and “save as” to download). Or listen in the player at the top of the page.

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

Alternatively: add our RSS to your preferred podcast player.

Music by Industrial and Marine.

Resources

The B2B Content Marketing Workbook from Velocity Partners

How to make an editorial calendar in Trello

Editorial calendar template for Google Sheets

How to use Creative Commons images safely on blogs

Podcast 39: What’s so hard about writing engaging B2B marketing content?

Posted on by The Radix Team

If you haven’t heard already: producing engaging content is the top challenge for 60% of B2B content marketers. The issue is right up there with measuring the effectiveness of content marketing, and just being able to consistently produce enough good content to go into marketing and sales funnels.

Like our founder, Fiona Campbell-Howes, pointed out in B2B Marketing’s Content Marketing Benchmarking Report 2015:

Creating engaging content is a pressure that’s only going to intensify for marketers – especially as the brands with big budgets plough more of their cash into New York Times-style newsrooms and Hollywood-grade videos.

Here at Radix, this is a challenge we have to overcome every day. So in this episode of Good Copy, Bad Copy, Fiona, David and I share our thoughts on why it can be tough to produce engaging content and share our secrets on exactly how we do it.

Listen now to find out:

  • Why good content starts with a good brief
  • The importance of giving your audience something of value
  • Why the way you feel about your project can make or break the results
  • How creating content for the sake of content kills engagement
  • … and more

Download the episode here (right-click and “save as” to download). Or listen in the player at the top of the page.

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

Alternatively: add our RSS to your preferred podcast player.

Music by Industrial and Marine.

Related listening/reading

This Old Marketing episode 139: Most brands failing at customer experience

The attention economy and the demise of the middle ground

Podcast 38: Got content? B2B Marketing Summit 2016 takeaways

Posted on by The Radix Team

For one day in June, The Business Design Centre in London was filled with some of the most experienced and interesting minds in business to business marketing. And we were lucky enough to be there.

With keynote speeches from Joe Pulizzi and Carlos Hidalgo, plus five different session streams: what did we learn at the B2B Marketing Summit?

In this episode of Good Copy, Bad Copy, David, George and I share our personal highlights and favourite B2B content marketing and copywriting takeaways from the likes of Bray Leino, Danfoss, Earnest, OmPrompt, Octopus Group and DSM (you’ll find the video David mentions here).

Listen now to hear us woefully mispronounce various names (sorry!) – and also find out:

  • Why more content doesn’t mean good content
  • How dynamic/intelligent content is still the future
  • What you need to ask before starting a project
  • Why SMEs don’t appreciate being patronised by B2B brands
  • … and more

Download the episode here (right-click and “save as” to download). Or listen in the player at the top of the page.

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

Alternatively: add our RSS to your preferred podcast player.

Music by Industrial and Marine.