6 B2B Copywriting Blunders Companies Keep On Making

B2B copywriting is far more than just filling an empty space. If you’re here, chances are you already know this. So why do some organisations simply overlook good copywriting practices?

In our personal and professional lives, we all know the importance of saying the right thing. Carefully selected bon mots can put people at ease, get them thinking, and get them to act. But the sheer power of choosing the right words still seems to be lost on some organisations – especially with AI slop sloshing around online!

Here are my personal bottom 6 copywriting blunders that I see B2Bs (and indeed organisations all over the shop) making time and time again. There are other mistakes out there in the wild, but these are the ones that generally grind my gears the most. Let’s dive in.

1. It’s All “Me, Me, Me”

This mistake particularly gets my goat and I see it a lot in the wild. Too many websites, brochures, flyers, et al. start out blatantly pushing the company’s position – directly stating “we are X and we do Y”.

But there’s a common saying we marketers trot out when faced with copy like this: stop we-ing all over your marketing!

Marketing should speak to the buyer, and explain how they help their clients – their own identity should be somewhat incidental (e.g., “Y is a real problem and can have an impact on A, B, and C. We are X and we can help you achieve…”).

One thing that particularly makes marketers wince is then the first, most noticeable piece of copy on a website is “We”. Your opening gambit is the ideal place to get to the heart of what your client wants to hear. You should use that space to acknowledge the problem that’s brought the reader to you and the sort of solution they are looking for. That way, you get them agreeing with you straight out of the gate.

Demonstrating your empathy for the client’s situation and explaining how you solve their issues is far more impactful than kicking off with lazy “wow, aren’t we great!” platitudes.

Put simply, Copy should start out with the resolution you provide, not a shameless self-plug. Once you’ve got them hooked, then you can get into the nuts and bolts of your company and how you help.

2. Far Too Jargony

Next on my hit list is B2B copy that’s so dense with jargon that you can cut it with a knife. It’s not that jargon is inherently bad – any language that simplifies a concept can be a valuable tool – it’s just that many companies throw it around without a second thought.

Using jargon in your copy should go hand in hand with your use of language as a whole. The answer lies with your average client. Consider the general level of expertise your prospects and clients have; if a large majority of them understand a term straight off the bat then it’s probably fair game, but if you find yourself having to explain another term every time then it’s probably not a good choice for your marketing copy. Your copy should be accessible to everyone involved in the buying process.

If you’re unsure of your average client’s industry knowledge, make a game out of it! Who said market research had to be boring? You can use tools like social media polls, SurveyMonkey, or Kahoot to create a “gamified” quiz along the lines of “how many terms can you get right?”. You could even give out prizes for the top scorers!

3. Poor Use of Keywords

I can forgive people this mistake because SEO (and increasingly, AEO) is a massively brain-frying topic, but most on-page SEO isn’t too hard once you know what you’re doing. The goal of any piece of copy is to persuade your ideal customer to buy – but online copy has two jobs on its hands: to persuade human readers and to appeal to search algorithms.

The shrewd use of keywords is a crucial place where SEO and copywriting overlap. Keywords on their own aren’t the be-all-and-end-all to your site’s well being in search and AI results, but you could be missing a trick if you aren’t highlighting key phrases in certain places.

Let’s get your keywords in the right places first. Though it’s important to mention your key terms naturally within your text, always try to make some mention of them within your page title, meta description, and one or two HTML header tags within the page.

Worries about hitting precise keyword density metrics are largely a thing of the past. But it’s still good form not to shoehorn too many instances of a keyphrase into one piece. AI-enabled search engines can understand natural language well, and they can tell when the human readability seems off. Search and AI tools don’t want to send people to results that seem off.

But more importantly, your human readers can seek when readability feels off. Having a few target keywords for a piece is still good practice. But cramming them in unnaturally is dead as a dodo.

4. Not Telling The Reader What to Do!

You’re writing copy for a reason – you want the reader to do something! It’s a real shame to see well-written B2B copy that addresses the clients need well, then grows their interest by explaining what the company can do for them… and then it just… ends. No Call to Action (CTA), just crickets.

There sometimes seems to be a little reticence to end on a clear direction like “Call us now on {phone number}” or “Email the team at {email address} for your free quote today!”. This hesitation could be down to a few reasons. When you’re writing copy, there can be a certain assumption that “they know where to look for our phone number, duh!” Alternatively it could be down to good old fashioned British awkwardness when actually asking for the enquiry!

But asking for interested parties to get in touch – and crucially, telling them precisely how – is an essential part of plastering over the cracks in a sales funnel. Bonus points if the thing you’re asking them to do is simple, painless, and stupidly easy.

After all, if you’re leaving it to them to work out what the next step is, they can easily slip through your fingers.

5. Inconsistent Writing Styles

When you see this one out and about, it’s never pretty. When the personality in your writing is inconsistent across your website, blog posts, and even flyers and brochures, the pivot in language and tone can result in notable mental whiplash when viewed side-by-side.

As your company grows, it’s likely that your marketing collateral will too. And as that happens, it’s equally likely that different people will write the copy for each piece. Each of these people likely have their own ways of writing and their own ideas about what needs to be said – so they’ll naturally leave their own stamp on the copy. Heck, even the same person can find themselves writing completely differently over time!

Many companies fall into the trap of thinking brand guidelines are just for visuals, such as the use of your logo, preferred colour schemes, and choice of fonts. But brand guidelines should also include information about the tone of voice and language to use in copy and content, This makes sure everyone’s on the same page about what needs to be said, how, and why. If you don’t provide guidance about the tone of voice, kinds of language, and indeed personality to use, the resulting copy is unlikely to appear cohesive and “joined up” when viewed as a whole.

As well as establishing what you want your copy to sound like, you might as well also codify the audiences you’re looking to attract, the image you’re trying to portray, and how your linguistic and design choices aim to achieve that.

You might also want to include guidance around the use of jargon; whether/how to inject personality and humour; and what role each marketing asset plays in the sales process. The aim here is to remain as consistent as possible across all of your copy regardless of who’s actually written it and when.

6. Not Keeping Your Copy Up to Date

Unfortunately this one rears its head a lot in all industries, especially when the company is small or working to capacity. Try to regularly review all of your current marketing materials to make sure the information is still accurate and up to date. That includes your website, your business cards, any flyers or printed handout material, brochures, blogs, videos, podcasts, recurring social media posts – basically any information your brand is putting out there. (No pressure!)

If you do come across a reference to obsolete data or a service you don’t provide anymore, remedy it as soon as possible. Whether it’s something minor like a single link to a page that’s no longer there, or something major like an industry development that renders some of your older service benefits obsolete; always make the effort to update things.

You don’t know who’s going to see it, so put your copy where your mouth is!

Any of these issues sound familiar? Whether your copy needs a touch of TLC or a complete overhaul, that’s exactly what I do. Let’s sort it out – get in touch today!