The document analyzes trends in B2B copywriting in 2016 based on an analysis of 716 content projects by Radix Communications. Key trends include: (1) Infographics are declining in popularity and usage after being overused; (2) Case studies remain popular despite some reports of declining usage; (3) Social media usage is decreasing but remains important for many companies; (4) Article writing for third-party sites is growing significantly; (5) Web copy projects are increasing substantially; (6) Blog posts remain the most commonly produced type of content.

1. The Death
of the B2B
Infographic
and six other B2B copywriting
trends we spotted in 2016.

2. Hi. We’re Radix Communications.
We write marketing content and communications for some of the
world’s top B2B technology brands.
(You know. Oracle, Xerox, Vodafone, Salesforce.com, Cognizant,
Sprint. 60 names like that.)
We work directly, and through agencies.

3. But here’s the
thing...

4. Working on all those copywriting projects
gives us a shedload of DATA
on what all those brands
are up to with their
marketing content.

5. And once a year, we
CRUNCH the NUMBERS
to spot any trends, and
find out what’s new.
(We’ve been doing it since 2012.)

6. For 2016, we’ve identified
716
content projects which we
can analyse and compare
with previous years
(we’ve left out the promotional and sales enablement copy, as it’s hard to categorise accurately)

7. Here’s what
we found out.

8. 1.Infographics are
history.*
*Maybe.

9. This year’s 24% decline in infographic copywriting
is no big deal on its own.
What’s more telling is
that this is the third year
in a row that infographic
projects have fallen –
from 15.4% of our work in
2013 to just 3.5% today.

10. So what’s
driving it?

11. Could be the
difficulty of viewing
infographics on mobile

12. Or maybe it’s simply that
they’ve been
and don’t cut through like they
used to.
OVERUSED

13. (But we’ve seen content formats bounce back
before, so maybe don’t write them off quite yet.)

14. 2.Case studies are
going nowhere.
(Thankfully)

15. (Source: Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs 2015 and 2016 B2B Trends – North America)
In this year’s CMI and MarketingProfs research,
case studies even didn’t make the list
of content marketing tactics.

16. Our data tells a
different story.

17. Last year we wrote
30% more case
studies than in
2015.

18. (In fact, we wrote more case studies in a
single year than at any time our history.)

19. So evidently, someone likes them.
And with good reason. A good case study:
provides social proof,
shows real-world benefits,
helps the prospect identify with your customer
…and generally makes people feel comfortable about buying from you.
(All while cementing your relationship with your existing customer.)

20. 3.Social media on
the wane?
(Depends how you look at it.)

21. There’s no hiding it:
we’re writing much less social media content these days.

22. B2B brands are using a little less social media than they were:
But not two thirds less. So what’s going on?
(Source: Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs 2016 & 2017 B2B Trends – North America)

23. Here’s one
theory...

24. 83%of B2B marketers use
social media, but...
(Source: Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs 2017 B2B Trends – North America)

25. 40%
Only of marketers say
social media is “critical”
to their success…
(Source: Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs 2017 B2B Trends – North America)

26. 43%
Which means of marketers use
social but don’t think it’s
important any more.
(Which explains why they’re not outsourcing it to professional writers.)

27. (Alternatively, social might be maturing into a
dialogue medium, with in-house experts taking
more of a hands-on role in the accounts.)

28. 4.Everyone’s going
to a (third) party.
(We didn’t see this one coming...)

29. This one was a surprise.
Our fastest growing
content type in 2016?
ARTICLES.
+350%

30. What’s an article?
Different clients have different definitions, but we’d say it’s a standalone
piece of long-form content that’s not part of your everyday blogging or
publishing efforts:
Content for third party sites and media
Extended information behind newsletters
Magazines printed on actual paper

31. It tends to take a journalistic style
and involves interviewing a subject
matter expert to give an informed
opinion on an important topic.

32. In particular, we’re writing a lot of
third party articles as marketers
look to broaden their profile, and go
where the audience is.

33. (If you’d like to see some examples, just ask us...)

34. 5.There’s a lot of web
copy happening.
(Websites. Websites everywhere...)

35. Our web copywriting work has been growing
steadily every year.
But this year, web copy
projects have suddenly
jumped up, by 60%.
Why?

36. Maybe the rise of the
mobile web has
prompted a surge in
web redevelopment work.

37. Could be it’s cyclical,
and a bunch of websites
are reaching their natural
‘sell by’ date.

38. Perhaps B2B brands are
beginning to realise that just
giving information isn’t enough,
and starting to use quality copy
as a differentiator online.

39. Or just possibly, when you’re
good at B2B web copywriting,
word gets around.

40. (We couldn’t possibly comment.)

41. 6.The humble blog
post is king*.
*Still

42. For the second
year running (and
the third year out of
five), we wrote more
B L O G
P O S T Sthan anything else.

43. 26%
That’s a whopping
of all our
copywriting projects.

44. (Source: Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs 2016 & 2017 B2B Trends – North America)
Thenumberisvirtuallythe
same as last year – and
the CMI/MarketingProfs
research agrees.

45. In short, B2B content marketers like blogs -
just as much as we did last year.
We’re comfortable with them, and we know the benefits:
Search visibility
Thought leadership
Social engagement
Rapid turnaround
Responsive to customers
No design investment
Demonstrates expertise
None of these things have changed, except...

46. Recent research says blog posts are
getting longer:
1,054words on average
(Source: Orbit media survey of 1055 bloggers.)

47. And while clients
aren’t asking us to
make it longer

48. They have stopped specifying
word counts – saying
make it as long as
it needs to be.

49. It’s less about search, and
more about
making it interesting
researching it thoroughly
helping the customer...

50. ...and that’s fine by us.

51. But then, as recently as 2014,
blog posts had fallen away -
and were just 4% of our work.

52. So maybe infographics
aren’t dead after all...

53. Radix Communications is a specialist B2B
technology copywriting agency.
We’ve ten writers in a warehouse in Cornwall, writing all
kinds of marketing content – covering the whole funnel –
for forward-thinking agencies and brands.
If you’d like to find out more (about this work, or our
research), please do get in touch.