5 Powerful strategies to make your B2B content more readable

An old-age question: How to make a technically complex B2B piece that will still be readable and accessible to the reader? B2B copies often consist of difficult and highly technical ideas that can be pretty tricky to understand. The following strategies will help you add clarity to your work and make it more engaging for the reader.
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Why Readability is Important

Clarity is key to engaging and successful business-to-business marketing content. Every company wants to produce digestible and accessible work, however, that can turn into quite a difficult task when writing about the complex and arcane topics that often float around in the B2B world. 

A good balance between technical depth and readability – is what distinguishes a good B2B piece. When you focus on readability, your copy automatically becomes easier to read  - which increases the chance of your audience engaging with your content. 

While this blog won’t give you tips on demonstrating all your technical knowledge, it will give you 5 writing techniques that can help you deliver readable and engaging content.

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1. First off, pick words you would actually use in your everyday life. 

Language is a big part of brand positioning, but just because you are in a work setting doesn’t mean your language suddenly has to wear a tie. At some point we’ve all chosen to use fancier words like ‘utilize” instead of “use”, “perplexing” instead of “confusing” or “yourself” instead of a simple “you”.  People do this, thinking that it will make them sound more intelligent or professional. In many cases the overuse of “fancy”, overly long and unnecessary words can make your copy a lot more confusing than it should be. 

Try wording your piece in a way where it's logical, clear, and user-friendly. Just because you’re using accessible words doesn't mean your work is sloppy or unprofessional -  it’s just calm and easy to read.

2. Use Conjunction

When you’re writing about complicated ideas with many industrial terms, it is very easy for your sentences to start getting too long.  If you have too many rundown sentences, the reader might start tripping over your work and quickly lose interest in what you have to say.  A simple way to cut things down is to split your ideas into smaller sentences of their own.  This is particularly easy to do if you follow the principle of  ‘one idea per sentence’. Do you have more than one idea in a sentence? If so, encase it in a new one. Remember, people are busy - they usually don’t have time to pick apart overly long sentences in your piece. Keep them short and easy to follow.

3. A little repetition won’t hurt.

Everyone thinks of repetition as something that should be avoided at all costs. But if used correctly this strategy can actually add a lot of clarity and balance to your copy. If you are using this tip, you should structure your whole sentence around this concept, and make it very obvious for the reader. Apart from adding clarity, repetition adds rhythm to your writing and makes it more memorable for the reader.

4. Pose a rhetorical question

When you’re talking about a deeply technical topic with many details, your audience will most likely have many questions as they’re going through your copy. If you pose a rhetorical question to your reader, you automatically establish a connection with them. Rhetorical questions are a great tool to keep in your drawer since they are a great way to re-engage your audience and avoid monotony.

5. Break up your copy 

As mentioned earlier, people are busy. Keep this in mind when you’re composing your piece. To make your copy easier and faster to digest - break it up. If you have overly long paragraphs, divide them into smaller paragraphs -  following the principle of 1 idea per paragraph. Also, don’t underestimate subheadings and bullet points. In other words, try delivering your content in chunks, especially when you’re tackling lists of features or benefits. People are visual creatures so If something is important, don’t bury it in a paragraph - make sure the eye catches it right away. 
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Conclusion:

If you want to engage your audience, your copy HAS to be readable. Apart from being useful, your copy has to be accessible and interesting to read. Otherwise, even if the ideas in your writing are absolutely genius, you are risking losing a potential audience. When you focus on the readability and clarity of your copy, you increase the chance of your target audience reading and actively interacting with your content. - which is why readability should be a natural part of your content management.