Most B2B advertising works about as well as a one-legged aerobics instructor.
It’s too depressing to even make fun of. That’s because most agencies either treat business people as emotionless automatons, or use the same approach for B2B and B2C.
Just because your B2B buyer wears a suit, it doesn’t mean they don’t pick their nose, sing in the shower, or check under their kid’s bed for monsters.
At BallantyneTaylor, we firmly believe that business buyers are just as human as the rest of us.
But when they make the decision to buy, it doesn’t just affect themselves and their family. They’re accountable for their purchases, the risk-factor is greater, and many have multiple buyers from different departments to persuade. So purchase decisions take a lot longer, and involve more research.
For them, buying is a process. Along the way, they need to be persuaded in different ways. To get the job done effectively, B2B advertising requires a combination of rational and emotional appeals at specific points of the process.
After 20 years of B2B marketing everything from building and construction to insurance, office products, business services and farming, we’ve developed a set of uniquely results-driven tactics that really work. And our clients get the full benefit of these strategies tailored to their brands.
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Most marketers advertise either to the left brain or the right brain. We advertise to every gooey gray bit of it.
To truly stand out and translate B2B marketing into sales, engaging with both the rational and emotional parts of the brain is a must. The rational brain craves a logical approach to decision-making, hard numbers and facts. The abstract brain responds to more abstract concepts such as safety and trust.
By appealing to both the emotion and logic of your buyers, your brand is immediately more attractive, and much harder to forget.
For example, promising improved workflow is great, but suggesting how it can benefit them is better. Whether that means higher team morale, better internal communications or more time to devote to business development, logic plus emotion works harder than logic alone.
One thing is true to all kinds of communication - the most memorable and believable involve dialogue. Dialogue that responds to the complex wants and needs of your individual targets. Dialogue that’s original and relevant. Dialogue on their terms.
The proof is in the results. Successful B2B communication requires a more considered approach than out-shouting the competition.
When branding and direct response cross paths magic happens.
You’re serious about building your brand, but you’re horribly impatient? We’re only too familiar with the likes of you. That’s why we do things a little differently.
We mine the sweet spot where brand building and direct response overlap, so we can create brand loyalty and drive sales simultaneously. That’s the sticky, irresistible magic of brand response, and it’s vital in B2B communications.
Some things simply work exceptionally well together. Monday mornings and triple shot espresso, mullets and Fords, trampolines and icepacks. Brand response appeals to emotion as well as logic, layering the distinct character of the brand with a compelling reason to get up and act immediately.
If you’re anything like our clients, you want to see results right away. That’s the power of brand response. Unlike rational arguments, which lead to consideration, emotions lead to action.
A brand response campaign works across all media, providing a psychological shortcut for customers, moving them from interest to desire to conviction at top speed.
If your brand isn’t using a brand response marketing strategy, get a new agency. You’re wasting your marketing budget.
Big or small, every brand has the choice to advertise more effectively instead of more expensively. Brand response has leveled the marketing playing field. Just make sure you get out there before everyone else does.
When you’re ready to start playing hardball, give us a call.