Category: The Blog

Funnel!: A brief history of the world’s first content marketing strategy game

Posted on by Steve George

If you’re a very, very lucky person, you may have received an interesting package recently. I am of course talking about Funnel! – the content marketing strategy game that’s been landing on literally tens of desks around the world.

For us at Radix, it’s so much more than a board game. It’s the culmination of more than a year’s work, it’s proof that we can turn our hands to creating just about any type of content and make it great, and it’s a living testament to the diverse skills, ideas and personalities that make our team amazing.

It’s also a project that I’m immensely proud to have been a part of. But, as I sit here marvelling at the finished product in my hands, it’s interesting to reflect on how a team of copywriters went from a single passing comment to a highly playable representation of the industry we work in.

We thought it was time we shared the full story of Funnel! with the world. So if you’re sitting comfortably, I’ll begin.

What a long, strange trip it’s been

It’s February 2014. There’s a spirit of opportunity and possibility in the air. A team of energetic and ambitious copywriters convene to chat about Joe Pulizzi’s book, Epic Content Marketing.

After discussing Joe’s thoughts on “breaking through the clutter”, we started thinking about how we could make some noise of our own. “Why don’t we write a book?” a voice suggested. “But Joe says we need to do something different. We need to make a board game!” Kieran replied. Ever the wit, his comment garnered responses ranging from a chuckle to a sharp exhale. But one person wasn’t laughing.

The sound of a lightbulb pinging on drew everyone’s attention to Fiona, who then uttered the two most dangerous words in the history of mankind: “Why not?”

With a raised eyebrow and a wry smile, I turned to George, offering the kind of knowing look that you used to give your best friend when the teacher said you needed to find a partner. He gave me a single nod in return. Game on.

Avengers assemble!

This was happening. We were going to make a board game. We had the idea and the ambition, we just needed a team that was up to the task. Fortunately, at Radix we have a hugely diverse range of skills and backgrounds. For some of us, it was time to dust off talents that we hadn’t put to use for quite some time.

As some of you may or may not know, Radix is also blessed with a disproportionately large geek population. George has genuine game design experience, Emily has designed, created and consumed a huge volume of game-related content, and I spend every moment of my free time analysing, writing about and playing popular card game Magic: The Gathering at a competitive level.

With skills like that at our disposal, the core game design team shaped up quickly. But creating and publishing a board game is a lot more complex than simply making a balanced game that plays well and feels fun. There were a lot more moving parts to consider.

At our first meeting we pinned down all of the roles that needed to be filled, and dished them out accordingly:

  • George’s game design experience made him a natural choice for Project Leader
  • Emily’s graphic design expertise landed her jobs in both concept art and marketing
  • With the intention of leveraging my connections in the UK tabletop gaming community, I volunteered myself for the role of procurement, budget and logistics manager
  • We decided freelance artists would be responsible for final art designs
  • Because we all had something to contribute to design, the final design team consisted of George, Matt, Kieran, Steve, John, and Emily
  • As guardian of the budget, Fiona oversaw us all as Project Sponsor

With the roles locked down, we set ourselves the ambitious final delivery date of March 31st 2015, giving us a full year to complete the project. Various milestones were laid out along the way, but by that date, we wanted the final product in our hands.

Our newly appointed Project Sponsor Fiona set the project budget at £6,000, ensuring we could deliver a professional-looking final product that feels like something you’d find on a store shelf.

Mapping themes to mechanics

With the formalities out of the way, it was time to have some fun. A series of meetings were scheduled to discuss various formats that the game could take, but the first task was pinning down the messages we wanted it to get across – and coming up with creative ways to do it.

After some discussion, a few key themes and ideas emerged:

Theme #1: Good copy/strong content converts prospects

Luckily the industry already has a recognised way of representing the prospect conversion journey – the funnel! It was decided upfront that player progress in the game would be indicated by moving prospect tokens through the funnel somehow.

Theme #2: The importance of choosing the right writer/team for your content

This was suggested to tie in with Fiona’s wildly – well, moderately – successful blog post (now also a hit stage show) the seven types of B2B copywriter. The message here is that choosing the wrong writer for your content can have terrible, terrible consequences.

We started thinking of a way to translate that into the game, and settled on having players assemble a team consisting of writers, designers, marketers, and support staff, each with their own stats, clearly indicating that they are better at some tasks than others.

Theme #3: Representing and responding to key industry trends

As content marketers, we are driven by trends and changes in popular thought. We wanted the gameplay of our board game to be altered by major events in the industry, and by key trends and concepts such as Mark Schaefer’s theory of Content Shock.

We decided that these were best represented in two different ways:

  • Named panels around the board for players to land on
  • A deck of “event” cards for players to draw at random, each with a unique effect that could impact the progress of everyone, or an individual

On the gameplay side of things, we also had some boxes that we were keen for Funnel! to tick:

  • It had to be relatively simple to learn
  • It had to be unique enough to stand out
  • Players needed subtle ways to interact with each other and derail each other’s strategies
  • It had to cast our industry in an amusing light while still conveying some serious messages
  • It had to be FUN(nel)! (I’ll see myself out…)

The build phase begins!

With an arsenal of great ideas in hand, our creation was beginning to take shape. The bare bones of the game were laid out, and it was time to go into prototyping.

We spared no expense on research and development, arming George with some marker pens, some thin card stock and the back of an Amazon delivery box. He worked his magic, though, and soon the first iteration of Funnel! came to life.

One of the most important parts of Funnel! is the cards. They represent a player’s team, the projects they want to complete and as previously mentioned, major industry and workplace events. There are a lot of them, and luckily for George’s writing hand, we knew of a handy piece of software that could help us create and print basic prototypes.

With the prototype built, it was time for the moment we’d all been waiting for – our first playtest!

Given that the core testing team was comprised of game designers, reviewers, connoisseurs, and competitive players, we were a tough crowd to satisfy. Our passion for balanced and enjoyable games kept Funnel! in testing for a long time – unfortunately, a little longer than we’d anticipated.

Before long, our timeline was in jeopardy – and it wasn’t just because we wanted to test and refine the game more! As the months got busier in the Radix office, it was becoming harder to fit testing and development time into our diaries (something about writing copy for clients? I don’t really know. Probably best to ask someone in charge).

It soon became clear that to get the game up to the standard we demanded, we were going to need a bit of extra time. Following the lead of some of the greatest game developers of our time, our tentative new deadline became “it’s ready when it’s ready”.

Refined game, unrefined gamers

As testing progressed, many of the core gameplay elements were tweaked and new ideas were constantly flowed into the game. Key concepts and gameplay mechanics were locked down for the cards, and slowly but surely our finished product began to come together.

With the end in sight, we reflected on the game as it stood and what we’d learned from playing it. We were nearly there, but we had some precise changes to make that could have a major impact on gameplay:

  • Players were given cards at the start of the game (previously everyone started with nothing) to speed the game along and get to the action faster
  • Some abilities were either changed or removed from cards completely because they were either too powerful, too complex, or exploitable to the point that they effectively ended the game on their own
  • The number of different cards was cut down significantly due to expected production and illustration costs, but it also helped to streamline the game and make it easier to learn

A new challenger appears

With the game content largely wrapped up, it was time to start making our creation look beautiful. The process of hiring and liaising with an illustrator was new to many of us, but after a short amount of searching we found the perfect partner in local artist, Keith Sparrow.

Keith loved the idea of our game as much as we did, and was happy to fill in some of the artistic blanks that we had overlooked. He got straight to work, and after a couple of meetings and a few tweaks to his illustrations, we had completed board, box, and card art for Funnel! – and it looked amazing.

Seeing Funnel! come to life with the help of Keith’s vibrant and eye-catching art gave us a huge morale boost. It was coming together, our board game dream was becoming a reality, and we really were going to make this happen.

The clock returns, and it’s ticking

2014 turned into 2015, and before we knew it we were already a couple of months in. There was still a lot to do to finish the game off, but fortunately we gained an extra pair of hands in the form of Account Manager Chloe.

With my diary consumed by client work and design input, Chloe picked up the slack on the procurement side of things and quickly found us a production partner in Shannon Games. The company came well reviewed, but production was going to cost a little more than we’d anticipated.

After a chat with our project sponsor, we decided that the best thing to do was to cut our required unit count from 100 to 50. Our exclusive game just got significantly more exclusive.

We agreed to do business with Shannon Games, and not a moment too soon, as Fiona then sprung it on us that she was going to talk at June’s B2B Marketing Summit – and required a finished copy of the game for her presentation!

The final stretch: welcome to the crunch!

Shannon Games sent us through the design templates we needed to flow our art into, and after a few more last minute tweaks to card copy, game rules and mechanics, we were ready for the final stretch.

With the game art and print layouts in hand, it was time for Emily to jump into action. She persevered through the unenviable task of creating card templates and fitting all of the art and copy into them. It was no simple task, but she did an incredible job in a short time.

The cards came out looking as fantastic as everyone imagined, and through diligent and focused design work, a job that threatened to slow us down significantly was completed without a hitch.

This was a huge blessing. Our new deadline that was dismissed by many as being unrealistic and unachievable was all of a sudden looking a lot more possible. Within the space of a few short days, the final template art came in and we were ready to get it all out of the door and onto the printing press.

Now we play the waiting game

With our final designs sent off, we faced a few tough weeks of waiting. Fortunately, this gave us some time to think more deeply about the logistics involved in getting our finished games out to 50 of our favourite people around the world – a welcome distraction from the nail-biting tension over how the games would turn out.

This kept us occupied for a while, and before we knew it, a knock came a-rap-tap-tapping at our door. In rolled an exhausted courier driver pushing a trolley of unmarked boxes. Heads rose from computer monitors around the room and great excitement blended with palpable fear as we opened up the first case of finished games.

But, it didn’t take much inspection before the fear was banished. The games looked fantastic, everyone was delighted, and we got our first opportunity to revel in the majesty of what we’d created. It was almost surreal to see our idea in its finished state, but it was a hugely satisfying feeling and one that I won’ forget for a long time.

We now had a little bit of time to create some useful collateral behind the game in the form of a new microsite. Drawing on the video creation and editing talents of Emily and her partner Paul, and the sharp presentation skills of George “Handsome George” Reith, we put a couple of tutorial clips together to help people get to grips with the game quickly.

While this was going on, each box was thoroughly checked, and a personalised cover letter was added to each one as we prepared to ship them off to their new homes around the world.

After discovering that Sarah and Matt’s buggy built for two unruly children could also comfortably seat 8-10 content marketing strategy games, a low-tech plan was devised for getting them all to the local post office and off out into the big wide world.

Breaking news: people love Funnel!

One of our major ambitions for Funnel! was that people would love receiving it and be eager to share it with others. It wasn’t long after they went out the door that we started seeing a stream of amazing and encouraging social feedback pour in. From tweets and photos of people enjoying playing the game, to blog posts inspired by our idea, the response from our friends and influencers has been nothing short of incredible.

It’s a brilliantly satisfying feeling to see a project of passion be so well received. This was something out of the ordinary for us: we took a risk, we did something we’d never attempted before, and ultimately we used our unique skills and abilities to create something truly different. To see that go down so well within our industry has been one of the most rewarding feelings I’ve had in this job to date.

So where do we go from here?

With the Funnel! project now complete, everyone here is kind of wondering what’s next. We’ve acquired a whole new set of skills outside of what we’d usually do, but when are we going to put them to use again? Or which fringe content format is next on our list to conquer?

Maybe one day we’ll explore the idea of Funnel!’s awkward sequel, but until then, if you want some help creating a board game that’s going to turn some heads and get you noticed, I know the perfect team of highly-skilled geeks for the job. You can find us by calling +44 (0)1326 373592, or emailing the team at [email protected].

Content SOS: what to do when B2B writing goes wrong

Posted on by Steve George

We’ve all been there. You (or one of your clients) have a great idea for a piece of content, it seems simple enough to create, and you drop it in with the most readily-available resource to bring it to life.

Then it happens. Flop. It’s all gone Pete-flippin’-Tong.

Perhaps it’s gone to the wrong writer – someone without the requisite knowledge of the market or subject area to do the best job first time.

Or maybe you’ve just had a stab at writing it yourself and – much like the shelving unit you were sure you could build on your own – it now hangs loosely from the wall, crying out for some expert attention.

That’s usually the point a marketer will turn to an external professional. And as a result, I find myself rescuing clients’ broken projects more often than any of us would probably care to admit.

So if you’re experiencing a content SOS, read on. Here are a few tips I’ve picked up along the way, to help you get things back on track.

#1) Settle in for a long task

One of the most common misconceptions I come across is that rescuing a piece of content is a lot easier than writing it from scratch. Not only is this incorrect, it’s the kind of thinking that can seriously hinder your content rescue operation.

A quick fix is rarely the best one, and solving this issue properly is going to take time. While yes, sometimes large swathes of the existing content may be reusable, it’s important to recognise the unique challenges posed by a project gone wrong.

There’s a higher level of stakeholder expectation than usual, because this has already gone through a failed attempt – even if that failure wasn’t yours personally.

Meeting that expectation takes time, focus, and dedication to turning this tangled mess into the best piece of content it can be. Chances are, it was rushing that got you here in the first place. Doing it again isn’t going to help you get out.

#2) Conduct a full content autopsy

Before you can fix the problems with your content, you need to understand what those problems are.

The you there is very important. Even if your angry stakeholder or bemused boss has a very clear idea of what they think is wrong with the piece, it’s important that you conduct your own analysis of the problems that conspired to cause its demise.

Often, big problems (think ‘this reads horribly’ or ‘you’ve entirely missed the point’) are caused by a series of much smaller, underlying issues with the piece. It’s on you to sniff those things out.

Inversely, one big misconception could be throwing up lots of false problems with the content. In that case, you need to be able to look past what the person giving the feedback has decided is the big problem, and determine where the piece really went off track.

It’s worth spending some time really breaking down where things went awry, so you can resolve all the problems with the piece at once – rather than treating the most prominent symptoms and hoping that cures the disease.

(And if you’re not sure of the best ways to pinpoint what you don’t like about a piece, check out David’s blog post that details 5 tests your B2B copy needs to pass.)

#3) Rebuild your story

Once you’ve identified what the major (and minor) problems are with the piece, you’ll need to start planning out a revised story or structure for it. This process can vary in difficulty depending on how much you’ve had to edit and cut away.

If you’re truly able to say that the issues are isolated to specific sections of the copy, then great – you’ve probably not got much work to do. However, in my experience, the kind of problems that cause total content failure tend to be pretty insidious.

With all of the bad cut away, you’re likely to end up with a bit of a mess of points that, while objectively correct and of value, don’t stand up on their own without a coherent narrative.

You’ve got to rebuild that narrative. You must find the thread that links the copy you’ve identified as salvageable – filling in the gaps as needed once you’ve done so.

#4) Fill in the blanks (and don’t be afraid to do some serious rewriting)

Personally, once I’ve cut out the irrelevant copy and information from a piece like this, I like to approach it as I would a completely fresh project.

The copy left over acts as a brief, giving me the key points I need to hit – and when paired with feedback on what’s missing, forms a full picture of what this piece actually needs to say, do, and look like.

The key here is looking at the previous content as source material rather than copy you need to keep. All too often I’ve seen writers try to crowbar passages from a failed piece into the revised version. Usually, that’s a mistake; while there’s nothing wrong with those passages per se, keeping them forces the writer to approach their new copy in a specific and limited way.

Much like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle, a pre-existing passage clearly defines what can and cannot connect to it. Trying to drop pre-loved copy into a reworked piece puts a burden on your new creation, dictating and shaping what you can write around it.

Inevitably, this pulls the copy in a direction. And problematically – because the existing passages have been lifted from a piece that didn’t work – that direction tends to be the exact one you’re trying to get away from.

(If you’d like to learn a bit more about the differences between copyediting and rewriting, my colleague George explored the subject in detail a couple of years ago.)

There is no quick fix

The one thing I’m really trying to pass on through these tips is that fixing a problem piece of content takes three key things: time, care, and attention. It’s as much as – if not more of – a job than writing something from scratch.

Understanding that, and making your peace with it, really is half the battle.

The problem is, when you face a challenge like this, you’re usually up against the clock. Very few marketers factor an allocation for ‘total first draft failure’ into their project timelines, so it’s easy to feel the squeeze when it comes to turning a rewritten or restructured piece around.

Once you understand the value of investing a decent chunk of time into a thorough rework instead of just slapping on a few plasters and hoping for the best, it’s worth selling that idea to others around you so you’ve got the time to do this right.

If you aren’t given the luxury of that time, though, you do have options. You could always hand it off to some experts that have a lot of experience helping businesses and agencies out of situations like this – and are masters of creating great content within tight turnaround times.

Now if only I knew where you could find that…

How to review B2B marketing copy from ChatGPT

Posted on by Matt Godfrey

Generative AI can take on simple writing tasks and produce readable copy. But just like any copywriter, it needs expert oversight to ensure its writing is fit for purpose.

No writer is infallible. But ongoing issues like hallucinations and outdated training data mean you need to check especially carefully before staking your reputation on AI – as Google found to its cost.

So if you’re one of the growing number of marketers tempted to publish AI-generated content, it’s important to have a clear, repeatable review process – and enforce it rigorously. (Studies at Chicago’s Quest Academy revealed that the greater the role AI had in producing a piece of work, the less engaged the humans involved were in checking it.)

Also, there’s a lot more involved in an effective piece of copy than just reading well.

At Radix, we use a 16-point checklist to assess each piece of our writers’ work before we send it to a client; it keeps our quality high, and it’s a great way for our writers to learn from each other. If you’re planning to experiment with ChatGPT or its competitors, it could come in pretty handy (you can get a copy of your own right here).

Here, I’ve whittled down our content quality checklist to the five big questions to ask when you’re reviewing generative AI outputs.

Question 1: Is it accurate?

The most basic requirement of any piece of B2B content is that it’s correct.

It’s tempting to assume that computer-generated output will at least be factually accurate, but that’s not always the case. Although new-gen algorithms like GPT-4 are ironing out some of the creases, generative AI is still prone to making up “facts” that have no basis in (or even contradict) the training data. So, you’ll need to go through its copy with a fine-toothed comb to make sure it’s not invented things.

You’ll also want to double-check grammar and spelling. Despite the hype, AI isn’t yet intelligent in any meaningful sense; ChatGPT doesn’t understand what it’s writing, it just mimics things it’s read. AI outputs are only as good as the inputs – which is why it also repeats common grammatical errors and widely misused phrases.

Question 2: Is it clear?        

I’ve never yet heard about a B2B decision-maker who has tonnes of spare time to read marketing content. That means your copy needs to make a compelling, logical argument – and do it in prose that’s quick and easy to read.

At first glance, AI-generated copy often appears to make a plausible case. But, as we discovered in our ChatGPT copy experiment, the logic of the argument doesn’t always stand up to scrutiny.

A combination of not wanting to admit it doesn’t know the answer, not understanding the things it writes, and a tendency towards verbose and repetitive prose can lead AI to generate meandering arguments that end up in a logical tangle.

And because so much B2B content is needlessly complex, AI risks mimicking this flaw too. As Doug Kessler put it: “The point is not whether Generative AI is good enough today. The point is that most B2B writing isn’t.”

Question 3: Does it speak with authority?

Not only does AI not understand what it’s writing, it also doesn’t understand the audience it’s writing for.

That’s a problem, because it can undermine the authority of your piece. It’s pretty clear when you’re reading something if the writer doesn’t have a strong grasp of the topic and understand which aspects are most relevant to you. That’s why professional copywriters interview subject matter experts and work hard to understand the critical pain points and priorities – and the existing knowledge level – of the target audience.

Pre-trained models like GPT also rely on old data, so they’re not up to speed with the latest developments in fast-moving industries, making it very difficult for them to sound authoritative.

Another thing that instantly torpedoes authority in B2B marketing copy (whether human or AI-written) is cliché. And that’s a problem for large language models like ChatGPT, because they’ve been fed a solid diet of the cliché and banality that constitutes most writing on the web. A marketer recently told me that their agency is using ChatGPT to help rule out hackneyed phrases in headlines; AI writes the crap, so they don’t have to.

So, when you’re reviewing AI-generated copy, be ready to make heavy edits to give the writing the sense of authority, credibility, and authenticity it needs to be effective.

Question 4: Does it demonstrate empathy?

Again, AI is fighting a losing battle here. With no understating of what they write or the audience they’re writing for, and no lived experience to draw on, machines are a long way from being able to empathise with human readers. And without the human connection that empathy brings – that sense of a shared understanding of the world – marketing copy sounds very hollow and won’t engage its audience.

Another thing to watch out for is that AI can’t apply critical thought to assess the validity, authority, and relevance of its sources. That absence of critical thinking also means AI can’t understand that just because something has been said often, doesn’t mean it must be said again. Nothing displays a lack of empathy quite like telling people things they already know – or worse, things they don’t even care about.

Question 5: Is it insightful, engaging, and compelling?

It’s impossible to offer original insight if you’re just mimicking things you’ve read. So for thought leadership pieces, you’ll need to add that insight to the copy the AI generates, which will probably involve extensive rewriting.

Alternatively, you could try being very prescriptive in your prompt about the points you want to make. This might mean you need an interview with a subject matter expert before you set the AI to work. But, however you do it, you’ll need to do the legwork to ensure your reader gets some original, unique value from your piece – that’s not something ChatGPT can help you with.

Finally, remember that AI’s tendency to use repetitive phrasing and cliché means its writing can be quite dull to read. B2B marketing copy must be engaging to achieve its objectives, so you’ll need to spend some time polishing whatever the AI comes up with to give it a bit more sparkle.

Progress is good – but check, check, and check again

Generative AI is getting better at completing low-value writing tasks, like simple emails (although they still need to be reviewed and edited by humans). But it’s nowhere close to delivering high-value content like lively, well-researched ebooks and white papers that put an original spin on a topic, or video scripts that strike an emotional chord with the audience.

In the future, it’s likely that professional copywriters will use AI tools to do the heavy lifting before applying their craft to create content that helps marketers achieve their goals. But until then, use our content quality checklist to help ensure whoever (or whatever) writes your copy is doing the best job possible.

How to become an overnight expert on pretty much anything

Posted on by Matt Godfrey

Contrary to popular belief, being a B2B technology copywriter isn’t all glamour. Away from the constant accolades, the endless parties and the rapturous attention of an adoring public, your beloved copywriter has a lot to cope with.

When we’re in our enterprise tech comfort zone, life comes easy:

  • A white paper on PaaS integration for data centre managers, you say? No problem!
  • A blog post for HR directors in EMEA on IoT use cases in 5G networks? Piece of cake!
  • A picture book on Lean Startup product development methodologies for under-fives? Hell, yeah!

But when we’re dragged out of that comfort zone by new clients, new tech or new topics, that’s when we have to bring out the big guns.

Here’s a sample of some of the topics I’ve had to learn about from scratch (and fast) for client projects over the last few months:

  • Refined-oil storage facilities
  • 2.5GBASE-T and 5GBASE-T Ethernet standards
  • The global aluminium market
  • Positive pressurisation in electronics enclosures

So how do you get up to speed on seemingly impenetrable topics and quickly turn around an insight-packed, beautifully crafted piece of weapons-grade B2B content? I’m glad you asked…

1: Know what you need to know

First things first: figure out your audience. A decent understanding of the what your readers already know (and what they’ll be thinking about next) will point you in the direction of the stuff you need to know.

As luck would have it, our very own Fiona Campbell-Howes, persona-maven nonpareil, once wrote a rather nifty blog post bursting with red-hot tips on whipping up a quick buyer persona.

Second things second: know your limits. When time is tight, you can’t spend three weeks immersing yourself in every element of the topic – stick to the brief and narrow your research down to:

  • The things you definitely need to know so you don’t come across as a gibbering imbecile when you start writing
  • The things it would be really nice to know so you can sound like you write about this stuff all the time

2: Research fast

Now, I know you’ve all done research before, but this is different. When you’ve only got a couple of hours to find what you need, you have to zero in on the most trusted trade-news sites (the client can point you in the right direction here) and industry analysts for the topic at hand.

It’s important not to fall too far down the rabbit hole, clicking link after link after link in the vain hope of finding a single source of enlightenment. But if you’ve followed step 1 above, you’ll be able to stay focused on finding what you really need.

And remember to keep it current. Set your search parameters so you’re only seeing things from the last 12 months, otherwise you’ll end up quoting crusty old reports predicting trends that have either been and gone or never happened.

One last note on this – don’t panic. You’re not cramming for an exam, you’re trying to find useful knowledge to create a specific piece of content for a specific purpose for a specific audience. Once the client sees the fruits of your labours in the outline, they’ll give you a steer on which points need to be expanded/reconsidered/fired into the Grand Canyon.

3: Phone a friend

When I say “phone”, I mean “bellow across the office at”. And when I say “friend”, I mean “already overstretched co-worker”. But you get the idea.

I’m fortunate that the Radix team is replete with arcane knowledge on areas of technology so obscure that nobody is really sure if they actually exist within the boundaries of space-time. As my colleague George Reith will tell you, for example, “The lore of bit depth quantisation is very deep.”

If you’re not lucky enough to work in an office full of unnervingly geekish folks like George, fear not – I’m willing to bet your social networks are full of people with expertise on all kinds of unlikely topics. So maybe you *could* just phone a friend, after all.

4: Talk to the real experts

This is the bit where you grab your client by the lapels and demand answers.

At the end of the day, when push comes to shove and all’s said and done, the only sure-fire way to get real insight, real fast is to talk to the experts on your client’s team.

The people on the ground who live and breathe this stuff will quickly validate or debunk all that research you just did. And they’ll add unique insights that can enrich your copy and elevate the finished piece into something genuinely valuable for your audience.

Putting copywriters and subject-matter experts together is absolutely critical for creating great B2B content – you neglect it at your peril.

What are you waiting for?

So come on, people! This diem isn’t going to carpe itself – get out there and learn something new.

Or if you’ve got an upcoming campaign on a topic nobody else seems to understand, why not put our skills to the test? Get in touch at [email protected].

ChatGPT and B2B copywriters: mortal enemies or better together?

Posted on by Matt Godfrey

Plenty of people think ChatGPT will turn the copywriting world upside down. But is that really the case in the rarefied world of B2B tech marketing, or a hype-driven misconception?

When ChatGPT hit the headlines, regular people began using it for all kinds of things, from cheating on college essays to writing poetry. It wasn’t designed to do these things (more on that later), but then the internet wasn’t designed for watching videos of cats on skateboards, and here we are.

Very quickly, the hype machine roared into action, leading to rumours that generative AI tools – and especially ChatGPT – would soon be writing everything. All the writing. In the whole world. Forever.

For a business that sells, um… writing, that could be slightly worrying. So we conducted an experiment to compare the AI against our human writers and get to know its strengths and weaknesses.

An (entirely unscientific) experiment: human copywriters v ChatGPT

My colleagues created various pieces of writing that responded to the brief: “Write 200 words on why copywriting is important in B2B technology marketing.” Then they challenged me to review the results and decide if each piece was:

  • Written by a human from scratch
  • Written by a human based on an AI-generated outline
  • Written by ChatGPT and then briefly edited by a human
  • Written by ChatGPT with no human involvement

So, I set out to brave the dangers of the uncanny valley and see if I could spot the bot…

Version 1: Human writer with AI help?

Copywriting is a critical tool for getting your message across and helping you stand out in a sea of jargon. It can turn even the most complicated tech products into something easy to understand. And without it, much of B2B tech marketing would be a bunch of tech experts talking in code nobody else understands.

It’s not just about getting through to your customers – copywriting is also crucial for building trust and credibility. When it comes to B2B tech, businesses are making some serious investments and need to feel confident they’re making the right choice. High-quality copywriting can help you earn your customers’ trust by presenting the right information in a clear, concise, and compelling way.

And let’s not forget about differentiation. In the crowded B2B tech space, it can be challenging to differentiate your business from others. That’s where persuasive copywriting techniques come in: highlighting your unique features and benefits, detailing the value you can deliver – and setting your business apart from the rest.

My initial comments:

This has echoes of another version I reviewed, but with added personality. Specifically, my personality, with the classic, Matt Godfrey-certified “clear, concise, and compelling”. You love to see it. The paragraph openers “It’s not just about…” and “And let’s not forget about…” make me think this is a writer working from somebody else’s outline. In a hurry.

My guess: AI outline, human writer

Actual author: AI copy, human editor

Version 2: AI-generated copy?

In the world of B2B technology marketing, the importance of good quality copywriting cannot be understated. At its core, copywriting is the art of persuading your audience to take a specific action through the use of words. In the technology industry, where products and services can be complex and difficult to understand, this is especially important.

Having well-written copy can help your company stand out from the competition by clearly communicating the benefits and features of your products or services. It can also help build trust with potential customers, as it shows that you are willing to take the time to carefully craft your messaging.

In addition to persuading and building trust, good copywriting can also help with SEO. Well-written, keyword-rich copy can improve your search engine rankings, making it easier for potential customers to find your company online.

Overall, good quality copywriting is essential for any B2B technology company looking to effectively market their products and services. It helps to clearly communicate the value of your offerings, build trust with potential customers, and improve your online visibility. Investing in strong copywriting can pay off in a big way for your business.

My initial comments:

It’s easy to see how an AI would come up with this, as it’s very formulaic and uses some basic rhetorical techniques without a hint of irony, making it read like a high school book report. (“In The Return of the Native, the importance of the heath as a character cannot be overstated…”) It’s readable, but bland and repetitive, and with no sense of who its audience is.

The repeated phrases are a bit of a giveaway, too (“build trust”, “potential customers”, “products and services”). And it uses “their” instead of “its” when referring to an organisation, which every Radix writer knows is VERY WRONG and punishable by the removal of cake privileges.

Eagle-eyed readers will also have noticed that it confuses “cannot be understated” with “cannot be overstated”, which destroys the logic of the opening sentence.

My guess: AI. No human would ever use the phrase “keyword-rich”.

Actual author: AI

Version 3: Human writer?

Marketing to B2B decision makers? Without good copywriting, you might as well not bother.

Picture your ideal customer. Why should they buy your product or service? Great. Now try to explain that again, without words.

The truth is, every piece of marketing stands or falls by the message it delivers. You can build the world’s best B2B campaign – you can bullseye the targeting, the positioning, the execution, and the design – but ultimately, you need to tell your audience something.

Usually, that means copy.

Of the dozen most-used content types in B2B marketing, at least eight are copywriting-based. And not just blog posts, case studies, and thought leadership articles, either; every infographic needs a narrative. Videos need scripts.

That’s a lot of words. And behind each one, there’s thought. Structure. Empathy. Storytelling. Finding the angle – and explaining it the right way – to capture your audience’s attention. Honing your message so it lands. Sticks. Resonates.

Your marketing can deliver your message to the perfect person, at the perfect moment, in the most appropriate way. But when they unwrap that box, all you have to convince them is copy.

And that is why copywriting’s important.

Of course, you could always try expressionist dance…

My initial comments:

I’m not sure AI would opt for quite so many single-word sentences without being explicitly trained to hit this tone of voice. It is exactly 200 words, though (kudos), and it’s engaging, even while suffering from an excess of personality.

The main thing that stands out here is it chooses a single message and hammers it home; the writer knows they only have 200 words to work with, and they want to create maximum impact with them. It also clearly draws on a deep understanding of the topic and the audience, and uses a voice that confidently takes calculated risks to elicit an emotional response from the reader.

One final observation: the writer has linked out to a credible source to substantiate their claims, which is not something an AI would think to do.

My guess: Human

Actual author: Human

A useful tool, but not a replacement for high-quality copywriting

As it turned out, spotting the bot was pretty easy, and the copy it produced was passable but flawed. One of the key reasons for this is that the researchers at OpenAI didn’t initially develop ChatGPT to write, they developed it to chat – to answer questions in a conversational way.

The AI is fine at providing readable definitions and summarising key points on a given topic (though its responses may sometimes lack logical rigour and factual accuracy). But it doesn’t have the empathy and audience understanding to write marketing copy that makes readers think, feel, and act in certain ways.

There’s also an absence of critical thought. The AI takes its training data at face value, and can’t judge the relative importance of different points, or assess the authority and relevance of its sources. It can’t connect apparently unrelated concepts, or draw on insights based on lived experience or shared in conversations between peers.

And, like all AI models, biases in the training data and small variations in the input phrasing will affect ChatGPT’s outputs, so it can’t be left to operate without extensive human oversight.

However, as future iterations emerge, there will almost certainly be commercial applications of the technology in writing some basic B2B content and communications, while professional copywriters oversee its work and handle more complex, high-value projects themselves. Like many other industries that have embraced AI, a “better together” approach, with humans and AI working side by side, is the most likely outcome.

For now, ChatGPT is all set to give the world more versatile and capable chatbots for customer service and sales. It’s likely to find a home helping busy professionals write day-to-day communications. And it certainly has a place in software engineering, helping developers to quickly write and debug code.

But, for high-quality B2B copywriting that has an impact on readers and delivers the results marketers need, an expert human writer is still essential.

Still want more? No problem.

If you’d like to get regular copywriting tips and B2B marketing insights (from real human writers), sign up for our newsletter.

Podcast 65: handling feedback on your writing, and how to proofread well

Posted on by Katy Eddy

Every copywriter dreads getting a document back from a client covered in red markup and sharp comments.

But how do you deal with that feedback constructively? And how can you change the way you work to avoid getting more of it?

In our latest episode of Good Copy, Bad Copy, David sits down with pro proofreader Lorraine Williams of Lighthouse Proofreading, to talk about why proofing is so important, her tips for checking your own work, and why proofing isn’t a reliable way to make friends – though it is sort of useful for influencing people.

(Also, here’s Louise Harnby’s proofreading companion document, which Lorraine mentions in her interview.)

Then, David and Fiona delve into why we copywriters dread negative feedback so much, how to handle it, and why it’s so important to take it on the chin sometimes. They discuss:

  • Why you should be looking for patterns in your feedback
  • What you can do to mitigate imposter syndrome and assorted other reactions
  • How the stages of grief apply to copywriting feedback (they do, we promise)

And the training notes Fiona mentions? They’re here:

8 Stages of copywriting feedback

Finally (and most importantly), I’ve finally added my own nomination to our B2B Content Hall of Fame. Tune in to hear me wax lyrical for a few glorious minutes about Drawbotics’ wonderful 3D floorplans of TV’s most famous offices.

Thanks once again to Lorraine Williams, both for joining this episode and for being one of our favourite contributors to date.

Announcement: new podcast ahoy…

We’re piloting a new podcast series, called The B2B Content Audio Blog. It’s a short, easy listen, and we’d love to know what you think.

Want to contact the show?

Comments, questions and ideas from our esteemed audience are always welcome. You can send them our way via @radixcom on Twitter or [email protected] (you can even email us a voice memo, if that floats your boat).

How to listen…

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.

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

Credits:

Podcast editing and music by Bang and Smash

Disclaimer: since this podcast is about proofreading, there will *obviously* be errors in this blog post. This is sod’s law.

Podcast 61: what can you buy to improve your B2B writing?

Posted on by Katy Eddy

Every writer has a bit of kit they swear by. Monitors, software, file storage – you name it, someone has an opinion on it.

And as it turns out, George has a lot of strongly held opinions about these things.

In his recent magnum opus, The Professional Copywriter’s Essential Kit List, George gave us a detailed run down of the most important tech a copywriter – or, indeed, a marketer who often finds themselves turning their hand to writing – should have to do their best work.

And in this episode of Good Copy, Bad Copy, he joins David and Fiona to discuss those key purchases in more detail, and answer questions about computers, word processors, and keyboards (which are more complicated than you might expect).

Questions like:

  • Does a copywriter need a Mac, or are you better off with a PC?
  • Is there a realistic alternative to Microsoft Word?
  • Do you need a standalone audio recorder, or will your smartphone do?
  • Should professional copywriters use Grammarly?
  • What is a mechanical keyboard switch (and are they worth the money)?

To help, we have some excellent contributions from our friends on Twitter, giving opinions on their best-ever work purchases, so thanks again to Tom Albrighton, Laura Sutton, Leif Kendall, Anna Gunning, Matt Turner, Lyssa-Fêe Crump, and everyone else who gave us their input.

We received lots of recommendations, including for Airstory, WriterDuet, oTranscribe and Deskmate. (You can see the whole thread on Twitter, here.) And Fiona calls ProWorkflow “one of the most effortless pieces of time recording software that I’ve ever come across”.

You’ll also hear from the rarely seen Kieran Haynes of senior copywriter and content lead fame, as he adds his nomination to our B2B Content Hall of Fame: the CB Insights newsletter.

(Oh, and the first thrilling instalment of “Fiona talks about chairs”.)

Want to contact the show?

We had some great contributions from our friends and listeners in this month’s episode – and we’re always looking for more voices to add to the mix. You’ll find us on Twitter… or feel free to send your thoughts, jokes, questions, suggestions, complaints or keyboard switch colour preferences to [email protected] (better still, email us a voice memo).

How to listen…

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.)

Credits:

Audio editing and music by Bang and Smash.

How to write great content about HR technology

Posted on by Katy Eddy

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

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

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

Here are seven suggestions to help you get it right:

1. Understand your audience, and their skills

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

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

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

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

2. Recognise that all workloads aren’t created equal

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

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

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

3. Don’t forget about line managers

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

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

4. Balance the needs of people and the business

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

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

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

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

5. Statistics make for compelling messages

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

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

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

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

6. Don’t get bogged down by tech talk

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

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

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

7. Use writers that know the industry

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

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

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

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

Posted on by Katy Eddy

Everyone plays The Sims a little differently.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Marathon-based marketing

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

So, what makes this great B2B content?

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

It’s all in the detail

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

And that commitment is entirely the point.

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

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

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

continues below