Opinions on long-form content marketing are constantly evolving, but it’s still hard to argue with numbers. Say “blogging isn’t dead” and you’ll have naysayers from all walks of life turning up their noses and bringing up examples of streaming services and TikTok dominating the masses’ attention. On the other hand, mention the fact that 77% of the world’s 4.1 billion internet users read blogs, you’ll have eyes lit up and lips sealed.
Statistics are a great framing technique to boost credibility when B2B writing content. But how many times can you list facts and figures before they cram up your writing? Fortunately, there are ways to dress up statistics so that they don’t sound like a disjointed list of fun facts. All it takes is knowledge on the various ways numbers are used and a little finesse. So read on and bag yourself another copywriting trick for your toolkit!
B2B Copywriting tip #1: Use easily visualised numbers
Saying that 13% of employees believe that their workplace technology is lagging behind becomes a lot more impactful when reframed as 1 in 8 employees. Why? Because 13% is a prime number, indivisible and hard to visualise. It’s also measured against a denominator of 100, which downplays the urgency of the situation. The phrase “1 in 8 employees”, on the other hand, gives readers a much stronger reference point. One can easily look around a room, assess their cybersecurity risk, and understand the importance of being equipped with protective software.
That said, it’s not feasible to write around big numbers every single time. This creates a mini conundrum because big numbers don’t say very much except: “there’s a lot of whatever I’m talking about”. When we’re picturing things in our minds, five billion grains of rice sounds pretty similar to six million red blood cells in a drop of blood. Our brains simply cannot wrap our minds around numbers that big.
But add in a comparison by saying “There are 2.5 times as many rice grains in a paddy field as there are people in China”, and visualisation becomes a lot easier. Rule of thumb? If you can’t present it in a simple demographic, then there’s probably a better way to repackage the statistic you’re trying to use.
B2B Copywriting tip #2: Use relevant comparisons your audience can relate to
Comparisons only work when your audience knows the object of comparison. You can’t compare things to the number of people in China if your audience doesn’t know what “China” is. Yes, that’s a bit of a stretch, but the point is that objects of comparison should be as relevant to your audience as possible for the best results.
For example, if I wished to describe the height of the Eiffel tower, I’d use very different visuals depending on my target audience. The following description would probably be understood by most Singaporeans:
The Eiffel tower is slightly shorter than two Singapore Flyers stacked on top of one another.
But such an example would probably fly over the heads of people who have never been to Singapore (pun fully intended). Depending on where your audience lives and what experiences they might have had, a comparison involving ‘three Statues of Liberty’, or ‘five leaning towers of Pisa’ might be more appropriate.
B2B Copywriting tip #3: Use the right statistics
But don’t expect to turn any statistic into magic just by applying these techniques. Often, picking the right statistic itself is half the battle won. That’s because different numbers will highlight different aspects of the product or service that you’re trying to sell.
Let’s say you have a utility plan that can only realistically save businesses a couple hundred dollars over the course of a year. Mentioning the fact will hardly get customers excited no matter how well you dress it up. (Saving $50 a month may not be worth the administrative hassle if their logistics team is already swamped). But if you said the utility plan comes with insurance that covers tens of thousands of dollars in equipment loss by accident, then your customers are more likely to be swayed by loss aversion.
B2B Copywriting tip #4: Use professional copywriters
Did you know businesses that publish at least 16 times a month generate 4.5 times more leads than businesses with just four blogs a month? We know what you’re thinking, “16 blogs a month! Ain’t nobody got time for that!”.
That’s where Etymon’s content writers come in. We don’t just do the heavy lifting for you, we transform even the driest of topics into enjoyable reads that help build your brand, attract potential customers, and convert your leads. Visit our tech industry testimonials to see how our clients have benefited from our writing, or fill in the form below to see how we can inject some life into your content marketing.