Content Is People

Photo Credit: sndrv

Most direct mail marketers regard a letter with a 3% response rate to be a smashing success. When you’re targeting a consumer market numbering in the millions, a 3% success rate actually means something.

But B2B is a different kettle of fish. Its market, by definition, is on a smaller scale. Sure, direct mail – or marketing copy of any kind – can still generate new leads, expand the client-base and soften up the marketplace before the troops land. But most B2B revenue models need skin in the game in order to compete.

In B2B, the best marketing content is people – sales people… Whether on the phone or on the convention floor, they’re the folks who talk to the customer. And, if they’re any good, they’re probably listening as well. If anyone knows what the customer is asking, or buying, or reading, it’s the sales staff.

That’s why marketing strategy should follow sales strategy, and why marketing copy should do likewise.
Sales staff are like actors hired to tell your company’s story. They’re out there on that stage every day performing variations on a theme. As the guy hired to write the script, I generally request some time with the actors.

Unlike marketing and executive folks, sales staff are only one degree removed from my copy’s target audience. In some respects, they make an even better focus group than the customers. Their jobs depend on knowing what plays well with the audience, and what lands with a thud.

Go figure, but that’s useful information to me.

Knowing the actors doesn’t hurt either, particularly if I’m writing sales materials like brochures and PowerPoint presentations. Some sales staff prefer to do the talking, and use printed content either for emphasis or as a leave-behind for the prospect.

Knowing up front how they use my business copy allows me to draft an appropriate level of detail. Clearly, illustrative material needn’t be as granular, whereas a leave-behind had better anticipate and answer any customer questions, and include a clear call to action.

The first rule of B2B copy isn’t to sell, sell, sell. It’s to do no harm to the people who use it. It shouldn’t be overly clever, or promotional or expository. It shouldn’t upstage the salesperson, or impose textbook marketing rules that fall apart after first contact with the customer.

Like any well-designed tool, business copy should integrate so seamlessly into the business mission that the two are virtually indistinguishable.