Here’s a little syllogism to brighten your morning.
People are not rational.
Tech and B2B companies are made of people.
The conclusion? Tech and B2B companies are not always _____? (we’ll let you fill in the blank)
Hear us out before getting riled up. This is actually a good thing for your content marketing strategy. Because even if you don’t have the most state-of-the-art, revolutionary product in town, you can still convince B2B buyers to make a purchase with a few psychological copywriting tricks up your sleeve.
All humans, regardless of the industry they work in, are subject to an innate flaw in their cognitive processes known as anchoring. It describes how our minds rely too much on the first bit of information they come across. This subconscious bias influences how subsequent bits of information are perceived and evaluated. In other words, every offer that comes after the initial one will be viewed through comparative rather than objective lenses.
It’s the reason why Pfizer, which was deemed to be the most effective vaccine at first, continued to be regarded as such even though the scientific consensus thereafter was mixed at best. It’s also the reason why we instinctively assume that knock-offs of our favourite brands are of inferior quality, even before we’ve given them a chance. So being the first past the finish line clearly has its advantages. In the case of B2B marketing, that finish line is the first place on Google’s search results.
Make sure that your brand is visible, and memorable (with examples)
You can’t run away from the fundamentals of SEO if you want your brand to even have a fighting chance in the digital world. Only 1 in 4 people click past the first page of Google’s search results, so you’ll be missing out on major traffic unless you can rank for keywords that your customers are searching for. On the flip side, ranking first allows you to occupy your target audience’s mental consciousness, placing you in an advantageous position that your competitors will have to try and dislodge you from.
That said, a high rank won’t bring sustainable results if your branding is forgettable. A google study finds that people make their first impressions in just 17 milliseconds. That means your page title, meta description, and landing page copy only has a very small window of opportunity to make an impact before your customers dismiss it and move onto your competitors’ pages.
Of course, talking about ranking high and making an impression is a lot easier said than done. So if you’ll forgive us for tooting our horn, here are some examples of how we’ve merged elements of SEO and human engagement into our own marketing strategy. And we’ll explain how you can do it, too.
Company brand name
Our company name was derived from the Greek word etumon, referring to the true sense of a word according to its origin. It speaks to our conviction and commitment towards removing unnecessary jargon and messy acronyms in B2B copywriting so that our clients’ messaging is crisp and clear to everyone, but especially their audience. Your company brand name is a major opportunity for you to tell your customers about exactly who you are, in the tone that you wish to be perceived in, which is exactly what we did for a cybersecurity company’s rebranding exercise.
Company tagline
Apart from being catchy, your company tagline should include mention of who you are, and what you do. We’ll spare you the boring linguistic analysis of our own tagline Every tech geek needs a word geek®. The important thing is that you know who we are (word geeks) and who we serve (tech geeks) immediately after reading it. That’s the same effect that you should be gunning for when your audience reads your tagline.
Meta description
Meta descriptions are tricky, because you have to weave keywords into 155 characters all while ensuring that the copy entices people to read more. Our principle for writing meta descriptions that stand out is to include keywords as early as possible and to tell readers what a company’s service can achieve, instead of simply listing what those services are.
For example, we could have easily described ourselves as “a B2B copywriting agency that serves tech and finances companies”, but that would have been bland, boring, and forgettable. Instead, we made our writing style and the rationale behind it clear from the get-go:
We’re a copywriting agency on a mission to inject some personality into B2B marketing.
Why? Because it makes complex tech and financial writing more digestible and relatable!
A warning to incumbents, anchors can be used against you!
But what happens if you’re already a prominent player in your industry? In the B2B space, it’s not uncommon for industry stalwarts to do business with long-standing connections, rather than organisations with the absolute best deal in the market. While there are always legitimate reasons for doing so, it never hurts to hedge against possible competitor uprisings by conducting regular SEO and content copy audits.
Nothing is certain in the business world, after all. And just like how the rat hitched a ride on the ox and leapt forward to clinch first place in the Chinese zodiac, your competitors can use your current offer as a starting point to craft a stronger, more enticing counter offer.
Create evergreen marketing content that takes root and inspires
While there are many technical elements to consider when it comes to SEO and content marketing, what really matters at the end of the day is a good, consistent story. That is what will dig the anchor deep into the minds of readers and make your brand top of mind.
So if you’re looking to boost your status as an industry leader with blogs, social media posts, white papers, and other marketing collaterals that will have clients circling back again and again, email us at hello@etymon.com.sg. We’ll show you how to write good, SEO-driven copy the scientific way.