B2B Messaging and Communication Strategist
Writer
Word Nerd
Yesterday I read a blog about 50 ways to say Happy Birthday that ranged from Inspirational to funny, to short and sweet, and then age-appropriate. Who knew there was so much range to a simple Birthday Greeting?
Yes, that's the type of nerdy word stuff I find fascinating.
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I'm gonna be totally honest, I accidentally got into B2B - my career for a good few years was in public relations and direct marketing for B2C companies. But after starting my family I wanted a bit more flexibility and took a job as a consultant to an IT Security Company, naively thinking "B2B Marketing can't be that much different from B2C".​
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You can imagine my surprise when I went from writing about gold-plated dinnerware to Next-Gen firewalls and Cybersecurity. It felt like everyone was speaking a different language.
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My first major campaign was to organise and promote an IT conference to the top UK internet providers. I quickly found out that the typical industry jargon and the constant push to sell didn't work - emails were left unopened, white papers were never downloaded — no one was responding.
It was clear we needed a different approach
So I applied what I knew as B2C marketer and treated every piece of content like it was part of a campaign and wrote using my customers pov.
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And our invitation emails got over 75% open rate and the conference had a 31% attendance (not bad for a bunch of very busy CEOs). Someone even came up to me to ask who had created the campaign because it was so different from what they were used to.
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— I was hooked.
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It turns out that a lot of B2B companies find it hard to explain what they do in a way that excites their customers and can learn a thing or two from B2Cs.
I'll never forget the many silly things my brother Kevin taught me. On my first day at university, he knocked on every door in my dorm (and then hid), just so I had to introduce myself to all my housemates!
That lesson has stuck with me—to remember the importance of understanding and controlling my narrative because if you don't define who you are, someone else will!.
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For the past 4 years, I've been helping Start-Up Tech Companies gain investment while entering a new market, by translating their complex product into captivating and impactful messaging and communication strategies, and leading with what their customers want to hear.
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Today, I train and advise B2B communication teams to nail what differentiates them and find their voice.
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And what started as a small personal crusade to get B2Bs to write for their customers has snowballed into a 1000+ subscriber-strong newsletter.​
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​From Vivien is all about being proud to put your name to your communication.
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I hope you'll join me.
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