In recent years we have seen a rapid increase in B2B Services and Corporate companies come through our doors. We work with Property Developers, Retail Designers, Retail Recruiters, Capital Advisors, Cloud Consultants and Business Development Specialists. With a background in brands, these companies have approached us with the forward-thinking understanding of our background in brands and our ability to truly connect with consumers.
Gone are the days of biz-splaining, bland branding and intimidating your clients into thinking you are clever through meaningless jargon. In a world where trust and human-connection drives decision-making, ‘corporate' is about to get cool.
Forbes said it best when they said "Most trends in B2B marketing are deeply rooted in B2C marketing, and not without good reason. Behind every B2B brand, you will see people who expect authentic, timely and personalised communication that helps them develop their expertise and achieve their goals. Invest in research, and get to know your target audience better to ensure the quality they deserve.”
So, in 2020, how can businesses build an audience and connect with their customer?
Work on Your ‘Why'
When you are looking for a business service, what do you want to find out first? How they help your companies, or how they implement their services? Companies that focus on ‘how they help’ over ‘what they sell’ have more powerful language, create more meaningful content, build trust and enable the people who make decisions within companies to understand your values. If you haven’t watched Simon Sinek's TED Talk, ‘How Great Leaders Inspire Action’, now is the time.
Develop Your Identity
Your identity starts with your branding, it must then be echo’d consistently through all your communications. By having a website, logo, PDF’s and proposals that reflect the quality of your offering through visual language and design, you are making the most of your work of mouth opportunities. Have a website that your friends, family, employees, clients and colleagues are proud to share. Everyone who enjoys your identity and understands your offering can become a potential ambassador. From here, additional advertising, PR, Content Marketing of Business Development is supported.
Communicate Clearly
The most intelligent text is often the easiest to understand. Those who come across your company online, or ask what you do at your dinner may switch off at the first sign of intimidating jargon and unreliable explanations. This goes back to our first point. Communicate how you help, and what you stand for, over the "implementation of unique innovations that systematically provide strategic value-added". Apple is renowned for their stripped-back methods of communicating. If an 8-year-old can understand the value of your company, you are on the right lines. With words, less is often more. You never know, that 8-year-old might be the next YouTube millionaire in two years time. Stranger things have happened!
Engage With Your Audience
Humans make decisions, not businesses. You never know who may pass you on to the right person after a meaningful conversation. Connections on LinkedIn? Take an interest in them. Attacks on Twitter? Rectify them. Followers on Instagram? Take them out of their dormant state by creating a conversation with them via direct message. Engaged audiences can only have a positive effect on your algorithms. From a survey of over 7000 consumers, Salesforce has found that "72% of business buyers expect vendors to personalise engagement to their needs”.
Entertain and Educate
"Video posts on LinkedIn are five times more likely to generate user comments.80% of B2B leads generated by social media traffic originates on LinkedIn” according to a recent report from Hootsuite.
Research shows that those who think video content isn’t relevant to their industry are likely to be taking an outdated approach. Audiences are on your blog, signed up to your email, and following you on social media for only two reasons - to be educated or to be entertained. Often both. These two types of content give people a reason to return to their preferred channels. Video content is the most viewed type of content on the whole of the internet. Increased views mean increased reach which means appearing on exploring feeds and in algorithms that understand your target audience.
Earlier this year, Forbes noted that "more than 70% of millennials are included in B2B buying decisions. B2B researchers do at least 12 searches online before engaging with a website, hoping for the same high-quality digital experience they get when making B2C purchases"
Powerful, clear, entertaining, educational communication is at the forefront of all marketing for any sector. With many industries yet to transition into this new way of thinking, why not be the first to do so? Any further questions? We are excited to hear from you about your communication transformation.
📧 araminta@aramintamarketing.com
📲 +44 7983 875195
👍 @aramintasocial