When it comes to freelance writing, you can break down jobs into two broad categories. Business to Consumer (B2C) and Business to Business (B2B). However, both types of writing require very different skill sets.
As you might imagine, businesses have a lot more money to throw around than regular people. If you’re the kind of writer that can talk those businesses into giving away their money, your services will always be in high demand.
In this article, we’re going to talk about the differences between B2C and B2B writing. Then we’ll go over how to find great B2B writing opportunities and how to make sure you nail them. Let’s get down to business!
The Differences Between B2C and B2B Content
The difference between B2C and B2B content is with its audience. For example, right now I’m writing for you. In my mind, you’re a freelance writer. That puts you in the ‘consumer’ category, not because I want to sell you something, but because you’re an individual and not a business.
On the other hand, if I wrote an article about how to hire freelance writers, my target audience would be employers. That is, people or financial entities looking for solutions that help them increase profits, streamline their operations, etc.
As a rule of thumb, B2C content tends to be a lot more relaxed. You might as well be talking to a friend who is explaining how to do something, what products to consider, etc.
B2B content, on the other hand, is much more strict. Some examples of this include technical documentation, whitepapers, sales funnels, and more.
In my experience, B2B writers tend to get much better rates than their counterparts. That’s because, at any point, you’re convincing businesses to spend huge amounts of money on your employer’s services and products.
Imagine, for example, you write blog content for a web hosting company that targets businesses. Regular consumers can find cheap hosting starting at less than $5 per month, but large businesses need more powerful solutions. At the other end of the scale, hosting can cost hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars per month.
In other words, the value you’re bringing in as a freelance writer scales exponentially when you target businesses instead of consumers.
The type of content that may convince those businesses to sign up for your client’s services is usually much more involved. You need to convince decision-makers at the top of their field why to choose you. That means you need to be very knowledgeable about the fields you write for (once again, specialization is key).
How to Find B2B Freelance Writing Opportunities
Usually, you won’t find that many B2B writing opportunities on freelance job boards and platforms. A lot of businesses rely directly on in-house writers for this type of work because it ensures more consistency.
As a freelancer, you’re going to need to be much more aggressive if you want to woo companies. For this type of work, you will want to polish your LinkedIn profile and make sure to include all your credentials there:
If you’re not getting headhunted by companies on LinkedIn, it may be that your credentials or portfolio aren’t as impressive as you want them to be.
Ideally, your portfolio needs to focus on the types of businesses you want to target, so employers know that you can deliver the results they need.
If you’re trying to break into the field of B2B writing, your best bet is sending cold pitches to prospective companies. Online service businesses (such as hosting), in particular, are always looking for talented B2B writers to help them secure new leads.
Once you have a few B2B clients under your belt, finding new work becomes much easier. It’s all too common to get referrals or be able to talk your way into other jobs by mentioning you worked for X company. Even so, if you thought breaking into the B2C freelance writing world was hard, B2B content is an entirely different ballgame.
3 Tips to Improve Your B2B Content
Once you get your big break as a B2B writer, you want to make sure you hit it out of the park the first time around. Here are some tips to ensure your content finds its audience among businesses.
1. Focus on In-Depth Content
If you represent a business looking to spend thousands of dollars on a product or service, you want to be 100% sure they’re making the right decision.
As a freelance writer, your job is to create best-in-class content that covers any doubts prospective businesses might have. The more money that’s on the line, the more in-depth your content needs to be.
2. Back Up Your Claims With Data
When you’re writing for consumers, you can often rely on your own experience to make suggestions or claims. That’s not going to fly with businesses.
Companies are much more likely to rely on data rather than their gut when it comes to deciding what services to hire or what products to buy. That means you need to back up any claims you make with cold-hard numbers.
If you’re capable of breaking down the benefits of the business you represent to other companies and use numbers to back that up, you’re golden.
3. Guide Businesses Through the Decision-Making Process
For most people, making a purchase online involves a few steps. You research products, compare alternatives, maybe wait for a sale, and then make a purchase.
In marketing, that’s what’s called a sales funnel. Businesses also go through funnels of their own, only they tend to be a lot more complicated.
With a company, you might have a lot of people discussing each option. Prices need to be carefully considered and sometimes negotiated. For a large business, hiring a service is the kind of decision that can easily take months.
As a B2B writer, it’s part of your job to create content that guides companies through each stage of the process. That means you need a deep understanding of how businesses in that niche work, otherwise, you don’t stand a chance of convincing them.
Conclusion
Writing for businesses, large and small, requires a different skillset than B2C content. You’ll often need to handle projects with tons of documentation, do massive amounts of research, and make sure you can back up any claims you make.
The good news is, if you’re a good B2B writer, your services will be in high demand. More importantly, you’ll be able to command better rates.
Do you have any questions about B2B content? Let’s talk about them in the comments section below!