By Charu Gupta
Marketing is a process that involves both creativity and empathy. Let’s use empathy as the operative word and then explore how business-to-business (B2B) differs from business-to-consumer (B2C). Or is it at all different? The fundamentals of marketing apply whether you’re selling to businesses or consumers. After all, you are selling to a human, no matter the industry. Here’s where empathy comes in.
B2B marketing is notoriously known to be mundane and tedious. So, if you’re wondering whether B2B marketing can be enjoyable, hopefully, this article will change your mind.
Here are a few things you can focus on to make your marketing campaigns anything but boring.
- Focus on feelings, not just numbers.
As a business, getting caught up in product specifications is easy. But let’s not forget that users are humans, and humans have feelings. When coming up with ideas, one must take a step back, identify relevant insights, and market around the emotions such insights may elicit. Consider how users will feel after consuming your content. Humour, quirkiness, delight, suspense, or frustration are all possibilities.
For example, a leading B2B SaaS company focused on the problem of emails getting lost in long threads of CC’s or BCC’s, leading to a lot of frustration. So, the company designed its marketing campaign with a humorous spin by involving a detective. Additionally, the company created eight short lead-gen videos by focusing on specific problems and how it solves them while maintaining the overall theme.
- Focus on your superpower.
What’s a superpower, you ask? Your superpower is your in-house talent. You’re surrounded by employees who have a diverse array of capabilities and interests. So, why not find that talent and turn that into your marketing superpower?
For example, a B2B SaaS company brought its in-house talent together to create music with lyrics about the company. This was a unique and refreshing spin on B2B marketing. When you have fun creating a piece of content, your audience will be able to see that! It was simple, low effort, low cost, and a lot of fun! So many benefits in one? That’s the beauty of bringing passion and marketing together. You can listen to the song here.
- Be authentic.
It’s a cliche because it’s true. And it’s effective when you live by it and implement it. B2B companies should focus on delivering consistent messaging. They can achieve this through performing a brand exercise every few months with the CEO/Founder to uncover the company’s core values (e.g. simplicity, honesty, humour) and incorporate those aspects in each campaign.
The first step is to identify what you stand for. While most companies will have these values figured out right at the beginning, it’s essential to revisit your values from time to time. Your brand’s values and culture should be reflected in your product and marketing efforts.
Here’s why such conversations matter. The company values are a natural extension of the founders and their beliefs. Of course, it evolves, but it stems from there. So if you want to save money and also be great at what you market, do this exercise and figure out your brand personality in-house. Once you have that, you just need to let it reflect in your campaigns. The What, How, and Why exercise based on Simon Sinek’s “Golden Circle.” is great for this. It’s worth a read for every advertiser and marketer.
Conventionally speaking, B2C marketing is seen as more messaging-focused while B2B initiatives follow a positioning approach. Adopting a consumer-centric messaging approach to branding enables you to pursue marketing initiatives that appeal to human emotions, thereby capturing the mindshare of key stakeholders.
In the end, I’ll leave you with one thought- keep it simple. Simplicity is highly underrated, but it is one of the most effective virtues. In today’s era of excessive information and very little time, simplicity will make you stand out and break through the clutter.
B2B marketing can be equally engaging as B2C if you follow these simple steps.
The author is the director, brand and content marketing, of Hiver
Also Read: D2C and social commerce: Can this fusion prove to be the next stage of growth for D2C companies?