B2B marketers are using emotionally driven content to engage leaders and decision-makers amid a broader pivot to brand building to drive long-term growth.
A new study from LinkedIn has found the B2B industry is increasingly using the techniques that were once reserved for B2C campaigns, after finding success with different forms of storytelling.
Two-thirds of marketers say purchasing decisions in the B2B space are as driven by emotion as those in B2C, which goes against the longstanding view that business leaders rely mostly on logic and rationality.
The need to trigger the right emotions rather than just deliver prosaic, information-driven content has prompted 81% of B2B marketers to produce creative campaigns that rival their B2C counterparts.
LinkedIn’s Tunji Akintokun says there has been a recent “paradigm shift” in how B2B companies approach campaigns, with the emphasis now very much on brand building.
This is highlighted by nine in 10 marketers claiming brand building is key to revenue growth and that generating awareness is just as important in B2B as B2C.
The change will likely see B2B companies focus on content creation that is “more memorable” according to Akintokun, rather than just being functional.
B2B leaders often consume numerous pieces of content before making a decision, so marketers will need to consider how to weave stories into them to trigger the right emotions.
LinkedIn’s Jann Schwarz believes all businesses, both business facing and customer facing, need to “define” their brand stories as the process could be critical during times of economic uncertainty.
He concluded: “A strong brand is a force multiplier for any business and is the key to pricing power, which is more important than ever in a high-inflation economy.”
