What Makes a Great B2B Copywriter and How to Find One
Is your content doing everything you hoped and more? It has to be more than just good content–it has to speak to your audience and their needs.
This is even harder if you’re in the B2B industry, since your target audience knows what they want and is more demanding about getting it.
A great B2B copywriter can make all the difference. Here’s what to look for in a great B2B copywriter and how you can hire the right one for your business.
What Does a B2B Copywriter Do?
A B2B or business-to-business copywriter specializes in the field of selling products or services to other businesses, as opposed to a B2C (business-to-consumer) copywriter who sells products directly to consumers.
This means that B2B copywriters tend to work with a specific kind of client. Common B2B clients include:
- Parts manufacturers
- Business attorneys
- Logistics and freight companies
- Customer service companies
- Staffing agencies
- Office supply companies
A great example is Intel. You couldn’t buy a microchip from Intel even though they make microchips, but Dell could buy microchips from Intel, and you could buy a computer with an Intel microchip from Dell.
Essentially, these are businesses that don’t spend their time marketing to the general public. They market to a specific type of business, one that knows exactly what it wants and what to look for.
What Makes a Great B2B Copywriter?
This means that the fundamental skills of a B2B copywriter are different from that of a B2C copywriter. Whereas B2C copywriters have to educate and pitch to consumers, B2B copywriters have to present a brand to industry experts as the best choice on the market.
They Understand Brand Voice
This means that B2B copywriters first and foremost have a deep understanding of brand voice.
Your brand is essentially your business’s personality, and within that brand, you have a unique voice. That voice is how other businesses identify your brand.
A B2B copywriter who takes on brand writing for you has to be able to assess and understand your brand voice quickly. More than that, they should have a deeper understanding of why your brand needs one voice as opposed to another.
They’re a Quick Study
This also means that B2B copywriters are quick studies.
Many B2B copywriters work with multiple companies at the same time, each with unique branding needs, goals, and target audiences. What works for one brand doesn’t automatically work for another.
The best B2B copywriters are the ones that can jump into a client’s needs feet first, quickly understanding the tone and presentation of your marketing content relative to your goals. They do more than string sentences together–they understand how those sentences are helping you grow and stay competitive in your niche.
They Know the Goal of the Copy
Last but not least, great B2B copywriters know how to look at a piece of copy and understand how it fits into the bigger picture of your brand.
When you generate content, every individual piece of content is part of a story–the story of your brand. That story is what convinces other businesses to rely on you, which means you have to present the story the right way.
The best B2B copywriters are the ones who know how to use each piece of copy to fit into the overarching brand story. They know how to assess your goals and overall marketing tone and apply them to the content so that your business always stays on target with your audience.
How to Find a Great One
That said, recognizing a great B2B copywriter and finding a great B2B copywriter are two different things.
Talented B2B copywriters are hard to come by because they have to be so adaptable. They have to understand your business, your clients, and how to bridge between the two. With B2C copywriting, they just have to understand the topic.
In other words, B2B copywriting is frankly harder than B2C copywriting, which means that truly good B2B copywriters are both difficult to come by and in high demand.
Still, you can find a good fit if you know what you’re looking for. Here are two things that will separate a great B2B copywriter from the crowd.
Industry Knowledge
As the old adage goes, jack of all trades is master of none. This is especially true (and crippling) and B2B copywriting.
Because B2B copywriters have to target content toward other businesses (i.e. industry experts) they have to know their way around the subject matter like the back of their hand. Inexperience will shine through quickly, and would-be clients will be turned off.
After all, if your B2B writer is covering your brand copy, the client who reads it won’t separate the writer from the copy. They’ll just associate it with the brand and write you off as a waste of time.
The best B2B copywriters are the ones who already have industry knowledge. You won’t have to teach them on the fly–they already understand the industry’s quirks and can write for other industry experts.
Marketing Savvy
This goes hand-in-hand with a high degree of marketing savvy.
The best B2B copywriters may be writing for industry experts, but they are still storytellers at heart. They’re still trying to sell something, even if the buyer is different.
Good B2B copywriters are the ones who know how to identify the story of your brand and how to make that story align with that of your customers. They know how to go deeper than sales–they can make copy feel genuine, even if it’s the 20th piece of copy they’ve written this week.
In the Market for Great Copywriters?
At NoStop Content, we know that the hunt for a great B2B copywriter isn’t easy. We also know that great content doesn’t need to cost a fortune–you just need to find the right content.
That’s where we come in.
We know how to turn blogging into the best marketing tool in your arsenal, whether you’re marketing to other businesses or the average consumer. If you’re tired of searching for a copywriter and ready to invest in a system that works, get in touch today to learn how we can help.