group of people with balloons showing emotions | emotional B2B marketing

Tap the Power of Emotions to Boost Your B2B Marketing

Most B2B (business-to-business) marketing is failing to do its job. We’ve bought into a storyline that’s patently false, and it’s making B2B marketing mediocre. And it stymies your business.

Chances are, your business has bought into this falsehood and you’re perpetuating the same mistakes that your competition is making (especially since most businesses copy the competition’s tactics).

The good news is that you have a prime opportunity to leapfrog the competition if you’re willing to take a risk with your marketing — a risk that will pay off, but might also feel really scary.

That risk? To prioritize emotional B2B marketing over a logic-based approach.

Most of us believe that emotional marketing belongs in the realm of B2C (business-to-consumer) marketing. It’s all image and flash. Emotional marketing content is for the Coca-Colas and BMWs of the world, right?

Wrong.

If you want to generate better leads and more sales, you’ll need to engage your audience’s emotions BEFORE you engage their reasoning. And until you prioritize emotion over logic, your marketing will continue to drive mediocre results (at best).

Here’s why.

The Strange Case of Emotionless Elliot

“Elliot” had a successful career in a business firm. He was a mentor to junior colleagues, had a family, and generally lived a pleasant life. But he developed a brain tumor in his frontal lobe, which eventually had to be removed. After the surgery, everything changed.

It wasn’t long before Elliot’s life began to fall apart. He wasn’t performing at work, he went through two divorces, and made a series of bad money decisions that left him bankrupt. Eventually he was living out of a sibling’s home, doing nothing with his life.

Elliot couldn’t make decisions. And when he did, they were often disastrous. No decision came easily for him — everything from how to organize his work documents to life-changing paths.

What happened in that brain surgery? Elliot’s intelligence was unchanged, but his emotions were damaged. Actually, they were eradicated. Elliot no longer had any emotions — about anything — and that was the key to his decision-making deficiency.

As it turns out, every decision we make starts with our emotions. Whether it’s the clothes we wear, the car we drive, the conference we attend, or the software we purchase. Every decision you make today is made first from your emotions.

If you don’t engage your customers’ emotions, they’ll have difficulty making purchasing decisions, like Elliot did.

Doesn’t Data Matter in Buying Decisions?

Yes, data and logic matter. No CFO will sign off on a major purchase simply because the vendor sparks joy. No client will drop thousands of dollars on a service without rational justification for it.

And that’s the key: justification. There will always be a logic component in your customers’ purchasing decisions, but logic is used to justify the emotional decision their gut has already made.

Your customer wants to buy from you because you make them feel safe, or valued, or bold. They commit to buying from you because your product can cut manual effort (and labor costs) by 25 percent.

You still need to provide your audience with the hard numbers and the logical reasoning. You just need it to support the emotional marketing content — not to replace it.

Isn’t Emotional Marketing Manipulative?

Good question! When B2B marketing is at its best, it is both emotional and honest. It engages the right emotions, but it doesn’t manipulate them. Manipulation is deceptive and coercive, but emotional marketing (done right) simply connects appropriately with the right emotions.

Think of emotional marketing like a dating relationship. When you ask a girl (or a guy) out for the first time, you want to hit the right emotional notes. You don’t want to mess it up, so you consider your words carefully — maybe even rehearse them. You dress nicely. You smile. You want to create the right mood.

Are you being manipulative? No — you’re just trying to create a connection with the girl or guy you like, in a way that endears you to them.

It’s the same with B2B marketing.

Emotional Marketing May Be Easier Than You Think

Okay, so how on earth are you supposed to create emotional marketing to get the right results? There are some easy changes you can make right now — and more significant changes you can make with some planning.

Know your audience

If you’re going to get your crush to say yes to that first date, you’d better know something about him or her. Does she prefer French food or French fries? Will he appreciate a subtle approach or a bold gesture best? Does she want you to flirt or to be straightforward?

Same goes for your customer. If you want to connect with their emotions, you need to understand what those emotions are.

How do they feel?
Why do they feel that way?
What do they value most?
What drives your customer?
What are they afraid of?

You get the idea.

The more you know and understand your customers — the more you can place yourself in their shoes — the more effective your emotional marketing will be.

You’re now seeing your customers as humans, not as accounts or organizations. Paul Cash and James Trezona call this H2H marketing — human-to-human — not B2B marketing. When you remember that you’re actually marketing to other humans, as a human, you immediately boost your ability to engage emotions.

So how do you get to know your customers? Start with your sales team. Chances are, they can provide a ton of information to get you started. Also talk directly to your best customers, and interview them to get to know your audience better.

From that information, create a set of buyer personas — semi-fictional profiles of the various stakeholders your marketing needs to talk to. Refer to your personas frequently to help you create content that connects with your buyers.

Use emotional language

Your words matter. And certain words matter more than others. Blog titles and headings, email subject lines, ebook titles, web page headings — the big, bold lines that draw the eye — they have the potential to pack an emotional punch.

You don’t want to be heavy handed with it, but you should spend time crafting titles and headings that engage the emotions.

Generally speaking, it’s better to appeal to positive emotions over negative ones — surprise, relief, confidence, and joy get tons better results than fear, frustration, or guilt. Urgency is also effective.

Don’t stop with the titles and headings, though. Your articles and emails, lead generation content, and even social media posts should use emotional language throughout.

Tell a story

Story is possibly the most powerful way to engage emotions. Humans are inherently wired for story. We interpret the world through the framework of story, and even see our lives as a grand narrative. We are the main characters within a continually unfolding story.

We learn through story, identify with others through story, discover truths through story, and even grow through story. All of these elements are relevant to effective B2B marketing.

In story, your customers can place themselves in a scenario like their own, identifying with a protagonist who goes on a journey of sorts to resolve a frustrating (or stressful, or panic-inducing) problem.

If that sounds unprofessional or out of place, think again. You’re already familiar with common forms of story in B2B marketing — in fact, you read a story a few minutes ago. Examples include:

Case studies
Examples and illustrations
Analogies
Customer testimonials
Business fables
Problem/solution scenarios

Stories can be standalone long form content, or a quick two-sentence example. They can come in the form of a promotional video, an email, an infographic, or even a comic book.

Because we’re gravitationally pulled toward stories, incorporating them into your marketing is a no-brainer. Just be sure each story has a specific purpose and isn’t merely fluff.

Live out a story

One of the greatest stories you can tell is the one that your company lives out. I’m assuming here that your company’s story has more substance than making as much bank as you can as fast as you can.

If you can pass that (very low) bar, your business has a story to tell. Better yet, you have one to live out.

Bombas’ story is to give socks to the poor.
Coca-Cola’s story is to spread happiness around the world.
Total Compliance Tracking is making compliance management suck less for compliance professionals at every level.
TriNetX is a data and analytics company that wants to enhance research and clinical trials.

Whatever your story is, let your customers in on it. Share it with them, make them a part of it.

Don’t just sound human, be human.

Get graphic(al)

One of my favorite movie scenes is the art museum in Ferris Beuller’s Day Off. Cameron stands in front of Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte. Not a word is spoken, but we feel a powerful connection to Cameron as he has an existential moment, identifying with a child that becomes no more than a few dots of paint. The moment is both haunting and endearing.

That’s the power of image — in this case, a still image as well as video.

Don’t neglect the power of the videos, images, and graphics that you use in your company’s marketing. Choose them wisely and use them well.

Address the Emotions in the Room

B2B marketing that only uses emotional content outperforms rational-only content by a 2:1 margin. Two to one! I don’t recommend abandoning rational marketing content, but you get the point.

If you aren’t satisfied with the performance of your company’s marketing efforts, take a look at your use of emotions.

Do you engage the emotions?
Do you engage appropriate emotions?
Do you engage emotions appropriately? (Don’t lay it on thick! Stay classy, marketers.)

I get it if this feels like a scary step. (See what I did there? Emotional empathy!) Start with your social media posts or a couple email campaigns. Check your results and adjust accordingly as you expand into more marketing channels.

And let me know if you need a sounding board!

B2B marketing emotional marketing