โYouโve really got to put yourself out there. Donโt be too stiff.โ
โBe honest and sincere!โ
โBe vulnerable and relatableโฆ and it doesnโt hurt if you can make โem laugh.โ
Is this advice for a middle-aged man trying online dating for the first time? Or is it advice for B2B marketers?
Given the proximity to Valentineโs Day, canโt it be both?
The point is, as good as this advice may be for marketers, itโs as vague as it is omnipresent. We talk about โperson-to-personโ marketing and โhumanizing the brand.โ But what does it really mean to humanize a brand?ย
In some cases, apparently, it means high-octane nightmare fuel. So, maybe donโt try and make an adorable mascot for your software-as-a-service solution.
Here are some better ways to โhumanizeโ your B2B content.
5 Ways to Humanize B2B Content Marketing
It can be hard to bring out the humanity in B2B content, especially when your product is intangible. Not many folks feel a warm sense of empathy with a cloud-based data solution. You canโt take adorable Instagram photos of happy customers cuddling with your supply chain logistics platform. That just means that B2B content marketers have to be more creative than even our B2C counterparts.ย
Get Real about Personalization
We all know thereโs a fine line between being personal and being overly familiar. But we have to find that sweet spot between, โHi, [firstname]โ and โHey Bob Johnson, 42, who ate a hamburger for lunch, how was your recent prostate exam?โ
For B2B marketers, think more about smarter segmentation and less about personalizing on the individual level. As Ardath Albee (persona expert extraordinaire) puts it, โIn B2B, we donโt need to know their shoe size and we donโt need to talk about their gender. We donโt need to know they live in the suburbs and have a wife, two kids, and a dog, and they drive a red Corvette.โ
What we do need to know are the general challenges and aspirations people with a specific job title in a specific industry might have in common. Then we can customize content to suit their job-related needs โ even the ones that donโt relate directly to the product.ย
Find the Emotional Core
Itโs hard to imagine someone getting emotional about a B2B product โ jumping up and down with excitement, wiping away tears, or eagerly unboxing the latest model. For B2C, the product itself might inspire these emotions. For B2B, the emotion comes in at a different angle.
Itโs not about the solution itself โ the emotion comes from what the solution can do. For example, the product may be a software solution that enables automation. The emotion comes from an employee who is able to finally leave work on time to be at home with their family.ย
Or itโs the thrill of earning a promotion with the help of a new analytics tool. Or the intertwined hope and anxiety of starting your own business, using a web hosting platform to launch your first site.ย
[bctt tweet=”โFind the emotional stories that your solution makes possible, and make them the star of your content.โ @Nitewrites ” username=”toprank”]
Design a Content Experience
We know that valuable, best-answer content is the minimum for reaching an audience. Thatโs the new table stakes.ย
But B2B marketers are frequently accustomed to no-frills, straightforward presentation for all that thoughtful content. Itโs called a white paper, after all, not a plaid paper. But when weโre thoughtful about the content experience, we can show off the brandโs creativity and personality, while at the same time showing respect for the audience.
Think about turning a long-scrolling asset into a beautiful and unique interactive experience. Or that series of interview posts into a long-form video series. Content experience is all about telling your audience, โHey, we know that people need to be entertained. Weโre people, too! So we made this not only useful, but also beautiful to look at and fun to play around with.โย
Earn Trust By Asking for Help
I know, itโs tempting to present your brand as the alpha and omega, be-all and end-all source of all knowledge. If your wisdom isnโt absolute, why would people trust you as an authority? But the truth is, humility builds credibility more than the most dazzling display of knowledge does.ย
Itโs called the Ben Franklin effect: When you help someone, you tend to like them โ even more than if they helped you. So, give your audience an opportunity to help you out.
ย Ask questions that you genuinely want to hear answers to. Engage with their responses, ask more, let their expertise drive an ongoing conversation. This type of engagement accomplishes multiple goals:
- Your audience gets to show off their expertise
- Even those who donโt participate can now see themselves in your content
- Your brand becomes relatable and interactive
- You might actually learn something that can drive your next big idea
Involve More Actual Humans in Content
Brands donโt create content; people do. But frequently we hide the human content creators behind the monolith of the brand. If weโre trying to connect with people on a personal level, weโve got to let the people shine through.
That means giving employees and executives alike a voice in your content. But donโt stop there: Feature your customers and prospects, too.ย
Think about including influencers in your content as well, and not just as a one-off. Yet another of the endless perks of influencer marketing is that humanization of your brand. Influencers add credibility and prestige to content, but donโt overlook how they add personality, humor, and humanity, too.
Embrace Your Human Side
As a creative writer with a weird sense of humor, Iโm incredibly lucky to be in marketing right now. Just a decade ago, B2B marketing would have driven me insane by my third dry-as-dust eBook. Thereโs only so many times you can write about โutilizing and leveraging synergyโ in third-person passive voice before the gears start to slip.
Fortunately, B2B content marketing has finally caught up with B2C in terms of creativity, emotional import, and essential humanity. We have โpermissionโ to do it right โ so what are we waiting for?
Humanize your brand with some great influencer content this year: Here are 25 ideas to get you started.
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