Best B2B Copywriting Strategies: Maximizing Conversion
From consumer-facing operations to corporate communications, copywriting is an essential part of business. Good copy is especially important in the business-to-business (B2B) sector. It provides context for products and services laying the groundwork for successful relationships.
In this article, we’ll take a long look at B2B copywriting and why it’s so important. Once we explain the essence of business content, we’ll review its benefits and discuss key copywriting strategies. If you sell products or services of any kind to other businesses, professional copy is key.
The following stats highlight the importance of content in this sector:
- The global B2B e-commerce market was worth US$7,907.07 billion in 2022. Annual growth of 20.2% is forecast from 2023 to 2030.
- Almost 3/4 of all buying decision-makers in this sector are millennials. This generation expects personalized high-value content.
- In the B2B sector, 91% of all marketing professionals use content marketing.
What is B2B copywriting?
Copywriting is about using words to persuade and influence people. Depending on the nature of the copy, you may wish to drive a specific action or promote your business as a whole. B2B copywriting is the act of writing copy for consumption by other businesses. Different messaging can be used to inform readers, promote products, and build your brand.
Examples of B2B copywriting include marketing material for brochures, technical copy for manuals, and promotional copy for marketing campaigns. Nowadays, a lot of copy is shared online, including website articles, blog posts,advertising,and social media content.
Online copywriting is a growing concern for many businesses. Everything from email marketing to social media and website creation falls under this banner. More often than not, B2B transactions involve electronic commerce via specialized websites. From brokering sites to industry portals, these platforms also demand professional copywriting services.
Copywriters use both creative and technical skills. They talk to customers, promoting products and building brands.Copy created for businesses needs to be engaging, informative, and capable of driving market action.
The benefits of quality B2B copywriting strategies
As mentioned above, B2B copywriting fulfills a range of marketing purposes. Depending on where the content is published and what it’s about, it can be used to educate readers and promote various business offerings. B2B copywriting has many benefits like generating awareness, attracting leads, or finalizing sales.
With B2B copywriting strategies, you can:
Increase brand awareness
B2B copywriting helps to boost brand awareness. Not all copy is directly related to products and services, with content often about building the brand. From “About Us” pages to product sheets, professional marketing copy helps to build authority and confidence.
Attract new customers
Good business copy helps to attract new corporate customers. If you want to appeal to other businesses, you need to present a trustworthy image. B2B copywriting sets a professional tone using industry terms and persuasive language to build confidence and trust with the market. Good copy informs readers of products and services and establishes the brand within the wider market.
Enhance customer retention
Regardless of your industry sector, repeat customers are essential to every business-facing company. Marketing copy allows regular engagement, which breeds familiarity and promotes customer loyalty. B2B copywriting communicates shared values and sets up relationships between companies.
Boost conversion rates
B2B copywriting informs and assists customers, boosting conversion rates by influencing purchasing decisions. The marketing appeal of good copy is undeniable. It can be used to target fresh leads, engage attention, and transform interest into sales. From keywords to website articles and blog posts, B2B copywriting strategies have a direct effect on your bottom line.
Improve the shopping experience
B2B copywriters produce a range of content for e-commerce websites. Wherever it’s published, good copy helps to support buying, selling, and negotiation online. Copywriting can have a positive impact on the shopping experience. When words are used effectively, you can inform customers and direct online transactions.
7 practices for successful B2B copywriting
Whatever your goals, B2B copywriting requires critical focus and consistent effort. It’s important to adopt a flexible approach, testing your results and making changes as needed. For example, some businesses want to increase sales, while others improve their reputation or build business relationships. It doesn’t matter what you sell — all marketing campaigns need to be optimized based on your business goals.
The following seven B2B copywriting strategies are a great place to start:
Research and tailor content for your target audience
When it comes to content creation, you need to think about your audience. This is particularly true with B2B copy, which is often industry-specific and time-sensitive. From the outset, you need to research your target audience to find out what motivates them.
If you want to convince customers of your brand’s value, you need to speak directly to them. With the following questions, you can identify specific segments of the market and target content especially for them:
- Who is likely to read this content?
- How does it add value to their lives?
- Why do they benefit from reading it?
Clarity is essential when producing business copy. Along with the copy itself, you should pay attention to content structure, headings, metadata, and links. To boost credibility, you should always ensure that your data is correct. Check your facts, reference good sources, and integrate data into your copy to create a believable story. While you don’t have to be afraid of using industry jargon, you need to make sure it’s clearly explained.
Realize the importance of structure and headlines
If you want to generate quality business content, it needs to be relevant and add value. B2B copywriting often involves a top-down process, from the structure of the content to the headlines, text, and marketing links.
Engaging headlines are vital to get readers involved, from the top H1 header to the H2, H3, and beyond. When writing headlines, numbers and power keywords like “exclusive” and “industry secret” can be used to great effect.
Bullet lists make an impression within the body of the copy, balancing key concepts with high-impact negative space. Product specifications, industry statistics, and other numbers can also play an important role.
Use storytelling techniques
Stories are central to the human condition, and they’re a fantastic way to make an impression. Words create connections in the brain as the reader looks for familiarity and meaning. While stories are often associated with creative writing formats, they can be used to great effect in a range of business contexts. B2B copywriters don’t have to be boring. Storytelling is capable of transforming dry information into a rich and engaging narrative.
There are lots of ways to use stories in marketing campaigns. Examples include “About Us” pages, social media profiles, and personalized business copy. You can tell people about your vision and values, introduce your team, and highlight your goals to build an emotional connection. Companies often go to extreme lengths to create an engaging brand narrative.
A range of marketing elements can be used in this context. Examples include print and banner advertising, websites, social media platforms, and industry events.
Leverage data creatively
In the world of business, data is (almost) everything. Whether you operate a physical warehouse or sell specialized components online, using information to your advantage is important. In the B2B sector, industry statistics are often used to assert authority and build trust. While creativity still has a role to play, concrete facts help to make the narrative more believable.
When you present relevant business data, you’re convincing readers through the power of reason and logic. For example, industry statistics highlight market size, product specs build confidence, and internal surveys forecast market trends. Whatever type of data you use, you should always cite reputable sources for the sake of credibility.
Highlight benefits and offer value
Regardless of your location or industry sector, B2B marketing is about highlighting benefits. You need to showcase your products and services in the best possible light. You need to show how they benefit customers and deliver tangible value. When your copy focuses on problem-solving, you’re more likely to create a compelling narrative. There are many ways to create value with B2B copywriting strategies. For example, you can give examples, list benefits, and present your product or service as a viable solution.
Instead of just talking about what your product does, you should construct a persuasive story arc that delivers a solution. There are many examples of B2B brands adopting this benefits-driven marketing approach. For example, Knotel wrote about its pop-up showrooms, where customers could see their new workspaces. HubSpot found another way to add value by creating the text-driven HubBot customer service tool. Kabbage also focused on benefits by informing customers of its faster small business loans.
Optimize content for SEO
When you’re building a B2B company, search engine optimization (SEO) is critical. SEO includes various marketing practices to help websites rank organically in search engines. SEO can help to improve website visibility, drive traffic, and build trust with the market. B2B copywriting strategies use SEO to improve visibility on search engines. When you’re selling products and services to other businesses, this is essential.
When you run a specialized B2B company, niche and industry-specific keywords play a vital role. When you adopt the right keywords, you can reach a highly targeted market segment. Dedicated SEO tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Google Ads Keyword Planner can be used to optimize content. Local and off-page strategies can also be used to boost visibility in key markets.
You can use various SEO tools to discover the right keywords for your business. This stops you from focusing on the wrong terms and wasting time, money, and resources. The following three SEO tools are key:
- The keyword difficulty (KD) score shows how hard it would be trying to rank for a specific keyword.
- Search volume is a metric highlighting how many people are using a particular keyword.
- The cost per click (CPC) is the financial cost of using a specific keyword in an advertising campaign.
When you know what people are searching for, you can choose the right keywords and tailor your content accordingly. To make sure your copy is recognized by the search engines, it’s also important to incorporate keywords into H1-H5 headings. Along with focusing on keywords, you need to produce content that’s relevant to your business and valuable to your readers.
Adopt A/B testing
The world of online marketing is highly complex. There are lots of moving parts, which makes campaigns very difficult to manage. From internal website articles to external industry copy, publishing lots of material in parallel is common. Whenever you adopt a complex B2B copywriting strategy, it’s important to test your results to see what is and isn’t working.
The significance of A/B testing cannot be overstated. First, it’s important to choose single variables when testing. You also need to identify specific goals and create control and challenger pages. You can run tests by creating different versions of a single page. When doing this, you redirect visitors and compare their behavior to see what’s most effective. When you get it right, smart A/B testing can elevate your marketing campaign and save you lots of time and money.
Final thoughts
If you’re involved in the B2B sector, good copywriting is essential to business success. Quality content offers many benefits. It helps to increase brand awareness, attract customers, and improve the shopping experience. Good copy offers advantages throughout the customer journey. It helps to bring in new leads, boost conversion rates, and improve customer loyalty. To experience these benefits, you need to adopt the right practices.
Successful B2B copywriting requires a considered and multi-pronged approach. From keywords and content to testing and review, it’s important to leverage stories and data to your advantage. When you craft valuable content that resonates with your audience and use professional SEO to maximize search engine rankings, your B2B enterprise will benefit for years to come.
If you want to adopt professional B2B copywriting strategies and give your business a real boost, contact our team to find out more.
Mar 14, 2024
Andy Zenkevich
Andy is a seasoned CEO with years of hands-on experience in SEO, link building, content marketing and website development. His deep understanding of the digital landscape and passion for content marketing make him a trusted voice in the industry.