Does B2B writing ever seem like a writing nest of marketing buzzwords?
It’s not just you.
When you’re new to the field, terms like White Paper and Customer Persona can sound like part of a new language.
Here’s an ever-growing list of terms you’ll want to become familiar with as you progress in your B2B writing career.
Whether you work as a freelance writer, in-house brand writer, or agency writer, each of these terms can act as a portal to help you learn everything you need to know about B2B writing.
Advertising (Versus Sales Versus Marketing) Though often referred to jointly, Advertising, Sales, and Marketing make up three different departments within an organization. Marketing is the over-arching effort a company makes to prepare its products for potential customers. Advertising is a subset of marketing that focuses on the positioning and messaging potential customers receive. Sales is the part of the company focused on closing the sales with customers.
Agency A provider of marketing and advertising services for businesses that find it more economical and strategically appropriate to outsource these critical business functions.
Article or Blog A self-contained piece of writing typically in the 350-900 word range (though microblogs can run shorter and longer articles can climb towards 1500 words or more). What makes it a blog or article instead of a white paper or eBook is that it is typically published on a company’s website or blog (“web-log”) as a resource for potential customers.
B2B Vs. B2C B2B stands for business-to-business, and B2C stands for business-to-consumer. B2B refers to writing that a business uses to market a product for other businesses, such as a technology product marketing itself to an accounting firm; B2C refers to writing that a business uses to market a product to individual consumers, such as a grocery store marketing to a grocery shopper.
B2C Vs. B2B B2B stands for business-to-business, and B2C stands for business-to-consumer. B2B refers to writing that a business uses to market a product for other businesses, such as a technology product marketing itself to an accounting firm; B2C refers to writing that a business uses to market a product to individual consumers, such as a grocery store marketing to a grocery shopper.
Blog or Article A self-contained piece of writing typically in the 350-900 word range (though microblogs can run shorter and longer articles can climb towards 1500 words or more). What makes it a blog or article instead of a white paper or eBook is that it is typically published on a company’s website or blog (“web-log”) as a resource for potential customers.
Brand Voice (Voice) The consistent expression of values, attributes and personality through the use of style, tone, and method of writing.
Case Study A case study is a piece of content that recounts how a product helped a customer solve a problem or achieve a result. They typically read like a long blog article (about 750 words) designed as a 1-2 page brochure or ad.
Client
Cold Email or Cold Call Cold email is an email sent to a potential customer with no prior relationship to you or your business. It is less obtrusive than a cold call and uses a personalized message to make contact with potential customers. Cold calling is the solicitation of a potential customer without prior interaction with the salesperson. Cold calling is one of the oldest and most common forms of marketing.
Content Marketing (Versus Inbound Marketing or Digital Marketing) Content, Inbound, and Digital Marketing are often used interchangeably, but there are subtle differences. Digital Marketing refers to all marketing tactics that take place online (content, social media, Pay Per Click, Facebook advertising, retargeting, etc). Inbound Marketing refers to all marketing tactics that drive voluntary customer traffic (content, social media, email marketing). Content Marketing refers to content-based inbound marketing tactics (blog posts, white papers, and case studies).
Conversion The point at which a recipient of a marketing message performs a desired action is a conversion. A conversion is getting someone to take the next step. Opening an email, clicking on a call-to-action link inside an email, going to the landing page, filling out a registration form and finally, buying products are all examples of conversions.
Conversion Rate A conversion rate is an equation that online advertisers and marketers use to compare the total number of visitors to a website with the number that become paying customers, subscribers or users.
Customer Persona A customer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers often including customer demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, and goals. The more detailed and accurate, the better.
D2C Direct to Consumer means that selling directly to customers, without the assistance of third-party retailers, wholesalers, or any other type of middle-person. The D2C business model has grown because customers are transitioning more and more to online shopping instead of going to brick and mortar locations to buy products.
Demand Generation (Versus Lead Generation) Demand generation is the process of attracting demand for products or services by providing relevant and interesting content. The aim of demand generation is to get people interested in what is offered and warming them up to the idea of eventually looking deeper into your offerings. Demand generation shapes perception.
Digital Marketing (Versus Inbound Marketing or Content Marketing) Content, Inbound, and Digital Marketing are often used interchangeably, but there are subtle differences. Digital Marketing refers to all marketing tactics that take place online (content, social media, Pay Per Click, Facebook advertising, retargeting, etc). Inbound Marketing refers to all marketing tactics that drive voluntary customer traffic (content, social media, email marketing). Content Marketing refers to content-based inbound marketing tactics (blog posts, white papers, and case studies).
Editor The person(s) having managerial and sometimes policy-making responsibility related to writing, compilation, and revision of content for a publishing firm or for a newspaper, magazine, or other publication:
Editorial Calendar Usually a piece of software used by bloggers, publishers, businesses, and groups to control publication of content across different media to define and control the process of creating content all the way from idea through writing and publication.
Inbound Marketing (Versus Content Marketing or Digital Marketing) Content, Inbound, and Digital Marketing are often used interchangeably, but there are subtle differences. Digital Marketing refers to all marketing tactics that take place online (content, social media, Pay Per Click, Facebook advertising, retargeting, etc). Inbound Marketing refers to all marketing tactics that drive voluntary customer traffic (content, social media, email marketing). Content Marketing refers to content-based inbound marketing tactics (blog posts, white papers, and case studies).
Interview
Invoice A digital or paper document that requests money from a client. It typically includes the date of service or assignment, a brief summary of the work completed, and the agreed upon rate.
Lead a contact already determined to be a prospective customer, or any sales contact. A lead will ideally become a future client.
Lead Generation (Versus Demand Generation) Lead generation is the process of getting someone to submit their registration information either by email or phone number in exchange for content you provide. The goal is to build a database of contacts that a sales team can reach out to and move the lead through the sales funnel. Lead generation gathers useful data.
Marketing (Versus Sales Versus Advertising) Though often referred to jointly, Advertising, Sales, and Marketing make up three different departments within an organization. Marketing is the over-arching effort a company makes to prepare its products for potential customers. Advertising is a subset of marketing that focuses on the positioning and messaging potential customers receive. Sales is the part of the company focused on closing the sales with customers.
Net 30
Niche
Prospect (Prospecting) A prospect is a potential client who you might want to work with. Regular prospecting (connecting with new people on LinkedIn, having a simple website presence or email newsletter, etc.) is an important part of spreading roots as a writer so that over time you build a network of people who know what you do.
Positioning Positioning is the way you explain what you do to potential customers. It’s often related to value, as in you want to position you and your services in a way that highlights the value you provide. For example, many B2B writers’ default positioning is “writer monkey,” where you take writing assignments and complete them. As you advance in your career, your positioning evolves to be more of a strategic partner or consultant.
Qualified Lead A sales prospect whose potential value has been carefully evaluated through research.
Reply Marketing A form of viral marketing where the advertiser/marketer replies directly to an end-user with an advertisement or a personalized message. It is a means of marketing designed to generate an immediate response from consumers, where each consumer response can be measured, and later attributed to the corresponding advertising channel.
Response Rate The measurement of the number of people who respond to a certain call-to-action.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) A standard for syndicating content online. RSS feeds are utilized to publish frequently updated information, such as news headlines, blog entries, and episodes of podcasts and video series. An RSS document (called a feed or channel) includes full or summarized text and metadata such as publishing date and author’s name.
SaaS (software as a service) a software distribution model in which a service provider hosts applications for customers and makes them available to these customers via the internet.
Sales (Versus Marketing Versus Advertising) Though often referred to jointly, Advertising, Sales, and Marketing make up three different departments within an organization. Marketing is the over-arching effort a company makes to prepare its products for potential customers. Advertising is a subset of marketing that focuses on the positioning and messaging potential customers receive. Sales is the part of the company focused on closing the sales with customers.
SEO (search engine optimization) The process of growing the quality and quantity of website traffic by optimizing a website – as well as all the content on that website – so it will appear in prominent positions in the organic results of search engine results pages (SERPs).
SEO Keyword Words or phrases (search terms) that people use when searching for information in a search engine.
Subject Matter Expert Someone who is an authority in a particular subject matter and possesses the highest level of expertise in that area or topic.
Tags Descriptive keywords that are used to classify and categorize items or URLs on social networks. In content management systems such as WordPress, tags provide a useful way to group related posts together.
Target Audience The specific individuals, distinguished by socio-economic, demographic and interest characteristics, who are the most likely potential customers for the goods and services of a business.
Test Marketing The use of a small-scale version of a marketing plan, usually in a restricted area or with a small group, to test the marketing strategy for a new product offering.
Thought Leadership Content Thought leadership content is a style of writing that shows a business or expert’s expertise on a given topic. It’s a way to be non-promotional in your writing (that is, to avoid writing or talking about a company’s exact products or services) while still building credibility, authority, and buzz for a company or individual.
Within the past five years or so, it’s become something of a buzzword that many experts don’t care for. However, it’s also a useful term to describe content that focuses on big-picture trends and the perspective of an individual with years of expertise in a given industry.
Topic Sentence The sentence at the beginning of a paragraph, that includes the main idea of the paragraph.
Upsell To sell customers a higher-priced version of a product they have bought previously.
User-Generated Content content that is created by the end-users of that content. Most commonly takes the form of online content such as blog posts, discussion group threads, customer/consumer reviews and comments, Wikipedia entries, etc.
Vertical Market A market that is oriented to one particular field or specialty.
Viral Marketing The rapid spread of a message about a new product or service.
Voice (brand voice) The consistent expression of values, attributes and personality through the use of style, tone, and method of writing.
Warm Email An email that is sent to a person who has had prior contact with you or your company via your website, blogs, etc,. This prospect has shown interest in your product. Warm emails tend to be more personalized and have smoother conversions.
White Paper A long-form informational document about a product, service, concept, trend, or theme. The final product is a downloadable PDF that a prospective customer submits contact information to download (gated) or freely available with one click (ungated). White papers typically fall in a 1500-3000 word count. For better or worse, the term is sometimes used interchangeably with eBook.
Wikis A collaborative environment that is built around input from community users.
XML (eXtensible Markup Language) A text-based format for sharing data online. XML is a metalanguage that is similar to HTML that describes rules for defining tagged markup languages.
Yield A percentage of the amount invested that is the annual income from an investment.
