TL;DR
- Good content is original and insightful first.
- Be tactful with SEO.
- There are no rules, just very important guidelines to follow.
- Keep your content varied but appropriate for your audience.
- Avoid AI writing tools.
- Do your research.
What is B2B technology content?
To give a simple definition, B2B tech marketing and PR involves promoting technology-based products or services to other businesses. Naturally then, content is the copy that shapes this activity, whether it be blog posts, whitepapers, case studies, opinion pieces, social media posts or press releases. Without good copy and content, marketing can often fall on deaf ears.
B2B technology content is ultimately varied, as are all of the companies that sit under the umbrella term of B2B tech. Healthtech content is an entirely different kettle of fish to fintech or edtech. There are also multiple different business models within each of the industries, from software and SaaS to resellers and hardware vendors.
Yet when it comes to crafting B2B content there are some key guidelines that apply across the board and should be kept in mind in order to shape good content.
1. Keep it real
It’s so easy to get lost in jargon in B2B tech content. And after one too many mentions of ‘digital transformation’ people are now firmly turned off by content littered with more key words than meaning.
Arguably, the buzzword’s life cycle sees it enter the lexicon of marketers, get overused and subsequently become an eyesore before simply being replaced by a shiny new one. Now, not all buzzwords are bad words. Sometimes concepts are best explained when they are preceded by words like ‘strategic’ or ‘dynamic’ but rarely are they used meaningfully in sentences that include words like ‘synergy’.
On the whole though, people are waking up to the need to be clear, insightful and impart real meaning. Saying something simply is far better than sending your reader off to Google by the end of each sentence.
Luckily, Inc. has already compiled a list of the top 24 buzzwords at the bleeding edge of content in 2024. Good luck pushing the envelope and working them into your next blog post of actionable insights to keep pace with the next generation of change agents in B2B content.
2. Keep it really real
Speaking of sounding like a robot, in the age of LLMs AI-generated content is becoming more and more prevalent. And it’s so obvious. Believe me, we can all tell.
Not only are there a number of free tools that make it really easy to spot AI-generated content, but it is obvious to even the untrained eye.
To prove it, I asked ChatGPT to write me a blog on how to master B2B tech content. It started off with a phrase that directly contradicts point one:
‘In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape…’
To make matters worse, the copy ends with some vague advice:
‘Embrace the dynamic nature of B2B technology content to achieve long-term success.’
Luckily, the above line is immediately followed by a useful instruction:
‘Feel free to adjust this based on your specific needs or target audience!’
Perhaps instead of spending the time editing AI content into something worth publishing, time could be spent crafting original content based on expertise and lived experience.
Either way, LLMs are just quite bad at sticking to your core message and can often be built on unreliable data that isn’t referenced or traceable and will ultimately leave you missing the mark.
As the technology matures, users are naturally getting better with their prompts. But while you can tell a model all about your existing brand guidelines and messaging in detail, AI can’t feel them the way we can. Deployed in the wrong way and regardless of your intentions or instructions, people can still find ways to make your AI content look bad or even do and say bad things. See 10 famous AI disasters. People are terrible, but so are you for using AI to do a job humans are better at.
The net result of the AI-invasion is that the good marketers and copywriters are shifting their style to champion originality and move away from the banality that you so often get back from AI.
Many brands, B2C especially, are adopting a unique tone of voice that sees them become more recognisable. There’s probably no need to go as far as brands like Wendy’s, but adding humour and originality to your content can be a refreshing change to the ‘evolving digital landscape’.
Not to mention, these types of AI models are incredibly energy intensive. A Google executive once admitted that the search engine would face a $6 billion hike in expenses if a ChatGPT-like AI were to handle just half the queries it receives with 50-word answers. Being original is good for the planet.
3. Value first, SEO second.
Don’t get ahead of yourself, SEO is important and don’t discard it by any means. After all, according to research from BrightEdge, 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine.
But SEO’s true value is often misconstrued and misunderstood, and common misconceptions around what SEO really is will have you writing poor content.
As much as some people think that stuffing terms like ‘B2B technology content’ ‘B2B technology content marketing’ and ‘B2B technology content creation’ into your articles might shoot you up Google’s search results, it won’t work and it makes for dull reading.
Whether optimised or not, first and foremost, you need good ideas and good content. As a technology organisation, your expertise and ability to demonstrate it is the most valuable thing you can communicate to potential customers.
A complete SEO strategy is much more than keywords and backlinks. But the best content has purpose and meaning first. SEO comes second, third or even further down the list of priorities. Ultimately, SEO gets you to a page but insightful and impactful content keeps you there.
4. Know your audience
In the 1970s, Pampers launched its range of nappies in Japan, backed by an expensive marketing campaign that featured classic imagery of a stork delivering a baby. While familiar to a US audience, the image isn’t actually known to a Japanese one who instead associate floating peaches with bringing babies to awaiting parents.
Marketing execs at Pampers clearly failed to do their research which in this case amounted to consulting a single Japanese person before launching an ad campaign in Japan. Perhaps they can be forgiven for the lack of email in the 1970s.
All this is to say, when crafting B2B content, knowing your audience and appropriately meeting them where they are is crucial. Not all marketers are experts and all experts certainly aren’t marketers, but when you have something to say, make sure you’re speaking the language of those you aim to reach.
Perhaps more important than all of the above though is asking yourself whether or not anyone actually cares about what it is you’re trying to say. So you’re changing your logo or you’ve updated your website, that’s fantastic and congratulations, but some things warrant different formats. The aforementioned examples probably merit a social media post at best, certainly more so than they do a press release or a blog.
Choosing the right content form to showcase your expertise and experience is a crucial step in the process.
5. There are no rules, just guidelines
Ernest Hemingway is quoted as saying “there is no rule on how to write.” Easy for him to say, he was fairly good at it.
Though we can’t be sure, Hemingway probably wasn’t talking about B2B technology content. If he was, he surely would have included the caveat that there are actually just a few simple guidelines and suggestions that you should probably follow in your content, not just B2B.
If you’re unconvinced, read any of the publications you want to be in and you’ll start to notice the same patterns. The best writers stick to the formula but make it feel natural.
Here are just some of those guidelines:
- 15-25 words per sentence. Anything longer becomes harder to understand.
- One-two sentences per paragraph. You’re not writing an essay.
- Write the numbers one to ten and use digits for 11 onwards.
- Write out acronyms first and shorten them after.
- Be clear and concise.
Of course, these guidelines are not extensive and there are many more. They’re also crucially not strict rules and can be tweaked according to your preferences and agreed house style. You’ll find countless examples of paragraphs with three sentences rather than two. This one has four.
You’ll also probably find that the above guidelines relate more to the UK than they do to the lawless west of the US. Either way, there’s a minimum expectation when it comes to writing content.
6. Failing to prepare is preparing to write bad content
Lastly, and perhaps more important than anything else, is preparation. Broken down, that means utilising content briefs, planning your content schedule far in advance, breaking subjects into clear digestible sections and of course, doing your research.
Not only will this make drafting content easier, but it will be clearly visible in the end product.
The outlets that you’re targeting in your PR strategy will often publish editorial calendars for the upcoming year, and your own content can be planned to speak to these calendars and align with them. Often, they’ll centre around relevant industry events or dates in the calendar, so it doesn’t harm your strategy to tailor your output to these calendars and ensure that you’re aligning with some wider industry themes and talking points.
Taking longer to plan and write a piece is rarely a bad thing. Don’t underestimate the value of digging a little deeper, spending extra time with experts before finalising a piece and holding a piece back when it might fit better within your wider strategy later down the line.