By Chantel Hall, Marketing Content Specialist
Buyer-driven messaging is the cornerstone of Ironpaper’s content methodology, and we often discuss it with our clients and in our educational content. If you’re used to writing autobiographical or product-focused content, it can be challenging to know precisely what buyer-focused content looks like. In this blog post, we will lay out a few steps for writing buyer-focused content to help you get started.
Writing buyer-driven content requires subtle shifts in your thinking about your buyers and how you write about your value proposition. But if you can make this shift in your content, it will ultimately help you improve content engagement and build relationships with your buyers.
Learn how Ironpaper can help you boost content engagement and connect with your buyers.
Understand your buyers and what they’re looking for
Understanding your buyers is critical to improving content engagement. Whether you’re encouraging buyers to sign up for a demo, download an ebook, or share a report, you need a concrete understanding of the target audience you’re writing for and the ideal customer profiles (ICPs) you want to attract.
B2B buying groups are growing and changing because of the pandemic and the rapid changes in digital marketing — and so are their expectations. You need to understand who is involved in your buying groups and how to best engage them through content.
- What are their most pressing pain points and goals?
- What is their knowledge level? Are they in a highly technical role?
- Who are the stakeholders they have to bring into the conversation?
- What market forces are affecting their company and their needs?
- Where are they collecting information about their options?
By focusing content on your buyers, and not just what your solution provides, you’ll be able to create content that engages and interests buyers in your target market.
Read More: How to match content to the buyer’s journey to improve content engagement
Make outcomes explicit
Most marketers and salespeople have been told that we need to sell benefits, not features, but truly buyer-focused copy goes a step further: instead of just stating the benefits of your solution, buyer-focused copy is explicit about the outcomes your customers experience when they use your product.
This content strategy will ultimately help you boost content engagement by enticing buyers with outcomes that speak directly to their goals and pain points.
B2B buyers are shifting towards fully digital, remote, or self-service purchases, with 70% of B2B decision-makers being willing to make purchases over $50,000 through remote interactions or entirely self-service sales processes, according to market analysts.1 Writing copy that makes outcomes explicit tells buyers what they can expect when choosing your product. Where benefits-focused content requires buyers to think through how those benefits apply to their team and business, outcomes-focused content takes that extra step.
70% of B2B decision-makers are willing to make purchases over $50,000 through remote interactions or entirely self-service sales processes.
-McKinsey & Company
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Benefits-focused
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Outcomes-focused
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Get rid of “fluff”
The average B2B buyer spends 27% of the sales process independently researching solutions online. While buyers are learning about your company, your content needs to cut through the clutter and get to the heart of why your company is the right choice. One of the best ways to accomplish this is by cutting marketing fluff, unnecessary jargon, and hyperbole from your content.
By cutting fluff out of your copy, you can better demonstrate your knowledge and the outcomes you can deliver without forcing buyers to wade through unnecessary details. B2B buyers are more likely to share content that tells a strong story (52%) and includes impactful, shareable statistics and insights (44%).3 Your company’s unique insights will be more impactful (and more likely to be shared among buying groups) when they aren’t watered down with marketing fluff.
B2B buyers are more likely to share content that tells a strong story (52%) and includes impactful, shareable statistics and insights (44%).
-DemandGen Report
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Fluffy
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Substantive
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Boost content engagement with buyer-focused content
With some practice, you can begin writing buyer-focused copy that shows buyers how your solution will affect their business outcomes. By understanding your buyers, focusing on outcomes, and cutting out the fluff, you can improve content engagement and start meaningful conversations with buyers about their pain points and goals.
Sources
1McKinsey & Company, These eight charts show how COVID-19 has changed B2B sales forever, October 14, 2020
2Gartner, New B2B Buying Journey & its Implication for Sales
3DemandGen Report, 2021 Content Preferences Survey: Buying Committees Look For Visual, Research/Influencer-Backed Content Experiences That Tell A Valuable Story, 2021
