Ditch the Drab: B2B Marketing Must Thrill, Not Bore!
It’s Been A Snoozefest Around Here For A While Now
B2B is dull. That’s nothing new. In a 2018 survey nearly half of business buyers thought all B2B advertising was boring. Fast forward to 2023 another agency study, The Power of Provocation revealed 82% found B2B marketing boring and repetitive. 88% said a new bold, contrarian or provocative approach was needed. And just when we couldn’t feel any worse, the study also revealed that only 1% of decision-makers believed that B2B marketing showed a meaningful understanding of human experience. Ouch. And OK the latest study was relatively small, that said, all 175 respondents were C-level, and let’s be frank, B2B is legendary for its dullness.
OK People, Move Along There’s Nothing To See Here
Boring B2B matters. A lot. Because if you’re not cutting through to your buyers you’re imposing limits to your own growth. You’re voluntarily throttling your marketing and sales efforts. Being dull lowers response rates. Everywhere. Want more leads? Bang. There’s your gap to fill.
Think your B2B marketing cuts through? Given the studies that’s unlikely. Remember the “80% of companies believe they deliver super experiences and only 8% of customers agreed” CX statistic from a few years back. That delusion gap is alive and well in B2B. Maybe have a glance through some of your recent blog posts or gated content. Yawn much? Be honest now.
How Did B2B Become So Utterly Lacklustre?
In a brilliant Safe Sucks article by TriComB2B agency, their top two reasons that guarantee boring marketing are, first being rational and second copycat marketing. They point out rational marketing is a BIG fail when it comes to building emotional connections which are key to creating “a gateway to that company/product/service information you’re dying to share”. Similarly, in his keynote session at the B2B Marketing Exchange, Tim Washer puts it down to the “high price point and complexity of the sales cycle”. He adds, “B2B buyers have large committees that spend 18-24 months on due diligence, before approving a six- or seven-figure purchase order. That level of scrutiny makes some B2B marketers feel they need to be serious not just about the information they provide, but also in terms of their tone.”
Second, we’ve all researched our competitors when looking for inspiration, but adopting a copycat approach is also a non-starter in the B2B space. Mostly, you guessed it, because in one vast sea of dull sameness copying other boring marketing is a huge waste of time.
In her B2B Content Marketing > Going Bold or Fading to Beige? article, Ardath Albee is clear that most B2B organisations are so risk averse (AKA dull) because they want to please everyone as “they’re afraid they’ll turn away business if they look limited in scope.” The result is watered down, bland “beige” content that fails to cut through to anyone. Albee also explains how many “B2B organisations avoid “wasting” time and resources doing the research required to understand buyers because the clock is ticking” making it even less likely their campaigns will resonate with their buyers. In her related Beyond Beige podcast, Albee goes deeper into why so many B2B marketers struggle to connect all the dots to create compelling storylines for their buyers. Even if they do succeed, Albee points out how executive teams are prone to inadvertently sabotaging their efforts in any case with ‘quarterly themes’ or similar edicts from up on high that “bull-doze” more relevant content designed to be seen over long periods of time that mirror the sales cycle.
Can We Banish Bland & Boring From B2B?
In a word, yes. But only if you’re courageous and bold enough to break free from the herd. It requires injecting real personality into your marketing, calling time on your corporate facade and pivoting to humanise your marketing to let your brand's true personality shine through.
The key is to set the scene for making strong emotional connections with your buyers. As TriComB2B says “Play it safe with a milquetoast idea and you risk being invisible and that means there’s no possibility of making those connections.” Similarly, founder of Renegade, Drew Neisser, in a recent podcast talks about how adopting a DBA “Don’t Bore Anymore” approach in B2B is essential to creating these powerful emotional hooks with buyers.
Dial up on relevance and become brave. We cannot please everyone. We have to become comfortable with that. As Albee says, “Pick your tribe and put a stake in the ground. Speak to them personally. Not to what you imagine a generic title may care about.” She adds, do this by becoming “an authority on your buyers and customers. It’s the only way to get the right colour spectrum into the bold content your audience is clamoring for. When you truly know them, the ideas for content will come nonstop.”
B2B’s Golden Opportunity To Truly Disrupt & Gain Market Share
With 88% of B2B buyers saying new bold, contrarian or provocative approaches are needed by B2B marketers, this is a tremendous opportunity no one can sit on. Yes B2B marketing has become complex, but reimagining your marketing to cut through isn’t. It just takes courage to become that diamond in a coal mine to create beautiful bold marketing that your buyers long for. Be among the first to get your buyers all buzzed up about your marketing and you’ll be riding high!
