3 common B2B content mistakes to avoid

B2B content marketing is a learning curve and there maybe things you are doing that damage your content’s reach and engagement without realising it.

Here are 3 mistakes to avoid with your B2B content.

1. Not making B2B content about the audience

The hard truth is that people don’t have time for all the content out there, including yours.

They are discerning about where they choose to invest their time (just as you are). This means your content has to work hard to make the time investment worthwhile: What’s in it for them?

Making a B2B audience care about your content means it needs to be helpful, interesting (to them), relevant, relatable…entertaining even.

There is always a place for news and business updates, but shoe-horning in referencing to the business and services at every opportunity is salesy and won’t serve.

The same goes for content that always starts from the perspective of the business, regardless of the topic.

Smart content marketing starts from the audience’s perspective, delivering something relevant and worthwhile.

It focuses on what the audience wants to know, not what the business wants to tell them.

Smart and effective content is clever with its messaging; it builds a positive reputation and respect.

Being known for being helpful, interesting, relatable and knowledgeable is more powerful than being a business that is just self-promoting or selling.

This leads neatly onto:

2. Targeting too many different audience groups with your B2B content

One of the questions I always ask at the start of a writing project is, who is this for? I do this so I can angle the piece specifically for that audience and make it as relevant to them as possible.

The problem is when the target audience is too broad and contains contrasting or distinct groups. What is relevant for one is not necessarily relevant or of interest to another.

For example, you might be a property advisory firm with landlords and tenants as clients.

A landlord’s priorities are different to an occupier’s. Trying to appeal to both in one piece risks appealing to neither.

There will be target audience groups that overlap in their interests, but it is important to be specific and realistic about who you are trying to reach.

You can always cover a similar topic from different angles to meet the needs of different audiences.

3. Not starting off your content as strong as you can

The most important words you write are your headline and opening line. People make snap decisions about whether to engage with content based on just a few words.

Common mistakes I see include:

• Headlines that don’t work in isolation, ie you need to read some of the text for it to make sense.
• Cryptic headlines that are trying to be too clever or bland generic headlines that are easy to scroll by.
• No relevant keywords (SEO)
• Opening lines focused on referencing the business rather than the topic’s relevance to the audience – see mistake 1)
• Opening lines that focus on context rather than the key point itself

Headlines and opening lines need to tell readers quickly what the piece is about and why it’s relevant to them (see mistake 2) ie get to the point.

It’s worth doing regular reviews of your news/insight/blog page and spot-checking headlines/intros to see if they are doing the job.

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