Businesses - Get Emotional

B2B marketing in 2023, even as automated AI content plays a bigger and bigger part, we have to become more human and more inspirational to lift our engagement rates.

This study by WundermanThompson 'Inspire' data crunching engine shows us how even in B2B we need to start removing the corporate layers that mask our true personalities, and loosen up.

Here are the B2B marketing take-aways from the report.

1. The most inspiring B2B brands are more than five times more likely to be buyers’ first choice, as well as 20% more trusted

2. Only 3.9% of the cases in the IPA Effectiveness Databank (1980-2020) are from the B2B realm. This stat supports the idea that B2B brands could save a lot of time and money trying to identify target audiences by transforming their brand into one that is 'inspirational'. Brands that 'inspire' are already on the target audience consideration list.

3. Brand-building thought leadership content is shifting perceptions to the same extent as great advertising.

4. Content can be used not just to inform or educate, but to entertain and inspire, resulting in longer-lasting memories.

5. ‘brand’ and ‘emotion’ are, if anything, even more important for those looking to secure the services of other business, in what often amount to critically important investment decisions.

Bottom line is that if your content even slightly smells of rhetorical marketing you're not going to engage many people - and that means a big hit on your conversion rate.