Sales tend to go to the company with the best value. But true value in a B2B market has less to do with a nicely-branded logo and a well-crafted catch phrase.
Value is about perception.
Your brand needs to be seen as the most valuable option out there. To do that, you need to reevaluate not only the basics of your branding but the value you’re adding to your customers.
Why B2B Brands Need to Focus on Value
B2B buyers are more than 5x as likely to consider, 12x as likely to purchase, and 30x as likely to pay a premium for products with high-value branding.
But what does high-value branding look like?
In the past, B2B branding (if that term is used at all) has stayed mostly in the realm of “visual representation.”
Brands have developed marketing strategies with the assumption that buyers are completely logical with how they make purchasing decisions.
Understanding these emotions will help you craft marketing messages that connect. In the B2B world, this message is usually called a “value proposition.”
But it’s about more than having a catchy slogan.
You need to remain consistent in how you talk about your brand and how you relate to your audience.
How to Craft an Emotional Value Proposition
How does a B2B business create an emotionally driven message?
Business value propositions tend to place a stronger emphasis on the financial value of an offering, like reducing costs or growing revenue, rather than the emotional value.
The best approach is a combination of the two.
AQuantified Value Proposition (QVP) is one of the best ways to combine financial motivation and emotional motivation for B2B buyers.
QVPs are like regular value propositions except they focus on verifiable facts that are personalized to the individual buyer.
While not an outright statement, this could easily be turned into a QVP because the benefits are quantifiable. “We help customers convert 3x the average monthly leads.”
Compare this to the traditional value propositions they have on their homepage:
You shouldn’t assume you already know the need just because you occupy the same space as your audience (or your competitors).
If you understand your audience, you can craft an emotional, branded value proposition that tells them you’re not like the competition and that you can do what you say you can do.
This builds trust in a way that other types of marketing simply can’t.
Spend your time doing audience research to clearly identify key demographics,firmographics, and buyer personas.
Power words are those that provoke a strong psychological response.
Some examples would include words like:
“You” –According to Kevan Lee at Buffersocial, “you” is among the most powerful words in the English language.
“Easy” – “Easy” has been shown to have better conversion rates when referencing a product or service.
“Instantly” –Studies show that the word “instantly” triggers the gratification center of the brain.
If you want to see whether or not your QVP is successfully targeting the right words, try using a headline analyzer, like the one fromCoSchedule.
Headline analyzers will look for the emotion in your phrasing and give you a quality score.
Go to the analyzer homepage and type in your QVP:
It will give you an overall rating of your word value (up to 100%).
It will also give you a sentiment analysis as well as your targeted keywords, which can help with SEO if you’re looking to drive traffic with your branding, too.
While not an exact tool, it can help you create value propositions for your marketing messages, especially when you produce relevant content later on.
3. Use content to drive your brand’s value
B2B buyers love content.
They want more than just a sales pitch from you. They want to know that you can solve their problems and that you are an expert at what you do.
B2B content allows you to expand your audience, develop brand loyalty, and generate more leads by appealing to other businesses in a direct and knowledgeable way.
According to Content Marketing Institute, 89% of B2B marketers are now using content as a primary way of marketing.
Creating blogs, emails or other forms of marketing materials can count as content. But B2B content can also use testimonials or other forms of storytelling to get your message out there.
“Microsoft Stories,” for example, is excellent at showing brand storytelling done well.
They illustrate what they do through their content instead of a specific branded message, showing how their company is impacting the world. This puts their services (and brand) front and center without being obvious.
Storytelling like this is a way of lifting the “corporate veil” of the company and showing the emotional, human side behind the numbers.
After all, a good branded message will evoke emotion. Stories and content are the perfect way to do that.
And you can include your QVPs in your content for an added boost, too.
4. Engage buyers on social media
You need to be connecting with your audience on an emotional level.
The absolute best way to do that is by using social media as a connection point.
According to research by Omobono,79% of B2B marketers surveyed rated social media as the most effective marketing channel.
In the same survey, 38% noted that if they had extra budget for next year, they would spend it on social media.
Even though social media has traditionally been touted as the go-to marketing media for B2C brands, B2B buyers have been using it in record numbers.
The reason for its success is simple: B2B audiences are tired of being sold to.
Again, it’s about emotion and connection. While they still want quantifiable evidence that your brand can help them, they also want more from you than just metrics.
The message doesn’t always have to be serious, either. Like this example from ZenDesk:
When you engage with your audience and give them tangible experience with your business, you communicate your brand’s value.
This establishes a relationship with the buyer that leads to loyalty and engagement in many different ways beyond the final “purchase point” of the buyer journey.
If you want to grow your brand in today’s B2B market, you have to get social.
5. Be authentic in your brand message
Brand trust and loyalty are especially important to the effectiveness of your marketing.
In order to build trust, you have to remain authentic to your brand voice. This could mean taking a more casual tone with your audience, likethis company does:
In an article for Distilled,Kyra Kuik notes that Millennials will be a major influencer of brand engagement over the coming years, saying:
“Since Millennials align more closely with brands personally and emotionally than older generations, it’s important to them that brands be genuine to their own brand identities.”
This is especially true as media saturation increases.
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