Best B2B Voices: Part 2

So quite a while back I posted that I’m looking for great B2B
voices. They are hard to come by, in my experience. Over the course of the past few months I’ve looked and have 2 good examples, though I don’t think by any means this is the conclusive list.

Let’s start with the one I found first: IBM. I know, crazy, right? They have nicely humorous TV ads (which, as I mentioned, is where B2B often has fun), but who knew they could nail their voice on their website, too? If you’re interested in this stuff, which you must be if you’re reading this, seriously go to ibm.com.

They do a wonderful job of delivering the facts—which are of course heavy in technology systems and other topics that could easily become tangled, boring and jargony. They manage to avoid that very well. In fact, they are great at keeping it simple, warm and friendly—maybe not compared to a consumer product/website, but certainly compared with the competition.

The most important part is that they place a terrific focus on you.

The design (which is not my focus, but of course is relevant), is simple, clean and lets the content come through. Tabs at the bottom of the home page make for quick scanning of the volumes of info available on the site. Information on deeper level pages is also well divided into digestible chucks for the average scanning user.

Lastly, while their TV ads and website have a very different voice and look, it’s not too radically different. It feels consistent. IBM has a great UX and content team. IBM, give them a raise.

2 Great Ads

I get shivers when I see great ad copy. Just saw two today:

1. Billboard for Group Health Cooperative. For those who don’t know, Group Health is a big coop in this area. It’s a health care option that’s commonly offered especially at tech companies (last I heard, it’s still on the menu at Microsoft). The billboard had simple copy: Live Long and Prosper. Talk about nailing your audience AND benefits AND humor!
2. Small delivery truck for Staples. We all know the office supply company, so this doesn’t need explaining. The copy is “I break for empty staplers.” Brilliant. I love the double entendre of staplers as in the handy little device, and staplers being people who use Staples delivery services.

Always inspiring to see great work.

Blog writing vs. engineering: don't be a frog

Mark Schaefer wrote a good post this morning that discusses a key point in blogging today: about how so many bloggers (or, as I may call them, "blogbots") engineer their blog posts based on keywords.

In my humble writerly opinion, content engineering is a slippery slope that may turn the relationship building aspects of social media into... meaninglessness. It used to be that only those who really had something to say went off and blogged. People who followed them were interested in hearing it. Now many are doing it not because they have something to say, but instead are focused on the delightful end result of
page views --> brand building --> sales.

Ideally, these keywords bubble up organically through what you would normally want to talk about on your blog. If you're forcing it, then you're going to sound funny. Robotic. And unless you're JPL, that's probably not the voice you're looking for.

While such a focus may yield short term benefits, you may well end up sacrificing the relationship part. And it makes the consumer kiss more frogs before finding their prince.

The moral of the story is, don't be a frog.