We analyse data from 727 client copywriting projects to spot the big B2B tech content marketing trends from 2015.

1. 2015
The Year
in B2B
Copywriting
How blogging got serious;
white papers rose from the
dead and four more trends
that shook our copywriting
world in 2015

2. Hello, we’re Radix Communications.
(Pleased to meet you.)
We write marketing content and communications
for top B2B technology brands.
Like Dell, Fujitsu, Honeywell, Oracle, Sprint,
Salesforce.com and Xerox.
We work with some of the UK’s top B2B agencies,
as well as a number of tech brands directly.

3. In 2015, we wrote copy for 727 content
projects, for over 50 tech brands.
This is our fourth year of diving into our
data to quantify what it’s like on the front
lines of B2B technology copywriting.
And guess what? We found a bunch of
interesting trends.

4. But how did our experience compare
with B2B content marketers in general?
We’ve delved into research from
Content Marketing Institute and others
to find out.

5. Business blogging gets
serious
Blogs driven by quality, not quantity

6. Blogging, as a content
tactic used by B2B
brands, saw a 5.26%
increase in use between
2014 to 2015…1
1
Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs, 2015 and 2016 B2B Content
Marketing: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America, pages 19 and 15

7. Meanwhile, at Radix, we
saw a 426.17% bump in
demand for B2B blog
posts in 2015.

8. No, you did read that correctly:
a 426.17% increase in requests for
blog posts.

9. Here’s how our work from 2015
stacked up against previous years
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
2015
2014
2013
2012
A huge leap
for blog
posts.

10. The rise in blog work could be down to:
1) Marketers not having time to blog on a
weekly (or even more frequent) basis
2) Marketers not having time to do the
in-depth research that a successful blog
post now requires
3) Outsourcing blog work to a cheap,
low-cost content service has failed to
deliver an appropriate level of quality

11. Social media content
remains on top
But native content now rules the
roost

12. In 2015, out of all content
tactics used in B2B marketing,
social media content was the
most popular. It was used by
93% of those surveyed by CMI
and MarketingProfs.
It’s been the most
widely used B2B
content tactic for
the past 4 years.2
2
Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013 B2B Content Marketing:
Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America, pages 15, 19, 9 and 5 respectively

13. Social media content
accounted for 23.52%
of Radix’s client work in
2015.
We’ve seen a steady
shift towards content
designed to be
consumed on social
platforms.

14. Regalix found that
94% of B2B brands
use social media
to increase brand
awareness.
But that social media
campaigns account
for less than 25% of
website traffic for
90% of B2B brands.3
But what are brands using social media content to
achieve?
3
Regalix: State of B2B Social Media Marketing 2015 , page 21

15. At Radix, we still write more social media content than
anything else.
But in 2015 how B2B brands use social changed.
There were more requests for social media native content
that’s consumed on the social platforms it’s created for.
Like puzzles, graphics, image-led posts and teaser videos.
We’re also seeing clients make more use of LinkedIn’s Pulse
blogging platform to get their content directly in front of their
connections and their connections’ connections.
2016 could see brands considering whether social media
is suitable for lead generation or if the focus shifts more to
brand awareness.

16. White papers rise from the
dead
As marketers realise they play a
critical role in the funnel

17. In 2015, CMI and
MarketingProf’s research
shows that white papers
were used by 71% of
brands, up 10.93% from
2014.4
4
Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs, 2015 and 2016 B2B Content Marketing:
Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America, pages 19 and 15

18. 57% of tech buyers among the
C-Suite, Finance, HR and Sales,
need more content now than
they did a year ago in order to
make purchasing decisions.4
But many have less time
to look at this content.
Octopus Group
points out that...
4
Octopus Group, Tech Heads – B2B Nation: The Content Pinch Point, page 5
Research by
Octopus Group
found that...

19. The best news is that B2B buyers are
immersed in information gathering and
they value content across the buying
process. Capturing attention, creating the
right context and maintaining attention
over time are the foundations for content
delivering a competitive edge.
Octopus Group, Tech Heads – B2B Nation:
The Content Pinch Point, page 11

20. During 2015 we saw
a 17.91% increase in
demand for
white papers.

21. Every year since 2012, Radix has seen
a steady increase in the volume of
white paper work.
The death of the white paper has
been predicted a few times, but their
continued growth is an admission that
white papers are actually still very
useful and have a valuable role to
play in the MOFU/BOFU stages of the
funnel.

22. Vanishing video scripts
But will 2016 be the year of B2B
video?

23. The use of video by B2B
brands only rose 3.9% over
the past year, according to
research from the Content
Marketing Institute and
MarketingProfs.5
In the past four
years, video use
in B2B content
marketing has risen
by 12.85%.6
5
Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs, 2015 and
2016 B2B Content Marketing: Benchmarks, Budgets, and
Trends—North America, pages 19 and 15
6
Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs, 2016, 2015,
2014 and 2013 B2B Content Marketing: Benchmarks,
Budgets, and Trends—North America, pages 15, 19, 9
and 5 respectively

24. According to Jay Baer, of Convince
and Convert, video is going to be big
in 2016...

25. All signs point to video. Whether
it’s Facebook Live, video on Twitter,
Periscope, Blab, Instagram, Vine or
the old standby YouTube, 2016 will
be the year when video becomes a
primary content and social marketing
consideration for all brands – even B2B.
Jay Baer in: 13 Digital Marketing Experts
Make Bold Predictions for 2016

26. Radix has seen a
continued drop in
requests for video scripts
over the last two years.
Including a 42%
year-on-year drop
in video script
requests in 2015.
Our experience does not bear this out.

27. We see no evidence of a B2B video bonanza.
Our clients simply don’t produce a lot of video content. That
may be because it’s seen as expensive and risky.
We’ve seen requests for video scripts declining since 2013.
Video is expensive and difficult to get right. It not only requires
deep subject matter knowledge, but also specialist skills in
storyboarding, scripting and production. So we tend to see
marketers producing just 1-2 “hero asset” videos per year,
rather than spend a lot of their budget on video.

28. Infographics no longer hot
They’re just too hard to get right

29. Infographic use rose
by 8.06% in 2015 to
become used by 67% of
B2B marketers.
Illustrations and photos are a
more popular tactic, used by
76% of respondents to Content
Marketing Institute and
MarketingProfs research.7
7
Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs, 2015 and 2016 B2B Content
Marketing: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America, pages 19 and 15

30. But Radix saw requests
for infographic copy
decrease by 38.64% in
2015 to just 4.54% of our
total workload.
Back in 2013,
infographic copy
represented
15.43% of our
client work.

31. We don’t know exactly what’s behind
the decline in requests for infographics.
But we feel that to create a really
arresting infographic, a designer, writer
and data analyst need to work very
closely together. That’s not always
possible when the writing work is
outsourced.

32. And it’s not just us: Google Trends
suggests that interest in infographics
has been declining since 2014.

33. The limitations of the format
may also be restricting its use
as infographics are rarely mobile
friendly. Octopus Group have
found that 50% of tech buyers
among the C-Suite, Finance, HR
and Sales now use mobile devices
for product research.8
8
Octopus Group, Tech Heads – B2B Nation: The Content
Pinch Point, page 5

34. ebooks bounce back
Late adopters enter the fray

35. Over the last four
4 years ebooks
have continued to
rise in use.
In 2015, CMI and
MarketingProf’s research
shows that ebooks were
used by 39% of brands,
up 5.40% from 2014.9
9
Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013 B2B Content Marketing:
Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America, pages 15, 19, 9 and 5 respectively

36. During 2015 Radix saw
demand for ebook copy rise
by 55%.

37. This is a slight resurgence in ebooks,
after a steep decline last year.
It’s possible this is due to a rash of “late
adopters”, people who have come late to
the ebook trend.
The advantage of using ebooks is that it
does add variety to the content available
at earlier stages in the funnel. Clients
are also seeing it as a means to further
atomise other types of content such as
blog posts.

38. So, in conclusion...

39. 2015 was the year that we saw:
- Blogging get serious, with marketers commissioning more
and higher-quality posts
- Social media content remains buoyant, driven by a shift to
platform-native content
- White papers rise from the dead, as marketers realise they
play a crucial role in decision-making at the middle and
bottom of the funnel
- Video fail to take off, contrary to most predictions
- Infographics start to decline, as really good ones are difficult
to produce, and they’re hard to view on mobile
- ebooks seeing a bit of a resurgence, driven by late adopters of
this now-mature format

40. Radix is a copywriting agency for the content marketing era.
We work with marketers to develop programmes of content that
guide customers through every stage of the buying process.
We specialise in the B2B technology sector, with expertise in
enterprise hardware and software, networking, and electronics.
We’ve written for innovative tech companies large and small,
including Sprint, Fujitsu, Salesforce.com, Veeam, Oracle, Xerox,
VoxGen, MATS and Spirent.
We have a monthly podcast that explores trends and issues in
B2B technology copywriting. You can listen to it here.
About Radix

41. Sources
Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs - B2B Content Marketing:
2016 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America
Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs - B2B Content Marketing:
2015 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America
Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs - B2B Content Marketing:
2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America
Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs - B2B Content Marketing:
2013 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America
Octopus Group, Tech Heads – B2B Nation: The Content Pinch Point
Regalix - State of B2B Social Media Marketing 2015
SocialMediaToday: 13 Digital Marketing Experts Make Bold Predictions
for 2016