How to Write B2B Marketing Content

B2B marketing content can be a huge plus for any business, but a lot of brands don’t have it mastered. That’s a shame, because, if done right, business-to-business marketing content can supercharge your business. But there is, of course, a big caveat: you need to actually know how to write B2B content correctly!

Read on to learn more about …

• The importance of B2B marketing content
• Tips and tricks for B2B marketing writing
• How to promote B2B marketing content

The Importance of Well-Written B2B Content

The importance of well-written B2B content can’t be understated. Business-to-business marketing is a very different beast than business-to-customer marketing. A great example of business-to-consumer marketing is a local pizzeria. The sales cycle for every pie ordered from that pizzeria isn’t particularly long or complex. It could take you all of a few minutes to decide that you really want a pepperoni pizza for dinner!

Contrast that with the sales cycle for a new accounting software system. You can’t just go out and pick one of those up at the corner store! This will be a longer deal cycle, will be a more complicated implementation, and will likely require the buy-in of multiple people at the business purchasing the software. That’s a more complicated sale and that’s reflected in the marketing.

Our neighborhood pizza place can essentially sell to anyone and their marketing will probably be about the quick sale. Local SEO, pay-per-click advertising, web design, and paid social media campaigns are all great ways to find and close pizza sales. Our accounting software vendor absolutely should invest in those marketing mediums, but they probably aren’t closing many deals from one single click on an ad. That’s where B2B marketing content enters the equation.

Well-written content has a place in B2C marketing, but B2C web content will likely focus on ranking the website in question for high value search terms. So, if you’re our fictitious pizzeria, you’ll likely use your blogs and web pages to rank number 1 in your area for terms like “pizza near me.”

Not so with B2B content. B2B content is so critically important because of the complexity of the sales cycle and product. It’s hard to distill your message to 100 characters in a search ad if you’re selling accounting software. Longer form content helps you educate and entice your business-to-business prospect!

Well-written business-to-business content should …

• Educate your prospect about your brand.
• Entice high-ranking decision-makers at target accounts to request more information.
• Help you build your lead list for further marketing.
• Equip your sales team with useful brand collateral to help with meetings.

Tips To Writing B2B Marketing Content

• Offer Something Of Value: Quick, pithy observations about your industry and a sales pitch won’t quite do it when you’re writing B2B content. The content you’re producing needs to be authoritative, well-written, and enticing, but more than anything, it needs to be ‘valuable.’ If you’re trying to gain the attention of decision-makers, your content needs to offer something worthwhile if you expect them to give you their time and read the content. Maybe it’s an analysis of the industry. Maybe it’s new research into a specific topic. Maybe it’s information on a common problem. Regardless of the details, ensure that you are writing something that offers valuable information. One of the best ways to make sure you get this right is to….
• Know Your Audience: The more you understand your audience, their situations, and their problems, the better your content will be. This goes beyond merely identifying who you want to be reaching with your business-to-business content, although that is a good first step! We encourage you to go beyond identifying an audience to understanding the way this audience interacts with their broader industry. If you can simultaneously comprehend industry-specific trends and connect those trends to the problems and concerns of your target accounts, you’re going to be able to write much more impactful business-to-business content.
• Use Data To Validate Your Conclusions: You can’t merely offer some observations about your subject industry and walk away. You need to provide something of value, and that could include the use of data. Now, you don’t need to run a massive experiment and report back on some great industry trends. That could be difficult for a small business to implement. However, be prepared to find and cite convincing research in this content if needed.
• Longer Content Might Be Useful: If you’ve followed this blog series, you know that we encourage brevity when writing marketing content. No one wants to read the next great American novel when trying to learn something from a blog. However, while you need to avoid word stuffing like you’re in the 8th grade and trying to clear an English teacher’s word minimum, a longer piece of content could be helpful. Remember, your B2B marketing content will be read by business leaders looking to learn more about a complex problem. The macroeconomic, industry-specific problems that are driving your readers to learn more through your content are complex and nuanced topics. A 1,000 word one-sheeter might not cut it. Your readers, as business decision-makers, likely do not have the time to pour over a tome on their industry problem but feel free to create longer content. 2,500-4,000 words should be sufficient for an ebook, report, or analysis.
• You Might Spend More Time Researching Than Writing: A B2C blog, hosted on your website, probably doesn’t need a lot of research time. You, conceivably, understand what your pizza shop sells and why people prefer your pies. However, if you’re trying to offer something of value, learn the problems of your audience, cite your sources, and write longer content, expect to do your homework in advance. There’s nothing wrong with this approach! If anything, we encourage it for B2B marketing writing. The difference between fine business-to-business content and amazing B2B content is often research, in our experience.

Supercharge Your B2B Marketing Content

Now, the best written B2B marketing content can only do so much. Your content will still need to be promoted to the right decision makers and once you have their contact information, you’ll need to continue to market to those decision makers.

If you need help from an award-winning digital marketing agency, turn to JSL Marketing & Web Design of Dallas! Our team can help with any of the following!

• Google Ads
• Email Marketing
• SEO
• Web Design
• Market Research
• Brand Development

Call Us Now To Discuss Any Of The Above!