Emotion is not only for B2C marketing. It can also be a powerful way to differentiate your B2B brand and connect with your audience on a deeper level. In this article, you will learn how to use emotion to create a compelling B2B marketing strategy that stands out from the competition.
You might think that B2B buyers are rational and logical, and that they base their decisions on facts and figures. But research shows that emotion plays a significant role in B2B purchasing, especially when the stakes are high, the choices are complex, and the risks are uncertain. Emotion can influence how B2B buyers perceive your brand, trust your solution, and feel about your relationship.
When the purpose of any communication is to build a connect to drive awareness, consideration or even action, Emotion is one of the most powerful tools at hand. No decision making process is ever purely a rational decision. At the end of the day, the persona is just another consumer who needs to build a preference for your brand. Emotion becomes a very effective vehicle to build that relationship and drive that preference
I believe that making your B2B brand more emotional involves focusing on building real, caring relationships with your clients. Instead of just thinking about business transactions, consider how your brand can genuinely help and connect with the people you work with. When you show that you understand and care about their challenges, you create a strong, lasting impression. In the B2B world, the people making decisions are still people, and they appreciate working with brands that genuinely care about their success. Adding emotion to your brand not only makes you stand out but also builds trust and loyalty. This can lead to long-term partnerships and growth.
Today more than 50-70% of the information that a buyer needs is available online and what forms the bulk of rational requirements. However , if we can engage them emotionally by working on their convenience/ emotion it can make a huge difference on how the product/ service is accepted . Imagine you are selling a software though online channel at 10% discount with an easy EMI payment policy & Selling the same software on another channel with 5% discount and same EMI payment policy but with easy installation included . Now in the 2nd instance the selling price is a bit higher compared to the first but lets you segment the customer based on “discount seeking “ or “discount + convenience seeking” by focusing on emotional appeal .
Emotions pay a great deal more in B2B marketing & its exhibited over decades of examples - 1. Most B2B marketing involves knowing the person on the other side of table, and 2. Crafting your conversations around his/her interests. A great deal more on favourite team, sports or music band, and 3. Inviting him to events aligned to interests - games, author meetups and, 4. then delivering your rational message of how you can alleviate his/her pain in business. Who said B2B marketing was never emotional?
Don't be boring. If a box manufacturer can make themselves interesting, you can, too. Forget about personas. Forget about job titles. Write to one person. Something that'd make your favorite customer laugh.
To use emotion effectively in your B2B marketing, you need to understand the emotional drivers of your target audience. What are their pain points, goals, motivations, and fears? What are the emotional benefits and outcomes that they seek from your solution? How do they want to feel when they interact with your brand? You can use qualitative and quantitative research methods, such as interviews, surveys, personas, and customer journeys, to uncover these insights.
One of the prerequisites of B2B sales is to establish some sort of connect with the customer or the key decision maker, that connect can be superficial like place of origin or common friend or somewhat deeper like shared beliefs, but once that connect is established the sales process becomes much easier. Business like all other decision-making process is never 100% rational and human emotions play a great role in that transaction, but these are not strong emotions but connectedness at some level.
Talk to them. Empathize with them. Don't force it. Just put yourself in their shoes. Examples: - Parents of an at-risk young adult? Fear, shame, guilt, anger, overwhelmed - Owner of a small marketing agency? Busy, optimistic, savvy, unfocused, anxious - Top sales rep at a SaaS? Proud, comfortable, confident, nervous under the surface, skeptical Character and emotion are inextricably tied. Place your message on the line that connects them.
Once you know the emotional drivers of your audience, you can craft a unique emotional value proposition for your B2B brand. This is a statement that summarizes how your solution helps your audience achieve their desired emotional state, and how it differs from your competitors. For example, instead of saying that you offer a cloud-based software platform, you could say that you help your customers feel confident, secure, and productive in their work.
One of the best ways to convey your emotional value proposition is to tell stories that resonate with your B2B audience. Stories can capture attention, engage emotions, and inspire action. You can use stories to showcase your brand personality, values, and purpose, to demonstrate your customer success stories and testimonials, and to illustrate your thought leadership and expertise. You can use different formats and channels, such as blogs, videos, podcasts, webinars, and social media, to tell your stories.
Storytelling is a cornerstone of emotional marketing. It's the most primal and effective tool we have as marketers. Stories have the power to transport your customers to different worlds, introduce them to relatable characters, and evoke a wide range of emotions. By crafting compelling narratives that align with the values and aspirations of your target audience, you can create a lasting impression and establish a deeper relationship with your customers. The best way to tell the stories is to make sure you have a hero (that's your customer, not you) and a guide (That IS you), a conflict to overcome, and a relatable ending (and it doesn't always have to be happy). It's a loose framework, but that's the point. Make it your own.
To evaluate the effectiveness of your emotional B2B marketing strategy, you need to measure the impact of emotion on your key performance indicators. You can use both qualitative and quantitative metrics, such as brand awareness, preference, loyalty, satisfaction, advocacy, retention, and revenue. You can also use tools and methods, such as sentiment analysis, feedback surveys, net promoter score, and customer lifetime value, to track and analyze the emotional responses and behaviors of your audience.
Emotional B2B marketing is not a one-time event, but a continuous process of learning and improvement. You need to constantly monitor and optimize your emotional B2B marketing strategy based on the feedback and data that you collect. You need to test and experiment with different emotional messages, stories, and tactics, and see what works best for your audience and your goals. You also need to stay updated and relevant with the changing needs and expectations of your audience and the market.
Something to consider for executing with emotional marketing. It isn't necessarily something that is super intuitive for your marketing or sales staff, so... Embrace Emotional Intelligence in Sales Interactions: Equip your sales team with emotional intelligence training to foster stronger connections with B2B buyers. Help them develop the ability to read emotional cues, empathize with customer needs, and build rapport through authentic interactions. Emotional intelligence can be a powerful differentiator in closing deals and building long-lasting customer relationships.