Why B2B marketing needs meaning
A transformational approach for marketing leaders
This is leading businesses to revisit their purpose, and to ask how they can better serve customers whose lives, priorities and businesses are undergoing a once-in-a-generation impact.
But it’s important to keep in mind that the topic of purpose is rich in risks as well as rewards. For customers to really buy in to a brand’s purpose, they must feel it’s authentic. As one leading marketer puts it bluntly: “We’re all sick of seeing an emotional film then there’s nothing to back it up.”1
It’s easy to say today’s landscape is different. The tricky bit is making sense of what’s changed and then adapting in the best way.
As part of this process, businesses are looking inward as well as outward, to understand how they must evolve in step with the mood of markets and customers.
The search for meaning
B2B marketing with meaning is about taking meaningful actions for more transformative marketing impact.
The senior marketer’s task is to translate this evolved sense of purpose into marketing that creates genuine connections with customers who now act, think and feel differently.
This guide will help support ROI-driven marketers to embrace this mindset shift.
It offers ideas on how to achieve deep, lasting, and positive change for the longer-term, while remaining empathetic to the short-term challenges and internal boundaries marketing leaders face.
Action for change
Amika Gupta,
Head of Customer Marketing, Fujitsu
Digital transformation accelerated dramatically as agile technology brands adapted to demands for seamless remote and hybrid working. This meant that people’s personal and professional lives merged, blurring the lines between consumer and buyer – and leaving B2B customers with even higher expectations of technology and digital experiences.
This rush to digital also saw a heavy shift to digital marketing channels, meaning all brands are now fighting for attention in the same spaces. More than ever, B2B marketing leaders need to ensure their brand’s activity is noticeable, relatable, memorable and even unpredictable for it to stand out and resonate.
McKinsey
The rush to digital
1
We’ve identified four key ways in which the B2B environment has undergone fundamental change.
A transforming B2B market
The motto here is ‘keep it real’. Time, attention and trust are priceless commodities in today’s market, and genuine communication is the way to earn them. Lead with emotional
connections that feel authentic because they are authentic, in order to create distinctive and connected customer experiences.
Senior marketers need to show how well they know their customers both personally and professionally, building trust through action and sustaining real relationships through engaging interactions.
0
Forrester
Emotions matter most
4
Sheer marketing overload has made B2B buyers more perceptive and immune to marketing messages. Especially now the lines between work and life have become increasingly fuzzy.
At the same time, B2B buyer journeys are getting more and more complex. The buying group for a B2B solution can involve up to 10 decision makers, all with their own objectives and agendas, according to research from Gartner5 – plus there are many other people involved in influencing those decisions.
In response, marketing leaders must adapt strategies that forge more genuine connections with customers, and which resonate with people in collective buying teams. This includes providing targeted thought leadership and practical guidance that helps stakeholders qualify their choices and reach a consensus.
Harvard Business Review
Buyers have changed
3
Winning the new B2B customer
Many B2B businesses have focused on short-term campaigns to generate much-needed revenue, though often using predictable techniques to engage their target audiences. Digital channels have become especially noisy and flooded as B2B and B2C brands compete relentlessly for attention.
Senior B2B marketers have been left needing to achieve B2C-style relevance, responsiveness and impact, with a shift of focus onto long-term effectiveness and growth.
Forbes
Marketing becomes saturated
2
Marketing with meaning enables B2B brands to find their rightful space in a crowded, fast-moving world.
It’s an approach to B2B marketing which is:
Bringing it all together in marketing with meaning
Customer obsessed:
Viewing every interaction through the lens of customer priorities, and always starting with the customer’s wants and needs before defining an approach and solution.
Emotionally intelligent:
Authentically and continuously connected to the feelings and issues real people care about – because genuine connections resonate loudest.
Creatively impactful:
Cutting through the noise with distinctive, memorable executions that deliver messages in ways that make people feel inspired to act.
Digitally different:
Executing forensically targeted and impactful digital programmes, using relevant data to cut through
the digital noise and connect with business customers wherever they are.
MINDSET
YOUR
EVOLVE
Your role as a marketing leader is changing from sales enabler to growth driver.
As you move from qualifying and nurturing leads to providing the fuel that keeps the business running, your marketing strategies must evolve too – becoming dynamically different, super-relevant, and easily adaptable to customers and change.
As you look to activate marketing with meaning, keep in mind the need to:
Blend emotional intelligence with customer obsession
- Continually listen, learn, and respond to the concerns of real people
- Apply active listening and actionable intelligence
- Increase customer value by shaping deeper, longer-lasting relationships
Put customers at the centre of their own story
- Define your difference in ways your customers and prospects will recognise and relate to
- Apply visionary creative strategies and power immersive engagement
- Drive inspiration, interest and action
Stay ahead of the engagement curve
- Translate real insight into ongoing customer impact
- Be more outwardly focused and in step with your audiences
- Keep one foot in the here-and-now while building towards longer-term success
We can help you open up a meaningful dialogue between your B2B technology business and your ideal business customers.
From an external market perspective, we can see where you are best placed to engage your target audience.
We also look at it from your side – acknowledging your internal boundaries, while focusing on getting your brand to its position of marketing power.
Our advisory approach is all in, from market intelligence and strategic storytelling to visionary creative and digital impact.
We develop B2B marketing with meaning – defining, shaping, and amplifying your value in a way that resonates with your audience.
Revere is the strategic agency for B2B marketing with meaning
Always be exactly where your business customers are – digitally, physically, emotionally and rationally.
Applying human intelligence for deeper engagement
Bringing meaning to life
We align to three strategic principles to make sure your marketing achieves a measurable, meaningful impact with your target audience.
Make every customer journey one energised, relevant, positive, and personal brand experience.
Inspiring experiences for market differentiation
Creating a connected strategy for longer-term value
Turn ad-hoc customer interactions into value-boosting customer relationships.
At Revere, we support you in developing and delivering your long-term marketing strategy from the outside in. Our advisory approach allows us to balance an outward, market-leading perspective with a clear view of your ongoing objectives and any internal challenges you face along the way.
We provide market intelligence, advice and guidance to keep you on the straight route to value – and as your strategic agency partner, we will accelerate and amplify the positive impact on your customers and business.
We help you brave the change
Fiona McKenzie,
Chief Operating Officer:
Get in touch to find out how Revere can help you create B2B marketing with meaning for distinctive customer value and longer-term business growth.
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