Successful B2B Marketing Must be More Digital and More Human

B2B branding strategy must be more digital, but that should not be at the expense of being more human. According to Gartner’s Annual CMO Spend Survey 2019-2020 Research, digital marketing is now the norm for effective communications and sales outreach. The report concludes its synopsis with a purposely strong affirmation that drives this point home:

How CMOs spend their budgets sends a clear signal about where they are placing future bets. Marketing’s continued financial commitment to digital channels and to data and analytics makes clear an intention to maintain its reign at the centre of business transformation toward technology-enabled, digitally capable models.

The report further reveals that CMOs, or Chief Marketing Officers, are in fact doubling-down on their digital channels and analytics, even as they still appear to be failing to plan for some volatile economic times that could very well be on the near horizon. Their mandate is to drive growth while keeping a keen eye on the bottom line, but how can this be achieved with the distinct possibility of a global trade war and potential Brexit economic crisis?

One interesting factor underlying the data challenges modern marketers face in analytics is that they must overcome an inherent bias for volume metrics over value metrics. Because they are easier to quantify and justify to senior management, volume metrics have been consistently used to track campaign performance or marketing efficiency. A marketing strategy that amasses great numbers is said to have been successful, without any underlying analysis of whether engagement or relationships improved. This factor is unveiled in the somewhat murkier land of value metrics, which try to assess the quality of an interaction or a campaign’s impact on building customer relationships. Some are now beginning to take both into account as they assess elements that lead to increased customer engagement and loyalty.

Further research uncovered by Marketing Week showed that both B2C and B2B marketers are thinking long-term, even in the face of intense pressure to deliver short-term results. B2B companies that are identified in this research as outperforming their competition were found to be twice as likely to allocate 60% or more of their budget to achieving long-term marketing goals.

The Convergence of B2B and B2C Branding

What this all boils down to is that CMOs realise that there is a need to put a substantial investment of time and money in now to building a long-term strategy – in a word, branding. Although the importance of branding has been well established in B2C marketing, it is finally beginning to find a firm footing in the B2B world as well.

This convergence is partly based on the rapid increase in digital technology. With great attention being focused on using digital technology to drive online B2C sales, marketers sometimes forget that these very same digital consumers are also relying on their smart devices to make their business decisions. They do not turn off their consumer mentality when they switch from a personal buying mode to a business focused one. As a business consumer, they still want the same levels of vibrancy, diversity in expression, and conversational approach they have become so comfortable with in their consumer world. Other elements of B2B branding and experience that are aligned with the B2C branding experience include:

1. Emotion matters: Like consumers, business buyers are emotional buyers as well.Corporations often prefer to think of themselves as rational decision-makers, but marketing execs are exhibiting more awareness of the ever-important role that emotions can have in the world of business decision-making. As far back as 2013, however, Google and CEB research revealed that emotion may play an even bigger role in B2B decisions than B2C. In 2018, Harvard Business Review further made the case that emotional values such as “reputational assurance” and “hope” can indeed improve loyalty. Business buyers still want aspirational and recognisable brands, just like consumers. Some names are more impressive than others, and it is either cool to be working with the best in the business, or it is simply more reassuring to buy an established and trusted brand. Business purchases may also foreshadow change in the business, and B2B brands should not overlook just how energising this might feel to their business customers. If a company is searching for marketing services or for consulting, for example, they might be about to make an exciting change in how their business performs. It’s a very good idea to share that enthusiasm.

2. Purpose and Ethics Matter: There is a soft and hard edge to this factor. On one hand businesses, like consumers, prefer to work with organisations where there is a sense of common alignment of values. Clashing cultures and attitudes between companies simply will not work, so B2B buyers will often choose to build relationships with businesses that they feel they can work with on a similar ethical plane. The harder edge, though, is that these preferences are often underscored by policy. For example, a B2B provider might then be required to demonstrate their ethical and environmental commitment before the relationship can be cemented.

3. Awareness and Penetration Matter: Consumer brands succeed when they have high “mental availability” with consumers. That is, they stay top of mind, or become the most obvious choice to potential buyers. This is also true for business brands. Microsoft Office is a good example of a brand that businesses select more or less automatically without seeking out alternatives. For businesses that are not yet at the scale of Microsoft, content marketing and marketing automation offer important opportunities to build awareness and share of voice as their customer base builds. 1827 Marketing has AI tools that amplify the reach and share of voice in content marketing across social channels.

Strategies for Building a Strong B2B Brand

“Businesspeople do not park their emotions and personality in a cardboard box

when they come to work and buy products and services.”

Marketing Week attributes this reference to marketing consultant Peter Field. Field and Les Binet were commissioned by LinkedIn to assess the importance of brand building in the B2B sector, and also co-authored the 2013 book, The Long and the Short of It: Balancing Short and Long-Term Marketing Strategies. The authors advance the idea that using storytelling, creativity, and brand building to tap into emotions are just as important to long-term B2B marketing success as focusing on features, benefits and price. In a high-tech world, reinjecting a touch of personality and humanity may even go further towards achieving corporate sales goals than cold, hard facts.

Richard Robinson, Chair of the Data & Marketing Association’s B2B Council, is also chief commercial officer at data technology start-up, DPL. He says that building long-term brand awareness is more integral to B2B companies than most marketers realise, because steadily growing sales relies heavily on successfully building relationships and loyalty. He believes B2B customers are often more emotionally engaged because more money may be involved, their job may be on the line, and there can be a serious business financial impact if a wrong decision is made. Long-term approaches are necessary because the business buying cycle can take months or even years, as compared to the instant gratification so common in the consumer world. Other elements of a strong B2B brand strategy include:

• Build a Narrative: Engage the emotions of the target business consumer through powerful storytelling. This may be an origin story from the founder, a growth strategy, or a customer success story where the two entities worked together to achieve the customer’s goal.

• Be Straightforward: It is not necessary to be overly complex in B2B brand creation. Create a brand message that is simple, quickly digestible, relatable, understandable and memorable.

• Curate the Experience: Create an experience that is unique to your brand. Each point in the journey, from awareness to engagement, needs to reveal a different facet and reflect positively upon the brand. Since brand experience is more than brand identity, build that into the very earliest stages of the relationship.

• Differentiate: Do not leave it up to the customer to figure out why your product or service is better for their company. Set yourself apart from the competition, and let your prospects know why your differences will make a difference to them.

• Customer Focus: Think of your brand from the potential customer’s perspective and reflect what is important to them. Help them understand why they should care about what your brand can do. In its 2014 report, “Customer-Centricity: Embedding it Into Your Organisation’s DNA,” Deloitte reported that customer-centric brands are 60% more profitable than companies which are not focused on the customer.

• Engage: Most B2B marketing does not actively engage the prospects; instead, they attempt to maintain a “wall of neutrality.” The problem with this approach is that it sets up a false barrier and does nothing to advance the need for engagement.

• Event Branding: In the consumer world, live events are particularly powerful at creating engagement. The business world can follow this example through blended real-world events in great spaces with lively speakers, and knowledge that is shared digitally.

Cultural change is also a key part of the branding strategy, as the internal culture of the entire organisation must reflect the brand statements that are presented to the target audience. There is a changing ecosystem within business organisations as the sales director, marketing director and brand director will need to be more closely aligned than ever before. They will need to have agreement on direction and focus, and must work together to allocate budget for brand spend into digital spend.

Smaller organisations may be concerned about implementing marketing automation because they see it as too impersonal, but it also provides the ability to amplify their message and scale their results beyond what their budget might ordinarily allow. For larger organisations, automation may help to point out the areas in which the company can place more emphasis on its human side.

Example of An Effective B2B Branding Strategy

One excellent example of an effective B2B brand relaunch is the German company Merck KGaA, a vibrant team of specialists in healthcare, life science and performance materials. Their new look is an outstanding example of an energetic, vibrant, differentiated brand expression. It remains true to the company’s science foundation, but is still exuberant and varied in its expression. Inspired by the infinitely fascinating world under the microscope, the brand strategy (developed by 1827 Marketing’s CEO, Ian Kirk) comprises an ecosystem of elements that combines striking colours, expressive cells, and energetic strings to celebrate Merck’s imagination. Logo and typeface re-imagination, along with eye-popping colours, revised the company's look from a typical, pharmaceutical-feeling to feature a modern-day passion for technology. Headlines and sub-heads that are sure to garner attention on the web page include such bold value statements as:

• Breakthroughs begin with curiosity

• Our pursuit: progress for people everywhere

• We create brilliant perspectives and crystal clear images

• Solving global challenges

The Merck approach shows that the business of marketing business can be fun, while still achieving the branding goals. It creates engagement, tells a story, and draws in the site visitor through strong emotions and powerful graphics.

The creation of an effective B2B brand strategy is a challenging and exciting proposition. 1827 Marketing can help to simplify and streamline your B2B marketing strategies to focus and sharpen your brand recognition. Our talent network, marketing expertise and automation platform combine to give you marketing campaigns with emotion and customer experiences that deliver results.