B2B Content: How to Engage Your Audience

For content’s sake

Here’s a question – why does “B2B content” seem to mean “boring content”? When did the idea of providing a product and/or service to another business somehow come at the expense of having a personality? Why is it that when we change from B2C to B2B, the language becomes less human, the visuals more corporate and the content itself as dull as proverbial dishwater?

Nowadays, we are overloaded with content – it’s everywhere in a myriad of forms. So if you are putting B2B content out into the big wide world, make sure to combine a hefty dose of substance and creativity along with the technical details. An over-reliance on the latter results in what I like to call B2B Buzzkills – surefire ways to kill your content stone-dead.

Let’s have a look at them in action:

Blogs

Oh yes, the irony of this hasn’t passed me by, given this whole thing is a blog.

Blogs may be a simple way to get content out there, but that doesn’t mean you have carte blanche to reel off a few essays filled with techy jargon and then hope for the best. If you’re going to blog about something, find something bloody good to say. Approach your subject from a new angle or even turn it on its head. Make it entertaining, make it relevant, have an opinion. Because trust me, whatever you’re saying has been said before, probably many times and definitely by your competitors.

B2B Blogging Buzzkills

Include the following words in your blog: elevate, leverage, synergy, utilise, optimise, or my favourite, impactful. String them together in a phrase like: “Utilise Data to Streamline Your B2B Marketing Process for More Impactful Results”.
Combine these gems of non-existence with the ubiquitous image of “person-typing-on-a-laptop-with-cup-of-coffee-placed-nearby.”
Add a Venn diagram/flow chart/bar chart to show key figures that mean absolutely nothing to anyone.

And you’re good to go.

Video

Businesses that get their video marketing right are creating memorable content with maximum impact. Those that miss the mark are sadly remembered for all the wrong reasons.

I’m in no way saying that your video needs to be a perfectly executed visual feast that’s worthy of an Oscar – because brilliant videos aren’t just about flashy gear and cutting-edge effects. But a professional and informative video does not need to be the on-screen equivalent of watching paint dry.

B2B Video Buzzkills

Step 1
Grab an employee who knows your product/service inside out, but who may not be at their happiest in front of the camera.

Step 2
Stick them in front of a camera and ask them to talk about your product/service for several minutes. Add a very vague CTA in there somewhere. Forget to add subtitles.

Step 3
Plonk the video on an obscure “Products & Services” page of your website. Sit back and cross those fingers that someone will stumble across it.

Email

I sometimes think there’s a corporate parallel universe, one where people walk around all day talking about “going after the low-hanging fruit” – when they’re certainly not in a bucolic orchard surrounded by overripe apples.

In this universe, these people receive an email with the subject line: “How to Leverage Technology to Elevate Your B2B Marketing Process” and say, “How interesting! Hurry up while I open this email as fast as my apple-laden hands can manage”.

Pleasepleasepleaseplease don’t send this sort of email – this universe has more than enough.

B2B Email Buzzkills

Make the email subject line as cliché-ridden as possible (see above list of jargon to squeeze into your 50 characters).
Once your reader has got past the jargony subject line and opened the email, bombard them with MORE jargon. After all, they’re sales managers/CEOs/marketing managers!!! These are the only words they understand!
Don’t be directive. You don’t want to come across as overbearing (even though you’re trying to sell a product or service).
Make your email long and tedious. After all, you’re professional Heaven forfend you sound interesting or get your point across succinctly.

Whitepaper

My personal favourite and potentially one big buzzkill in itself. Done well, whitepapers are a smorgasbord of insightful industry information. Done badly and they appear as though someone in the business has had free rein to waffle at length about a subject of their choice. Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if customers aren’t engaged after reading this sort of whitepaper. They’re probably asleep.

B2B Whitepaper Buzzkills

Make your whitepaper loooooong. After all, you have A LOT to say on this subject.
Don’t mess up your whitepaper with too many images, this is not a frivolous topic. Graphs are fine though, they add gravitas.
Include obligatory four-page introduction from CEO who knows nothing about said topic.
If you’re stuck, get ChatGPT to whittle a whitepaper up for you. Et voilà, you can get your 25-page piece in less than a minute.

Don’t kill your content with mediocrity

In case you were wondering, we don’t believe in feeding customers junk. We believe content should be nourishing, thought provoking and useful, which is incidentally why we developed the Content Creator Business Booster.