The writing on your website is the best, most at-a-glance way for clients to evaluate your intelligence and professionalism. Lackluster (mediocre) B2B content writing does more than just deter clients, it prevents your business from reaching its full potential.
How can you ensure your content is correct, interesting, and unique? The answer’s not as complicated as you might think! Learn the ropes of B2B content writing.
What Is B2B Content Writing?
B2B (business-to-business) content writing allows businesses who sell to other businesses, rather than to a direct consumer, show up in search results through quality SEO content.
Experienced B2B writers (like our team at Windwater Marketing) know how to target businesses (ideal clients) for the services you provide. They are knowledgeable about SEO for blogs or website pages, and can dole out any other type of content you need (like one-off marketing opportunities or business records).
What’s the best part about hiring outside your team using B2B content writing services? It frees up you and your team to focus on other parts of your business—like service execution, client interaction, or team development.
Why Is B2B Content Writing Important for Professional Services?
You may be thinking that your existing content is already up to par! Clients know about you and your business is stable, right? The thing is: consistent content is essential for the growth and stability of your brand. Without regularly creating content and offering new insights to your potential client pool, you risk losing valuable business and falling short of your competitors.
On the other hand, practicing B2B content writing allows you to instantly provide value. It ensures that your marketing is ever-changing and enticing to your audience.
7 B2B Content Writing Strategies to Improve Your Professional Services Marketing
Whether you think your B2B content writing is exceptional or not, it’s important to check yourself or your business for areas of improvement! The game of content generation is neverending for service providers, but these seven strategies will help keep you on your A-game.
Don’t Get Too Broad in Your Content
Pro business tip: Broad isn’t better. Your B2B content writing should address specific topics using concise, clear, and straightforward sentences.
Imagine that the businesses trying to engage with your content are “on the clock”—super busy and in a hurry for answers. They’re likely to give their business to service providers who provide information in a quick, helpful way.
After all, your content style is a reflection of your business style. No matter how beautiful your writing is (or how flowery your language capabilities are) less is more for your business.
Pair Your Content with Graphics
Graphics make your content pages easier to read. They help break up heavy text and supplement your verbiage.
There are several types of graphics to consider for effective B2B content writing:
- Illustrations or photographed points
- Graphs
- Charts
- Data highlights
- Videos
Think about how you feel when helpful visuals surface on otherwise text-packed pages. It’s a sweet relief! Many web-scrollers will even click around until they find the most helpful and obvious visuals to answer their burning questions. You may even say that “graphics speak a thousand words.”
Related: Good Visualizations Do Not Fix Bad Content
Focus On Headlines Just as Much as Content
Another great way to break up and organize your B2B content writing is with eye-catching and clear headlines (and subheaders). This way your readers get a preview to your content breakdown and can decide if they want to read more or click away.
It helps to organically weave a planned SEO phrase into your content headers when you can (and continue discussion of that phrase in each paragraph) so your target audience is crystal clear about your talking points and the main (narrow) focus point of your content.
Mention “tips” or “strategies” that would be helpful to your audience! People can hardly resist good business pointers.
Pack In Powerful Keywords
Speaking of keywords…What exactly are they for? Including B2B content writing keywords or key phrases throughout your posts actually improves the odds of your target audience finding you via organic search.
The more times you can casually (authentically) mention a keyword in a blog post or main content page, the higher up you appear on the list of search results when people “Google” that phrase.
To choose effective keywords, just put yourself in the shoes of your target audience. For example, if your B2B business conducts research for other businesses, they might search for “best ways to conduct research” or “how to find answers about ABC.”
Incorporate Your Brand Narrative Into Your Writing
B2B content writing is an ideal place to develop your brand’s voice. Wild inconsistencies—maybe due to multiple different contributors—are a deterrent for most clients.
On the other hand, carefully branded and consistent content affirms how knowledgeable and steadfast your business is. It helps to come up with an internal system or set of guidelines that bring your final results nearer to each other… even if multiple writers have their hands on the keys.
And get personal! Clients like to hear about your brand’s story—success, failure, origin, etc. Your audience is more likely to tune in regularly when they’re engaged with your narrative.
Readability Is Key
There are a few important factors that contribute to readability for B2B content writing (and it’s not just excellent grammar). Highly trafficked web content is typically balanced (equal verbiage per subheader) and divided into simple, short paragraphs.
What’s more, you have to consider easy-to-read fonts, colors, and backgrounds. Anything too flowery, busy, or bright is challenging for your audience to get through (and they probably won’t even try).
Use other tricks, like incorporating bulleted lists or complimentary images, to offset heavy texts and carry your clients’ eyes to the bottom of the page!
Provide Value to Your Audience
While it’s important to be “voice-y” and engaging with your audience, it’s essential you provide them with genuine and valuable information, too. Businesses in search of your services are seeking answers or strategies. Of course, you don’t want to give away too much for free! But you do want to come across as an authority on the subject.
The goal is to educate… but only up to a certain point! You want potential clients to realize they need your services to move forward. For example, you can give them a tutorial on software and technology. They’ll be interested and grateful for your perspective, but probably realize they need more help (and hire you for real).
Your business will seriously take off when you nail down B2B content writing! The key is to flaunt your value—smart words, smartly presented. Leverage these seven tips to reach your target audience and prove to them that you’re the best at what you do.
Let’s tackle your B2B content writing together—find out more about Windwater Marketing’s incredible services now.
