Shoot the Messenger: Why B2B Content Writers Must Evolve

Too many B2B content writers think of themselves as an information and insight delivery system, where they mine raw informational source materials, refine the good stuff into something pure and shiny, and deliver it to prospects.

I once thought this way.

And for the past 15 years, one could make a pretty good living at it.

But those days are done.

AI and other technologies are making this obsolete.

Information sources (such as product marketers or subject matter experts) no longer need a middleman (pardon the gendered language) to refine the raw material anymore.

Gen AI can summarize it in text form and generate a video of your in-house SME, or perhaps someone entirely fictional, saying it out loud.

Can AI do this as well as skilled B2B content folk? No, but this won't matter.

What AI produces will appear good enough to the untrained eyes of decisionmakers, especially considering the price.

With marketing consumed by short-termism, the cost savings of shooting the messenger are better for the average marketing decisionmaker's career than any future additional sales that would come after their brief tenure ends.

Especially since there's no guarantee any additional sales would come at all.

A skilled content writer can certainly refine something good into something better, but if what information sources provide is lame or bad, the resulting content won't do shit to improve sales.

It'll improve TOFU and MOFU metrics somewhat, but it won't move the needle or be felt in the bottom line.

At least, not if that content person is content to be only a messenger.

To remain employable, B2B content writers must be more than simple refiners and delivery boys (again pardon the gendered language).

They must add real value to the final product. Value the world (including both prospects and decisionmakers) can appreciate.

Because let's face it.

Most B2B products aren't that special (at least not in a way the uninitiated can see).

And even the most insightful thought leaders and experts think and share many of the same thoughts as other thought leaders and experts.

Which means B2B content people must move beyond the pseudo-journalism many have been practicing (journalism is a dying profession anyway) and start delivering next-level craft and creativity.

The sort that seizes the eyeballs. That cannot be resisted.

This is easy to say, of course.

While saying next to nothing, so it's better to show you.

One person showing us how it's done is Mats Georgson, Ph.D. .

His LinkedIn content is to die for.

What it says is good, but how he says it is what makes it special.

Because he doesn't just tell, he shows.

Here are a couple of examples of how he grabs attention (click to see the full LinkedIn post).

Another person showing us the way is Haris Spahi? . He blends attractive visual styling, and a cute mascot alter ego named Calvin Cooks, with genuine insights.

And not just to win attention here on LinkedIn.

He also applied his talents more directly to land a job.

Below are a couple of examples of what he's been doing (click to see the full post).

Another person bending content spoons is Jacob Sanders . He actually did a musical about big data.

That's right, a musical.

And that's not the only brilliantly weird thing he's done with B2B content.

This is the sort of creativity I'm talking about.

Outside-the-box creativity.

That cannot be ignored (if the topic interests you).

Where the value cannot be denied (by prospects or management).

While still delivering genuine insights (this is B2B after all).

This is what a B2B content person must deliver to ensure employability.

So that your skull maintains the number of holes it was issued with.

If you've done nothing but 1,000-world blog articles for the past 10 years, you must evolve beyond what you think of as B2B content writing.

It isn't necessarily copywriting, in the strictest sense of the word, but it does share its creative DNA.

Which is why B2B content writers must free their minds.

Their content can't just fill a pre-defined box anymore.

Creativity invents new uses for the box.

It'll take big-time creative repetition for B2B writers to achieve the content kung fu I've just showed you.

Fortunately, social media, with its fast turnover, real-time feedback, and unlimited supply of examples to consume, provides the best environment short of The Matrix for getting you there.

Better get started, copper top.

Because your inner Neo has a future. Thomas A. Anderson does not.