“We must rethink B2B marketing”

Great B2B marketing content should make your feel something, but the industry doesn't spend enough time understanding what its customers want, argues Jason Patterson , founder of Jewel內容行銷有限公司 .

After a few years teaching English in mainland China and Taiwan, Minnesota-born Jason Patterson became a B2B marketing copywriter. After a successful stint creating and managing best-in-class social media content at Chinese telco Huawei when it was on its way up, Jason eventually founded his own content marketing agency.

Today, Jason has a lot to say about B2B content marketing, from what’s working to the biggest and most common mistakes companies make. And why using gen AI to create content is akin to shooting yourself in the foot for all but the biggest and most established brands. Here he shares what he’s learned in his 20-year career – and is still learning – for the benefit of B2B firms and content creators.

What are the key things you’ve learned in your career about business, life, and marketing?

Many marketers tend to focus on plans, campaigns, and tactics. They think if they just market harder and do more of these things better, they’ll win. A mindset born of having to achieve regular improvements in their metrics, whether they’re useful or not. ?

Hard work is necessary to success, but it’s not sufficient. Both life and work have taught me that success tends to come to those who attract it.

"Life and work have taught me that success tends to come to those who attract it."

This is something I wish more B2B businesses understood. They write crap. They use needy, clingy, pestering content that seem desperate. They have identikit websites.

These things aren’t marketing assets, they’re marketing output, and they smell lame.

Nobody’s attracted to lameness. They’re attracted to success.

What kind of work do you do at Jewel Content Marketing Agency? What sets you apart from your competitors?

What we do is right there in the name. And we do pretty much whatever is needed.

Except for content farming. We don’t play the volume game. We deal in quality. And we mostly work with tech and/or B2B clients.

Two things set us apart. One is our focus and experience with B2B. Which not everyone has in Taiwan because historically, Taiwan’s famous global brands have been mostly B2C focused. Asus. Acer. HTC. Brands like those.

The other thing is our ability to combine content skills with marketing savvy on the global stage.

Taiwan has plenty of vendors and freelancers that can write and make content. It also has plenty of agencies who understand marketing. But there are not so many content marketing agencies here that know both, with a broad range of experiences with global brands, and that can deliver top-flight quality and polish even when working in technical domains.

And there are none that know what I know, besides us.

In a world of AI generated content and shortened attention spans, what’s the point of content marketing agencies or human generated content in general?

Most of what AI writes lacks substance. The best AI can do is restate what’s been said before. And it often can’t even do that accurately.

When it comes to written content, boilerplate is the best AI can do. If you’re a Fortune 500 brand, you can get away with that. Because people will read your content anyway.

"There’s no competitive advantage in a non-leader brand merely restating what leaders say."

But if you’re a non-leader brand, no way. People don’t want boilerplate from non-leaders. They’d rather get it from leaders. There’s no competitive advantage in a non-leader brand merely restating what leaders say.

Which is all AI will say.

If you want to stand out, you need to offer something different. Something special.

AI won’t give you that.

What’s the biggest and most common marketing mistake B2B companies make? Why do they keep making it?

The biggest B2B marketing mistake is that the customer rarely enters the equation.

B2B companies do what they do because it’s what they know how to do. Not because the world needs it or wants it. They create solutions without problems. They create content without an audience, or value. They do marketing as if the customer isn’t human.

Why do they keep doing this? Lots of reasons. Enough to fill a book. Some stem from broader issues in the business world.

"What the customer wants doesn’t matter. Creativity doesn’t matter. Marketing’s purpose now is to fill out orders. To look busy."

But the big one that directly relates to marketing is that it’s become factory work. We’re cranking out widgets to fill channels and that’s it.

What the customer wants doesn’t matter. Creativity doesn’t matter. Marketing’s purpose now is to fill out orders. To look busy. To become efficient. To be always on.

"Most B2B content is not written for prospects or their pain points."

Sure, we’re supposed to be data-driven, but our data is often bad. And we don’t know how to read it. Real customer insights require actual talking to customers, and nobody has time for that.

Why is most B2B marketing content so terrible and ineffective?

Most B2B content is written either to appease Google or to appease stakeholders. It’s not written for prospects or their pain points. It doesn’t consider whether prospects are currently on the buyer’s journey or not. And if they are, it doesn’t consider where specifically they happen to be on the journey, which is important.

And the fact is, a lot of our data is just bad. And a lot of our content doesn’t really say anything. It just appears to say something at a passing glance, employing buzzwords and circular logic to take up space and attract bots.

What are the keys to creating good B2B marketing content? What does good B2B marketing content look like – or how can we recognise it when we see it?

All good content provides something the audience values. B2B tends to view value in terms of the information provided. How useful the information is. How cutting edge.

But there are other things people value. Like humor, entertainment, etc. And B2B needs more of that, especially if they’re serious about creating brand awareness.

Good B2B marketing content must do two jobs. It can’t just provide value to the target audience; it also must provide value to your business. It must do useful marketing work. Because if it doesn’t, you’re wasting resources.

Content that’s simply well-made and nothing more provides some brand-building value, but that’s not enough. Because the time and money you spend on it would be better spent elsewhere.

Now, as to what defines “marketing value,” that depends on your goals for that piece of content. It could be awareness, consideration, leads, lots of things.

"Good content just grabs you. Right in the feelings. It intrigues you."

But most B2B content provides very little value to either the company or audience. If you achieve one of them, you’re already lucky. And achieving both is quite rare.

As to how to recognize good B2B marketing content. I don’t know. How does one recognize anything?

Good content just grabs you. Right in the feelings. It intrigues you.

And when you’re making good content, you know you’re cooking. You feel it. You hear that sizzle.

However, when evaluating the marketing value of content, you need an objective mindset.

Because it’s not about you. It’s about your strategy and goals. So you must use both your heart and your head when evaluating B2B marketing content.

Too many marketers rely on only one or the other, but you need both.

What should B2B companies look for in a B2B marketer, agency or freelancer?

That’s a really broad question. Let me tell you a couple of things B2B companies should look for that they often don’t.

One is prior experience with the same type of company. If you’re a startup, prior startup experience is good. If you’re a market leader, prior market leader experience is good.

The reason why is because marketing rules, norms, and procedures are quite different for each. Some hires may be slow to adjust. And some might never adjust.

Another thing B2B companies should do is ask marketing job candidates to give a general overview of how they think B2B marketing and the buyer’s journey work.

Because there are different points of view.

Are they a believer in demand-gen? Are they a believer in lead-gen? In SEO? In performance marketing? In brand marketing? In ABM? Etc.

If the candidate’s point of view is different than the boss’s, there’s going to be conflict at first, and perhaps beyond. I’ve experienced this first hand.

Within the first year of setting up your marketing agency, you had three different billion-dollar companies in your client list. How did you manage to achieve this?

Don’t read too much into that. I’d already worked with two of them back when I was a freelancer. I’d actually applied to one of them initially for full-time work, which didn’t work out, but I impressed them enough for them to start sending me freelance work.

The other was a client brought to me through a personal connection. A freelance PR colleague who liked to pick my brain from time to time.

The third client, which I hadn’t worked with previously, was just a garden-variety inquiry that came through LinkedIn (which is where most of our inquiries that pan out come from). And it should be noted that this inquiry came to me, directly, and not to the company.

As a startup founder, I cannot overstate the importance of your personal network, as opposed to the reach or followership of your company.

What’s the most important piece of advice you would give to B2B companies looking to improve their marketing?

We’ve already covered the importance of customers, so I won’t repeat that. Instead, I’ll give you the second-most important.

B2B marketers must rethink how B2B marketing works.

And it all starts with building your brand.

Building your brand is like building anything else. You add mass to it. And the more you build your brand, the more mass it has.

Mass has gravity. And gravity attracts.

And this is what strong brands do, they attract.

If you want a good example of how B2B brands should behave, look at B2C luxury brands.

They don’t pester you with retargeting. They don’t bait you with discounts. They don’t put out dorky ads with QR codes.

"Strong brands don’t ask, they attract. They make you want to be their customer. They make you feel safe being their customer."

In fact, before you enter their shop, they do only one thing.

They display the goods and look fabulous while doing it.

Now, after you enter the shop, it’s a different story. They serve you champagne. They give you a leather-bound brochure with gold-inlay print to read. They might even have someone massage your shoulders while you’re reading it.

But before you initiate engagement with them, they ask for nothing.

And this is where B2B needs to get to.

Right now, we’re always asking for things. Your email address. Your job title. A quick call.

And this smells like desperation, which is why making unsolicited asks of your prospect wastes brand equity.

Strong brands don’t ask, they attract.

They make you want to be their customer. They make you feel safe being their customer. They make you think that if your family or peers knew you were their customer, you’d look like a hero.

And that’s what you really want.

You want a B2B marketing process that’s less push and more pull.

And it must be great once engagement begins. When a prospect shows up on your website or subscribes to your newsletter, what they find or receive must be great. Whether it’s content or anything else.

You must anticipate their needs. Offer gifts that make them feel special.

Because your brand must smell like success. It also helps if you act like you care.

What advice would you give B2B marketers seeking to emulate your success?

My success is mine. Don’t try to emulate it. In fact, don’t try to emulate anyone’s. The choices I’ve made are particular to me. They’re not likely to work for you.

Figure out what’s best for you. We’re all different. Gary Vee is good at being Gary Vee. But I see a lot of other people on LinkedIn trying to be him, and they’re failing.

Everyone’s path to success will be different, because it builds on who you are, what you’ve done, what you can do, and what you will do.