Marketing to another business presents a unique set of challenges. While your ultimate goal is for the company to purchase your products or services, you first need to connect with the person in charge of making decisions.
Companies—just like consumers—want to do business with someone they trust. They want to know who the business is and what they value, not just what products or services they can provide. Through humanizing your B2B messaging, you can promote strong relationships, develop confidence in your brand, and create loyal customers who keep returning for more.
In this article, we’ll take a look at three ways you can humanize the messaging behind your B2B digital marketing strategy—without compromising your professionalism.
Professionalism is an important part of any B2B company’s image. When you’re working with another business, you want to be viewed as a leader in your industry. In order to maintain authority, many B2B marketers try to avoid common B2C marketing tactics.
However, while it may be a business-to-business transaction you’re after, the person in charge of making decisions is ultimately a consumer. For this reason, you can’t eliminate all B2C marketing tactics from your strategy. You still need to be able to connect and build trust with the purchaser. This can be extremely difficult to do if you’re ignoring the personal side of a business transaction.
Using humanized messaging enables you to address the needs, emotions, and problems of the decision-maker. By putting a spin on classic B2C marketing strategies, you can tackle both the personal and professional aspects of doing business with another company.
We’re about to reveal three ways you can use humanized messaging to create a deeper connection with your target audience, while maintaining your professional image.
1. Show Some Personality
In between it’s more serious content, Buffer adds the odd funny GIF to its Twitter feed to keep things lighthearted and inject some humor:
Businesses typically deal with many different vendors or providers during their day-to-day operations. If you’re not allowing your brand’s personality to shine through your B2B marketing messaging, you will have a more difficult time connecting with your audience. Moreover, when your competitors are making lasting impressions, you’ll be ignored or forgotten.
Develop a professional personality that accurately reflects your brand, your company, and what you can provide. Make sure your personality is conveyed through every marketing message you send out—no matter how small.
This Facebook ad speaks directly to a problem most people, not least businesses, deal with every day—organization:
When marketing to another business, you want to show how you can help the company as a whole. But in order to grab the attention of the decision-maker, you need to consider the specific ways your product or service can help that individual do their job.
While the person you’re interacting with wants to see the entire company succeed, they also want to know how their day-to-day will be affected. If you can provide a solution to a problem the individual is struggling to overcome, they’ll be more likely to give your product or service a chance.
Throughout your marketing messaging, address the ways your product or service can make the decision-maker’s life easier. Once you’ve outlined the ways your company can save the individual time or resources, transition into the benefits you can deliver to their entire team.
Deloitte uses its employee stories to help humanize the brand:
Storytelling has been a major staple of B2C marketing for a very long time, but traditional consumers aren’t the only ones who love a good story. Strategically telling stories can also be a great way to attract B2B customers, get them interested in your content, and ensure they remember the information.
When selling a B2B product or service, you typically need to share more data, case studies, and “boring” details than you would when selling a traditional consumer item. Storytelling is a way to bring that information to life, making the reader 22 times more likely to remember the content.
To hook your audience, describe a case study as if it’s a story. Sprinkle additional resources, data, and links throughout the content, encouraging the reader to do more research if necessary. Once they are interested in your message and invested in the story, you can provide them with the additional details they need to make a purchase.
This marketing message is transformed by including a real person’s sign-off and image:
Most buyers are hesitant to purchase from companies they’re unfamiliar with. Even in B2B marketing, purchasers like to know exactly who they’re buying from. If you’re sending messages from a nameless or faceless source, your buyer may struggle to trust you and your company, making it even harder to secure a purchase.
However, when your messages come from an actual employee of the company, they seem more personal (and less likely to be spam). Simply adding an employee’s name, title, and headshot to the bottom of a blog post, email blast, or other marketing material can do the trick.
To make your message even more trustworthy and professional, use a credible team member’s signature, such as the Director of Marketing or even the CEO. Include a proper headshot rather than a candid snap to maintain a professional image.
It’s easy to forget about the person on the receiving end of your B2B marketing. While closing sales may be the end goal, your strategy needs to consider the emotions, desires, and attitudes of the decision-maker. This is where your humanized B2B marketing can make all the difference.
Let’s recap the four ways you can humanize your messaging:
Do you have any additional tips for humanizing your B2B marketing messaging? Let us know in the comments section below!
Image Source: Pexels