Contributed by Scott Daughtry, SEO Specialist, NetQoS

The B2B Lead features a number of helpful articles on copywriting, so I thought I’d share one of my favorite tips for ensuring B2B marketing copy is relevant. As marketers we constantly try to write compelling copy that motivates people to take some sort of action. The trick is to write in the voice of our target audience; speaking to them using language they respond to. Sometimes we use focus groups or A/B testing to help with this; getting out in the field and talking to prospects/customers also helps. In the end though, the words we choose often amount to best guesses.

Keyword research tools like Wordtracker, Google Trends, and the Google Keyword Tool provide a wealth of insight into the voice of our audience. Using search data and trends can give excellent clues to the words people use to describe things. Talking to your audience, using the same words they search for themselves, puts you at a major advantage. For example, the other day I was crafting an email to promote a new webcast. Problem was, some people were calling it a webcast and others were calling it a webinar – which was it? What would more people respond to; a webcast offer or a webinar offer? I decided to use Google Trends to compare the search volume of both words. I figured the term that is searched more often will also be the term used more commonly in conversation. This term should also spark a higher interest if used in my email. So I quickly pulled up Google Trends and here is what I found.

This obviously made my decision easy. Split testing my email offers confirmed that using “webcast” got the better response.

Now, this is just search-driven copywriting in its simplest form. If you want to take this further, you can use the Google Keyword Tool or Wordtracker almost like you would a Thesaurus. For example, maybe you are promoting a “golf strategies” guide. If you plopped this keyword into the Google Keyword Tool, it would offer you numerous suggestions for related terms people are searching for. In this example (shown below) maybe you would be better off promoting it as a “golf tips” guide since that term is searched more frequently.

Hopefully by now, you are starting to get the idea. This stuff really works – I have personally seen higher conversion rates on landing pages and emails by using this strategy. If you are interested in reading more about similar ideas, Aaron Wall has a very interesting article on keyword research that is definitely worth a read.

http://learn.wordtracker.com/articles/keyword-inspiration-aaron-wall-of-seobookcom-shares-his-secrets/

http://www.wordtracker.com
http://www.google.com/trends
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Subject Lines are like first impressions. When an email comes in, most email providers are set up to show you who the message is coming from and the brief subject of the message. As you are writing subject lines for your demand generation programs, make sure your message includes the following 6 principles –

• Be Informative – Be sure to convey something important, valuable or timely
• Create Intrigue – Prompt your reader to open and act on the email immediately
• Build Trust – Be sure not to over promise or mislead your prospects
• Call to Action – Make it easy for your prospects to act on the call to action
• Understand who you are targeting – Speak to each prospect as an individual and address their pain points
• From who? – Subject lines can work with From Lines

I just recently heard a new best practice – subject lines should be no longer than 6 words. Do you think this is because so many people are getting email on mobile devices?

Are we missing anything here? Post a comment to add to the list.

• Consider what your prospect or customer wants to hear, not what you want to tell them.
• Don’t beat around the bush – get to the point in 100 words or less
• Make sure call to action is above the fold (and in the preview pane)
• Be sure your offer or call to action are related to the content
• Get to the point – use 1 idea per sentence and make sentences punchy and easy to scan
• Do not use catch phrases, clichés – use real data to make key points
• Ask yourself – So what? – this will help you get to the real message

Here on The B2B Lead Blog, we are obsessed with great B2B Marketing copy. Here are a few new tips for crafting high impact copy:

• Get to the point quickly. Start with pain points, goals, or the most important reason that the reader should care. Put yourself in the buyers’ shoes. Why would you spend money or spend valuable time to read the document? To get to the real pain, ask “why” three times.
• Remember your audience – what do they care about? Lead with the most important value proposition, what’s most likely to sell first.
• Provide a full explanation of the concept, but remember: less is more. Do not use too many words to say something. Do not say the same thing several different ways before getting to the point.
• The reader should be able to scan the headline and subheads throughout the piece and get the basic story. Each subhead should tell a significant piece of the story. Make ample use of bulleted lists for readability.
• Effectively use call out boxes or highlighted quotes.
• Ensure there is clear linkage from one concept to the next, and one paragraph to the next.
• Use short punchy sentences and bulleted lists that are easy to read quickly.
• Repeat brand names and key messages to reinforce branding.
• Don’t use buzzwords or hype.
• Tie the theme of the headline to the copy. Weave the headline into the copy to reinforce.
• Use action words. Speak to customer needs with benefit-oriented statements. Avoid overly cute or cliché language.
• Always include a compelling call to action and a fast, easy way to contact you.

Share your ideas about what makes great B2B Marketing copy with readers of The B2B Lead Blog.

When I review B2B Marketing copy, I can always tell when a Marketer doesn’t fully understand his/her customer or product. You can tell because, generally, the copy is chock full of product features, hype and Marketing buzzwords. To easily create high impact B2B Marketing copy that stimulates buyers to action, follow these two guidelines:

1. Know your customer - Never, never, never begin writing a brochure, email, web page or other customer-facing document before you have a thorough understanding of your target audience. It’s not enough to know your product or service inside and out, and then start putting words on paper without even considering the customer. Understand their role, pain points, decision drivers, emotional drivers, and motivation for addressing that pain point. Then focus on those and how your product or service enables them to achieve their goals.

2. Follow this B2B Marketing Copy Recipe and you’ll quickly crank out short, concise and compelling copy that gets better results. Use the following outline as a template for developing your next brochure or email.

A. Customer Pain Point or Goal

B. Impact or Costs of Not Addressing Pain/Or the Benefits of Meeting Goal

C. Solution or Product Description

D. Requirements for Adequately Addressing Pain or Achieving Goal

E. Your Unique Ability to Alleviate the Pain or Enable Customer to Achieve Goal

F. The Advantages and/or Benefits You Deliver

G. Call to Action

H. Credibility Builders

I. Contact Information

Do you have additional ideas for punching up B2B Marketing copy to share with readers of The B2B Lead blog? Submit a post!

ReachForce is the worldwide provider of OnDemand Data Solutions for CRM – Driving Marketing initiatives and Sales effectiveness. ReachForce Solutions are designed to quickly highlight target market ‘sweet spots’ based on customer wins and sales funnel analysis as well as identify the right decision making unit based on their role in the organization, not just their title. By enabling marketing and sales teams to focus their demand generation efforts on the right role-based decision makers in the right target companies for their products or services, ReachForce data is increasing demand generation effectiveness and accelerating sales cycles. ReachForce customers have increased results by 20 to 30 times for every dollar spent on marketing and sales initiatives – maximizing the value of CRM investments.