Looking for innovative ways to shape your B2B marketing strategy? Want to solidify your brand’s voice, values, and goals? Let us find out how you can humanize your B2B marketing strategy by observing some easy-to-follow tips.

Customers are exactly not rational in their decision-making all the time – in fact, they are often the complete opposite. They make purchases on emotion (emotional buying) and justify those purchases with facts. It’s somehow this illogical but human approach of B2B that is the vital missing part of the marketing puzzle. In other words, it is the fears, desires, preferences, imaginations, expectations, and ambitions of customers that should be the cornerstone of your business, and not your product ‘feeds and speeds’.

One of the biggest advantages of humanizing your business is that you will create an organization that is customer-centric and fit for the culture. Moreover, the approach will be internally for your business culture as well as externally for your customers. This will give you the unmatched opportunity to exceed your revenue targets, become a leader in your industry niche, and emerge as a brand that’s more than just a company selling a product. So how do you do that?

It’s about people, not products

The first aspect to consider is redefining the definition of a product. Products are not only physical items, but they can also include solutions and services, irrespective of how you package up what you sell. Furthermore, when we talk about people, we mean customers and employees.

Let’s get started with your employees: your technical people, engineers, marketing team, sales team, customer service staff, or anyone else who comes into direct or indirect contact with your existing and potential customers. These are the people who are the front-line ambassadors of your brand. Therefore, every team member should feel like they have an important responsibility and mission to take to the world while dealing with customers.

The second aspect of people is your existing and potential customers. Understanding the expectations, fears, desires, and requirements of your customers is the ideal starting point of what makes or would make you a human brand. In other words, you need to do more than just sell the features of your products and/or services. You need to engage and empathize with your customers.

In recent times, especially in today’s new normal, the most significant change in B2B marketing has been the evolving and shifting expectations of customers. Unfortunately, this is something that many businesses have failed to keep up with. Today’s tech-savvy and informed customers demand a seamless service as the primary essential and have a heightened expectation of what a brand should be.

Companies need a purpose that’s actioned

The most successful and trusted companies in recent times are those who have put an overarching purpose at the heart of their business. According to research by Deloitte, 40% higher levels of workforce retention and 30% higher levels of innovation have been reported by purpose-oriented organizations when compared with their peers. An Edelman survey revealed that 61% of C-suite executives are more than ready to pay a premium for B2B services from a business with a clear, purposeful vision. Unfortunately, a big majority of B2B businesses are still to have a “real” vision that’s more than a statement on their boardroom wall.

The point is – the purpose of your brand is the meaningful, clear, and relevant difference you want to see in the world – the reason why your brand exists, above and beyond just making more profits. When the brand’s purpose is articulated and executed with integrity and authenticity, it becomes the unstoppable wind in your company’s sales.

Emotion is at your marketing core

Using emotions in your branding is not just about identifying a funny or engaging story/image that features on your website. It’s more about igniting emotions at the right time and place, and with everything, you say and do. To play your cards right, you must know your target audience, use ideas & language that resonate with them, and find ways to bring them unconsciously to your story.

Most importantly, it must be consistent and purposeful, using what you know of your customers and your brand’s overall purpose to provide value in a uniquely and humanly. Remember, it’s about the people who buy your products/services and the emotional connections you create, and not just about your products and services.

In short, your business needs to put people and not products at the core of your marketing initiatives, create actionable purposes, become a likable brand, treat emotion with the respect that it rightly deserves, and tell engaging and great customers stories to humanize your B2B marketing.

Find out how you can make your communication more human! Let Dana Sacco humanize your marketing and help you connect to your customers more effectively.