Robert, CMO of a cybersecurity business, devotes his energies to making his company’s solution stand out in a very crowded marketplace. He ensures his marketing and sales teams stay on top of the latest available analytics, CRM, social media, and other technologies that’ll help them achieve his goals. While Bob is a super-effective CMO, he’s also a fanatical sportsman - forever trying to fit tennis matches in his already busy schedule - as well as a devoted dad of three.
Say you’re trying to sell him the newest endpoint security tech, or shock-absorbing tennis shoes, or awesome family vacation ideas - should you speak to Bob the same way?
Not if you want to succeed.
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B2B and B2C - Two Very Different Relationships
True, marketing messages for B2B and B2C have similar must-haves - both should build trust, appeal to your buyer persona, present your product as the solution to your audience’s problem, etc.
However, B2B marketing messaging needs to convince a committee of decision makers, not just an individual. B2B messaging needs to be more detailed, rational, and educational, with a bit of emotion thrown in - rather than B2C’s shorter and broader, emotional, and entertaining approaches.
Why B2B Messaging Is More Challenging
B2B marketing messaging is not just harder to create, but also harder to test. You can’t run focus groups to test messages for a cybersecurity or AI product.
The B2B sales process is concomitantly more complex as well - and these two factors are related. B2B technologies are more complex and costlier, so many purchasing decisions are made by committees and almost always take longer. Therefore, B2B messaging must appeal to a whole range of stakeholders - from the C-suite to the IT department to the end user. Unlike B2C impulse purchases, B2B purchases involve a much larger price tag that must be justified and deemed worthy of the expense.
Moreover, B2B messaging must be crafted in such a way that the target audience understands how the technology improves operations.
Marketers: You'll need to translate all that techno stuff into language your audience will understand. Of course, you must address things differently for the CISO than you would for the CFO. At the same time, you should be creative enough so that your messaging makes your solution stand out.
To be able to create B2B messaging that serves as the basis for social media, blogs, websites that convert, or content marketing that moves sales, marketers must develop personas by researching their prospects and customers and their competitor’s customers. It’s the only way to know what they need to hear and what their pain points are.
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Get Your B2B Marketing Messaging Right - Talk to K2
The right messaging will convince your B2B clients to choose your offering over your competitor’s. At K2, we’ve been crafting messaging and related content materials for a full range of B2B clients - from AI and agriculture to cybersecurity and DevOps and more. We know, understand, and talk tech fluently - call us to help you translate your unique technology into sales- and profit-driving materials.