You have a business that sells to other businesses, so you plan to keep your marketing business-like. You don’t want to annoy your target audience of business people with fluffy marketing, right?
You have a great product or service. You actually have a marketing budget. You’ve redone your website and analysis shows your brand is recognized and remembered.
Why isn’t your marketing working? It’s because you are failing to engage buyers who are human. Yes they are business people. Yes they may have experienced a conservative buying experience in their B2B career.
But your buyers are first and foremost human, and the way they buy consumer products has changed. Buyers have developed different expectations as consumers. They consult their peers and look at others’ reviews before they buy. They also buy because they feel good about the company that manufactures or supplies a product or service.
How much does your marketing appeal to your audience’s emotions? In solving a business problem with your product or service, are you also solving some human problems? Are you providing more free time for family, hobbies, healthy exercise and/or relaxation? Does your brand make your customers feel good and what to associate with your company?
It’s time to bring out some of the human qualities and benefits of your brand, product and/or service.
Here’s how:
- By telling stories about how your product has not only helped your customer’s businesses but also their personal lives.
- By telling the world how your company gives back through charitable donations or volunteerism.
- By telling the world what values your company stands for.
You can tell these stories on your website and in your sales presentations, and then you can also amplify them on social media platforms by sharing links on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and more.
People buy based on their emotions. They want stories. They want meaning. B2B marketers need to deliver a great product and/or service, but also emotional, compelling stories that mean something in their marketing.
Do you want to engage better with your audience? Contact New Incite today. We offer planning, analysis and marketing implementation to increase marketing results and business revenues for our clients.
Photo from Flickr by Poetic174. Some Rights Reserved.
