Written by Jonathan Seaton – Director Fourgreenleaves Marketing Limited
B2B marketing content used to be a very dry thing, heck, a lot of it still is. But increasingly organisations and marketers have cottoned on to the fact that, while you may be a B2B organisation, what matters is connecting with people on the human level – just like in any other area of marketing really.
Just because your customer might be a business as opposed to an individual, the decision to choose your company, products or services is still ultimately going to be taken by a human being (or a group of them). You need to talk to and connect with these individuals if you’re going to get noticed and really show off what you’re all about.
And how do you go about making this connection then? Well, there’s many elements involved in bringing a bit of human tangibility to the public image of your business but we’re going to focus on your content and, in particular, the power of stories as a marketing tool.
The Power of a Marketing Story
Storytelling has been leveraged in the B2C marketing world since, well, forever. These organisations knew from day dot that they were selling to the individual man or woman in the street and if they were going to turn these people into customers of (and advocates for) their brand then a human connections is essential.
Today you just need to look at the hugely visible marketing of heavyweights like Virgin and the evergreen entrepreneur that is Sir Richard Branson, or Tesla and the “real life Iron Man” in Elon Musk, to find the effectiveness of a story that highlights a cause and the individuals striving to achieve it. People love a story, it makes a brand feel real and helps them identify and connect with the business behind it and the characters within that business.
It’s exactly why, at Fourgreenleaves Marketing, we’re so keen to talk about where we started out, who we are and why we pour our heart and soul in to what we do for our clients. We want the people who arrive on our site or wherever our content appears to instantly feel like they can get to know us. That we’re real people with a passion for digital marketing and using our skills to help the businesses we work with achieve their full potential.
Implementing storytelling in B2B Marketing
Now, don’t worry, we’re not getting delusions of grandeur here and comparing ourselves to the brands and business giants we mentioned above but the concept is the same for everyone. You have a target market and it is made up of real human beings. So talk to them and connect with them through storytelling and you might be surprised at the impact it can have.
This story-based approach can be applied throughout your marketing content to give your readers a true insight in to the value that you can offer. Be it through the visibility of day to day business activity over social media, case study content that explains exactly how what you do works in real life or a focus on your people doing things potentially totally unrelated to the business but showcasing the real personality of your business – this stuff matters.
Stories provide the content that truly engages an audience on a human level and builds their interest in, and affection for, your organisation, brand and people. The added beauty is your story is developing and changing every day so there’s a ready-made stream of fresh content just waiting to be put out there. You just need to talk about it.
Ask yourself, when was the last time you thought about your business’s story? And more to the point, when was the last time you put it out there for the World to see? If the answer to these questions is “never” or “some time in the distant past” then you really could be missing a big marketing trick.
We’ve been helping businesses tell their stories and building successful marketing campaigns around them for years now. For B2B, now is the time to embrace the power of storytelling and watch real people get genuinely interested in your business and what you do. Go on, just give it a try!
About Guest Contributor: Jonathan Seaton is the Founder & Managing Director of Fourgreenleaves Marketing Limited. He is driven by a passion for two things – Cutting-edge marketing based on quality content AND helping small businesses to grow and maximize their potential.
