Category: The Blog

5 questions you should ask a B2B copywriter (but few marketers do)

Posted on by The Radix Team

The proof is in the pudding, sure. But when it comes to copywriting, ability and trust need to be established and proven – usually, long before any copy has been written.

Over the past few months – in various meetings and phone calls – several prospective clients have asked us to provide previous examples of our work. And rightly so. As a marketer, you’re trusting a copywriter with more than just your budget; we’re often writing your innermost secrets and assets. You want to be 100% certain we’re going to do a great job.

But lately we’ve seen an increasing number of people asking about the writers themselves. What’s their experience? What kind of content formats do they prefer? And does more than one writer work on a particular project?

These are all excellent questions. So, I’ve decided to answer them – and suggest a few more. If you’re choosing a copywriter (or copywriting agency, in our case), here are some things you might want to ask before you take the plunge… and what the right answers should be.

“How current is this portfolio?”

Think of all the writers’ websites you’ve visited that list big, international clients – pretty impressive, huh? Well, that list wasn’t created by accident, because let’s be honest, who’s going to brag about writing copy for an exchange-and-mart ad?

But what are the chances that the writer still works for those clients? Or even that they’ve worked for them in the past 10 years? Often, the correct answer is very, very low. And even if a writer has written for the likes of Oracle, or Salesforce, or Adobe, what use is that, unless the piece saw the light of day?

(And yes, these are all brands we’ve written for. This week. And we’re more than happy to direct you to examples of our work in the real world.)

This is precisely why asking to see previous client work is vital. Not only will it give you a good idea of a writer’s raw capabilities, but it’ll also give you a good view of how often they work for a particular client. (The date the piece was published is a big giveaway.)

At the same time, though, bear in mind that the writer or agency has likely signed a non-disclosure agreement, which will limit aspects of what they can and can’t tell you. And as much as the writer may want to work with you, their first duty is always to meet their obligations to the client.

“What’s your writing ‘sweet spot’?”

While a writer having experience in your sector is helpful, it’s not the be-all and end-all… especially if your aim is to sound different from your competitors. So you should also ask for evidence of the writer’s ability to write in a voice and style that’s close to what you want – even if it’s about another subject entirely.

At Radix, for example, we specialise in B2B technology – but our writing experience is pretty varied.  As I glance around the office right now, I can see a former games journalist, blog writer, PR writer and engineering writer. And that’s not including my background in ecommerce and B2C tech.

That variety of experience means we have writers who are specialists in different styles, topics, and formats. That’s important because it helps us to match the right writer to each project.

You might want an educational white paper on service mobility, for example, or an agenda-setting blog post on the future of HR technology, or a quirky video script about an aspect of IoT. Having specialists in different styles and formats means you get the best-equipped writer for the job, without sacrificing consistency.

“What’s included in the price?”

It’s the elephant in the room, and for some reason, it’s still taboo. But it’s important and can be a barrier to working with someone. This is – quite literally – the money-shot.

Too expensive, and you’re left wondering what you’ll get for the money. Too cheap, and you’ll be wondering if you’ll get anything usable at all.

But like it or not, price can often be the clincher, regardless of how good the copywriting is. And that’s exactly why we have a price list – and why we quote for every job upfront. Our prices always include research, briefing calls, writing, internal review, and two rounds of reasonable amends, so nothing’s hidden – and there are no unpleasant surprises.

“Why are you calling me so often?”

We’ve all experienced the hard sell. Whether it’s for a mobile phone contract, PPI compensation, or car insurance, it’s a sure fire way to turn someone off.

If a writer is pestering you for work, by phone or email, there are two options: either you’re genuinely a company they really, really want to work with (and that does happen – we all have our own secret list of dream clients), or they’re not as busy as they might be.

As good writers are usually booked to the hilt, a constant stream of calls could be a sign that your would-be writer isn’t quite as great as they make out.

“Is this going to work out, long term?”

Ultimately, you’ll get the best work from a copywriter or agency who’ll get to know your business over a number of projects. So if you think you might have found a true copywriting partner, take the time to discuss your objectives in depth – because if the fit isn’t right, it isn’t right.

(And in our case, we’re never precious about recommending someone else, if we think they’re better suited.)

If you like the sound of the way we work, and you’re interested to know more, feel free to give us a call on 01326 373592 or email us at [email protected]. (And don’t be shy to ask for examples of our work; we’ll be more than happy to send you some.)

 

When copywriters show their working, everybody wins. Here’s why.

Posted on by The Radix Team

Notes:

  • Hi David. Below you’ll find the copy for my next Radix blog post.
  • As agreed, it discusses why I often include notes at the start of my copy documents, explaining how I’ve responded to the brief and the key decisions I’ve made along the way.
  • It’s a bit shorter than our usual posts – but I’d rather keep it to the point than pad it out unnecessarily.
  • Other than that, there shouldn’t be too many surprises – though as you’ll see, I’ve opted for a rather meta opening. It might be a bit much. See what you think.

A great piece of writing is built on great decisions.

Decisions like: “I’ll put these product features in a sidebar, so they don’t ruin the narrative flow”, or “I’ll drop the retail message, because we’ve such limited space, and it’s only relevant to half our audience”.

A good writer will put a lot of thought into these decisions. But when you – as an in-house Marketing Manager, or an Account Manager at a marketing agency – open up the copy they’ve submitted for you to review, you won’t see that thought at all.

You’ll dive into the copy, and surface, sometime later, with a host of questions. Questions like: “Why are the product features in a sidebar?”, and “Where’s the retail message we included in the brief?”

That’s why, for years now, I’ve been adding notes at the top of my copy documents explaining my rationale in creating the piece.

Why it’s great for me as a copywriter

This transparency is great for me in a number of ways:

  1. It forces me to understand exactly why I’m making the decisions I’m making. And that makes me a better writer and editor.
  2. It helps reassure the client I’m writing for that a professional, experienced copywriter has really engaged with their brief. Instead of some copy in a word doc, they see something crafted by human being who has their best interests at heart.
  3. It gives me a chance to foreground any tough decisions I’ve made, and quickly set out the logic behind them.

Why it’s great for our clients

Our clients benefit from these explanations too.

  1. If I’m writing for a marketing agency, the Account Manager can use my notes to help frame the copy when they share it with their client.
  2. If I’m writing directly for a B2B technology company, the Marketing Manager can use my notes to help frame the copy when they share it with any other stakeholders – e.g. the product team.
  3. Whoever’s reviewing my copy, the notes put them in a better position judge the work, and feedback quickly and to the point.

To sum up…

Where a cold copy document can quickly become the basis of confusion and suspicion, a document with a few intelligent, relevant notes at the start is more likely to foster understanding and respect. Communication flourishes. Projects get signed off faster. Everybody wins.

That’s why including notes – where they’ll be helpful – has just become Radix policy.

At least, that’s what we agreed this morning in our Writers’ Meeting.

And now I’ve announced it in this blog post, for all our clients to read, so…

Want to write great landing pages? Follow these three simple rules…

Posted on by The Radix Team

Here at Radix, we write a lot of landing pages for clients. And yet, after five minutes of Googling “landing pages”, I noticed that every link had something in common: they all focused on design – and not the copy.

To me, this is alarming because it means there are countless people creating landing pages based solely on design, and not giving a fig about the content that’ll actually drive people to take action. You know, the stuff that people actually read once they land on your page.

I’m not saying design isn’t important, but with a landing page, you have 200-300 words (and very little retail space) to get your message across well enough that someone will click on your call to action.

Design alone won’t create conversions, no matter how great it might be.

What can create conversions is asking these three essential questions before writing (or briefing a writer on) your landing page.

1 – What’s the purpose of your page?

The sole purpose of a landing page (in B2B marketing at least) is to act as a portal for what you actually want a user to do.

This could be a simple call to action for a bigger piece of content or a gated contact form that’s the barrier between customers and assets.

All too often though, brands send people from an email or advert to their homepage, or worse, a page that has nothing to do with what they clicked on. And the result? Users will simply drop off your site without a second thought.

The reason? You didn’t deliver what you promised.

Getting a user to click through to your site is difficult – I mean really difficult. So if they’ve given you the time of day to hear what you have to say, you need to make sure it matches up with what you do next. You need to actually send them to the content you promised, preferably hosted on a clear, concise landing page.

Do this, and you’re more likely to keep your audience on your website, and capture their contact details.

2 – Where does your traffic come from?

You now need to consider how people will land on your page. There’s two reasons for this: the content needs to reflect where they’ve just come from, and it also tells you how committed and well-informed your reader is when they arrive.

The two main types of page we tend to write are for email campaigns and advertising/pay-per-click campaigns.

Email landing pages

Generally speaking, an email campaign will consist of many different levels, depending on where the buyer is in the funnel.

More and more emails are using call to actions as a way of driving people to a specific landing page. But this click is like gold-dust. So once you’ve captured people, you need to do your very best to prevent them dropping off your website.

Adverts/PPC

This is where many brands fall foul. If you’re not pointing your adverts towards relevant landing pages, you’re not just going to get high drop off, but you’ll also likely annoy a lot of people.

And they might need more information and persuasion than an email landing page, because ad copy is generally a lot shorter. As a rule of thumb, an ad landing page does the heavy lifting… an email landing page mostly needs to avoid getting in the way.

Remember: if someone’s keen enough to click on your advert, the least you can do is tailor your landing page.

3 – What do you actually want to say?

This is the bit where you keep your copy brief. Usually, the bulk of what you want to say is contained in the asset you’re promoting, so you simply need to give teasers here and point people towards it.

Here, a snappy title that lures the reader in is key. It doesn’t need to be clever or a play on words – in fact, the quicker it gets to the point, the better. Your messaging needs to be engaging enough to pull the reader towards your call to action, but brief enough to keep their interest.

Help your customers land feet first – every time

Ask yourself these simple questions, and you can save yourself a lot of stress with your landing pages.

As long as you nail your title, keep it brief, and treat every click with respect, you’ll be driving shed loads more traffic deeper into your website in no time.

As it happens, we do this content wtiting every day, and we’re pretty good at it. So, if you’d really like to take the stress out of your landing pages, feel free to get in touch. We’ll happily chat through your options.

B2B website copywriting: why it’s all about your customer

Posted on by The Radix Team

The customer is always right.

It’s a mantra that’s stood businesses in good stead for centuries. But its meaning goes far beyond the customer service advisor nodding along while being shouted at by a customer.

In B2B today, websites are usually the business battleground. With so many alternatives a click away, you have to get it right to stay competitive. And here too, the customer (or the reader) needs to come first.

So why do so many B2B sites manage to get it wrong?

In the copywriting world, we’re used to hearing horror stories of businesses that start new website projects from a design point of view, and end up neglecting the copy altogether. The result is a completely new website in appearance, but with the same old copy or, worse, copy that was hastily cobbled together at the end of the project.

Content like that is always going to let your customer down.

In an interview for Business Reporter, Good Growth’s James Hammersley used the M&S failed website reboot of 2013 and its 8.1% drop in sales, to highlight the perils of failing to put the customer first. He states the answer to creating better websites is rarely a technology issue – or even a new website altogether.

It’s thinking about your customer. And often, that’s a writing thing.

So to avoid a costly nightmare before undertaking any web copy project, ask yourself these nine vital questions (they’re taken from David’s Nine Sacred Principles of Badass B2B Web Copy):

Question 1: What are we trying to achieve?

Think of any website you truly admire. I’ll hazard a guess and say it’s simple, informative, and gets to the point – right? It tells you exactly what you’re looking for, with minimal effort on your behalf. That’s the essence of great web copy.

At each stage you need to ask yourself: “so what?”. It’s a really good way of checking your copy and you’ll likely highlight anything unnecessary. If you find something that doesn’t help you achieve your goal, get rid of it straight away.

And one last thing: doing something because your competitors are doing it isn’t a good enough reason. Make sure all your decisions are backed up by experience, data, and a clear sense of purpose.

Watch: The First Principle of Badass B2B Web Copy – Clarity.

Question 2: What does the customer want to read first?

You’re not special. There, I said it.

And neither’s your website. Given that there are currently… [Googles]… 1.3 billion websites in the world, chances are at least some of them do exactly what you do.

So when someone finds one of your pages, what’s the first thing they see? Lots of copy? Stock photos? Aspirational words? If you don’t know already, that’s a big red flag.

Why? Because what’s important to you may not be important to your visitors. And if you don’t grab their attention within the first line, you’ll likely lose them to one of those other sites. For good.

So think about where your visitor has arrived from (perhaps Google, a social share, or another referring page). This tells you what they’re expecting to find… and you can use that thought as the basis for your copy brief.

And remember, keep it simple.

Watch: The Second Principle of Badass B2B Web Copy – Focus

Question 3: What does the reader truly care about?

Or more precisely, what are their problems, and how can they begin to overcome them?

Simply, it’s not all about you. In fact, it’s not about you whatsoever. You need to speak your customer’s language and talk how they talk.

That’s easier said than done because, let’s be honest, you’re programmed to believe your product or service is the best. But you need to keep quiet about that (for now at least).

Instead, you need to demonstrate that you understand the reader’s issues, and that you have solutions.

Watch: The Third Principle of Badass B2B Web Copy – Perspective

Question 4: What information are they really trying to find?

Take a moment to think about your current web pages. Are they pages that you think your customers want, or pages your customers actually want? Often, there’s a big difference – and this is where you need hard data to back up your decisions.

Luckily, there are a couple of simple things you can do to discover what your customers want, without even asking them directly:

Web analytics: find out which pages people predominantly arrive at, and where they go to from there. Also, consider the search engine terms (keywords) they used to get there.

Search: if you’ve got a search box on your site, the terms people have entered into it are a goldmine of information. This will also tell you the kind of words and terminology customers prefer to use, i.e. if you’re not using the words your customers are using, they’re not going to find what they’re looking for.

Indeed, the same principle can be applied to Google. Things like Google Trends can be a treasure trove of insight into the words and phrases people are using when looking for something in particular.

Watch: The Fourth Principle of Badass B2B Web Copy – Kindness

Question 5: What language does our customer use?

Back in the day, copywriters were often given a spreadsheet of “keywords” to smuggle into the copy. And if they were lucky, they’d get this before writing, and not be expected to crowbar them in afterwards.

Thankfully due to a change in Google’s algorithms, keyword-crowbarring is now a rare request (and one we can comfortably decline). It leaves copywriters to instead focus on writing valuable content that strikes a chord with readers.

That’s not to say that SEO and keyword research no longer matter – far from it. We still get the spreadsheets, and they’re still valuable. It’s just that now we use them to help us write for people, not just for Google. Because they tell us the words that your audience can relate to.

Watch: The Fifth Principle of Badass B2B Web Copy – Empathy

Question 6: Do we have something genuine to say?

If you don’t – no matter how hard you try – your audience will see right through you. And remember you for it as well.

You come across examples of it every day. Think about the clickbait links you see at the bottom of genuine online articles. And now consider the poor fool who’s had to write that content because they have nothing constructive or interesting to say.

It’s an important factor when writing copy. No matter how much you want a shed-load of traffic to go to your website, there’s absolutely no point in trying to trick people into coming to it, if all they do when they arrive is shrug, and click “back”.

(Here’s a hint: if you’re thinking “traffic”, and not “reader”, you’re doing it wrong.)

Watch: The Sixth Principle of Badass B2B Web Copy – Integrity

Question 7: How quickly will they get the point?

B2B web copy needs to work on several levels – because that’s how people read.

There’s the five second-skimmer who’ll be fairly random about where they look – focusing on titles, captions and bullet points. But there’ll also be the detailed readers, who want as much information as possible. And everyone in between.

And guess what? Your website copy needs to accommodate every one of them.

Simply, your copy needs to be straightforward and do exactly what it says on the tin. Otherwise it’ll cause confusion and drop off. This also goes for you other copy (print, emails and adverts).

Watch: The Seventh Principle of Badass B2B Web Copy – Consistency

Question 8: What do we want them to do next?

To avoid the risk of visitors dropping off a website, a good copywriter will always give users an escape route from a particular page.

This could be in the form of a call to action or a link to another connected page within the same website. But if the copy just kind of…stops, your visitors won’t see any logical next step or action. They will simply leave.

So what do you do? Simple – have the natural next step in mind from the moment you start writing the copywriting brief.

Watch: The Eigth Principle of Badass B2B Web Copy – Prescience

Question 9: How should we order the site creation?

Think of your website like a big tree. Your homepage is the trunk. And the roots, they’re what feeds it – say, referrals from Google. (Or Bing. Hey, it could happen.) And your leaves and branches? They’re every other page on the site.

It might sound counter-intuitive, but when writing a website, it’s always best to start with the leaves, then the branches. That’s where your bread and butter is – the really granular detail.

Once you know how you’re delivering these arguments, it’s easier see the themes and the highlights, and to be consistent as you work your way back, through the branches, to the trunk.

So if you can, brief your writer on the detail first, then zoom out.

Watch: The Final Principle of Badass B2B Web Copy – Patience

Nine easy steps – simple, right?

Website copywriting projects are seldom as straightforward as they seem. And hitting the mark rarely comes easy.

Websites that appear simple probably look that way because they took the longest to craft and refine. But once you have the basics down, the rest is a process of test and learn – figuring out what works, what doesn’t, and refining accordingly.

If you’re in doubt, think about your reader. In the end, they’re all that matters anyway.

Want more detail? Grab The Nine Sacred Principles of Badass B2B Web Copy. (It’s free, and we won’t even ask you for your email address.)

B2B Content Hall of Fame: how CB Insights created a God-tier newsletter

Posted on by The Radix Team

As a B2B technology copywriter, I regularly part with my email address in return for the chance to look at a research report, eBook – whatever I need to add depth and credibility to the content I’m writing.

The result is an inbox swimming with newsletters from every tech field and industry. (Yes, I know I should systematically unsubscribe. Just like I know I should make myself lunch, instead of hitting Nemo’s.)

Unless they’re relevant to what I’m working on at the second they arrive, most of these newsletters are terminated on sight. But there’s one exception. The newsletter from CB Insights.

I’ll leave that newsletter be. And then, when a brief gets delayed and I find myself with a spare ten minutes, I’ll go and find it, and open it up. Sometimes I’ll even right-click and download the pictures. And then turn my screen towards my colleague, and show them an Amazon patent for a flying distribution fortress. Or a wildly inappropriate data visualisation.

And occasionally, even though I’m far from the company’s target audience, they’ll be something of genuine use to me – or anyone working in the tech sector. Like a neat little guide to Bitcoin and blockchain.

It seems I’m not alone in making an exception for CB Insights’ newsletter. Six times a week, it goes out to nearly 370,000 people – a six times its circulation in 2014.

Here are a few things that, IMHO, the CB Insights is getting very right…

It’s not afraid to be edgy.

CB Insights’ subject lines are short and rarely sweet. Here’s a selection from the last few months:

  • your analysts are wasting $25K
  • depressing bar chart
  •  Silicon Valley petting zoo
  • deathless cars
  • 86 page report – FinTech deals boom
  •  Slack is a waste of time
  • Zelda – sooo popular
  • an IoT butt plug
  • AI kills 10 million jobs
  • Peter Thiel loves millennial blood

Make no mistake: CB Insights wants your attention. It’s more important than taste, decency, and sometimes, even relevance.

That said, the newsletter will rarely serve you up clickbait without delivering something at least slightly nutritious in return, even if it’s just a lesson in how not to conduct a survey:

CB Insights’ boldness is understandable, when you consider every bit of frivolity is underpinned by cold, hard a-b (and in this case, c) testing. And that post – go on, click the link, but come back – leads me to another of their strengths…

It shares genuinely useful stuff.

Remember that blockchain guide I mentioned before? It’s far from the only useful content I’ve received from CB Insights. And I’m not even in the company’s target audience.

If you’re a startup or a venture capitalist, you’ll find predictions, patents, and insights into who and what are being mentioned on public company’s earnings calls.

In addition to this home-spun content, you’ll get a well-curated set of articles from around the internet, all teased in the house style – i.e. with lovingly crafted headers such as ‘Tortoises against bot abuse’.

And, if the edition’s attributed to CEO Anand Sanwal, you’ll always receive something even more useful – the reassurance that someone loves you.

It ropes its readers into making the content.

When you’ve an engaged readership in the hundreds of thousands, you’ve a ready-made research group. CB Insights’ newsletter regularly contains bracketed competitions, designed to gauge reader opinion on hot topics. This provides the company with:

  • Fresh newsletter content for a number of consecutive weeks
  • Another reason to open – will your contender have made it into the next round?
  • Fascinating results…

It’s at a massively unfair advantage. The scoundrels…

As professional a producer, aggregator and analyser of data, CB Insights is in an enviable position when it comes to creating compelling newsletter content.

But that doesn’t diminish the company’s achievement. After all, it’s the tactics it uses – its braveness with tone, its faith in testing and optimisation, the way it expertly mixes the valuable with the laughable, the way it weaponises its readership…  – that make its newsletter game so ridiculously strong.

Oh, and the clever bastards have also made sure it’s staggeringly easy to sign up for. (Yes, you probably should.)

Every month, a different Radix copywriter will nominate a piece of B2B writing for our Radix B2B Content Hall of Fame (essentially a compendium of projects we wish we’d worked on), and explain what makes it work. If you’d like to suggest an inductee, please do get in touch.

The Radix copywriting process: how do we work with our clients?

Posted on by The Radix Team

Entrusting your marketing copywriting to an external party is a big decision – and it’s only natural to have lots of questions about how the work is going to get done, and how the relationship is going to work.

One of the most frequent questions we get asked is about our process for producing a piece of writing work from start to finish. And that’s exactly what I’m going to outline in this blog…

Getting a quote

Before you work with us, you’ll usually want to know how much the work is going to cost. To make that part easy for our clients, we have fixed price lists for frequently-requested content formats like blogs, ebooks, and video scripts. We have one price list for clients that come to us direct, and another for agencies that are looking to get us on board as part of their client work.

As senior account manager Chloe Tidy explains:

“While our price lists don’t offer an exhaustive list of everything we do, they do offer an accurate idea of the content we can produce. If there is something that a client would like us to produce that isn’t on our price lists, we can always create a bespoke quote.”

All of our quotes reflect the time we expect to spend on a project. As standard, this’ll include time for:

  • A briefing call (where required)
  • Any additional desk research to inform the piece
  • A first draft (and, for longer-form pieces, an outline)
  • Review and proofing
  • Two rounds of reasonable amends

The briefing process

How do we get the information for the work we’re going to do? For the sake of narrative convenience, jump into the shoes of one of our regular clients. You’ve worked with us before – on a range of projects from ABM campaigns to web copy – and today, you need a blog for your website.

The blog, which has a working title of ‘The State of Cloud-Native Adoption in Fishmongery’, needs to be written – but to ensure we get it right, you’re going to need to brief us.

In classic ‘choose your own adventure’ style, you have two paths by which you can proceed:

  1. Provide a working title and a description of the desired outcome by email and/or a phone call, asking your dedicated account manager if they have the time to fit the piece into an appropriate writer’s diary. A briefing call will be arranged if there is not sufficient information provided, or the brief is particularly dense.
  2. Use the Radix briefing template to provide a full, written brief for a writer. When you are happy with it, you can send this to your dedicated account manager, who will assign it to the best writer for the job. A briefing call will be arranged if the writer has any questions about the project, preferably with a project lead at your end.

In cases where we are engaging with a new client, or it’s simply our first time tackling a project type, the process is a little more complex.

Senior Account Manager Sarah Gray explains:

“If it’s a complicated topic, or a new client, we’ll run the project by a senior writer to evaluate. If needed, we may also arrange a briefing call with the client before booking in time with the writer. Then, all that’s left before jumping into an outline or a first draft is to send the client a quote and confirm the timeframe for delivery.”

The first draft

So, where are we at? Let’s recap. So far, we’ve:

  • Received word of your new brief
  • Nailed down (figuratively) a writer for the job
  • (Maybe) had a wee briefing call to make sure we have the right info
  • Agreed on a quote and timeframe for delivery

Nice. Everything’s looking good. Now it’s time for our writer, depending on the outcome of the briefing, to either whip up an outline or jump right into the first draft.

With blogs, it’s likely our writer will have everything they need from the briefing (and maybe a little desk research) to begin the first draft. But with other projects – such as case studies or whitepapers – we often write an outline first.

…*Intermission*…

Shiba Inu Dog GIF

Internal quality control

On completion of the first draft, the writer will pass their copy to a content lead or another expert peer to review. This is where the amends process begins (and, in the best-case scenario, ends).

The content lead is one of the most important roles in our entire process. Think of them as your brand guardian, the final hurdle which our writers must leap before the copy lands in your inbox. Internally, we always allocate a content lead for each client. This way, they can build up a wealth of knowledge about you and apply it to the reviewing process, ensuring everything hits the mark.

In our role-play scenario, let’s say the reviewer spotted a non sequitur in the blog’s third and final act. Nothing critical, but enough of a reason to send it back to the writer with comments on how to amend the issue. With the amends made and the reviewer happy, the account manager will send the copy off for you to review.

Reviews and approvals

If the copy hits the spot, what happens next is up to you. If you think it needs some further work, or if the scope of the project has changed, you can let us know and our account manager will arrange for the writer to return to the piece. We can also set up a call with you to clarify the changes required.

As standard, we always include up to two rounds of copy amends in the quote – this way, writer and client alike are guaranteed leeway to tweak the first draft. 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: damn good copy).

Once the copy is finished and approved, our account managers will send you the finished piece. And from there, hopefully the copy can do its thing!

Working with Radix

I hope this blog has answered any questions you may have had about the way we work with our clients, but if there’s anything you’re unsure about (or you have any other questions), please do get in touch on 01326 373592.

 

B2B Content Hall of Fame: making dry subjects engaging at Air Charter Service

Posted on by The Radix Team

Aviation. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but for my turn nominating a piece for the Radix B2B Content Hall of Fame I just had to focus on a 2017 blog post from Air Charter Service.

Bear with me. Because Private Jets of World Leaders perfectly encapsulates how to make a niche product accessible and less intimidating to a wider audience.

What’s more, the blog’s full of plane-pedantry. *Rubs hands*

So here’s why I think it’s a truly great piece of content, and why it works on so many levels. Buckle-up.

Leaders and dictators: they’re just so this year

Take a moment to consider the past 12 months – eventful huh? And at the centre of most stories in the news is a fearless leader, despot, or a mixture both.

Whatever your political views, they’re undeniably captivating. They’re megastars in the world’s most convincing (and terrifying) soap opera. And the way they go about their unusual, high-security lives is – for most people – fascinating.

Take Trump’s Presidential inauguration in 2017. Among the sea of general reporting, there were some interesting articles that surfaced about Air Force One (actually the call sign for the President when he’s airborne, but it generally refers to his aircraft). And even “the Football” (the briefcase containing the nuclear launch codes which never leaves the President’s side).

This is all really interesting stuff. And for me, it broke the monotony of reporting and speculation. But more importantly, people actually learn something about how their democracy works, without feeling like they’re cramming for a test.

So using world leaders as an window into aircraft chartering, is in my opinion, a stroke of genius. And a really effective way of turning a potentially dull subject into excitement, coupled with current affairs.

Missile detection systems? That’s James Bond stuff

So when the writer put Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, and Xi Jinping at the start of the blog, this was no accident. These fun-loving chaps are regularly in the news – almost like a boy band or super-group. Except Boyzone never had weapons of mass destruction…

[Um, have you *heard* “Love Me for a Reason” lately? – Ed]

But seriously, give your tech a human or emotional side, it’s guaranteed to grab attention.

When you’re talking about a leader’s plane for instance, you’re not going to bang on about the size of Trump’s 747, because after all, it’s just a converted airliner. But what you are going to talk about are the anti-missile systems, and the fact it doubles-up as a flying White House during a crisis.

That’s where the key to truly engaging content lies. Tell people something different about a common product – and crucially – something they didn’t previously know.

Close-guarded secrets are fascinating

And it’s at that point where you really draw people in.

If you give people well-researched facts or information they didn’t previously know, or that you really had to dig deep for (like detailed insights), it’ll compel them to read to the very end.

I mean, why does Angela Merkel need a soundproofed negotiation room onboard her Airbus A340-313X VIP? We may never know. But as someone with an interest in aviation, that nugget of information compelled me to find out more, even if it was a quick scan of Wikipedia.

Some people love a chassis number

And some people don’t.

So before you start writing, you need to decide who your content is for. For example, you could write an entire blog post containing acronyms, technical language, and product numbers. But if you’re target audience aren’t engineers or developers, it’ll fail to captivate, no matter how good your writing.

Likewise, if you produce a high-level overview when your audience are product experts, engineers, or general techies, you’ll likely be telling them what they already know and will come across as patronising.

In the case of this piece, they’ve aimed it at quite a high-level audience, presumably to make it easily shareable on social media.

And guess what? That’s exactly how I found it.

Technical writing: it doesn’t need to be dry and boring

Sometimes technical writing needs to be on the less interesting side of content marketing. Indeed, it’s often one of the best ways to get across incredibly in-depth subjects in the most efficient way.

But that’s not to say some of it can’t be fun and engaging. In fact, in a world of content noise that’s notoriously difficult to break through, having a quirky twist on a serious subject may just be the thing that gets your writing noticed.

In the case of Air Charter Service, they’ve clearly realised that writing content solely about their product won’t necessarily attract the attention of their big-bucks target market.

But throw in some tongue-in-cheek current affairs? You’re onto a winner.

Can I make my tech writing fun and engaging?

Of course you can – we’re dab-hands at making tech copy stand out. If you want something special and out of the ordinary, head over to the rest of our blog for more copywriting tips.

B2B Content Hall of Fame: Salesforce’s labours of love

Posted on by The Radix Team

My nomination for Radix’s B2B Content Hall of Fame isn’t a single content piece or campaign. It’s literally everything produced by the one global tech giant that I think gets content absolutely right.

A 20-year success story

In my two decades in B2B tech, I’ve watched Salesforce.com grow from a scrappy startup into the world’s fifth-largest software company, and the first pure-play SaaS vendor to pass the $10bn revenue mark.

In that time, it’s also expanded its software platform far beyond basic sales force automation, to encompass everything from low-code development tools to AI image recognition.

Lots of things have played a part in that success: the SaaS model, the platform approach, the quality of the software, the dynamism of the people, the company’s genuine determination to give back to society.

To that list I’d also add Salesforce’s focus on creating quietly brilliant marketing content.

(Full disclosure: The Radix team has had a tiny role in creating a minuscule proportion of that content, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about.)

Salesforce: Dreamforce

Content that avoids all the usual traps

As a giant global tech firm with a ton of local offices and many marketing teams and agencies scattered around the world, Salesforce could easily fall into any number of traps.

Big B2B tech brands are very prone to all manner of content faux pas: bland content aimed at “everyone”; cheap, jargon-laden pieces churned out for clicks; random acts of content committed by people far removed from Brand HQ; wild inconsistencies in voice and messaging; disengaged briefers and uninspired writers.

But no. Somehow, Salesforce manages to make thoughtful, targeted and consistent – but also lively, engaging and human – content, every day, on an industrial scale.

Four things that make Salesforce content great

Here are four things I think Salesforce content gets right:

1. It’s human

Salesforce content puts people first and technology second. The brand voice is warm and conversational. The brand language speaks to human feelings of aspiration and belonging: Ohana (“family”), Trailblazer, Campground, Dreamforce. Customer stories celebrate real people who are achieving great things – for their employers, for themselves, and for society.

Just look at how this customer video about KONE, the lift manufacturer, focuses not just on the people behind KONE, but also on what the company does for the people who use its products.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cxq7y6zrVU

2. It’s thoughtful

Salesforce content always feels like it’s been crafted for other people to enjoy. That might seem a weird thing to say, because what content hasn’t been created for human beings? Old-school SEO aside, we aren’t yet at the stage where bots are writing content for other bots to read.

But there’s a difference between “creating content” and “crafting content for other people to enjoy”.  Some brands – some writers – just churn stuff out, giving zero thought to the experience of the person at the other end. The result: dull, lifeless content that’s a slog to read or watch.

With Salesforce, I always get the feeling that someone has thought about their audience, and worked hard to create something that will be useful and rewarding for them. The result is content that’s always full of stories, anecdotes, quotes, examples, useful facts and supporting evidence.

Here, for example, is a post I just opened at random off the first page of the main Salesforce blog (which manages to publish around three posts a day, incidentally):

Get the Edge: Why So Many Admins Learn Analytics

Blog excerpt from SalesforceIt’s clear who it’s for (Salesforce admins); it’s focused on people; it talks about the audience’s own professional aspirations, backed up with evidence, and it gives specific, relevant tips to help them achieve it, in a friendly, conversational voice. It’s even formatted considerately, with short paragraphs, bullets, signposting and bolding that makes it easy to read and digest.

Even though this blog is ostensibly about a product (Einstein), this is really content for people, by people, about people. B2B marketers and writers, take note.

 

The B2B Content Audio Blog #1: B2B blog length and pricing

Posted on by The Radix Team

In recent years, changes to search algorithms have started rewarding quality. That’s just one reason why blog posts are getting longer, better researched… and more expensive.

This is the first of our new audio blog series, putting some of our most popular, interesting and useful content into an easy, listenable format.

In it, David recaps his 2017 post: Good news for clients: we’re raising our blog writing prices.

It explains why we’ve added new, longer blog options, and built in extra time to our other posts too. Now that search algorithms reward quality, we want to spend more time creating better thought-out posts.

You’ll also hear about:

  • The six kinds of blog post we write most often
  • The benefits of longer, better-researched content
  • Why the average blog just keeps getting longer

You might also like our longer, monthly discussion podcast Good Copy, Bad Copy: the B2B Copywriting Podcast.

How to listen

For now, you can use the player above, or download the episode here.

UPDATE: you can now subscribe to us on iTunes, and there’s an RSS feed here.

Get in touch

If you find the audio blog format useful (or even if you detest it), we really want to hear from you. Email [email protected], or tweet at us.

Credits

Audio editing: Bang and Smash

Title music: “Chinny Reckon” by the Nye Bevans

Whatever happened to the content marketing heroes?

Posted on by The Radix Team

“Whatever happened to all the heroes – all the Shakespearos?
They watched their Rome burn.”

– The Stranglers: No More Heroes

It it just me, or are there fewer examples of brilliant B2B content marketing than there used to be? Am I imagining it, or has the discipline lost a little of its… zing?

I mean, it very well might just be me. I’ve had a long, long summer full of messaging frameworks and delayed trains to and from London. I could be projecting all of that onto the social feeds I’m reading and the work examples I see.

But if it is true, and people are less excited about content marketing, then it’s a problem. Because without advocates – without that fire of enthusiasm – great B2B content is almost impossible to create.

Is content marketing over?

Inevitably, there’s no shortage of contrarians lining up the obituaries for content marketing. Every “next big thing” has its backlash when marketers discover that, contrary to popular assumption, today’s hot tactic is (whisper it) not actually magic.

In case you haven’t been paying attention, here’s a quick recap:

You get the picture: it’s a regular Infinity War. Ironically, it seems the only tactic which isn’t currently dead, is publicly declaring things dead. (Oops, no: my mistake.)

But if content marketing is on the way out, it seems nobody told the users of Google…

Content Marketing Google Trends

Lack of interest is not the problem. Every year, reports on Content Marketing show B2B marketers plan to maintain or increase their expenditure on the tactic.

So there are still loads of marketers, creating tonnes of content. No, the real problem is, how much of it will be great content?

Why “great” matters in B2B content (now more than ever)

It feels weird that I still need to say this. But somebody has to – and lately, it seems the traditional advocates for brilliant B2B content have been a bit quiet.

So here we go again.

If you’re creating B2B content, there’s no such thing as just “good enough”.

Not any more.

There’s a tonne of content out there, competing for your audience’s attention. And every tweak to Google’s algorithm tips the scales further in favour of quality. So assuming you want to be found, and read, and shared, your stuff needs to be different. More engaging. More relevant. More… amazing.

(And that’s backed by evidence, by the way. Orbit Media’s blogging research shows a clear correlation between time invested and strong results. Meanwhile, 83% of respondents in a CMI/Tomorrow People report attribute their increased success to better content production. This stuff works.)

Sure, there are people on social who will just share any old thing where the title looks halfway decent. And yes, you can take lazy aim at a keyword if that’s what floats your boat. But if those things move the needle on your KPIs, then I can tell you now you’re measuring the wrong stuff.

You don’t get “great” without a fight

So here’s the conundrum.

Now more than ever, successful B2B marketing depends upon outstanding, extraordinary, jawdropping content. The kind of content that takes heroes to deliver. What if it’s happening just at the moment those heroes have started to look elsewhere?

If you’re one of the brightest, boldest, most curious marketers, you’re always looking for the next new thing that can push things forward, and give you an edge. You’re naturally a bit bored by things you’ve done before. That’s what makes you tick. Content marketing isn’t shiny anymore.

But that restless streak – the willingness to challenge the status quo – is also an essential part of delivering truly genius content. Content that is…

Unflinchingly helpful, even when it hurts

Great content answers the questions your clients really ask; not just the ones you wish they would. But in They Ask, You Answer, Marcus Sheridan points out just how revolutionary that idea is, because it involves saying things that everyone in your market assumes are unsayable.

So targeted it’s actually a bit scary

In a content-saturated market, pieces that resonate deeply with a tiny, targeted niche will always beat the vague and generic. But convincing stakeholders to keep their focus that precise takes firm conviction, and nerves of steel.

Utterly, uniquely and unmistakeably yours

Fun Boy Three & Bananarama were right. Well, sort of – it’s what you say and the way that you say it. You should be able to cover up the branding on your content, and still know exactly whose it is – otherwise, why would you bother? That might mean pushing your content, or your voice, into territory it hasn’t been before. Speaking plainly. Sounding different from the crowd. Using a massive four-letter word for your title (OK, that last one’s already been done – but seriously, can you imagine anyone but Doug Kessler doing that back in 2013? That’s the point.)

Stuff like that works precisely because it’s a little rebellious. It goes against the grain, and that’s why you notice it. But it doesn’t just happen; it involves a degree of (somewhat calculated) risk. Somewhere along the line, a marketer needs to take a deep breath, and change something.

Can great content EVER be “business as usual”?

And that’s the rub. Content marketing needs rebels, while the approach itself is becoming ever more established. Maybe it’s no coincidence that this is the moment when  some of the biggest content evangelists have started to sell to big business, and enjoy a hard-earned step back.

So now B2B marketers face two choices. You can make your content “business as usual”, streamline your processes, and use efficiency gains to offset gradually diminishing returns. Or you can take that calculated risk, and shake things up.

Because even though content marketing is a mainstream tactic, the most effective B2B content is still a little subversive at heart.

What does that mean? If we can’t have our heroes back, we need some new ones to step up. Marketers who are willing to look at content in a fresh way. To ask what’s possible, and what customers really need, rather than just which boxes need to be ticked this quarter.

The stage is all yours.

“This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

– Winston Churchill