B2C marketing is not the only way to make personal connections with customers and show a keen awareness of their needs. Business owners need to be able to communicate with their service providers about their needs and concerns. Empathy marketing is therefore applicable to both B2B and B2C.
You ask: How can B2B marketing be based on empathy?
Let’s first establish a scenario that explains how vendors make decisions. Empathy marketing requires an understanding of how decisions are made.
This model is oversimplified; each company creates its own process to meet its needs.
Model for B2B decision-making
When a company decides to purchase a product of high quality, it assembles a group of stakeholders. These stakeholders analyze each vendor from their unique perspective.
The stakeholders will narrow down their options to two similar suppliers. The group has deeper discussions and performs additional analyses in order to choose the winning vendor.
Understanding how companies make decisions that favor one vendor or another is the key to B2B empathetic communication. According to Colette Stevens and Paul Hague, the decision-making process is divided into two stages:
- Rapid-thinking processes have their roots in emotion or instinct. Imagine a situation where you have to choose between flight or fight, or even a small decision like choosing between iced soda or tea. Every day, we make hundreds of decisions quickly, but businesses don’t need to have a committee to decide what pencils they should buy.
- Slow thinking processes tend to be more calculated and logical. We research them and weigh up the pros and cons. This is how we make business decisions. Stevens and Hague state that “something which is costly and critical to the business’s future has a longer journey.”
Companies also have rules when it comes to making purchasing decisions. If a business does not have to make a decision immediately, it will gather information and evaluate the facts. The more money spent, the greater the strategic importance of the decision and the longer the process will be. The purpose of purchasing policies is to ensure that the right people get the final approval.
As B2B marketing professionals, it is our responsibility to understand what the buying team wants and needs during their research. We must take into account all those who may be involved in the decision-making process when creating B2B content.
How to Empathize with Your B2B Marketing
What drives the acquisition of a company?
It’s the job of B2B marketing to identify the pain points and explain how their solution or service can help solve the issue.
A company will only change its supplier if it decides that another product or brand would be better suited to its needs. Companies also make changes to comply with industry regulations or reduce expenses.
Discussions with decision-makers can provide information about the pain points. Listen to frontline salespeople who are in contact with target businesses. Follow the leading publications in your field and social networking sites. Ask your customers what they want from products and services. Please take note of trends that emerge in your conversations and use them to guide your marketing message.
Create content with more thought and strategy.
B2B content can be overwhelming. Forrester’s research found that 65% of decision-makers in the business world who purchase technology felt they received too much marketing material, with a large amount of it being useless.
Around 80% of B2B decision-makers expect to receive relevant content during each stage of the buying process. These businesses prefer to remain anonymous until they are ready to contact you.
You can use the information you gathered in the first step to help you brainstorm content and determine the best way to deliver it. Research keywords and searches in order to find out what your audience wants. Take note of how your audience interacts with the various platforms. Consider a higher level of engagement via email or LinkedIn.
Consider the “why” behind your product.
Think about why you started your brand. You probably started your brand because you saw an opportunity to solve a problem in the industry.
Businesses don’t buy a service or product; they purchase a vendor’s solution to a problem. They want vendors who understand their concerns and are willing to share them. The purchasing process is more like a partnership rather than a transaction.
Digital marketing that is emotionally intelligent creates messages about why you founded your business. By using highly-aware content, you show how your solution to the problem is similar. You discuss the similarity in your minds and how you both strive to improve whatever field you work in.
Keep your content relevant by focusing on the “why” in your content. A short video about your founding story may resonate with the businesses you are targeting. Case studies can be insightful and useful in the decision-making process of others.
Keep in mind the people who are behind the business
Even if a company has a buying committee or a bid process that is clearly defined, the decisions are still made by people. These people do not turn off their emotions when they make a business decision. Even the most rational people still invest emotionally in the business they buy from. They want their vendors, in return, to feel personally invested.
Case studies can be used to reach the people who run the business. These case studies show how you cared for and invested in other companies to solve problems. These stories can be captured through blog posts or video testimonials.
Connect using your unique values.
B2B buyers are all looking for the same thing – to save time and money and work more efficiently. They also want their daily operations to be disrupted as little as possible. How are you different if everyone offers the same value?
Use your unique value proposition as a way to show how you can help your customers reach their business goals. Your unique value proposition should be apparent in all aspects of digital marketing, including the brand website, social media marketing, and drip email campaigns.
Empathy marketing: The competitive advantage
A study by Reach titled The Empathy Delusion revealed that only 30% of marketers were able to empathize with their consumers truly.
To be successful in B2B, you need to earn the trust of your organization. Empathy marketing can give your brand a competitive edge when it comes to building B2B relationships.
Even if they don’t want to buy from you, stakeholders still want to know that your company will help them succeed. Understanding the role of those on the team is essential to knowing what they are concerned about.
Content marketing is responsible for sharing credible stories that show how your brand can help customers reach their goals. Empathy marketing is at its core, regardless of whether it’s B2B or C2C.