A Business to Business (B2B) writer creates content such as articles, web content, white papers, and emails for businesses that sell to other businesses. 

This is the opposite of a Business to Consumer (B2C) writer, who creates content for businesses that sell directly to consumers. For B2C writers, the content will focus on helping the business’s customers, and these businesses often have a product or service they want to promote to consumers. 

What you write will depend on the industry and their content strategy, so B2B marketing writers might write about the latest marketing trends, whereas other B2B copywriters might write high-quality product sales copy or landing pages. 

However, when it comes to B2B writing, the content will focus on how to help and promote products to other businesses. 

For example, writing articles for small businesses looking to find the best accounting software or writing which educates businesses on the latest SEO advice. Most B2B writers work on a freelance basis, taking on individual projects or gigs from B2B clients as and when, whereas others will work with specific B2B companies or industries such as healthcare.

According to the National Careers Service, B2B Writers can earn between £20,000 and £80,000 per year, depending on experience and industry.

There are no set qualifications needed to become a B2B writer, and every B2B writer will have their own career journey. However, some qualifications can significantly increase your chances of getting employment, particularly if you have little published writing experience under your belt.

Bachelor’s degrees in subjects such as English Literature, English Language, Marketing, Journalism, and Business are highly useful in this career and will open up many employment opportunities as a B2B writer. 

Postgraduate degrees such as a Master’s degree are not essential for most B2B writing roles but are highly valued, particularly if it is relevant to writing or to that particular business niche. 

Other qualifications or experience, for example, in SEO, will help you gain a B2B writing role, and you can take affordable, flexible online SEO courses to develop these skills. There are also online Digital Marketing courses that will help you develop useful skills in sales writing, writing for target audiences, and understanding marketing strategies. 

For some B2B roles, knowledge of the industry is essential, such as Law B2B roles or medical writing. However, for many B2B copywriting roles, a good writing portfolio of published or unpublished work is the main way that candidates are chosen for the role, as well as having some knowledge of what B2B content marketing entails.

There are several skills needed to become a B2B writer, and the more practice you have writing different types of content on a variety of topics, the more developed these skills will be. Some of the key skills for B2B writing include:

Work experience is valuable when applying for any job role, but if you do not have work experience as a B2B writer, that doesn’t mean you cannot become one. 

Creating a writing portfolio is a great way to demonstrate your writing ability as well as your research skills, and writing articles for websites and blogs can help develop your professional writing abilities. 

If you have experience as a content writer, in B2C writing, or working in marketing, business, journalism, or sales, then this will be highly valuable to employers. 

Some employers require experience working in business or experience working in SEO. Another route is to become a copywriter first, creating B2C content, and when you build up a portfolio of work, you will be more likely to get a job as a B2B copywriter. 

When working in content writing, you can take on freelance writing work online for different businesses and build up a portfolio of writing for different audiences. As a freelance writer, you will also be able to demonstrate your ability to work remotely and develop your writing skills which will be directly applicable to the b2b content you create.

If you are writing for an area of business such as Law or a particular industry, then experience working in that industry is often also required. Generally, the qualifications required will depend on the type of writing jobs you are applying for and what B2B audiences your clients cater to.

As a B2B writer, you will have developed some essential skills which carry over to other areas of writing, business, and marketing. 

You can become a digital marketer and create online marketing strategies, particularly if you take an additional digital marketing diploma or social media marketing courses. 

Develop your career as a marketing manager, move into social media marketing or use your SEO skills to become an SEO manager and oversee content, adapting SEO strategy to reflect the current SEO trends. Marketing is a huge career area, and there are, therefore, several career prospects for a successful B2B writer.