What Is Business-To-Business Writing? A Guide For Beginners

No matter what type of business you have, you need written materials for promoting your brand. From website copy to blog posts, case studies to advertisements, social media posts, and even answers on public forums, you need to make people aware of your brand and what unique benefits customers will get from it. Business-to-business marketing uses a lot of written materials that help companies achieve one of these goals:

1. Attract New Customers: It is more expensive to find new clients than convert existing ones. B2B copywriting lets you grow your base, target a niche, and directly address an audience's needs.
2. Increase Customer Retention: B2B copy allows you to speak at length about your products and services. Through long-form content, you can ensure that customers know how to use your products or website. You can also teach them how to get the most value from the purchases they make.
3. Strengthen Their Brand: If you use your website and social media pages to deliver value to your customers, they will see you as more than a service provider. The more you write about your industry, the more people will consider you a trustworthy source of information.

B2B content marketing differs significantly from B2C or business-to-customer. If B2C relies on associations and emotions, B2B leans more on facts and case studies. You should keep the following things in mind when writing to businesses about your products and services.

Comparing B2C and B2B Writing

Both business-to-business and business-to-customer copywriting use content to engage their audiences and drive sales. They also use writing to build thought leadership and distinguish themselves in their field. However, there are notable differences between B2B and B2C copywriting. Here are only some of them.

The Audience Of Your Content

If you write B2C content, you typically have a handful of very detailed personas in mind. For example, if you sell women's athletic footwear, your audience will most likely be people who love engaging in sports and outdoor activities or professional athletes. Also, the purchasing decision is in your audience's hands; they decide whether or not to buy the shoes.

Meanwhile, a B2B content writer will be writing to a whole company or a team. Since you're selling your products to an entire company, you're considering a group of people with various titles and priorities. Their personal preferences and demographics may or may not come into play as well. Furthermore, the purchasing decision might be in the hands of someone who won't be using your product. For instance, C-suite executives can sign off on software for the sales team, even if they're not going to use it themselves.

The Goals You Want To Reach

Both of these types are for building brand awareness and converting leads into customers. However, B2B is more geared towards establishing a brand as a thought leader. When you're writing to convince businesses to buy your products or services, you need to have a goal beyond bringing in more traffic.

The Expertise In Your Content

B2B audiences are skilled and knowledgeable in their field. If you want to create content for them, you need to know the niche very well. You're targeting experts, so you need to think out of the box when coming up with topics. Otherwise, they'll move to a creator who can provide new insights into their field.

The Value Proposition You Make

For B2C writers, one of the main goals is ensuring that audiences feel an emotional connection to the content. Since you're targeting users directly, they need to want to make the purchase. Your value proposition should be towards making them feel happier, safer, or more fulfilled.

Meanwhile, B2B copy tends to focus on logic. Businesses want to be sure that they are getting their money's worth and that you provide more value than competing brands. B2B, as a result, requires more research.

What Types Of Content Are Suitable For B2B Writing?

When you think of B2B writing, the format that immediately comes to mind is blog posts. An article will usually run for 800 to upwards of 2,000 words, depending on the topic and the complexity of the writer's angle. Blog posts also double as a tool for SEO since writers can incorporate keywords into the posts.

If a blog is prolific at creating SEO content, the writers can rework the articles into longer-form pieces. Ultimate guides and manuals are examples of things businesses can make out of repurposed content. Besides publishing on an official website, companies can also create emails and newsletters. These direct-to-client materials cover the latest events in the company or the industry where it belongs.

A business can also periodically release case studies, tech reports, and white papers. Since B2B writing focuses on creating value for experts, data-driven outputs like these are valuable. Tech reports also allow a company to speak about the innovations their business has brought to the field. Case studies can also analyze how clients found success in using the company's products or services.

Finally, you can have B2B content in other places, like the company's social media page and the website's product page. For example, if you sell supplements, you can include nutrition facts and research on your product pages. You can also create short posts on your social media linking to these items.

Conclusion

When you're targeting other businesses, written materials become even more critical. B2B writers are responsible for presenting their company's products and services in a way that convinces stakeholders in other businesses to choose their brand. Since B2B content is a critical part of the buyer's journey, having expert writers is vital in ensuring success.

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