The AI paradox—Why automation is forcing B2B to get more human

Following my recent piece, Where B2B is heading, it’s time to talk about the elephant in the room: AI. Here, I explore why automated mass-volume is killing buyer connections, and how the machine is ironically forcing us to become more human.

If you look at B2B feeds today, you’ll notice a strange paradox. We have access to the most sophisticated artificial intelligence tools in human history, yet a massive chunk of B2B content feels robotic, stale, and generic.

Why? Because too many brands are using AI to do the wrong thing. They’re using it to generate volume instead of value: flooding the space with blog posts, generic social media updates, and automated emails that are just about "good enough" —sounding exactly like every competitor in their sector.

In a world where anyone can use a prompt to generate a thousand words of corporate fluff (albeit grammatically correct), vanilla content has become a widespread commodity.

For B2B brands looking to catch the eye of today’s modern, tech-savvy buyer groups, this is a massive strategic mistake. When marketing’s baseline becomes completely automated, the only way to stand out is to lean back into what a machine can’t do — be human.

We need to get beyond the average

AI models are trained on what already exists. Because they’re prediction engines, they provide the most average, likely response to a prompt. Ask an AI to write a B2B headline for a cloud security platform, and it’ll pull from the sea of headlines already out there. Who wants copy that’s already been done: content that’s safe, predictable — and ultimately invisible?

I don’t view AI as a threat to the teams I work with; I believe it’s an incredible filtering tool. It’s brilliant at handling the heavy lifting — crunching data, summarising lengthy technical briefs, suggesting SEO keywords, and helping brainstorm angles at lightning speed. It also eliminates my biggest daily terror: the blank page.

But that is where the machine's job should end and where people’s job begins.

Our role as creatives is to take that average baseline and inject the human friction, the unexpected visual metaphors, and the subtle emotional nuances — that "emotion with a small e" to form a memory in buyers’ minds.

What now for engaging buyers?

For everyone's benefit, B2B marketing leaders need to shift their approach to AI-driven content production from broadcasting to connection.

Use AI for personalisation, not just speed. Modern buyer journeys are never straightforward; often involving multiple stakeholders. AI should help segment your data and understand the specific pain points of different roles among your buyer personas. When it comes to writing the actual message, make sure it passes the pub test with human warmth.

With the market so flooded by automated noise, buyers have developed a high text-filtering reflex, so you have to raise your creative standards. If your copy looks or sounds like a machine wrote it, it’ll be ignored straight away. Premium, distinctive copywriting is now the ultimate differentiator. I should know. It’s why clients come to me.

And because AI can’t interview customers, it can’t capture the relief of a manager who finally goes home on time, or invent a completely surreal visual metaphor to explain complex financial issues. Focus on original insight and double down on original storytelling and real-world human experiences.

I don’t see the future of B2B creativity as a battle of man vs. machine. But I do see machines clearing away the dull admin so that we creatives have the time and space (and maybe the bravery), to do truly great, memorable work.

AI may be able to generate a million words a minute, but it can't build a relationship. If you want a Senior CD/Copywriter who knows how to use modern tech to scale your output and keep your brand distinctively human, let's talk about how I can help future-proof your creative team.

Where B2B is heading.

For decades, business-to-business (B2B) marketing has operated on a dull, slightly lazy assumption: that people instantly lose their personality the moment they start work.

We used to think that at 9:00 AM, everyday consumers suddenly turned into corporate robots. We acted as if the person who just spent their morning commute listening to true-crime podcasts and scrolling through social media suddenly cared only about rigid jargon and stock photos of boardrooms once they clocked in.

But that wall has completely collapsed. As I highlighted in my ebook, From straight to great - A guide to sounding real with your B2B copy, buying decisions are always made by real, opinionated individuals — not faceless corporate entities. The future of creativity in our industry is no longer about pitching to an abstract company logo; it is about talking to real people (who happen to be at work.)

In fact, research shows that over half of B2B buyers form a deep emotional connection with their suppliers — compared to just 10% to 40% of regular consumers*. Because business choices carry massive personal and professional risk, feelings will always trump facts.

For creatives, copywriters, and designers, this is brilliant news. The era of the boring corporate brief is officially over. Excellent, human creativity is no longer an afterthought — it’s the ultimate competitive advantage to help businesses cut through and dominate the market.

From boardroom to living room

The shifting B2B buyer profile isn't just a demographic change; it’s a cultural shift. Today’s decision-makers have grown up with technology. They don’t want heavy, 40-page corporate documents. Nearly 90% of them now bypass traditional marketing entirely, looking for honest opinions on platforms like Reddit, watching peer breakdowns on YouTube, and relying on trusted industry creators to make up their minds.**

Crucially, they carry their consumer expectations directly into their corporate lives. If an Instagram post can catch their attention on a Sunday evening, they expect that same engaging, emotional connection when they’re shopping for enterprise software on Monday morning. The demographics bear this out: over a third of Gen Z buyers are bypassing Google entirely and researching business brands straight on social media.*** If a brand doesn't look human, active, and relevant on their feeds, it simply doesn't exist to them.

Ultimately, B2B buyers are driven by normal human emotions like ambition, frustration, and the desire to look good in front of their boss. Remove these feelings to look "professional," and we lose the very thing that makes B2B creativity work: connection.

As Mark Ritson always points out, using emotion in B2B doesn't mean you need to make your audience weep or pull on their heartstrings like a John Lewis Christmas ad. He calls it ‘emotion with a small e’. In business, the emotions we’re playing with are much more subtle: things like confidence, relief, hope, and professional aspiration. It’s about making a buyer feel safe and smart for choosing you.

The creative's new playground

Many junior and mid-weight creatives, working in B2C worry that moving into the B2B space means safe choices and a long, slow creative death.

I tell them the exact opposite: it’s the ultimate creative playground. Why? Because the stakes are incredibly high. If their work helps a B2B company wins a new enterprise account, it can be worth millions. The opportunity to do work that genuinely moves the commercial needle is massive.

As I wrote in my ebook last year, we win over these informed, modern buyers by fundamentally changing how we approach the daily creative output:

• Stories beat features: Stop writing instruction manuals. Instead of listing every single technical tool, tell the story of the operations manager who finally gets to go home to have dinner with their kids because your software actually works. Find the human benefit.

• Kill the visual clichés: Ban the glowing blue grids, the hologram globes, and the literal corporate handshakes. Look at how premium consumer brands use bold design, striking typography, and unexpected imagery to command attention. If your design looks like typical B2B, it is already invisible.

• Take the pub test: Read the copy out loud. If you wouldn’t say those exact words to a friend in a bar, don’t put it in the campaign.

As the legendary ad man Dave Trott always teaches, real creativity is about simplification. Before you can persuade anyone, you first have to get their attention, and then you have to be understood. If your copy is hidden behind corporate jargon, it never gets past step one. For me, B2B needs to be jargon-free, where possible. Simplicity isn't dumbing things down; it is the highest form of creative sophistication.

The optimistic outlook

There has never been a more exciting time to lead creative teams in the B2B space. The most successful businesses right now are the ones brave enough to treat their audience with respect, intelligence, and a bit of humour.

The next generation of unforgettable, award-winning marketing campaigns won’t come from fashion houses or soft drink giants. They’ll come from B2B companies that choose to be assertive, genuine, and interesting.

So, when we brief our creative teams, let's stop them from reaching for the safe corporate template. There’s a real human being sitting on the other side of that screen, waiting to be entertained, understood, and inspired. Let's go give them something worth their time and attention.

If you’re ready to ditch the safe corporate templates and build a B2B brand that genuinely drives revenue, let's talk. Get in touch to see how I can inject some real human personality into your next B2B campaign.

*https://www.b2binternational.com/2024/04/17/how-to-meet-the-emotional-needs-of-b2b-buyers/

** https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/linkedin-offers-guidance-on-b2b-product-launches/821165/

*** https://www.demandsage.com/b2b-marketing-statistics/

The Chelsea effect: Are you pruning your B2B tech messaging too close to the root?

Right now, just a short drive up the A3 from me here in Surrey, the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea are undergoing their annual, radical transformation. The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is in full swing. For a few days, everyone’s focus shifts to structure, hidden roots, and the deliberate orchestration of organic growth.

It’s an elite masterclass in presentation. But when I look at the immaculate show gardens, I notice a parallel with how we cultivate B2B technology campaigns.

In the rush to scale, I see a lot of enterprise tech brands treat their marketing like a high-production show garden: all vibrant colours and instant visual impact on the surface, with much less thought given to the root systems holding everything together.

When I work with marketing leaders and enterprise agency teams on their creative strategy, I often run into a couple of structural mistakes that mirror a poorly planned garden: over-pruning and failing to account for the soil.

Over-pruning can be the death of the long-form ecosystem

The narrative in B2B tech is that enterprise buyers have short attention spans, and many brands react by pruning aggressively. Out go deeply researched insights papers, rigorous white papers, and exhaustive how-to guides, and in their place, I’m seeing an endless hedge of high-velocity, short-form clips, superficial social media ads, and landing pages that feature only three-bullet points.

But data from Edelman-LinkedIn, Gartner, and 6Sense tells us that enterprise buyers don’t have short attention spans; they have high filtering bars.

When an enterprise software, cybersecurity, or FinTech buyer is evaluating a multi-million-pound investment that impacts their entire infrastructure, they aren't making a decision based on a snappy LinkedIn carousel. They need proof. They demand deep-dive content that shows empathy with their challenges, respects their intelligence, and maps complex technical capabilities directly to their operational realities.

By over-pruning long-form assets, you strip out the intellectual nourishment your audience is looking for. Sure, short-form hooks are bright, eye-catching petals that draw people in, but your long-form thought leadership is the root system that establishes trust and anchors the deal. If you don't offer both, your campaign concepts will wither under scrutiny.

Soil compaction can be like speaking to the persona, but forgetting the person

Compacted soil stops oxygen and water penetrating the surface, suffocating growth. In B2B tech marketing, businesses often compact the soil with industry jargon, acronyms, and sterile corporate prose.

They get so caught up in speaking to the Persona — the abstract C-Suite archetype defined in playbooks — that they forget a real human being actually has to read the content. Whether I’m writing hyper-personalised ABM campaign content, scripting a brand awareness video, or drafting a sales playbook, the core principle remains identical: complexity shouldn’t mean coldness.

The best B2B tech copy doesn't try to look clever by hiding behind impenetrable tech-speak. It does the hard work of translating advanced architecture—whether that’s GenAI integration, telecom infrastructure, or financial compliance platforms—into elegant, clear human benefits.

Cultivating Sustainable Campaign Growth

An immaculate garden looks effortless, but it demands an understanding of design — how the structural hardscaping framework interacts with the shifting, living elements around it.

The same applies to complex marketing ecosystems. If big creative campaign concepts aren't seamlessly aligned with digital assets, portals, event communications, and sales enablement tools, the entire experience loses its impact.

As you plan your marketing roadmap for the rest of the year, take a step back and look at your current messaging landscape. Ask yourself:

• are your surface-level social ads supported by deep, authoritative insights beneath?

• is your ABM content speaking to human motivations, or just repeating industry buzzwords?

• does your brand development have a consistent narrative voice from your top-of-funnel video scripts down to your bottom-of-funnel insights guides?

Organic growth in enterprise tech B2B doesn't happen by accident. It takes a deliberate blend of strategic positioning, creative concepting, and seamless execution across every single touchpoint.

If you’re looking to build a narrative root system that lasts, I can help. I partner with global enterprise B2B tech brands and elite creative agencies to cultivate campaigns that convert. Based here in Surrey and serving clients worldwide, I'm available to support your team on your next project across creative strategy, multi-channel campaign concepts, long- and short-form copy, and comprehensive brand development. Let's chat.

The great B2B un-boring

Look, you pound the pavement on the B2B beat long enough and you start to notice things. Like that old playbook, the one with the cheesy stock photos of guys in cheap suits shaking hands like they’re doing eachother a favour? It’s gone. Buried in a shallow grave somewhere out in the desert, right next to the guys who didn't listen.

Why? Because the game changed. We’re looking at a shift in how people do business, and frankly, it’s about time.

We’ve been singing and dancing to this tune for a while. We told anybody who’d listen, (and a few people who wouldn't), that this corporate look was a dead end. Now that the rest of the world is finally waking up and smelling the coffee, we figured we’d give you a little reminder. Just so we’re all sitting at the same table.

B2B is finally getting a clean-up, and it’s about time.

See, you’ve got two problems. On one side, you’ve got AI scrapers crawling all over you looking for data. On the other, you’ve got buying committees of six, maybe ten impatient, sceptical people all looking out for bullshit. They’re hungry for something real. Authenticity.

Here’s the deal: the consumer-grade trend isn't a trend at all. It’s just realizing that buyers are people. These guys spend their downtime looking at high-end editorial and slick apps. They have taste. If they swing by your site and glance at your content, they won't stick around to hear your pitch if you look like everything and everyone else in your field.

They’re gone in a puff of smoke. Like they were never there.

Signals over noise

Chasing every lead that walks down the street is for rookies. That’s for guys who don’t know any better. Real B2B pros prioritise Signal Gen. They’re like trackers. They identify when a target account is ready to make a move before the mark even opens their mouth.

Behind that kind of precision, you’ve got hyper-personalised ABM. And we’re not talking about some blanket strategy. We’re talking about tailoring a narrative so sharp and so specific that when some guy reads it, he feels like you’ve been sitting in his living room. He feels like that message was crafted just for him.

If you want to be less B2Boring and actually cut through the noise, you’ve got to stop acting like a faceless corporation and start acting like a visible expert. You gotta have a personality. No more stale brochures that look like they were printed in a library basement. We’re talking editorial branding, like long-form narratives, stories about actual human beings, and visuals that look like they give a damn.

When you blend that deep personalisation with a voice that actually sounds human, you’re not just making noise anymore. You’re sending a signal. And that signal is how you build genuine trust.

The clean-up job

If you want to stop playing patty-cake with generic best practices and actually move the needle, you gotta execute. We’re talking high-impact, human-centric work. Here’s today’s playbook on how to stop being a ghost and start being the guy people actually listen to:

First: Kill the corporate blah. If you’re relying on same-old, same-old marketing-speak, you’re already dead. To get someone’s attention in our game, you can’t sound like some machine-churned template. You gotta be the smartest, most reliable voice in the room. Speak plainly. Speak with purpose. Don't waste their time.

Second: Get an edge in your art direction. And I don't mean some AI-generated filler that looks like a fever dream. Original art direction? That’s your competitive weapon. It’s like a well-tailored suit that tells people who you are before you open your mouth. Take a pitchfork to that Frankenstack of ugly, disjointed visuals and bury it. Replace it with sharp aesthetics that scream professional sophistication and intent.

Finally: Precision-guide your ABM. We’re talking orchestration here, not some amateur-hour mailing list. You need Sales and Marketing together under a single, powerful story. One voice. The goal is to walk into a room of ten sceptical buyers and have a conversation that feels like a 1-to-1 sit-down, even when you’re operating at scale.

That’s how you play the game.

Get it right or get out of the way

If you’re ready to stop blending into the wallpaper and start building a brand that actually resonates with real, flesh-and-blood people, then we’re the guys you want to talk to. We’ll help you find that edge.

We’ve spent years in the trenches helping B2B leaders swap out that corporate blah for stories and visuals that actually mean business. We don't do fluff, and we won't do nice. We do what works.

Why Mr. Pink won't tip on AI slop

Pull up a chair. Sit down. Grab a coffee.

Nick and I, have been around the block. We’ve seen every digital revolution since email was a new fad.

Right now, we’re at a crossroads. On one side, you’ve got the machines (GenAI), on the other, you’ve got the human spirit. And frankly, some brands are looking at the machines like they’re the dream getaway driver.

They sit there, clutching the budget, asking why hire a creative team when they can just type a prompt and get a campaign?

Because content is infinite, instant, and everywhere, it’s worth about as much as a broken watch. The only thing that scales and actually moves the needle, is the one thing a computer can’t fake. Genuine, human truth.

GenAI is a modern miracle, but a lot of its content is slop. We’ve all seen it. Polished LinkedIn posts that have all the soul of a wet cardboard box. The same me-as-an-action-figure avatars. The same deepfake celebs taking selfies with other deepfake celebs. It’s predictable, boring. And in this business, boring is a death sentence.

When everything looks perfect, nothing stands out. You think a CTO or a Product VP doesn't have a nose for bullsh*t? These people are drowning in a field of beige. They don’t want perfect. They want something real. They want a brand that acknowledges the messy, sweaty, emotional reality of running a company. They want a connection, not a calculation.

That’s why we rely on a little thing called the scamp.

In a world of 8K renders and high-gloss fakery, the scamp is the humble sketch that’s raw and unpolished Sharpie on layout pad. You might ask why we’d show up to a high-stakes meeting with a bunch of doodles. Well, it’s the ultimate truth-detector.

When we show you a scamp, we’re not sharing the unprompted add-ons and extra limbs AI throws in to distract and disarm you (no pun intended). AI is great at masking a weak-ass strategy with perfect lighting and pretty textures. It’s easy to be seduced by a pin-sharp image, only to realize six months later that the core message didn't solve your business problem.

With a scamp, we only see the bones. It forces us to ask: Is there a big idea here? Does this tap into a human truth? If the concept can’t stand up in a scamp, it isn't strong enough to wear the digital makeup.

When you start with a sketch, you’re investing in a strategy, not just a visual. It’s about the why before we get bogged down in the how.

Investing in creative services is about buying into differentiation, not cool images. And if you want instant authority, emotional memory, and trust, skip the algorithm and head for the human.

We’re not saying ignore the tech. AI tools are useful for an optimised path. But, human creativity is the vision that makes people actually want to walk alongside you.

Today, the most radical, professional, and dangerous thing a B2B brand can do is be human.

So, if you want to stop blending in and start standing out, you know what to do.

Hit us up. Let’s get to work.

Don't let your website get left behind: GEO is the new SEO

The internet can sometimes feel like a whirlwind, can’t it? Just when you’ve finally got your head around one thing, something new pops up to replace it. And if you’ve heard about GEO, or Generative Engine Optimisation, you might be wondering what all the fuss is about.

You might be thinking: "Oh great, another thing I need to do online". I get it. But hear me out. Because GEO isn't just a new buzzword. It’s the next logical step in your business getting found online. And if you’re just starting to explore how AI can help your business, understanding this shift is the most important first step you can take.

SEO vs. GEO: the real difference

You're already familiar with SEO, right? It's the process of making your website friendly for search engines like Google. You use keywords, get backlinks, and focus on the technical stuff so that your site shows up on the first page of search results. In a nutshell, SEO is about getting your link to rank high.

But online search is changing. People aren't just typing keywords anymore. They're using conversational language and asking questions directly to AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini. They want instant answers, not a list of links to click. This is where GEO comes in.

Generative Engine Optimisation isn't about ranking your link. It's about getting your content directly cited and referenced within the AI-generated answers themselves. It's about making your content so clear and authoritative that these big language models will pull from it to formulate their responses.

How does GEO work?

Think of it this way: with SEO, you're competing to be at the top of a list. With GEO, you're competing to become the source of truth that an AI uses to create its answer. This requires a slightly different approach to your content.

Instead of just adding keywords wherever you can, you need to focus on:

Clarity and structure — AI models love well-organised content. Using clear headings, bullet points, and concise summaries makes it easy for the AI to understand your information and grab the key takeaways.

Fact-based authority — AI trusts and uses content that is accurate, well-researched, and demonstrates real expertise. For your business, this means creating content that is genuinely useful and backed by your knowledge and experience.

Comprehensive answers — AI tools aim to provide complete answers in one go. If your content provides a thorough, 360-degree answer to a question, it's far more likely to be used as a source.

Why you can't afford to ignore GEO

The good news is, you don’t have to choose between SEO and GEO. A strong SEO foundation is still absolutely essential for driving traffic from traditional searches. But by also optimising for AI, you're future-proofing your business’s online visibility.

By focusing on clear, high-quality, and authoritative content, you'll achieve two things at once: you’ll improve your traditional search rankings (search engines love quality content too) and you’ll make sure your brand is visible in the new world of AI-powered search.

This is particularly important if you’re just starting to adopt AI in your business. Because your audience is already using it. By making your website AI-ready, you're making sure your brand is front and centre when potential customers are looking for answers. It's all about building trust and establishing your brand as a go-to authority, not just for people, but for the machines they're increasingly relying on.

In a world where customers expect instant, accurate answers, being the source of those answers is a massive win for your brand and your audience reach. So, while SEO remains the bedrock of your online presence, it's time to start thinking about GEO as the essential next step in your digital marketing strategy.

How to fix your content to get ahead

Getting your content ready for AI-powered search isn't just a technical exercise; it's a copywriting one. It's about crafting words that are clear, trustworthy, and comprehensive. Words that answer a user's question and establish you as a genuine authority in your field. If all this sounds like another thing on your to-do list, don't worry.

As a senior B2B copywriter, I can craft GEO-optimised content that helps your business get found and cited by the very AI engines your audience is already using.

Let’s talk about how we can make your website AI-ready and give your content the authority it deserves.

B2B content needs a human heart, not a robot brain

The B2B world is deafening. Every brand is shouting, trying to get noticed by the same busy people. It's easy to think shouting louder is the answer; making more and more content, faster and faster.

That's where your freelance partners come in. Not just someone to fill a page. Someone who can find the "human truth" in your business. Not a product's features.

Tech B2B copy needs to be about how products make someone feel. And the fear buyers have of falling behind, their relief when a problem is finally solved, or the pride of a team that's crushing it because they have the right tools.

It's that real, simple emotion that connects one person to another, even when they're talking about something as straight as enterprise software.

A good freelance copywriter knows how to find that feeling. They've spent years learning to listen, asking the right questions, and turning jargon into a story people relate to. A dry topic with life breathed into it, is something people actually remember.

What about AI? It’s a huge deal. It can speed things up, help with research, and get first drafts down quickly. But it's a shiny wrapper that makes everything look neat. It’s a tool.

But the human truth? That emotional core? The spark of creativity that makes someone read something and think, "Yes, that's exactly me"? That comes from the life experiences of your creative partner; their ability to get what the audience is feeling and connect with them on a real level. AI can't do that. Not yet, anyway.

So, as you work with your freelance creative teams, think of AI as a sidekick, not the hero. It’s there to help get things done, but the real magic; the connection that makes your brand stand out in a crowded space? That's the job for the real people you trust to bring your ideas to life.

Finding the right answer doesn’t always mean taking the shortest route

Remember that moment on Countdown with the numbers game that flummoxed Carole? Sometimes, a contestant will take a convoluted mathematical journey, full of additions, subtractions, multiplications, and divisions that appear unnecessarily complex. You start thinking, "Where are they even going with this?" It looks like they're taking the longest route possible.

Yet, against all odds, they nail it and arrive at the target number.

Often, those more complex journeys lead to a really clever solution, something you wouldn't have thought of straight away.

That's how my brain works with a creative brief. You give me the goal and the message, and my first thoughts might not be the most obvious ones. I might explore a few different angles, play around with some less conventional ideas. It might look like I'm not going for the direct hit right away.

But honestly, there's a reason for it. Those little mental detours help me see things differently. They let me uncover ideas that are a bit more unexpected, a bit more… right for what clients and their customers actually need to achieve. It's about digging deeper than the surface level.

So, if it seems like I'm not jumping straight to the most obvious concept, it’s because I’m working through the numbers in my own way. I might take a slightly longer route, explore a few different combinations, but the final answer will be the one that hits the target perfectly.

You'll get a concept that works, even if the journey to get there wasn't the most straightforward one.

Trust that we'll land on something great, every time.

"Plot twist!" Redundancy, getting past it, and going again.

at the end of january, After serving almost four years at my last agency and delivering 80+ integrated campaign ideas, several hundred killer headlines, four copywriter hires, dozens of internal initiatives and delighting global marketing divisions of leading tech vendors, I found myself redundant. Shit. What now?

Well, there’s no time for feeling sorry for myself, or taking things personally. It is what it is, and that’s that.

My first act, (after screaming “Plot twist”) was to post on LinkedIn that, while redundancy sucks, I’m optimistic that it’s just a blip and actively seeking opportunities to support marketers, business owners, and contacts in the copy community.

Wow, what a response.

Several thousand views, dozens of kind messages and many many shares later, I’ve been contacted by recruiters asking for my CV, talent acquistion heads asking about my latest experience, agencies in need of freelance support to deliver campaign assets, and other copywriters looking to pass overflow work to me.

I hasn’t felt much like a blip, so far. And although the dream role with my name on it, is still out there, I’m in a pretty good place.

My Art Director partner, Nick Cremin, was let go on the same day, and we’re hoping our years of experience in delivering concept ideas, writing and designing campaign assets, managing and mentoring teams of creatives, and raising creative standards will lead to some offers in the near future.

Here’s a glimpse of our portfolio:

If you’re looking for a senior B2B team that puts creativity before churn, ideas before channels, and emotive storytelling before selling, we should talk.

People say the nicest things

Sometimes I ask myself what others think of me. Am I a good mentor? How well do I work, in a team? Are colleagues confident when I present creative work? Do I inspire other creatives around me? Fortunately, the people I get to work with, all help to build my skills and give me the chance to do the same for them.

Here are a few nice things people have said…

From the Cottage to the Garden

MOI, the B2B agency I work for, is all about championing the ‘different’ our people bring and how they use it to create change―for good―in B2B. In EMEA, as Associate Creative Director, my background is certainly different.

You see, B2B isn’t the only career I’ve had. I worked in clothing retail, in the West End of London, for a few years. Then I spent a couple of summers DJing in the mid-90s. And before becoming a copywriter in 2005, I sold computer hardware, software, and tech services.

All of which taught me a lot about selling, knowing my audience, understanding how tech makes people’s lives better, and presenting to clients. This unique combination of experiences has helped me succeed as a copywriter. And I share this ‘different’ with my Copy Team members and the wider Creative Department.

“I’ve been a salesman most of my working life. So, writing to sell comes naturally to me.” ​​​

Understanding my ‘why’ in life.

Going through the MOI insights training has given me a clearer understanding of my ‘why’. And my Insights profile shows me to be, by nature, a Supporter/Inspirer. That explains a lot. It’s exactly why I love working with teams and individuals and being a part of something bigger than just my role. I aim to be known as someone who supports and inspires colleagues and clients. ​​​​​​​

Being at MOI is quite a journey!

I was originally recruited as a senior copywriter to work with a colleague, who’d recently graduated from the MOI Academy and worked alongside several freelance copywriters. But as I was asked to build an internal copy team, as Head of Copy, I soon recruited three more writers. Fast forward nine months, and I’m now Associate Creative Director, working closely with our Creative Director, Head of Design, and Senior Art Director, on campaign concepts and activations,

MOI ’s Copy Team members are all great copywriters; and between them, they produce every type of campaign asset you can think of: emails, video scripts, eBooks, campaign landing pages, solutions websites, insights papers, and how-to guides, and across all social platforms, and types of events.

​​​​​​​I’m particularly proud of how they’ve all developed over the past couple of years. I meet with the team every morning, in a virtual huddle, to make sure everyone has what they need for the day. I hold 1-2-1s every week to make sure they’re on top of their work streams, to keep an eye on their wellbeing, and to find out how I can help them stay on track with their KPIs and hit their goals.

We also hold a monthly team meeting, where we all get the chance to ‘grade’ the last month in terms of fulfilment, satisfaction, enjoyment and so on. ​​​​​​​

​​​​​​​We all share our favourite piece of work from the previous month and talk about what went into producing it. And we take it in turns to set a monthly writing challenge for the whole team, which is designed to stretch our creative thinking—it’s great fun but with a serious idea behind it.

I believe that in B2B, every client has a story to tell. That’s why understanding a brand’s tone of voice and developing a messaging framework is so important. It’s like building out characters in a book or play and deciding how they sound.

MOI uses storytelling to engage B2B buyers and draw them into campaign content on an emotional level, using empathy, and sometimes humour. Then it’s about convincing them to part with their budgets, on a rational level, using logic. And we bring these two elements together in all our copy.

It's not all work, work, work.

I’m lucky to have a large garden and I love spending time on my flowers, shrubs, trees, and an adopted family of foxes. I grow fruit and veg too, and that takes a lot of care. And of course, there’s football.

“I’m a season ticket holder at Fulham and love meeting up with family and friends at Craven Cottage, my spiritual home, to support the team. Come on you whites!”

Think before you speak: your content strategy matters.

In today’s ultra-competitive business world, content is everywhere we look.

So, to make stronger connections with their target audience, brands must have a clearly defined content strategy.

Because audiences look for content to help make a purchase decision, or passively consume it as entertainment it’s necessary for brands to know what to say, who to say it to, when and how.

So, how should a content strategy look? Here are a few steps to consider.

Set your goals, your purpose and your outcomes.

You need to know your audience. Ask yourself: who are you trying to reach? What do you want them to know, think or feel? What do they need? How and where do they consume media?

You also need to decide what success will look like for any content-driven campaign. Ask yourself: what financial returns do you expect on your investment? Or what net promoter scores do you want?

Define your tone of voice.

You need to decide how your brand speaks to different audiences, and how it behaves across different channels. When defining your tone of voice (TOV), you should focus on the characteristics of your brand; how you explain the value of your products and services, and how you engage with real consumers.

If you’re unsure how to define your brand’s TOV, try using Voicebox, it’s a super simple method that will help nail your tone.

Be consistent.

To make sure your message resonates with every audience across every channel, you need to be a consistent through every asset. This helps keep your content aligned to your brand, product, or service.

Evaluate everything.

You need a set of principles that help make sure all your content aligns to your brand and continues to put out the right messages. Evaluating your content means you can adapt it if you need to, helping manage your reputation and protect your brand identity.

Build content pillars.

These support your strategy across multiple channels, such as eBooks, blog posts, infographics, videos, emails, social media posts, and more. And let you cover all your content bases, delivering the right message to the right audience, at the right time.

Set your schedule.

Releasing your content at the right time will give you the best results. So, you need to create a calendar for publishing each of your pillars. This prevents over-delivery of content into each channel.

What it means to you.

It’s all about creating meaningful, manageable and sustainable content that reaches your audience, attracts more target customers and builds trust in your brand. It’s no surprise that developing an effective strategy has become a top priority for marketing teams and the agencies they partner with.

Got a question or suggestion for other points a content strategy should include?

Share with your comment - I’d like to hear what you think.