Ever gotten this dreaded piece of feedback on a blog post you thought was well-written?

“Ok, so what? Why should I care?”

In B2B content, when readers ask that question, you’ve already lost them.

Going back to first principles by keeping in mind who you’re writing for and why is key to answering the ‘so what’ question. If your writing doesn’t take into account why it matters to them, any message in your sales deck, email, or B2B content won’t land.

Back before ChatGPT changed the content writing game, writing B2B content, such as SEO content was more straightforward. We found the right keywords, studied the top-ranking posts to find out what they did well and what gaps they had, then aimed to one-up them. This worked well enough and didn’t always need first-principles thinking.

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But today’s content creation landscape has changed. The internet is flooded with AI-generated content. While we’re not against using AI, it highlights that the creator’s goals, planning, and intentions become the true differentiating factor.

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Going Back to First Principles With Bryan A. Garner

I was reminded of this by a good friend recently, and what he told me was validated in Harvard Business Review’s Guide to Better Business Writing by Bryan A. Garner. The opening of the HBR book reads:

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“Many people begin writing before they know what they’re trying to accomplish. As a result, their readers don’t know where to focus their attention or what they’re supposed to do with the message. So much depends on your purpose in writing that you must fix it firmly in your mind. What do you want the outcome to be? Do you want to persuade someone to sign a franchise contract, for instance? Or to stop using your trademark without permission? Or to come to a company reception?

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Say clearly and convincingly what the issue is and what you want to accomplish. With every sentence, ask yourself whether you’re advancing the cause. That will help you find the best words to get your message across.”

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So in that regard, are we writing an educational piece for the general public? Are we writing to busy executives who just want you to get to the point? Are you writing to other marketers who can instantly spot an AI generated article from miles away?

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Quick Checklist to Pass the 'So What?' Test

Who you’re talking to helps to frame what they know and what they want. This is the true use of a consumer persona. Here’s a quick checklist that you can use: 

• What do they care about? What problems do they want solved?
  
  • Conversely, what will they think is a waste of their time that you SHOULDN’T write about?
• What is their level of understanding? How detailed do you need to be?
• How would they prefer to be addressed, what kind of tone should you use and what language should you use?

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For example, say we are writing an article about your product’s sustainability and environmentally friendly features to B2B executives. Especially among the C-suite, many of them would be more concerned about their business performance: profit margins (Revenue - Expenses). When you tell them that the solution is environmentally friendly, you need to pre-empt their question: “So what?”

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While talking about conserving the environment is nice, focusing on features that reduce expenses and improve the bottom line would give them a case they can take to their shareholders to explain why their company wants to work with your service. The ‘So what?’ is that working with your solution will:

• Solve the problem that is causing higher capital or operating expenditure. This can be helped by using verifiable statistics or highlighting numerical results.
• Can be trusted by showing social proof or inserting customer testimonies.
• Remind them that some investors care deeply about Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) metrics.
• Provide links to contact details or other downloadables that the readers can send to their teams that can provide the technical details of the solution.

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So to everyone who is looking to create B2B marketing content or is considering working with a team to do so, it pays to go back to first principles: who are we writing this for and why are we writing this? Focusing on these will help the rest of the content and how it needs to be written to emerge. In short nail down:

• Who are you writing to?
  
  • Understand their pain points, wants, needs, and other factors that you need to take into account when writing.
• What are you writing for?
  
  • What action do you need them to take?
  • What information would you need to provide them with?
  • What possible objections might they have when considering what you want them to do?

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We applied this in a recent job that we helped one of our clients with, and you can check it out here: https://circles.co/in-the-loop/united-states-america-telecommunications-customers-survey-profile 

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I hope that this will help you in your next content project.

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I’m also open to feedback!

You can DM me on LinkedIn

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P.S. To all content writers out there, I highly recommend Harvard Business Review’s Guide to Better Business Writing by Bryan A. Garner.

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And to all our readers, Happy Creating!

Benedict Leong

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