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man laughing and crying

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”  This Maya Angelou quote applies to marketing as well.

Emotional Marketing campaigns perform better than factual ones by 2x, according to Fast Company data of over 2,000 advertising case studies. In the B2B world, Buyers feel like they don’t need your product as much as you think they do.

Harsh? Maybe, but true. 86% of  B2B buyers  believe that we are all selling basically the same stuff. They think we are all the same.

Today’s buyers are flooded with ads telling them otherwise. So they tune them out completely. When we need information to make a decision, we just go search for it. Buyers don’t necessarily need your products and they certainly don’t need your marketing campaigns.

emotional marketing stat
Source: folajomiballo

But by tapping into their emotions, brands can reach buyers in the reptilian brain where they don’t even realize that they have fallen in love with what your brand means to them

From Promotion to Emotion. Here’s what you need to know:

  • Brands that can connect with their buyers on an emotional level will see 2 times more impact than Marketers promoting products
  • Features, functions and business outcome” marketing delivers a 21% lift in perceived brand benefits
  • Professional, social and emotional benefits” marketing has a 42% lift (hence the 2x vs. business value)
  • Buyers feel a much closer personal connection to B2B brands than to consumer brands.

The “Unique Selling Proposition” (USP) is dead

Source: Corporate Executive Board

Think you’re unique? 86% of B2B buyers see “no real difference between suppliers” according to Gartner. But they are more attached to us emotionally. This is mainly due to the “perceived risks” inherent in the B2B purchase.

In other words, you will likely not lose your job for buying a hamburger at McDonalds but you might for buying the wrong internet router for your business.

Buyers are not listening to your unique selling proposition. They don’t believe it if you force them to listen. In fact, some research even suggests that buyers are less likely to consider a B2b brand based on how much promotional marketing they receive from them. So is it time for Emotional marketing?

What is Emotional Marketing?

Emotional marketing is a tactic used by marketers to connect with buyers in an emotional way. Emotional marketing uses storytelling to inspire feelings, align with values and soothe pain points so brands can form personal bonds with their audience.

Brands struggle with this despite the massive amount of data that’s available showing this to be an effective approach. Employee advocacy and influencer marketing campaigns are effective mainly because they tap into human desire to want to connect with people “just like me” or with people we already know.

For CMOs, marketers and communications professionals alike, it’s worth diving into this concept more in-depth so that we can better meet the demands of our customers.

Source: Pan Communications

How To Make B2B Marketing Personal

According to Gartner, Marketers need to make their content more emotional

  • Understand customer personal goals and emotions.
  • Use open observation of customers to spot non-verbal or contextual cues that reveal underlying emotions.
  • Craft brand messages that convey personal value by using your customers’ natural language not your internal jargon.
  • Keyword research is still a big part of the process to make sure you are seeing what terms will resonate with the larger market.
  • Drive action by reminding buyers that their current pains are worse than the pain of change.
  • Teach customers something new about their business needs then lead them to your differentiators.

Here are some approaches we’ve used to make marketing more emotional:

Focus on helping not selling: dopes your content primarily promote something you sell, or solve a customer pain point? Your customers are asking questions every single day. Are you providing answers? How often you publish content says something about how much you are focused on your audience.

Apply elements of effective storytelling: Stories connect us on a deeply emotional level. But do you follow a standard storytelling framework:

  1. Make your customer the hero of the story (not your product)
  2. Marinate in the pain of their struggle. This helps them to see that you understand them. Don’t rush to the solution
  3. Send them on a journey. Map content to the early, middle, and late stages of the buyer journey.
  4. Be their guide. Every hero has a mentor. Show them stats and best practices. Share research and examples.
  5. Slay the monster / kill the villain. If your customer is the hero, then no action might be the villain. Show them the pain on non-action.
  6. Achieve resolution and send them home. Validate their decision by showing them proof points. Paint a picture of the ideal state.

Don’t be afraid to share strong opinions. I believe Marketing needs a little more snark. But we have to be honest and authentic. Sometimes, I even allow typos. It helps me to rank for keywords other people are likely to mis-spell.

Focus on the Big 6 emotions: Anger, Sadness, Fear, Regret, Joy, and Love of course. Use action words like:

  • Apply
  • Join
  • Hurry!
  • Act quickly!
  • Save your spot!
  • Don’t miss out!
  • Don’t be the last to join!
  • Discover
  • Explore
  • Transform
  • Jumpstart
  • Accelerate
  • Eliminate
  • Reduce

If you create a little FOMO, that’s not a bad thing either. For example, Discover these awesome digital marketing cheat sheets. This page converts more leads for me than any other on my site. But you probably don’t want to see it. It’s ok. Don’t go there.

Also, don’t miss out on the email marketing tips from some of the most successful brands. Want more?

Ok, did you know social media isn’t enough to drive your business. Want to know what is?

The bottom line: emotional marketing is better than promotion. But your boss probably wants you to tell the world how awesome your company is anyway. But just try and sprinkle in some good old fashion helpful content along the way. Who knows, maybe that little effort will be more successful than all the rest.

And if you want to create helpful content for your business, check out our weekly blog service. We do the keyword research, headline creation, content writing and monthly reporting.

The post Why Emotional Marketing Beats Promotion By 2X appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.

Marketing during a pandemic? You did it! Your reward? Record inflation and the challenge of marketing in a down economy that feels as uncertain as ever.

If you’re a frustrated marketer or business owner — you’re not alone.

We’ve all felt the squeeze of the past few years. Understandably, companies are looking for ways to be more financially conservative right now as we wait for the economy to get back on track. Marketing, in many cases, is one of the first things on the budgetary chopping block.

But I’m here to tell you that pausing your marketing efforts is not the way to get your business through this tough time.

I recently received an email newsletter from fellow marketer (and CEO of RevBoss — a B2B sales prospecting service provider) Eric Boggs that inspired me to expand on this topic.

Eric shared his thoughts on the Tweet pictured below:

Jason Lemkin tweet re: content marketing in a down economy.

Image Source: RevBoss

He outlined RevBoss’s plans to stay the course with their marketing efforts while taking smart steps in the meantime like cutting travel costs, creating more conservative forecasts, monitoring the pipeline for a slowdown, and expecting longer conversion times.

Why? Because the market won’t stay down forever. Consumers will start spending again. And when they do, you’ll see the ROI of your consistency.

Just like RevBoss has taken their own medicine and stayed the course on both outbound and inbound efforts, here at Marketing Insider Group we’ve kept our content strategy active and our lead generation efforts at the same level (or higher) than before.

In this article, I’ll cover why and how content marketing in a down economy can be your swiss army knife when other factors are out of your control. You can use it even in times of uncertainty to keep your pipeline flowing and earn a huge boost in ROI when markets go back on the upswing.

Quick Takeaways

  • Content marketing is 62% more cost affecting than traditional marketing methods.
  • The companies that bounce back strongest from economic downturns are those that don’t cut marketing costs.
  • Successful content marketing depends on momentum. Pausing your marketing efforts during a downturn leaves you playing catch up once it’s over.
  • Staying focused on your lead gen and nurturing positions you for success when markets go back on the upswing.

Content Marketing in a Down Economy: Why it Matters

Hitting the pause button on marketing looks totally different in 2022 than it did in the past. No marketing used to mean eliminating expensive tactics like billboards, TV and radio commercials, newspaper and magazine ads, and the like.

Today, you can execute an entire marketing strategy online.

If you’ve read our blog before, you probably already know that content marketing is 62% more cost effective (and generates 3X the leads) than traditional marketing methods.

Content marketing costs 62% less and generates 3X the leads of traditional marketing methods.

Image Source: Visme

This is critical in times when companies are trying to be as fiscally responsible as possible. It makes it possible to keep marketing on the books even when you’re trimming costs.

Equally importantly, content shows both current and potential customers that they can trust you to be consistent. It maintains your brand visibility while delivering value to your audience, even when they’re not ready to buy.

Then, when things improve and buyers are ready to spend again, you can be confident they’ll look to your brand as a top choice. Cutting out marketing, on the other hand, will likely result in an empty pipeline and losing customers to competitors once the economy improves.

The Momentum Factor

Content marketing doesn’t yield results overnight. It takes time, frequent publishing, and steady consistency before you start seeing results. It requires marketers to take a long view of success, being willing to put in the effort for a while before the ROI arrives.

This is even truer in a time of economic downturn.

Here’s the thing: consumers may not be buying, but they still have needs. That means they still research, try to learn, and look for potential solution providers to pursue later, when they can make a purchase.

If you stop marketing to save costs, your momentum suffers. You’re no longer earning new keyword rankings, generating new traffic, or creating content to be shared in other places.

As a result, your audience may not be able to find you, even if their needs align with what you can provide. When they do look to buy, you won’t be on their list. To boot, once you are ready to start marketing again, you’re looking at months of building new momentum before you see results again.

On the flip side, consistent content marketing in a down economy can actually shorten the time and depth of any downturn you experience in leads and conversions.

Content marketing in a down economy can shorten the length and depth of any downturn you experience.

Image Source

5 Things to Do Instead of Cutting Your Marketing Budget

Trim costs where you can

Just because you aren’t taking marketing off the budget list doesn’t mean you can’t trim costs elsewhere. Find non mission-critical budget items and reduce costs in those areas instead.

Eric mentioned that RevBoss cut their travel expenses — a smart move in a world where Zoom has become the norm. Reducing supplies or pausing new equipment purchases are other areas you might consider.

Keep an eye on your pipeline

Don’t jump the gun and cut costs before you see an actual dip in business activity. Consumer spending activity and demand varies greatly by industry and customer segment. It’s important not to make any sweeping changes without evidence of a real need to do so.

Monitor your pipeline closely for signs of changing trends. Use data-driven tools like your CRM, email marketing platform, SEO tool, and Google Analytics to track user, lead and customer behavior. Make your decisions objectively based on the data you analyze rather than what you hear in the news.

Adjust your forecasts

Reaching marketing and sales goals is important to keeping your teams feeling positive. Working to hit targets you know are unlikely, on the other hand, will only lead to frustration. Don’t set yourself — and your team — up for disappointment with unrealistic forecasts. If you (like many others) are seeing longer lead conversion times, adjust your forecasts accordingly so you know what to expect.

Focus on lead gen

To earn revenue, you need to convert paying customers. That’s why it’s tempting to double down on conversion efforts in an economic downswing. Paying attention to the leads already in your pipeline is of course important, but so is maintaining a strong lead generation strategy.

Leads you generate right now may not convert at the speed you usually expect, but they will in time. Don’t quit on your inbound or outbound lead gen efforts. Keep your pipeline full and be sure to implement a strong lead nurturing strategy to keep your leads engaged until they’re able to make a purchase.

Refresh and repurpose old content

If you do need to save on content creation costs, your existing content library is one place you can turn. In any economic climate, refreshing and repurposing old content can give your traffic a boost. Here’s what I recommend:

Use Google Analytics and other data tools to identify your best and worst performing content

Refresh your best performing content when needed by adding updated statistics, new visuals, or any new information relevant to the topic since its original publish date

Look through your worst performing content and delete irrelevant pieces. Make necessary changes (like better keyword usage, new visuals, etc.) to the rest so they perform better

Believe it or not, old content can be a huge source of new leads. HubSpot recently researched this very topic internally and found their old content accounts for 76% of their page views and 92% of their new leads.

Internal HubSpot research found that old content accounted for 76% of their page views and 92% of their leads.

Image Source: HubSpot

Playing the Long Game

Content marketing in a down economy really comes down to one critical commitment: taking a longer view when it comes to ROI. The research backs it up — Harvard Business Review reports that the companies that bounce back strongest after economic downturns are those that continue to prioritize marketing throughout.

You may not see results right away. Leads likely won’t convert at the rate you’re accustomed to. But if you’re confident in your brand (and we hope you are), you can trust that those leads will convert in time.

And even when buyers aren’t buying, they still need what your brand has to offer in the form of expertise, resources, and information about your products and services. Staying the course with your marketing strategy keeps your brand visible, present, and available so you can count on a big boost when the markets do go back on the upswing.

Need Help Weathering the Storm?

If you’re ready to earn more traffic to your site with content marketing, check out our SEO Blog Writing Service. Our team of writers and SEO experts can deliver you optimized, read-to-publish content every week for a year (or more).

Schedule a quick consultation with me to get started!

The post Market Got You Down? Why Content Marketing Is Even More Important Now appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.