The traditional B2B marketing landscape looks a lot like a desert: dry, dull, and devoid of emotion. But that’s changing.
More and more B2B marketers are focused on injecting their messaging with emotion—because just like in B2C, feelings matter. A 2023 Forbes article, featuring insights from Melissa Furze, Global Director of Customer Science at LinkedIn, explains:
Emotional storytelling in B2B marketing is your ticket to making an impact. Let’s dive into how leading with emotion can benefit your brand.
1. You deepen the brand-buyer bond.
Whether your target is a retail shopper or business buyer—they’re still human with both functional and emotional needs. When you look at things through their lens, your story will resonate on a deeper level. According to a recent LinkedIn study:
When you introduce a human element to your brand story and infuse your messaging with emotion, you make far more powerful connections than you can forge with just a focus on features and benefits.
2. Powerful connections lead to conversions.
50% of buyers are more likely to buy if they experience an emotional connection with your brand. And, according to a recent Salesforce report on the state of customer expectations and behavior:
An emotional connection can help play back your understanding of your targets’ needs and builds the critical element of trust.
3. You stand out in a crowded market.
For the most part, B2B brands are telling the same story. You can use emotion to differentiate your voice and give your creative a distinctive personality. According to the B2B Institute, an analysis of the impact of award-winning, creative advertising on a variety of business metrics—from market share to gross margins to corporate profitability—estimated that strong creative can be 10-20% more sales effective than mediocre creative. However, a 2021 analysis of 1,700 B2B ads showed that:
Using emotional storytelling to deepen the bonds and connections that B2B customers have with their brands can lead to a higher likelihood of sales, greater market share, and, potentially, to higher profits.
And now: an emotional storytelling success story.
Emotional storytelling can take many forms—from heartfelt to humorous—depending on your industry. If you’re in the healthcare space, leading with the heart can be an effective way to tell your story.
Take Clarity Benefit Solutions, for example. JK Design helped launch their Ready For Life HSA, a brand-new unique product featuring an interest-free instant payroll advance for employees.
Our team identified the emotional drivers for each of their three audiences (brokers, employers, and employees) to craft messaging that communicated the peace of mind that Clarity’s HSA could provide and how it could help them to be ready for whatever life had in store. The result? One hundred brokers signed on in three weeks’ time—far exceeding their original estimate of three months.
Clearly, feelings matter in B2B.
When you can leverage the power of emotion in your B2B marketing efforts, great things can happen. It can humanize your brand. It can make your messaging more relatable. It can help you connect with more customers—and keep your bonds strong over time. Emotional storytelling works, especially when you have the right partner to help you tell it. Feel like connecting? Let’s chat.
