Breathing personality into your B2B communication: 3 ways to connect with customers
B2B communication thrives when you meet your customers where they are, empathize with their needs, and deliver true brand authenticity
Communicating to decision-makers at B2B (business-to-business) companies is complicated. When selling complex products or services like feature-rich software or devices, it can be hard to concisely communicate your offering. On top of that, there's the B2B challenge of reaching not just one person, but a group of purchase decision-makers, each with unique needs and desires.
While marketers can easily fall into the complexity, it's important to remember that at the end of the day, you're selling to people. Ultimately, driving real external audience impact requires sifting through the complexity and reaching those people in a compelling way. Here are 3 ways to get started.
1. Find common ground (among external audiences)
When crafting messaging, start with discovering what connects your potential buyers. Focus on common challenges and goals that your product or service addresses to create a message that appeals to all decision-makers. From this core message, you can personalize messaging to address the individualized needs of the unique roles of the buying committee. In short, start by going narrow, then going wide on messaging development.
For example, if you were a marketer at a health tech company, you may be tasked with communicating about solving for the multi-faceted needs of hospitals and private practices, each with their own unique set of demands and decision-makers. If you were selling an innovative patient management system, you may find common ground by focusing on the universal need to improve patient outcomes and streamline administrative processes. This “common ground” messaging could highlight how their solution reduces tedious paperwork, enhances patient-doctor communication and enables personalized care—challenges common across healthcare providers. From this, you can then nuance messaging and content to address specific concerns, such as integrating with hospital systems or scalability for growing offerings.
When crafting messaging, start with discovering what connects your potential buyers. Focus on common challenges and goals that your product or service addresses to create a message that appeals to all decision-makers. From this core message, you can personalize messaging to address the individualized needs of the unique roles of the buying committee. In short, start by going narrow, then going wide on messaging development.
For example, if you were a marketer at a health tech company, you may be tasked with communicating about solving for the multi-faceted needs of hospitals and private practices, each with their own unique set of demands and decision-makers. If you were selling an innovative patient management system, you may find common ground by focusing on the universal need to improve patient outcomes and streamline administrative processes. This “common ground” messaging could highlight how their solution reduces tedious paperwork, enhances patient-doctor communication and enables personalized care—challenges common across healthcare providers. From this, you can then nuance messaging and content to address specific concerns, such as integrating with hospital systems or scalability for growing offerings.
2. Infuse empathy into marketing (along the process)
While B2B marketing is aimed at marketing to “businesses,” your audience is still human. And they don’t just value features and functionality, they want to feel understood. By digging into your audience’s behavior and motivations, you can craft messaging that resonates with their emotional and human side.
Uncover what customers value through surveys, interviews and focus groups to uncover what matters. Look for those “aha” moments and trends around their day-to-day that make you go “Wow, I’ve never thought about it that way.” Use this insight as a creative launching-off point for crafting messaging. By infusing this empathy, you can create a human connection that sets your brand apart in the audience’s mind.
For example, if you were a marketer in the office supplies industry, you may want to dedicate time to deeply understanding the day-to-day challenges faced by office managers and procurement folks who purchase your product. Through surveys, interviews and conversations, you may uncover that, beyond price, customers are anxious about waste as their company pushes toward sustainable practices. Using this insight, you may decide to craft a post-purchase nurture campaign that gives clients tips on reducing waste and maximizing their supplies. This approach goes beyond the functional benefits of your products to address the emotional concerns of customers.
3. Define what brand authenticity means…to only you
Authenticity is crucial, but how do you express it without sounding cliché or trite? The answer starts with getting specific about the moments your audience has with your brand that make your version of authenticity “one of one.”
Dig beyond the feature set and into the moments of use. Take a catalog of the idiosyncrasies, emotions, feelings and expressions that your audience experiences only with your brand and not with competitors. Encapsulate the attributes, imagery and style that bring these unique experiences to life. From here, take action by sharing these real stories in your communications. Ultimately, relaying these relatable experiences will go a long way in helping your audience understand your unique version of “authenticity.”
For example, if you were a marketer in the small business insurance industry, where trust is paramount, a company could define its brand authenticity around its physical commitment to being there for its clients in times of need. Bringing this to life could involve digging into the real moment and surrounding emotion when a policyholder reaches out to their insurance provider for help. This could take the shape of sharing a story of the insurance company visiting a small business off-hours to help an overworked business owner through the logistics of a new policy. This authentic story, shared through marketing channels, could showcase the insurer's purpose in providing more than just monetary support. By focusing on genuine moments like this, the insurance company can show its own version of what “authenticity” means, fostering a deeper connection with current and prospective clients.
Authenticity is crucial, but how do you express it without sounding cliché or trite? The answer starts with getting specific about the moments your audience has with your brand that make your version of authenticity “one of one.”
Dig beyond the feature set and into the moments of use. Take a catalog of the idiosyncrasies, emotions, feelings and expressions that your audience experiences only with your brand and not with competitors. Encapsulate the attributes, imagery and style that bring these unique experiences to life. From here, take action by sharing these real stories in your communications. Ultimately, relaying these relatable experiences will go a long way in helping your audience understand your unique version of “authenticity.”
For example, if you were a marketer in the small business insurance industry, where trust is paramount, a company could define its brand authenticity around its physical commitment to being there for its clients in times of need. Bringing this to life could involve digging into the real moment and surrounding emotion when a policyholder reaches out to their insurance provider for help. This could take the shape of sharing a story of the insurance company visiting a small business off-hours to help an overworked business owner through the logistics of a new policy. This authentic story, shared through marketing channels, could showcase the insurer's purpose in providing more than just monetary support. By focusing on genuine moments like this, the insurance company can show its own version of what “authenticity” means, fostering a deeper connection with current and prospective clients.
When adding these approaches to your B2B communications, you're not just selling to businesses, you're connecting with the human beings behind them.