Moving from copywriter to B2B content writer

Have you ever worked as a copywriter?

Then, as a copywriter, you understand more about marketing than writers from any other career path.

And you’ve probably got some wonderful skills.

So why not cash in on the biggest writing boom in years: B2B content?

What is B2B content?

As you know, B2B content includes blog posts, case studies, e-newsletters, press releases, slide decks. video scripts, white papers…

In fact, B2B content includes any piece of writing that helps a company rise in Google’s search results and attract prospective buyers.

But it’s not sales copy. And there are never any “Buy now” buttons in the margins.

B2B content is designed to help business people understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision.

And there’s a desperate shortage of good writers who can produce it. That’s where you come in, as an experienced copywriter.

You already have many skills

Let’s review the great skills you likely already have:

• Understanding why B2B buyers buy
• Analyzing an audience
• Doing in-depth research
• Interviewing experts
• Writing to persuade
• Following house style
• Meeting short deadlines
• Handling reviews and comments

All these will be very helpful to you as a B2B content writer.

Some new skills you may need

Here are some skills you may need to develop to succeed in B2B content writing:

• Writing to explain
• Handling quotes and sources
• Proving all your claims with evidence
• Formatting documents for quick scanning
• Telling an engaging story

You can learn all these, both by studying good samples of B2B content, and with practice at writing your own.

Three things you may need to “unlearn”

Be warned: When you first start to write B2B content, your past experience as a copywriter may get in your way.

That’s because sales copy appeals more to emotion than logic.

So you’ll need to shift your focus from selling to providing useful information.

If you can shift your attitude enough to get past the following hurdles, you can have a wonderful future as a B2B content writer.

1. Sell the steak, not the sizzle

Copywriters are often told to “sell the sizzle, not the steak”. But B2B content is different.

To reach a skeptical business audience, you won’t be able to get away with any lofty slogans or glib promises.

You’ll need to eliminate any hype, fluff, superlatives, and lofty promises.

You’ll need to find solid facts to build a logical case or tell a real-world story.

In every piece, you’ll need to dish out plenty of “steak”.

2. Talk features, not benefits

When you write copy, you automatically link every feature to a benefit. You paint a picture of how much better people’s lives will be after they buy.

When you write B2B content, your text may need to drill down deeper into features. You may need to describe how a feature is implemented, or how it solves an age-old problem.

You may need to discuss the durability of some materials, or the precision of an algorithm.

Of course, benefits are important.

But in B2B content, they are sometimes secondary to the nitty-gritty information about features that business people are seeking.

3. Don’t ask for the order

When you write B2B content, you never “ask for the order”.

The documents you’ll be writing are used to support a complex B2B sale and to help business people make a decision that can take many weeks or months to complete.

At the end of the document, you might encourage readers to take the next step in the sales cycle, such as visiting a website.

But in B2B content, you seldom ask readers to pick up the phone and call the order desk.

No sales pitches, just useful info

As you move into the field of B2B content, remember that business people aren’t looking for a sales pitch.

They are looking for useful content to help them understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision.

If you can provide it, you will position your client as a trusted advisor that prospects can rely on. And you can have a wonderful career as a B2B content writer.