Jill Coomber, MD Integrated Marketing at Allison+Partners on why B2B marketing needs to be a conversation between humans on both an emotional and rational level, rather than between two faceless businesses.
The immediate lockdown may be lifting across the UK, but the new normal for those of us working in marketing is only just beginning. In the B2B marketing world, the way that brands communicate with their customers has been evolving for some time now. However, we expect one of the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will be the significant acceleration of the pace of this change.
We have long been helping our B2B clients evolve their strategies, so they stay at the forefront of their respective industries. After all, in a rapidly changing world, one of the riskiest moves can be to stand still.
Recently, a significant amount of this conversation with clients has been around how to inject more emotional messaging into their marketing and storytelling. Consumer brands have long since switched away from a more rational sales approach (we have the solution to your problem) to a more emotional sales approach (we care about the same values as you do and we listen and understand you as a customer).
The walls between B2B and B2C marketing continue to break down as the COVID-19 pandemic has blended our personal and work lives more than ever before for many of us. One of the few positives to come from the pandemic has been the highlighting of the human behind the job title more frequently. You likely hadn’t met your prospect’s cat or young child before, but you’ve probably become more familiar on Zoom calls since March. B2B brands are now interacting with their customers in their homes, a much more personal interaction than a formal meeting at a trade show.
As B2B brands grapple with this change, we have worked with our clients on how to connect more effectively on these new terms. One of the techniques is to help them ‘talk more human’.
There’s plenty of demand across B2B brands to evolve to human storytelling…[they] recognised it as far more than just the trendy new way to do marketing.
Jill Coomber
What do we mean by talking human? Our definition is: brand storytelling that uses and appeals to human emotion and empathy, as opposed to purely focusing on the practical application of the product or service.
It views B2B marketing as a conversation between humans on both an emotional and rational level, rather than as between two faceless businesses. It recognises people buy from people and puts this concept at the heart of the messaging.
We wanted to investigate the current state of play for B2B brands and whether they have successfully evolved their communications. We conducted our own research, surveying 400 senior marketing decision makers working at large B2B brands.
As it turns out, there’s plenty of demand across B2B brands to evolve to human storytelling. Those we surveyed recognised it as far more than just the trendy new way to do marketing. In fact, it’s vital for business success. Amongst our decision makers, 58% believe humanising their brand will lead to higher sales, while 55% would expect to see more engaged customers and 55% expect increased customer retention.
Yet for the majority, they have not progressed very far down this road. We found 97% of respondents believe it’s important to humanise their brand, yet only 26% say they have managed to do so already. Another 65% say that while they see the importance of talking human or are considering it for their brand, they have either struggled to do it or don’t know where to start.
Fortunately, getting started on your journey to talking human need not be daunting. Here are a few of our recommendations.
Jill has earned a reputation for consistently leading creative, results-focused strategies that drive brand awareness, thought leadership, customer engagement and more. Driven by a fervent belief in the power of marketing and communications to deliver a business level ROI, Jill has spearheaded many national and international campaigns. She has worked across a broad range of brands from large multinationals to ambitious start-ups including Disney, Capcom, Nokia, Panasonic, Playmobil, Suunto, OnePlus, Hello Kitty and Coca Cola Enterprises. The campaigns Jill has led have won many awards, including PRCA’s Campaign of the Year, SABRE’s Best Use of Sponsorship and Masters of Marketing’s Best Content. A career-long entrepreneur and international business owner, Jill joined Allison+Partners in 2018 to lead A+P’s European integrated marketing offer.
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