How do B2B copywriters come up with ideas?
Is it magic? Maybe, but we also follow a process to make sure our ideas resonate with readers.
Creatives get this question all the time: where do you get your ideas? Director David Lynch once likened it to catching fish — ideas are always there, floating around, and you catch them by letting your mind wander or exploring a new environment.
In B2B copywriting, the process is a bit more structured. There is fishing involved in the creative aspects of our work, like the bout of daydreaming that helped form the idea for this introduction, but we also need to make sure each idea has value for its intended audience.
Part of this comes from training and experience. We have methods in place to source and validate our ideas, and we know how to work with creative limitations — whether it’s a tight timeframe or just a specific set of instructions — to ensure ideas can take off.
We can’t implant years of learning into your brain, but by sharing some of our methods for creating B2B content, we hope you’ll get some interesting insight into the process.
We keep an eye on trends
Following trends isn’t about jumping on every train that comes by. It’s about knowing what your target audience is interested in reading, which is essential to any content ideation process.
“One of the best ways to come up with content ideas is to look outside your organization to what’s happening in the industry,” says Josh Walker, Senior Copywriter at Motum B2B. “What are people talking about, concerned about, and excited about, and what campaigns are resonating with people?”
In the B2B context, a trend doesn’t have to be something mainstream like a matcha latte. We’re looking for things like the rise of ecommerce in B2B, a wave of sustainable innovation, or a push to optimize supply chains.
That may present an opportunity for you to add clarity or a unique perspective to the situation — and an angle to introduce your B2B product as the solution to a related challenge.
“There’s also value in looking outside B2B to B2C and even the marketing world altogether,” Walker explains. “By keeping up with what’s happening in tech, retail, travel, design, popular culture, and beyond, you’ll be able to connect the wider dots and see if there’s a new angle or learning that’s worth exploring when viewed through that lens of B2B.”
We research
Research is an important part of making sure content is factually accurate — especially in today’s AI-driven world — but it also helps inform ideas for content. SEO and AEO research, for one, can show the types of queries your customers are searching for, which allows us to see where we can serve up better or more relevant results.
By learning how your industry operates, how your product functions (and how it compares to competing products), and the types of challenges your audience struggles with on a day-to-day basis, writers learn how to speak their language. This is an essential part of reaching them with a message that resonates.
The best content elicits an emotion or feeling in someone, makes someone think about something differently, and is created by humans for humans. Josh Walker, Senior Copywriter
Pain points are a big one. You can’t sell a solution without understanding the problem, and when you do, you have an opportunity to create content that lands on an emotional level. Copywriters can take an audience’s pain point and create a story from it — one that feels familiar to the reader and leads them naturally to the solution you have on offer.
To do this research, we’re not just looking externally but within your team as well. We ask questions about the minutiae of your business to understand how it works from the inside.
We speak to your technical experts to learn about the science or engineering behind your product, to see what makes it tick (and what makes it special). Ideally, we also speak with your customers to get direct feedback on what drove them to seek a solution and why they chose you.
We identify what works (and what doesn’t)
Content can continue to work hard for your brand months or years after publishing. By collecting and analyzing the data, you can learn what topics your readers are most likely to click on, how long they stay on the page, and how often that leads to a conversion, to name some common examples.
If you see a blog with a high engagement rate, you’ve probably captured a topic that interests your audience. That’s where a copywriter can suggest topics that riff or expand on information you covered there. It may be possible to repurpose that content into a different format to reach different readers or put a new spin on the same topic. For example, you could create a quiz as a follow-up to an educational piece so people can put their learnings to the test.
Analytics can also show you what formats your audience prefers to see. From there, you can plan future content that fits their preferences.
It’s just as important to note what your audience doesn’t like. If a topic seems highly relevant but doesn’t perform, a copywriter that knows your business can suggest ways to adapt the piece. Maybe the subject requires more explanation from a layman’s point of view, or maybe it needs more visuals or interactivity to illustrate the message you want to get across.
We find the story
Technically, content can just be a bunch of facts strung together, but that’s not very interesting to read. The best way to reach people is to tell a story that reflects their own experiences.
“What’s key with any good story is having a good hook. That’s the thing you’re going to hang your story on, and the thing that gets someone invested in reading what you have to say,” Walker says. “It needs to be compelling, bold, and clear on why it matters to someone on a human level.
“Therein lies the other important pillar of great content: making it human. The best content elicits an emotion or feeling in someone, makes someone think about something differently, and is created by humans for humans.”
All that work scoping out trends, researching the industry, and analyzing past results? It all comes together to help the story unfold.
I could tell you that my HVAC unit is very efficient and easy to install, but those are just product features. The story needs to go further. Maybe a technician saved the day by driving to another state for a stressed-out customer who needed an urgent installation. Maybe a customer was struggling to keep their busy factory compliant with safety laws, and the HVAC unit helped them restore the indoor climate and air quality.
We’re spitballing, but you get the idea. A real story has characters, a beginning and end, a conflict and a resolution. It goes beyond features to connect on a human level. Oftentimes in B2B, that’s a challenging prospect — but that’s why we’re here.
What stories will your brand tell?
Coming up with content ideas is tricky and time-consuming, but our B2B copywriters have it down to a science (and an art). We can help create a calendar that maps out all your content for the year based on your upcoming priorities and your audiences’ interests. Contact our team to get started.