“Is B2B marketing Born to be Boring???

My fellow B2B marketers,

This edition touches on a topic close to all our hearts: "Is B2B marketing born to be boring?"

Having been a B2B marketing professional for over 23 years, I have lived with this question and experienced its implications firsthand.

While we all agree that the B2C industry has always been at the forefront of bold, creative customer engagement, B2B marketing has traditionally been more subtle, mellow, and less experimental. B2B marketers have long been told to keep their content, ads, and collaterals understated, believing that B2B customers don't relate to bold messages.

Contrary to these age-old perceptions, recent studies paint a different picture. According to a WHM survey, 48% of customers describe B2B marketing as "boring." A survey of 200 leaders in technology, financial services, and professional services by B2B marketing specialists Alan reveals that:

82% find B2B marketing boring and repetitive.

100% say marketers need to tackle risk aversion in their businesses.

88% believe a new bold, contrarian, or provocative approach is needed.

The C-suite is seeking a shift from traditional product-led marketing to approaches that embrace emotions to drive B2B buying behavior:

70% feel a greater affinity to a brand when emotionally moved.

A significant percentage want brands to demonstrate understanding of their human experience.

85% respect brands that aren’t afraid to have an opinion and a disruptive industry position.

Despite a risk-averse culture and a focus on performance marketing over brand building, there's scope for B2B marketers to adopt a more radical approach to their brand's look and feel. Marketing has evolved with changing times and customer needs. Customers now seek refreshing ideas to showcase products and solutions. Given that a significant part of customer decisions are based on their internet journey, it's critical for B2B marketers to create purposeful, inspiring, and creative content with a human touch. "The truth is the vast majority of buying decisions are emotional."

It's time to break the conventional barriers and reach customers with bolder, braver content. Customers are human beings, regardless of whether they're in B2B or B2C, hence today's marketing is more H2H (human to human).

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So if you are a B2B marketer struggling to break the chains, below are some suggestions how you can start experimenting to make your marketing stand out !

a) Social Media Engagement

Develop purposeful posts and campaigns with strong messages that resonate with customers' missions. Grow brand awareness and loyalty with video posts, as videos generate far more views and engagement than simple photo posts. In fact, social video generates 1200% more shares than text and image content combined. And viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text.

Be experimental in posting your brand stories, short animated videos of products & solutions, generic Purpose led videos living your organization’s mission and vision to capture customer’s mindshare.

For example, Schneider Electric's sustainability campaign in India and Adobe's "I Love You, Acrobat" campaign are excellent examples of engaging storytelling. Green Yodha : A Sustainability Initiative by Schneider Electric India | Schneider Electric India (se.com)

Adobe produced an excellent B2B marketing campaign, The ‘I Love You, Acrobat’ Campaign - The Shorty Awards with Hasan Minhaj cast in both videos. The campaign has everything you need: an engaging story, a strong brand message, and a prominent product and brand placement. It’s a master class on seamlessly integrating your product, marketing plan, and brand into the narrative.

How many of us can be so brave to get self trolled ? Check this campaign from Dissolve

Taking a poem written by Kendra Eash called Stock Footage, Stock Photos - Dissolve “This Is a Generic Brand Video”, they did what we would call a self-troll. They filled in the imagery for the poem from their stock footage, and in turn, challenged the entire industry to do better.

b) Email Campaign ROI

Use customer segmentation to develop targeted email content. Creative emails with compelling subject lines and engaging content are irresistible for customers. Use automation to nurture and engage customers with tailored content

c) Getting customer attention for Outbound marketing

Be more bold in your outbound content. Don’t hesitate in experimenting with never tried before ideas !

The B2B audience is not necessarily looking for the latest celebrity endorsements on TikTok or some quirky, postmodern blitz on Instagram. But influencer marketing works equally impactful for b2b as well . Develop video testimonials of your key customers and promote those on only the platforms that your customers engage with, whether that’s LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, or other social networks.

This is one of my most favorite pathbreaking example of capturing customer testimonial , truly innovative, creative & bold as at the onset it may look like ad for Barclays but check out it is actually a campaign by Salesforce - Barclays is a Trailblazer (youtube.com) This video flips the case study video model on its head. For a video that features the power of Salesforce’s products wonderfully, it barely mentions them at all.

What makes it special?

● By focusing so well on the needs of the client, Salesforce displays what they do in a very powerful way. This viral B2B video content marketing campaign feels more like a personalized recommendation than a marketing attempt, which is perfect!

B2B marketers feel their products /solutions don’t qualify for broadcasting as loud as b2c products. While digital platforms have certainly swarmed the market with its obvious benefits but at times old concepts when tried with innovative ideas can still work to our least considered expectation. The impact of Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising remains massive and billboards with latest digital technology cant be ignored by B2B marketers.

OOH offers other options and plenty of opportunities for creativity. The possibilities with the medium are more extensive than most marketers realize. B2B advertisers should broaden their horizons and consider placing ads in office elevators, office vending machines, and similar areas. That helps to establish a brand presence in your target audiences' actual office as well as to integrate yourself into daily routines in locations they spend a lot of time in.

Did you ever know OOH can amplify your ABM(Account based marketing )?

Account-based marketing is an often-used bottom-of-the-funnel B2B marketing strategy. In the out-of-home advertising space, this can take on the following forms:

?? Billboard ads near the offices or headquarters of potential (and ideal) new customers.

?? Billboard ads dotting major highways or thoroughfares to capture commuter attention.

?? “Surround sound” advertising at conferences, tradeshows, and major industry events.

While OOH ads may not be as personalized or “one-to-one” as other ABM tactics, they certainly can play a major role in driving top-of-mind awareness to make ABM strategies that much more effective.

?B2B generally never attempted being flashy or adventurous. James Heller at MarTechSeries says: “OOH advertising, on the other hand, has traditionally been thought of as a consumer marketing tactic. But that is changing, especially for technology companies. It’s more straightforward and measurable than ever before.” With the rise of digital and programmatic technology, OOH advertising has spread its wings to include geofencing, tracking, retargeting, personalization, attribution, and measurement.

Here are some examples of how B2B players are experimenting in their reach to customers in more Bold and Brave fashion

Zoho One provides integrated software for sales, marketing, support, accounting, operations, and HR

Looker is a “business intelligence software and big data analytics platform for accounting, operations, and HR

Lattice is a San Fancisco -based software-as-a-service startup that facilitates performance management

OOH is also more measurable than it used to be. As Heller points out: “Using technology and data, brands can target and measure impressions; attribute online and offline activity to OOH advertising exposure; and retarget people who have seen OOH ads.( MediaRadar Blog)

Embrace Bold and Brave Marketing-Effective marketing involves compelling storytelling. Does your brand story resonate with customers? Is it interesting?

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I've recently associated with a group of like-minded, disruptive thinkers at TwentyTwo AM: Overview | LinkedIn?who live their trademark philosophy of #UNBORINGB2B.

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So B2B marketers out there – Break the mind chains !

Change the perceived image of B2B from Boring to BOLD, BRAVER, BRIALLIANT

Bring on the proactive B2B marketing approach that injects emotion and humanity

Its time for disruptive B2B strategies

Be the trend setters !

Thank you for reading this edition of my newsletter. Your support and engagement inspires me to continue pushing the boundaries of B2B marketing. Stay bold, stay brave, and keep innovating!

Stay tuned for more insights, and let's keep making B2B marketing bold, brave, and brilliant together!

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Key Resource credits:

Business leaders find B2B marketing boring | WARC | The Feed

Top 10 B2B Video Marketing Campaigns-2024 (Steal Their Strategies!) (vidsaga.com)\

48% of B2B Buyers Bored by Most B2B Marketing They See (smallbiztrends.com)

Top 10 B2B Video Marketing Campaigns-2024 (Steal Their Strategies!) (vidsaga.com)\

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