How can you make your B2B marketing storytelling more urgent?

Use time-sensitive language! Incorporate words and phrases that convey a sense of immediacy. Phrases like "limited time offer," "act now," and "don't miss out" can create a sense of urgency and encourage prospects to take action immediately. Additionally, try and create a sense of scarcity - emphasize that your product or service is in high demand and only available in limited quantities. This scarcity mindset triggers a fear of missing out and compels prospects to take immediate action.

Having a clear understanding of why your customer (not your organization) needs to act now is important. Once this has been defined (i.e. shortage, excess, product change, etc.), then your marketing team can shape the offer to align with how the customer will benefit from it if they act "now".

The best messaging focuses and understands who is in the audience. It shows and highlights where they are today and their current pain points. What are the pitfalls, issues, things, etc. that can go wrong with how you are solving it today. Highlight the risks and explain why the status quo and current solution isn't optimal. (I personally like to show time lost which leads to revenue lost.) Contrast that with a better approach. That's the urgency you need.

B2B buyers are too smart to buy into overt attempts to push them to act. In many cases, trying to create a false sense urgency will destroy your credibility. It's not unlike the urban legend about the frog in the water. You need to turn up the heat slowly. The best way to build the sense of urgency is to highlight the severity of the problem being solved. If your solution can solve a problem that costs the average customer $5000 a month then weave the cumulative impact of that problem into your story. Make it so that the audience sees the problem, the solution, and the ongoing impact through the eyes of a customer via testimonials or use cases. The words of their peers will resonate much more than someone trying to force their hand.

I always like the idea of framing the story with the jeopardy of 'inaction'. If a buyer has emotionally connected to what you're talking about, it's also important to try and show them what's at stake if they don't act quickly.

Calls to action are pointless if don't start with a compelling hook! Grab your audience's attention right from the start with a strong opening that highlights the problem or opportunity at hand. Use vivid language and statistics to create a sense of urgency, making it clear why your product or service is essential for their success.

Pro tip: Every story needs a 'next step'. ??? I once saw a 50% increase in leads just by changing our CTA from "Learn more" to "Get your free trial worth $99". The clearer and more direct your CTA, the better the results. Ensure your CTA is clear, direct, and compelling. It should guide your audience on what to do next.

Make sure your CTA is coherent with the initial narrative you are building up. A CTA that seems out of context might be discouraging for your audience. You built a great landing page with all the market insights, and your CTA asks to book a demo - that might be too far -fetched and demanding to ask your recipients. In addition, make sure your next steps are aligned with your proposition. It creates a drop in excitement if your recipients visit a highly-polished content piece to get a crappy email follow-up upon form submission.

Align your CTA with the natural buyer journey and use it to accelerate them to the next stage of their decision-making process. Trying to prompt someone to book a call with your Sales team when all they've done is read a bit of top of funnel content isn't likely to be effective. Instead, offering them an ungated piece of content, or another resource that builds on the story you're telling, will help to keep them engaged and more likely to continue in their natural buyer journey.

Conversion copywriting technique to make your call to action more compelling: –?Make it personal, use the prospects' name (if via EDM) or phrases like 'Claim your free trial' – Employ the negative, e.g. 'Don't delay', 'You don't want to miss this' – Present the benefit, e.g. 'Get your time back now' –?Exclusivity, e.g. 'Exclusive access ends soon'.

Storytelling is story selling. Mastering the language of emotion is key to this. A good B2B story should make you smile, think, surprise you and ultimately make you care enough to act. Nailing more than two off these means you're onto something. Nail 4 and you're a genius :-)

While this is B2B, remember that we are selling to people, not faceless corporations. Stop leading with all the technical solutions and amazing product details and focus on communicating a story that makes your audience FEEL something. Tell them a story that makes them have FOMO by showcasing how other people are successfully using your product. Make them feel excited about how your product can solve their exact need. Don't be afraid to tap into nostalgia! It's a great way to illicit emotions and feelings. Nostalgia is such a strong feeling. Plus, nostalgia can help you tell a story that resonates on a personal level to your audience.

Let’s face it, unless you’re a business owner, in top management or in a specific role, most employees will not people will not spend a lot of time on a company’s viability. Most employees just want to get their work done and get paid. So we need to look at how we can help them with what they want to achieve - work efficiencies and earning. It will be much easier if we can tell prospects compelling stories about how we can help them on get work done faster and with less effort, and/or help them achieve their targets for better performance bonuses.

You can absolutely tap into emotions when storytelling or marketing in general, but eliciting FOMO is just bad practice, and there is no place for that in B2B marketing. Or even urgency as a whole: we are supposedly grownups selling to grownups, and not playing a game in the playground: the role of marketing to be there when people are in a position to want to learn more, to make decisions, and to purchase. Fake scarcity and time-limited offers are rarely a thing, and if it's something real like a limited number of seats in a physical venue then there are still better ways to market and sell this than FOMO.

A good story can touch hearts. ?? Remember that B2B doesn't mean emotion-free. We shared a customer success story that resonated emotionally, resulting in a huge uptick in inquiries. It’s about connecting on a human level. Use emotional storytelling to make your brand more relatable and memorable.

Nothing beats social proof now-a-days. Dark social is alive and thriving, people share and spend a ton of their time on social media. A recent stat from Worldwide Business Research stated that 84% of CEOs and VPs utilize social media for purchasing decisions. So make sure to optimize and post on social regularly, and make it content that provides value and resonates. Not canned AI generated stuff everyone is doing.

This to me is one of the most underestimated success factors when it comes to marketing and communication. Creating trust by injecting social proof is a game-changer. Every message or copy can be proofread and reviewed, but an actual person sharing their honest words about what you achieved with them does create something tangible and relatable for your audience. There are multiple ways to make use of social proof: you can show logos of your customers, add quotes, embed a review of your service, or simply state how many customers are already improving their business thanks to you!

Combine qualitative and quantitative insights here for maximum effect, e.g. "X% of [insert audience] feel that [product] enables them to [value prop] - including [insert customer], here's what they had to say about [insert product]: [insert testimonial]"

Ever noticed how reviews sway your decisions? ?? When we showcased testimonials in our marketing, trust in our product skyrocketed. People relate to and trust the experiences of others. Use customer testimonials and case studies to build credibility and trust.

Leverage in-house talent for B2B storytelling is key. Employees, deeply connected to our culture and products, create authentic content that resonates more than external sources. It's not just about formal 'creator' roles; everyone from engineers to sales can contribute their unique insights. Providing the right tools and channels, like blogs or podcasts, empowers them to share their passion. I strongly believe that this approach saves costs and builds a sense of pride and ownership, making our brand storytelling more impactful and genuine.

One of the best ways to make things urgent and personal is to highlight the consequences of inaction! Show your audience the negative outcomes they may face personally if they don't take action. Paint a vivid picture of the risks and missed opportunities.

Whereas case studies can be great on paper, they can lack ways to let the recipient project themselves into the stated story. That's why it's so important to add individuals to your stories. It's not about that customer who is not creating more business - it's the tell of someone who was unsatisfied with the status quo and took on the challenge to make a drastic change in the professional environment he was working in for the better. Once you link the case study to an individual at that customer, it lets readers envision themselves as those heroes. And who does not want to be the hero at work?

Personalized content can increase sales opportunities by 20%. ?? I once personalized an email campaign with the recipient's industry data in the subject line, and the open rate soared. Personalization shows you understand and care about their specific needs. Personalize your content to show understanding and care for your audience’s unique challenges.

Humanize your content. Too often folks forget that B2B marketing is still marketing to PEOPLE. Often I see B2B content overly focused on rational and logical pain points, which is great, but don't forget to take into account that behind those pain points are people - who have real challenges and frustrations. Focus your content on how you're improving people's lives with your product and service and you will win every time.

Here are a few more to consider to create urgency in your B2B marketing narrative: Highlight Pain Points: Address pressing issues and demonstrate quick solutions. Limited-Time Offers: Use discounts or exclusive deals to encourage immediate action. Real-Time Updates: Share industry/product news to drive swift engagement. Data and Statistics: Illustrate the costs of inaction with compelling data. FOMO: Convey exclusivity and potential missed opportunities. Challenge Assumptions: Present a new perspective demanding prompt consideration. Live Webinars/Events: Host urgent, insight-packed sessions. Time-Bound Content: Engage with time-sensitive series. Visual Signals: Countdowns and deadlines add urgency to launches and promotions.

Leverage user-generated content: Incentivise reviews and posts from the audience. This will add more storytelling power to your brand. Besides, it will create a FOMO effect

Only create FOMO and urgency when there is an actual reason Use personal stories and authentic content to link it to actual deadlines Yes, human psychology works in marketing but you don’t need to trick your audience into artificial urgencies - sooner or later it will stop working Pick a reason to tell a story and explain why there is urgency Is this the end of the year? Are you going on holiday? Will you start a different project soon? The best way to tell successful stories is to be clear and upfront with your audience

B2B is very short attention spans, limited engagement by buyers, multiple buying centers and many influences to the final purchase decision. I have used these following 3 stages to communicate and also create the required urgency in each stage with a CTA. ?? Use the first stage as an informational tool to create awareness. The CTAs: ‘read now’ ‘know more’ or an urgent one like ‘find out now’ ??The second stage is to make them think more about your product or service. This is where you can play the benefits and use CTAs like ‘gain advantage by’ ‘benefit from this’ or ‘see what you are missing’ ? The final stage is decision making. ‘buy now’ ‘book a demo’ ‘reserve your seat now’ Each above can be separate snippets or one story.