Have you ever come across a brand video or a product ad that made you feel things? Not only did it make you interested in the business or its product, but maybe it left you smiling, or maybe you shed a tear or two.
That’s the power of emotions in B2B marketing. Think Google’s AdWord video series highlighting local businesses or Zendesk’s emotional video content. With customer engagement and experience becoming a priority for B2B, gone are the days when emotional marketing was limited to B2C.
Today, whether you’re looking to grab the audience’s attention, drive higher sales, or boost audience engagement, emotional marketing is the perfect tool to connect with the audience beyond your business strategy and product prices. Don’t believe us?
Statistics reveal that 70% of customers with high emotional engagement spend 2X more than non-engaged customers. It is a fact universally acknowledged that prompting an emotional response from your audience is the key to an exceptional experience. So why not tap into this opportunity before it’s too late?
This blog will walk you through the use of emotions in B2B marketing to connect with your audience and make it worth their while.
Why Do You Need to Emotionally Connect with the Audience?
Sure, you’re targeting other businesses that involve multiple stakeholders and careful evaluation while making purchase decisions. But that doesn’t make your audience less inclined to emotions. In fact, believe it or not, emotions matter more to your B2B prospects than reason or logic.
Since these purchase decisions involve higher costs and risks, simply showing your product isn’t enough to encourage them to make a purchase. However, when you offer reliable marketing content, interact with the audience on a personal level, or address their unique needs, you trigger emotions like trust, reassurance, and loyalty.
This eventually encourages them to do more than just make a purchase – you turn them into brand advocates who will share more about your business with others.
If you’re ready to tap into your audience’s emotions, here are a few ways to do it-
1. Pick Honesty
Honesty and authenticity are the two character traits everyone admires, especially B2B clients. In a time when the B2B market is more competitive than ever, being honest and accurate with your brand messaging helps you stand out.
For instance, highlighting the true story behind your brand, how it turned into what it is today, or what failures it had to go through can be a great way to connect with your audience, bring emotions in B2B marketing, and increase their curiosity about your brand.
2. Appeal to Their Unique Needs
Every marketing decision you take should center around your audience’s business needs, their key motivators, and the personal values behind these purchase decisions. When you’re aware of your customer’s unique needs, you are able to create highly personalized and actionable content that hits the bullseye every time.
Moreover, a brand that addresses its audience’s emotions and personal values in its messaging has a better chance of being loved and accepted by the audience. This means going beyond their business needs to create moments circling around their professional needs, such as boosting confidence at work, highlighting their valuable contribution to the team, or career advancement. And the result? Higher customer loyalty and increased business revenue for you.
3. Turn to Storytelling
Stories have a powerful connection with emotions. For ages, stories have made the audience feel things. So, it only makes sense to channel these emotions into your marketing. You can take the visual approach to storytelling to engage your audience and create a memorable brand experience.
To establish emotions in B2B marketing, start by building a narrative around their needs and pain points. Or you can collect customer testimonials and create videos or blogs around their experiences with your product. Google small businesses’ video series is an amazing example of evoking certain emotions by focusing on customers’ experience with the product and storytelling.
4. Inspire the Audience
Telling your audience that your product or service will help save costs or streamline their business operations is important. But it is also old-school and uninspiring. Focusing on their immediate goals is a short-term strategy and will only get you so far in establishing a lasting connection with the audience.
Instead, tap into your audience’s aspirations. Creating content that inspires is a powerful medium as it focuses on your audience’s goals and visions. And you can do so by positioning your product in a way that helps you reach these goals in the long term.
In this way, you’d not only be helping them tap into their dreams by providing value but also evoke emotions like hope, joy, excitement, passion, and more. This, ultimately, helps you build a lasting relationship with the customers.
Tap Into the Emotions
For decades, B2B clients have been ignoring the potential of emotions in their marketing campaigns. But as the market grows competitive and your audience expects brands to be more human, if you’re not tapping into their emotions, you will be missing out on great business opportunities.
Ready or not, emotional marketing is the surefire way to connect, engage, and resonate with your B2B audience. By inspiring your audience, engaging with them on a personal level, and appealing to their unique needs, you create emotions and build their confidence in your brand.
