As seen on Forbes
By Kathleen Lucente
How many times do you come across business-to-business (B2B) content in any given day? If you were to judge the creativity behind this type of content writing and its business-to-consumer (B2C) counterpart, it would be fair to say marketers seem to have a tougher time nailing down the first.
B2B content is often viewed as unexciting, difficult and a slog of a read that many would rather skip altogether but can’t because they need a piece of information. While no one expects this to be Pulitzer-winning writing, B2B content strategies are so important, and the time to craft compelling stories that provide value to the reader is now.
B2B marketers are tasked with finding clever ways to create compelling content, along with the vehicle to deliver it, without relying on the millions of people who typically comprise consumer markets and the virality of consumer-focused stories on social channels. B2B content is often formulaic, too product-focused or sales-oriented — though not because B2B brands and industries are uninteresting by default.
B2B markets are smaller, have longer sales cycles and typically emphasize partnerships over individual transactions, especially with the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model growing in popularity. B2B has its advantages though: more defined audiences with specific business concerns, less competition for attention and (usually) fewer brand channels to worry about.
Creating content to generate demand among business audiences should be easier than with consumer audiences. However, B2B marketers frequently fall back on the same common marketing tropes — product sheets thinly disguised as case studies, high-level white papers that shouldn’t be white papers, sales pitches masquerading as webinars — to drive engagement and draw business.
Churning out content for the sake of distributing content is futile at best, and lazy, decentralized strategy development won’t drive results. B2B marketing doesn’t have to be boring. When marketers fall into the habit of creating shallow and unimaginative content, they miss out on the perfect opportunity to provide potential new leads and current customers with valuable information that’s easy to read, remember and share.
The amount of content available in every industry, though, means that each piece of content a brand creates has likely already been published somewhere else in a different form. Such a paradox actually makes a better case for building content with a greater focus on stories and people.
While this isn’t the definitive guide to writing for the B2B industry, when creating compelling content to get above the noise, these are a few important tactics to implement to revive your storytelling.
1. BE PROVOCATIVE. FORM A REAL OPINION, AND SUPPORT IT WITH CREDIBLE RESEARCH
B2B brands tend to play it safe with the content they publish and hitch their name to. As their audiences are already smaller than their B2C counterparts, taking risks might seem risky, when it’s really the opposite.
Not taking risks simply means that your content is likely getting lost. I’m not saying B2B brands have to defy every trend they encounter, but finding the courage to break free from the noise is a crucial aspect of content strategy. A lack of convention might be just the thing that sets your brand and content apart.
2. UNDERSTAND YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
Remember who your audience is: real people. Audience research can’t be stressed enough. It’s important for brands to have some idea of what audiences care about, but having the data from this research to back up and inform strategy and execution is paramount. Humanizing your content and your brand this way is much more impactful than a strategy that is corrupted by product sheets, sales pitches and other tropes.
3. DOCUMENT YOUR STRATEGY
Only about one-third of B2B content marketers have a documented, centralized content strategy. Like an architect, every strong content marketer needs an established plan of action that outlines how they plan to move people from one stage of the sales funnel, establish what type of content works, and measure performance and engagement mapped to business and marketing objectives.
4. DON’T MAKE IT HARDER THAN IT NEEDS TO BE
B2B audiences are their own devil’s advocate. Having a smaller audience, although risky when it comes to message development, can be a benefit to marketers. Audience-based content generation is more specific and allows you to target exactly who you’re trying to reach.
Sure, B2C marketers may get a bit of a break in crafting their messaging because this usually involves a storyline of some sort, but in the B2C world, you’re up against every other consumer brand. B2B marketing allows you to address specific pain points and be seen as an industry expert.
5. DON’T JUST SELL YOUR OFFERINGS
Instead of trying to sell, sell, sell, emphasize what your customers are doing with your product or service, rather than what your product or service is doing for customers. People are more averse to blatant advertising disguised as stories than ever before. They see right through sales pitches that purport to solve their biggest problems.
Study after study has proven that creating content to solve problems rather than sell products builds trust, and that trust translates to leads and sales. So, the next time you’re writing a blog post or case study, I challenge you not to mention your brand or your brand’s products. Instead, consider the challenges your reader may be facing, and give them the gift of insight. Only then can you tell a compelling story that really resonates with your readers.
