5 Strategic Approaches For B2B Marketers

I have worked on a few B2B and B2B2C brands but have recently been wondering why B2B is seen by some as the more restricted/less fun side for brand building? I actually think, there may be even MORE opportunities on the B2B side to build a disruptive brand since I presume many B2B companies and marketers buy into this same fallacy of B2B being predictable and functional.?

Yes, of course there are critical differences when it comes to B2B, like appealing to multiple stakeholders who are ROI-focused. However, the underlying job of B2B marketing is understanding people and their needs and conveying that your brand and your product are uniquely suited to meet those needs.

It doesn’t matter that the people you are marketing to are professionals; they still live in the same world as us and choose their cars, clothes, and coffee based on a brand’s ability to appeal to them. Maybe P2P (people to people) marketing should be a thing to reinforce that point.?

Here are 5 strategic approaches that B2B marketers can borrow from the tried and true B2C playbook to differentiate their brands:

1. Use Smarts to Supercharge Your Selling Story?

B2B clients are no strangers to performance data and analytics, but intelligence can offer an insight advantage for B2B brand building. Getting smart on your prospective client’s company, industry, competition, products, and users, and then tailoring your strategy (channels, messaging, tactics) will allow your brand to appear deeply and surprisingly relevant for your targeted buyers/decision makers.?

Be the B2B brand at the front door with the most tailored pitch that invites them in.?

2. Tap into 2x the Emotion.

People are more irrational than rational (even professionals), and B2B brands potentially have a bigger pool of emotions to play with (vs. B2C) that they shouldn’t overlook. Don’t just know the business of your prospective clients, but first, understand and map out the emotional drivers of those B2B clients and then dig into the emotional drivers of the their end consumers. That gives you two Olympic-sized pools of motivating emotions to weave a connected story across two groups who are co-dependant.

Be the B2B brand that bypasses rational appeals and taps into rich emotions. Emotion is a potent driver of attention, associations and ultimately preference/ choice.

3. Promise 3x the Benefits.?

When talking to rational decision-makers, every detail of your service, down to the specs, will give you the edge. Of course, you should plan to highlight your products’ shiny bells and whistles (feature benefits) and should deepen your benefit story? to more strongly motivate consumers. Go beyond just talking about the service in action and showcase the problem it solves (functional benefits). And then go beyond that and preferably speak to the underlying emotional needs your product satisfies in the buyer and users’ lives (emotional benefit)

Be the innovative B2B brand that avoids a feature vs. feature battle with competition and has a more compelling value offering by clearly communicating the features and functional and emotional benefits.?

4. Work your Online Eyes and Ears?

Having a robust online presence and content in 2024 is table stakes. Still, how you set up and put your online ecosystem to work on your behalf can impact your leads and conversion. Optimize your footprint and implement tools that allow you to have a view across things like brand sentiment, social and site analytic. You can get a window into your competition activities and engagement, as well as the trends, topics, and conversations that are related to your clients.

Be the brand that is automatically set up to show up at the right time with the right message and be more innovative than anyone in the room. ?

5. Provide a Perspective on their Profession?

B2B clients are not just buying your product; they are buying your expertise. So find ways to be seen as more credible and dynamic in your industry than competitors by publishing thought leadership content like videos and newsletters. If you’re a people person, get out there and create and contribute to relevant events and partnering with relevant creators and micro-influencers. Try building communities or user groups around specific interest areas.?

Be the B2B brand that goes beyond the push of static and predictable pitches to a more dynamic pull strategy that is driven by topical and timely campaigns, being active on social media and taking a front seat when it comes to representing a perspective on industry trends.

Many examples of distinct B2B brands have emerged by adopting the above approaches, from Salesforce, Slack, and Mailchimp to Figma, Notion, and Shopify. So, you may not be the first. However, you likely are among the few in your specific domain adopting these approaches. ?

Every marketer dreams of a clear category runway and white space to build a brand in no matter if its B2B, B2C (or P2P). Happy Hunting!