When marketing to businesses, it is easy to overlook the people behind the brands. It is sure advised to take a fact-driven,(pardon my language) no BS approach to the communication but that doesn’t mean that it should end there. While the decision-makers in a business might not be thinking about personal consumption, it doesn’t mean that their emotions don’t have a role in the process.

A Google Search Told Me…

Google conducted a survey to understand how customers were making their purchase decisions. The survey found that B2B prospects were more emotionally invested in the products they purchased than B2C.

B2B purchasers were more likely to seek personal value from their purchase and are much more likely to pay a premium fee.

Even from a non-monetary standpoint, emotionally attuned marketing can prove extremely beneficial for a brand. Think about what your favourite ads have in common? They managed to evoke strong emotions, either of joy, wonder, awe, or sadness. Emotional connection plays a key role in making a brand memorable. Leaving an emotional impact on your customer also encourages them to share your content and inspire action.

The Marketing Potential Of Empathy

Brand Empathy has been understood as a brand ability to understand the customer’s needs and motivations and provide them with what they might find useful. But what would this empathy look like when marketing to a brand/business?

When communicating with the individuals behind businesses, it comes in handy to understand the emotions and drives behind their decisions. Understanding the challenges faced by the employees can give us an insight into the pain points of the brand. Let’s understand this with an example –

You have developed an organisational system centred around work-life balance and wish to market it to large multinationals as well as individual professionals. It is a potent product and falls well in line with today’s growing need for a holistic lifestyle. You could talk about the efficiency of the product and how it would help the leadership provide a holistic HR and productivity tool for their workforce — or you could tap into the problems your system would solve for the average HR or management employee. By showing their struggles in managing a remote team you make them feel heard, offer your product as a thoughtful solution and position your brand as one that understands.

This approach would help you tap directly into the life of those you wish to connect with and instead of selling a product you are now selling a solution for their woes and worries. This is the exact power of emotions within B2B marketing.

Understanding The B2B Audience

The B2B audience is different from the B2C audience in terms of what makes them “tick”. Understanding the values they hold dear and their innate desires and needs can help you cater to them more accurately.

The aforementioned survey also found that:

• 93% of professionals highlighted the importance of working with an honest vendor

• 91% bought products and services based on personal recommendations

• 73% are swayed toward a purchase based on a strong brand perception

This affirms our hypothesis that B2B consumers also rely on their emotions and personal values to make their buying decisions. They would also be attracted to products that assisted them in their professional growth and saving on time and effort.

In a nutshell, instead of solving problems for inanimate business, make the lives of the people behind it easier. This will help you connect and develop a relationship of trust with your audience and help your B2B brand take your marketing efforts to the next level.