B2B copywriting can be a difficult thing to get right. What do you write about? How do you appeal to your audience without being too salesy? How much information should you include? What makes a good headline? These are just some of the questions on the minds of many marketers as they navigate the murky waters of quality B2B copywriting. With so many different variables that go into what makes B2B copy tick, we have a lot of room for error. But not anymore. Here, we’ll dive into five of the most common mistakes you should avoid if you want to optimize your conversions and generate more sales through your messaging.
What is B2B Copywriting?
Well, let’s first start with the B2B part. As all marketers know, B2B stands for business-to-business. And because B2B deals with the relationship between one company and another, our copywriting tactics should be a bit different than if we were speaking to consumers. B2B copywriting tends to be more formal and can afford to contain more jargon than B2C (business-to-consumer) copy, which will generally be geared toward an audience of consumers.
What B2B Copywriting Mistakes Should We Avoid?
Including Too Much Fluff
Your copy should have a specific, actionable purpose. It needs to compel visitors to do something — whether that’s providing their contact information or buying your product. It shouldn’t be filled with fluff that doesn’t serve any real purpose. And if you can’t identify what each word or sentence in your copy does, there’s a good chance you can cut without losing too much meaning. With B2B copywriting, every word should hold weight.
Focusing On Features Over Benefits
It’s easy to focus on features when writing copy for your products. But a better approach is to get prospects interested in what you have to offer by focusing on benefits instead. Tell your audience how they’ll be able to benefit from using or purchasing your product or service. How can it help them achieve their goals? What problem will it solve? Will it help them become more productive, more efficient, or more organized?
Neglecting The Hard Sell
With B2B copywriting, you have the freedom to be a bit more direct. If you’re looking to convert a lead into a sale, your copy needs to make a firm, solid case for why someone should buy your product or service. The call-to-action is one of your most important tools here. Your CTA should be prominent and inescapable — in other words, it can’t be buried at any point in your copy. Otherwise, you run an extremely high risk of losing potential customers.
Overusing Jargon
Using business jargon can easily communicate your message to existing customers, but it’s less effective when it comes to attracting new prospects. It’s also important to avoid using too much jargon or trying too hard to sound professional. In an attempt to sound sophisticated, many marketers wind up sounding stuffy and unapproachable. Alternatively, you may just end up confusing them. Either way, your copy should be direct, while still using language that’s digestible and somewhat universal.
Trying To Address Everyone
A lot of businesses fall into a trap where they’re so focused on addressing their audience and making sure they hit every demographic that they end up just talking in circles. Your message doesn’t have to resonate with everyone — but it does need to resonate with someone. And that someone should be your target audience. When you do manage to focus your copy on a single persona, your messaging will improve dramatically.
B2B Copywriting Best Practices
B2B copywriting can be difficult when you’re not used to it or new to the game. The good news is that there are ways to make your B2B copywriting stand out and be more effective. Here are a few things to keep in mind when sitting down to create your B2B campaigns.
Have A Strong Brand Identity
Having a strong brand identity is key for effective B2B marketing. If you look at it from a consumer’s perspective, you want them to know what kind of company they’re dealing with by looking at your website alone. When deciding on how you want your brand to sound — whether in your product descriptions or how-to pieces — it should be clear and consistent throughout. And remember that speaking directly to potential customers shouldn’t be too corporate. Don’t lose sight of who you are speaking to!
Use Emotions To Your Advantage
When you’re marketing a product or service that isn’t inherently exciting, it can be hard to get prospects interested. To help them engage with and remember your message, link it with an emotion — it doesn’t matter what emotion as long as it resonates with them. This is where thinking about the pains your audience may have comes in handy. How will your product or service make their lives easier?
Headlines Make All The Difference
Writing clear, quality headlines can be tricky. A lot of potential customers don’t make it past the headline if it isn’t engaging or clear enough. That being said, your headlines should directly state what it is you’re offering — and it should be enticing enough to encourage your viewer to continue paying attention. make sure to follow this guidance on how to write headlines guaranteed to convert.
Focus On One Action
If you want people to do something, make sure you’re giving them one clear CTA. If there are multiple CTAs in a post, it could confuse readers, leading them nowhere. Make sure your CTA is prominent and direct. With B2B copy, it’s best to use a hard sell CTA like “Sign Up,” “Learn More,” “Shop Now,” rather than a clever one.
B2B Copywriting FAQ
Business-to-business copywriting is a whole different ball game, so it’s natural to have a few questions before getting started.
What is the difference between B2B and B2C copywriting?
While B2C copywriting focuses on selling products to consumers, B2B copywriting focuses on promoting services to businesses. However, your goal for both types of writing should be one thing: Conversion.
What makes a good B2B copywriter?
One of the biggest jobs of a B2B copywriter is to convey complex information in an easy-to-understand way that doesn’t confuse prospective customers. This often means using simple language, choosing terms your audience will understand, and writing with brevity. An effective B2B copywriter also knows how to grab attention, without being gimmicky.
How should you use B2B copywriting?
B2B copy exists in a number of different formats. Typically, it will live on any marketing collateral needed for your business, which can include:
- Landing page copy
- Emails
- Banner copy
- White papers
- Case studies
- Video scripts
- Social media ads
What should you consider before writing B2B copy?
While it would be nice to be able to simply sit down and start writing stellar B2B collateral, copywriting doesn’t work that way. Before putting pen to paper (or fingers to keys), consider these important factors:
- The audience you’re writing for.
- The exact message you wish to get out.
- Where you’ll put this message.
- How you want to prompt your audience to act.
How formal should B2B copywriting be?
With B2B copywriting, your tone should be slightly more formal than B2C copy, because you’re addressing businesses and not individuals. However, that doesn’t mean you have the green light to go overboard with jargon and high-level terminology. Keep your copy brief, direct, and comprehensible.
Using Anyword To Get It Right
We’ve gone over the mistakes to avoid, important best practices, and some common questions when it comes to B2B copywriting. But we still have to actually write the copy. Yes, it’s a daunting task to actually put your brand’s mission in action, but what if we told you we could make it simpler, quicker, and more effective? Enter: Anyword.
Anyword’s powerful AI Copywriting Platform houses a vast library of features that help marketers write high-converting copy — in half the time. Need to build out an entire landing page with strong B2B messaging? Want to send out cold emails to prospective customers? Looking to refresh your social media ads with stronger CTAs? Anyword has a tool for that.
But the platform doesn’t just stop at copy generation. Anyword also uses a historic database of copy to predict the performance potential of your materials before you even publish. Each piece of text created by Anyword is given a score that determines its ability to convert. So not only can you save time actually writing your B2B copy, you can also feel more confident in its success. Stop the guesswork and give Anyword a try with their free 7-day trial.
