Writing for B2B Websites - 5 Tips

Although both are important for brand exposure and lead generation, your content needs to be of high quality, express your brand messages, and encourage a visitor to continue further along your sales funnel.

Generic writing, vague content, or web pages that provide tons of statistics without any information are all deterrents for buyers who want to find answers to specific questions and who form an impression from the moment they land on your home page.

The good news is that there are plenty of practical ways to improve the quality of your B2B web content and ensure your writing is designed to make an impact.

Write About Solutions, Not Products

Most businesses want to talk about themselves and their products - but you need to deliver the information your buyer wants to read as a primary objective!

In real-world buying environments, a procurement manager is far more likely to invest in a product or buy from a supplier when they can see a tangible advantage to doing so, rather than simply ticking a box on their purchasing list!

Rather than technical specs, try focusing on the value you bring to your buyer and the pain points you will solve that nobody else can.

For example:

• Share results: how has your service or product made life easier, more efficient, cheaper or more streamlined for other buyers? 
• Explain the benefits: are your products environmentally sensitive, and what is the advantage to the buyer of choosing to use your company?
• Be concise: a buyer is probably scanning content rather than reading it word for word. Make your selling points big, bold, and noticeable!

If your product includes an automation feature, it's not enough to have that as one bullet point in a long list of product details. Instead, tell the buyer that it reduces manual errors, improves reporting accuracy, and will make their internal processes more reliable!

Don't Be Afraid to Be Informal

Whatever your sector, your buyer is a person, and they won't often respond to corporate jargon, dry, lifeless text or uninspiring copy that is - effectively - boring to read.

Much depends on your branding style and TOV, but you can stand out from the crowd by differentiating your personality from every other business out there.

Here are a few ideas:

• Talk about those individual characteristics that make your business unique. Who are your staff, what are your aims, what do you love, and how did you become a leader in your sector?
• Share real-world client testimonials or outcomes. If the buyer is impressed with your results and can relate to your previous customer, they'll be encouraged to engage.
• Explain what you offer in clear, relatable terms, and expand on your offering rather than using blunt statements or clipped sentences.

The balance between clarity, brevity and personality is delicate, but you can express your point by explaining something as you would naturally, without throwing in stacks of terminology.

Expand Your Content Into SEO-Friendly Longer Form

B2B SEO is, of course, important, but content that is genuinely informative and useful will provide greater search engine visibility than multiple short-form pieces of text that are stuffed with keywords.

Google prioritises the user experience over all else, and longer-form pieces of writing are generally seen as more valuable for the reader.

Why is longer-form content helpful for B2B marketing?

• The more depth of detail, the more information you can provide, and the more useful your content is for the reader - if they stay on the page, share a link, or follow an internal link to another page on your site, all the better.
• Detailed content packed with information presents your brand as an authority and is preferred by search engines because it gives better answers to questions and can be broken down into subtopics.
• Longer content pieces are more likely to be published, shared, or generate backlinks, resulting in better SEO metrics.

There is no merit in expanding every blog post with meaningless word counts, but carefully crafted content with plenty of detail and references can be extremely beneficial.

Publish Writer Bios for Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness (EAT)

When you create any web content for a B2B audience, you are writing as an expert, but the challenge is that you're communicating with readers who are also experts in their own niches.

You don't want to leave any room for doubt about the legitimacy or credibility of your content.

There are several important reasons an author bio lends authenticity:

• It shows that you are a real-life human - your content isn't generic, copied or automatically created, but the thoughts and ideas of an individual.
• You can include your experience and qualifications, quantifying why you are equipped to share your knowledge, adding to reader confidence.
• Bios can be slightly more relaxed if your brand tone is somewhat formal and can link into your corporate TOV while introducing you as a potential new contact.

It is all about getting it right, so be consistent with your brand messaging while differentiating yourself as an individual with your own voice.

Adapt Your Writing to Your Audience

Here's an obvious tip for writing for B2B websites, but one often forgotten! B2B audiences are broad, and literally, anybody could choose to visit your site and read your content.

However, you need to ensure that everything you publish caters to your specific buyer persona.

There are countless examples, such as where a product or component is commonly referred to as an abbreviation within the industry, but a B2B business insists on using the technically correct terminology. 

Yes, you may be factually accurate, but it might disengage your buyer - address your intended audience, not the whole crowd!

Respect your audience's expertise; don't tell them what they already know, but add to their understanding with supporting information or knowledge.

Finally, keep the content action orientated. No matter where on your site your content is or what purpose it serves, the ultimate goal is to get your reader to take action.

Make it clear what you're like them to do, and how, and you'll improve your web content several times over. 

Need help with your B2B content marketing efforts? Get in touch with Tiga B2B agency today.