I spent four weeks as a professional B2B copywriter. Here’s what I learned.

Spending four weeks as part of the Radix team has been an invaluable experience.

My writing has improved, I have a better grasp of the industry that I’m working towards joining, and I’ve had the chance to learn from a team of skilled writers. I’ve even learned that working in an office isn’t as bad as you might think (well, not at Radix anyway).

But why do you care?

Well, I picked up five tips that could make your marketing copy more direct, engaging and powerful from the first draft.

To help bring everything together, I’ve revisited a piece of copy that I wrote prior to coming to Radix, to show what I would do differently now.  (It’s a travel piece that I wrote for my university’s newspaper about spending a summer working at a summer camp in the US.)

Rather than bog you down with every little detail of how my writing has improved, here are the big things I’ve taken away from my time with the Radix team:

#1 Less is usually more

Remember the phrase ‘quality over quantity’? Well, in the world of B2B copywriting, it couldn’t be more true. Writing copy that’s powerful, concise and direct is difficult, but when it’s done right it packs a punch.

Getting someone to read your copy is the first achievement, but keeping the reader interested is where the job really gets tough.

Using shorter sentences and paragraphs can help make your copy more digestible. But ultimately, the most valuable thing I’ve learned is the importance of writing with authority. If what you’re saying has enough authority, it won’t need a high word count or complex vocabulary to prove it and keep people interested.

For example, I cut…

After the majority of a year saving my pennies and working full time in my local corner shop, I was just about ready to pack my rucksack with whatever I could carry and cross the Atlantic Ocean.  

down to…

After working and saving for over a year, I packed my rucksack and crossed the Atlantic.

The latter sentence tells the same story, but it sounds more exciting. It’s active and confident.

#2 Layout is key

In the world of academic writing, we’re used to striving to hit lofty word counts – often leading to long paragraphs and impenetrable walls of text. But in the real world, big blocks of text are off-putting, and can have a serious negative impact on the quality of your copy, so be careful not to let this habit slip into the workplace.

I’ve learned to use helpful tools like:

• bullet points – helping me convey lots of information concisely
• headers – which ensure the copy flows from point to point clearly (and make your content more scannable when used well)
• box outs – giving me a chance to pull focus to specific points or statistics

Using these breaks up the copy into readable sections that are much less daunting at first glance.

Using bullet points, headers and box-outs lets you pull focus, and makes your copy less daunting

#3 Know your audience

Shaping the tone of your copy to suit the context and the audience is vital in ensuring that the content is read as intended.

When writing B2B copy, your aim is to get the reader to think about or do something in particular. And they’re far more likely to do that if they feel like you’re speaking their language.

With the writing example I revisited, I was writing for a university newspaper, so the tone was informal and conversational.

And it was easy for me to embody that voice as it was one that came naturally to me.

Being at Radix I’ve discovered just how challenging it can be to write for personas you don’t personally relate to – for example, CFOs at multinational Financial Services companies.

But if you want to write in a way that makes an impact and drives an action, it’s essential to put yourself in your audience’s shoes – no matter how uncomfortable that footwear may feel.

As an intern I have found that the best way to get myself in a CFO’s shoes is to do background research into the company they work for and to figure out the solutions they need and why.

Another great resource is the brief. This will give you insight into the needs the copy should fulfil and can help you decipher the tone that will be most suited.