6 suggestions to help you overcome B2B content's big challenges.
Content is not understood (beyond "chucking up a few blog posts"). So it's not valued – and neither are its creators. This doesn't stop everyone having an opinion, however, despite not being able to actually create, plan, implement or measure content themselves.
Ultimately, all six barriers come down to one thing: marketing has yet to win the respect and trust it needs.
Hence: departments are reluctant to give their time and customers details. Budgets and headcount are squeezed. And everyone thinks it's OK to dictate what marketing should do.
If you're an ambitious content marketer, that's a vicious circle. 86% agree that great content can help to win friends and influence people, but only 20% are currently able to produce content that actually does so.
In the next couple of pages, we'll explore six ideas that might help you break that cycle.
The best content is the most effective.
Doug Kessler says: "For most of my career, the status of marketing in B2B was deservedly low. People felt empowered to weigh in because marketing hasn't been that accountable – and that's changing fast.
But there's something in the research that concerns me, and I think it contributes to the problem. And it's the idea that great content is a different thing than effective content.
Roughly 50% don't agree with your statement, "The best content usually gets the best results". Well, for me it's a definition issue: the best content is that which gets the best results; that's what we're here for.
Our deep belief is that smart, useful, meaningful, intelligent, well-crafted content works better than lame, middle-of-the-road, timid stuff. We prove it over and over when we're measuring our clients' results.
If we can start by defining great content as that which has the most impact, it becomes a lot easier to align people – because what's great, what's effective, and what's wonderful should really be the same thing."
There shouldn't be this tension between the well-crafted, beautiful content and the effective content. If we don't start by defining great content as that which has the most impact, we're never going to succeed.
Radix adds: For early-funnel content, it's important to think carefully about what success looks like, and how you measure that. Otherwise you can create content aimed at what's easy to measure, rather than what really achieves your goals.
Don't bring opinions to a data fight.
Shaema Shazleen Katib says: "At Intel, we often A/B test stuff, whether it's creative or just subject lines. So we know what kind of tone and messaging excites the audience's interest, and what they interact with most.
It's a test-and-learn approach: you keep testing to see what the audience likes, and implement that in your future cycles of content.
I'd like to think that changes the conversation with stakeholders. We feed the results back, so the results are reflected in the next discussion about that type of content, from a creative or messaging standpoint. We've had some success, but when you're starting with a blank slate it's more difficult."
We test to see what the audience likes, and feed those results back to stakeholders.
Radix adds: If you can stay away from subjective discussions with stakeholders about content quality, they're less likely to interfere.
Instead, try to show them evidence that a certain approach is proven to work; it stops the conversation being your opinion versus theirs.
(Because every stakeholder thinks they're an expert in marketing.)
An outstanding piece of content (that actually brings commercial value, other than the number of likes) is increasingly hard to quantify. All evidence is qualitative, which makes it difficult to argue positive performance even in the best of circumstances. Creating something truly fantastic – that drives conversion – that's the golden goose. And it's always hard. It's always a struggle.
For example, a quality checklist.
Take the work of alignment outside the daily process of approvals cycles. Establish your foundation before you even move forward.
Most of your stakeholders are probably used to dealing with clear quality standards for products and services.
If you can establish something similar for your content, then approval hopefully becomes more manageable; you're working to a clear set of pass/fail criteria, rather than a rolling free-for-all.
Seek agreement on the list before you start.
(This is easier if you have already explored ideas 1 and 2. When you have established what kind of content is most effective, and can support that with data, it gives an obvious rationale for your standard.)
If you can get alignment around a content checklist, you should have fewer last-minute changes. You can also use the list to keep stakeholders focused where they add value.
Sadly, it's not a silver bullet. But we've found that having a quality framework does give those conversations more structure, and makes them easier to manage.
Bonus tip: Where possible, use objective measures, like word count, sentence length, or Flesch-Kincaid readability score.
This stops you from having conversations criticising someone's writing style. Instead you can say objective thing,s like: "This is an F-K grade 15, we need it to be more like a 10."
Want a head-start on your checklist? Steal ours...
At Radix, we work with a 16-point content quality checklist.
You're more than welcome to purloin our list, and use it as the starting point for one of your own.
Grab the checklist here
Invest in relationships outside content.
When I meet stakeholders, I already know what their hair is on fire about.
Sometimes, one or two friendly faces in key departments are all you need.
But, as our experts have pointed out, those relationships are best nurtured outside of the content approval process.
Instead, try to take an active interest when you're not asking for their time. Find out what their concerns and goals are. See where marketing can help, without asking for anything back.
As the old song says, "It's not just sentimental"; those initial conversations are about more than brownie points. You're scouting.
In any department, there'll be a variety of characters and attitudes. Sure, sales as a whole might dislike marketing, and your engineers might think it's all spin. But often, you'll find one or two individuals who are a little more open-minded. These are your bridgehead.
Once you have befriended a few experts in other teams, you have a way in – for example, to sense-check key content, introduce you to customers, or give you just enough co-operation to test new content ideas, and prove what works.
Ideally, you can prime the pump, and start to create a little of the content that wins marketing new friends in turn.
But be careful not to overload your new friends. Crucially, their colleagues will be watching; you want them to see how easy you are to work with, and how much kudos (or how many leads) they could get as a result.
Who are Radix Communications anyway – and why do you care about all this?
That's a fair question.
Radix is a specialist B2B writing agency. We write marketing content for B2B tech brands, and we wanted to know about the obstacles our customers face.
(Selfishly, we also love writing ambitious, high-quality work, and we figure the kind of person who reads this might also be the kind who'd send us that kind of brief.)
If you'd like to know more, drop us a line at info@radix-communications.com.
What's an experiment and what's not?
Unless we try new things, how will we innovate? We've got to keep evolving to remain the best in the industry.
It's not realistic to divorce marketing content from expectations around results. If marketing wants to be taken seriously, it needs to become more accountable, not less.
But given marketers' tight workloads, this leads to a pressure to focus on tried-and-trusted methods – the "safe bets" Shaema spoke about.
The opportunity cost of that decision is all the great new ideas you didn't try that could have been better than business as usual. Maybe they would have attracted more attention, or generated more leads, precisely because they were different.
At some point, you need to try new things.
The problem is, this is an easy argument to make in abstract. It's much harder in the moment, when you have deadlines and budgets and impatient stakeholders to deal with.
Corporate rules are inflexible, so every piece of content must fit into a predefined template (even if you are trying to create something new).
It's difficult to talk about the business results of creativity. You have to test, and get empirical data to say.
That's why it's important to define a space for experiments and testing in your marketing plan. But to maintain credibility, you also need control:
Don't try things at random; be clear about what idea you're testing, and why
Try to encourage ideas that answer a defined problem
Be rigorous about collecting the results
Start small (for example, subject lines or headline formats), collect data, and build from there. As Mat Harper says: "You can build space in an organisation to have creative freedom."
Life's too short to do work you hate.
Maureen Blandford says: "Most cultures are challenging; it's never easy to work with colleagues in other functional areas. But some environments are toxic – for example, if the CEO encourages lying and cheating, or they're always hustling and hacking.
If the leadership is belittling and demeaning and arrogant, you're not going to change a culture that toxic. Just get out.
I can't tell you how many marketing colleagues I know right now who are in super-painful roles.
If the leadership is belittling and demeaning and arrogant, the culture is toxic. Just get out.
Unfortunately, it's really hard to truly understand a culture until you get there. The important thing is not to feel ashamed about it; you did your best.
Alternatively, you could look for a company where you know someone who can give you the straight scoop.
I can't tell you how many marketing colleagues I know who are in super-painful roles right now. Dealing with crazy CEOs who have unclear priorities, or heads of marketing in Europe for US tech companies who are indicating weird strategies because they don't understand the landscape.
I got some crazy – but really good – advice from a mentor of mine: the first day of your job search is your first day on a job. And for marketers in this climate, my recommendation is to always be networking, and thinking about your next role.
We need to be ready to vote with our feet. And to do that, you have to be continually marketing yourself."
