Are You Looking For A Writing Job? Not All Writers Are Created Equal

Many HR people think that a writer is a writer is a writer. That a technical writer can do sales copy, and a B2B copywriter can write for B2B. I don’t agree that if you’re a good writer, you’ll be a good writer with other types of accounts. There is a significant difference in tones, approaches, even reading levels based on the type of account and the individual writer. I’ve marketed to engineers, rocket scientists and other brainiacs and in my experience, you have to “speak” to them at their level with logic and facts. Selling to this crowd required much less of an emotional attachment or desire, however they needed to be able to support their buying decision. This type of B2B writing is more suited to a person with a background in technical writing or enterprise-wide computer software or hardware sales than for someone with a background selling beer or soap and toothpaste. It’s a completely different mindset.

There is a significant learning curve to marketing B2B intangibles. (I would think B2C intangibles have many of the same issues.) The sales cycle is much, much longer, and the copywriting tends to be less sales-oriented and more informational. Right now, I am marketing to lawyers in the B2B market and am undergoing a rebranding project. Frankly, I was very humbled at my lack of understanding my target audience. I thought: bright, logical – got it; I didn’t see the conservative, risk-adverse component with the competitive streak. What I thought would be stellar concepts were completely vetoed by my focus groups. I had to start over with a far different, much more subdued and conservative brand, and very organized, logic-focused informational writing. Very cut and dry. Very focused on the win in court.

There’s a lot of dotbomb leftover creatives out there vying for jobs we’ve earned through our years of experience, and they’re younger and cheaper. What differentiates us IS our particular specializations. For me, I specialize in taking small B2B tech companies to the entrepreneur’s exit strategy, be that a buyout, merger, acquisition, franchising, etc. Finding my professional niche is how I market myself, and, let’s face it. If we can’t market ourselves well, how can we do it for someone else?