Your writing sucks! Here's how to fix it.
If you're a professional copywriter, your job is not to write. Read that again.
Your job is motivating people to read. Further, you want them persuaded by your words to take action, or at least consider you as a trusted source of valuable knowledge to which they may turn again.
Cut Bloated Copy
If you treat your job as writing, you will likely end up with bloated copy. Check out this real-world example that hit my inbox recently:
"If the circumstance arises that a fuel marketer finds themself in the middle of the night needing to dispatch trucks, a mobile app can help."
I'll give you a minute to catch your breath. Reading that took some effort, right? I turned it into this:
"If a fuel marketer needs to dispatch trucks in the middle of the night, a mobile app can help."
Same premise, same suggestion. Just a hell of a lot easier to read. And that's what you need to keep in mind when writing to persuade executives: make it easy to grasp your point, quickly make that point, and move on. The copy that was sent to me? It weighed in at 900 words, largely due to writing like the example above. I turned into 755 words. Leaner, faster, bolder.
Passive Voice Doesn't Persuade
Speaking of moving on: stop writing in passive voice. If you're writing to establish a setting where the reading of your words could possibly be leading to concluding that making a decision may... oh my god, I'm gonna shoot myself.
By using passive voice, you're missing the point of writing to your audience. Most B2B copy is aimed at leadership: the decision-makers, shot-callers, money-spenders. Especially at the C-level, these are extremely busy people. They don't make easy decisions. If the decisions were in fact easy, they would've been made before the issue even reached their desk. You have limited time to let them know you offer something of value.
Passive voice is not the trusted voice of an expert. It's the hesitant hedging of an observer, uncertain whether or not what they're saying is actually meaningful or important.
It's also off-brand; a cognitive dissonance versus what your sales team is saying. Think about it: your marketing copy is supposed to generate leads, right? When a sales team member follows up with a lead, do they hesitate, and talk in carefully hedged terms about how your product can make the lead's job easier? Of course not! They say, "Here's what we can do for you." Declarative, simple. That's the kind of language a leader appreciates. Your B2B writing needs to line up with the message your sales team delivers.
There are articles all over the web on how to get the reader's attention in the first paragraph, and the importance of a crisp CTA at the end. But if you fill the middle with mealy-mouthed gerunds, the reader feels duped for continuing after the attention-getter, and is unsure you can really back up what's on the other side of the CTA.
Don't lose leads. Write boldly.