3 ways B2B brands can be more human

The world is a very connected place, and B2B brands have long been expected to intertwine more humanity into their marketing efforts.

Today’s expectations of interactions require being natural, genuine, and human. This, in turn, creates more meaningful connections for all involved. After all, companies are marketing to people.

But in today’s environment, how can B2B brands be more human when interactions have gone digital?

In our fifth episode of Oktopost’s original discussion series, “The Globalization of Social Media”, Colin Day, Oktopost’s Managing Director EMEA, hosts B2B marketing legend Steve Lucas, former CEO of Marketo, an Adobe company, and current CEO of iCIMS.  With him is Susan Vitale, CMO of iCIMS. Together, they talk openly about how B2B brands can demonstrate more human aspects across their marketing initiatives.

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Now that the world is experiencing a complete digital revolution, B2B brands need to converse with their audiences in a way that speaks to emotions. Messaging must be relevant, authentic, empathetic, informative, and helpful.

Humanizing relationships between people and B2B brands should be intuitive. After all, we’re all human!

A few takeaways from Steve Lucas and Susan Vitale:

Make it empathetic

B2B brands over the last decade have, without a doubt, started to resemble B2C marketing campaigns when it comes to empathy-based marketing.

In today’s times, stepping outside of what you do and putting yourself in your customers’ shoes to help them succeed is what marketing is all about. While marketers may have technology all around them to do their job better, customers are not machines, and they are people. And people have emotions that drive decisions. As Steve Lucas shared,

“If you are not demonstrating the human aspect of your company, you are failing your company.”

With the environment today so uncertain and people going through extraordinary things, if your messaging doesn’t address your customers’ emotions, it will feel empty, and customers will not be able to connect with your brand.

Make it relevant

By putting customer experience at the heart of all sales and marketing efforts, B2B marketers will gain insight into what customers care about and how the brand can help them in those areas.

With many marketers currently rethinking messaging, you’d be surprised at the number of tone-deaf marketing initiatives. It’s wrong, and there are several ways to make messaging relevant in the context of the Pandemic. For starters:

• Give customers whatever they need now, more than ever
• Add value to your content by showing best practices during this sensitive time
• Use the amazing data you have to understand your customer and community
• Understand that not all products will be relevant right now– and that’s ok
• Separate a hard sell from information
• Learn how to do more with less

Sharing relevant content that resonates with your audiences will go a long way.

Make it authentic

Being authentic is a valuable concept that gives B2B brands the ability to connect with customers on a much more profound level. Social media can help encourage authenticity by building a community and engaging with customers.

However, while no B2B brand is thinking about scaling back on social media since it is a critical engagement channel, it can be challenging to gauge the perfect level of client engagement.

As shared earlier, customers want empathetic, relevant, and sincere human engagement. Oktopost can certainly help trigger more authentic engagement through Employee Advocacy.

Incorporating more authentic messaging in your B2B marketing approach isn’t a nice-to-do. It has become a must when engaging with your customers and community.