Most B2B marketing and sales collateral sucks. There is a reason why “B2B” has been dubbed “boring to boring”.
Is there a quick fix? Yes.
1. Go read your homepage now for 8 seconds
2. Put yourself in your best customers’ shoes… before they became your clients…
3. Ask yourself: does this excite me to learn more?
Remember, you have about 8 seconds to make an impression for the *right buyer*.
If you’ve done this exercise and 8 seconds later, you’re like “meh… then where you need to start is: POSITIONING
Positioning (or a lack thereof) is the root of all copywriting-evil.
Here is what you can do fast to make your copy un-suck.
I’ve found the best quick fix for positioning (and consequently messaging) problems is April Dunford’s framework. Do a brainstorming session around these five topics:
1. Competitive alternatives: if you didn’t exist, what would customers use? For Saas, it’s often human labor that is prone to errors and much more costly. For IT development companies, it’s the opposite: a Saas that is much more restricted than a custom solution.
2. Key Unique Attributes: what features/capabilities do you have that alternatives don’t? This can be tough, actually. You might come up with “our people and our culture”. Which is nonsense, your buyers don’t care about that. If in doubt, ring a few of your best customers and ask them – the answer will reveal itself.
3. Value: what value do the attributes enable for your buyers? Tie it to making money or saving money, but don’t stop there. Be brave and bring in emotional/psychological attributes too. A cybersec solution will save millions in problems, but it also gives peace of mind and better sleep for execs. Of course, you want to focus on the features from step 2.
4. Customers that care: who cares a lot about these values? You’ll find that a vertical or a niche loves your solution more dearly than others. Make sure you have this down, don’t be afraid to communicate it for fear of scaring off or not attracting others. Fortune favors niched and well-positioned companies.
5. The market you win: what is the business context in which your value becomes intuitively crystal-clear?
– Do new CxOs need your solution?
– Do companies who just got funded need you?
– Or those who have just been victim of a cyberattack and are running Azure with part of the infrastructure on premise in multiple locations…? (you get the point).
Again, this is a quick fix, but if you talk about the above instead of how great and reliable you are, your awards and your years of experience, you’ll make it easier for the right customer to intuitively fall in love with your offering. «« and that’s your goal with B2B copy.
Do this fix now for better results starting tomorrow. Then find someone who can do proper positioning and messaging based on customer interviews and an intimate understanding of your market and product.
