This is a guest post from Mitt Ray of The White Paper Blog.

When you write white papers, website copy, brochures or any other marketing material for the B2B market you need to keep certain factors in mind.

Writing for the B2B market has many similarities with writing for the B2C market. But there are certain factors you always need to keep in mind.

Some of these factors are:-

1. Always address the reader as you: Many people make the mistake of addressing the company as a whole or addressing them as many people. This is not how it should be written as your copy is normally read by one person at a time.

These people are normally sitting alone in their office or cubicle and reading it to themselves. So always address them as a single person using “you”. This will make them feel a special personal connection with your copy.

2. Write using the simplest words: It is important that you write using the simplest words. I have seen writers use complicated terms sometimes to make their copy sound more sophisticated. This is because many people think that using complicated material will make the company look sophisticated. But using these sophisticated words could actually work against you.

When you write for the B2B market you are usually writing for busy people. These people don’t have the time to read a document that is full of words that are hard to understand, as this will take up a lot of their time.  They want to read something that is easy to read, something they can finish quickly and get back to work. If they find it hard to read, they will just give up reading it and read something else, that is easy to read.

Therefore it is important that you keep everything in the copy as simple as possible, so that your client can finish reading the document quickly. Keeping it simple improves the chance of it being read completely.

3. Mention all the benefits businesses look for: One person or a group of individuals will be making the decision whether to use your service/product or not. What you need to keep in mind is that they are not making a personal decision, but they are making a decision for the entire company.

They’re looking for ways to save the company money, time, improve profits, reduce staff etc. So make sure that you work on these benefits and include them in your copy.

You also need to keep in mind that though they are making a decision for the entire company and are mainly looking at the welfare of the company. There will be certain personal benefits and emotions that will be involved in their decision.

If they make the right decision, their chances of getting a promotion or a raise go up and if they make a wrong decision it could cost the company’s future and their job. You need to keep these factors in mind too.

So whenever you write white papers, brochures, emails, or any other marketing materials for the B2B market always keep these factors in mind, as it will help you write a copy that works.

Mitt Ray is a copywriter. He specializes in writing and marketing white papers. He regularly posts articles on writing and marketing white papers on his blog at http://www.imittcopy.com/Thewhitepaperblog/what-is-a-white-paper/. He’s also the author of ”Understand and Write White Papers” which is a white paper on how to write white papers.