Businesses marketing to other businesses share some things in common with those selling their goods and services directly to consumers, but some key differences set B2B messaging apart from its B2C counterpart. It might seem tricky for one company to create engaging content for another, and that’s because it can be—breaking through the noise of competitors to speak human-to-human in B2B marketing is a challenge.
Fortunately, the members of Forbes Agency Council know how to gain attention and traction with B2B messaging, and storytelling is at the heart of these methods. Here, 13 members share their best tips for crafting real-world stories that humanize a brand and relay narratives B2B customers want to read.
Forbes Agency Council members share tips for crafting real-world stories that B2B customers will want to read.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Connect To The Reader’s Values
B2B content needs to connect to the reader’s values and not be simply about pure utility. Present ideas, actions and firsthand experiences that inspire and empower people to drive change. Illustrate the impact their actions can have on businesses, families and communities when putting this information to use. If it speaks to a person’s “why,” it’s going to have a lasting impact. – Johnnie Munger, Wonderful Collective
2. Focus On Real-Life Examples And Current Events
Center your content around real-life examples that everyone can relate to or relate your content to current events. This breaks up “need to know” material into content that is easily digestible and that readers can’t help but continue to read. The best stories end up getting organically shared because they provoke some kind of emotion. – Melissa Litchfield, Litchfield Media
3. Take A Consumer-Oriented Approach
The rapid commoditization of B2B offerings makes building brands more important, and lookalike audience modeling no longer works in B2B. Find the authentic soul of your brand and look for ways to outmarket your competitors. Don’t be afraid to take a consumer-oriented approach, as your targets are consumers too. They will probably appreciate the fresh approach and be more curious to learn more about your brand. – Scott Gardner, Liquid Agency
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4. Write To Appeal To Humans
B2B buyers are people. B2B content should be written to appeal to humans. Focus your content on being interesting, insightful and compelling. Start by sharing stories of challenges and successes (or even failures) from the perspective of a customer. Present value proposition messages using terms and language people relate to. Even standard “need to know” info can be written to entice rather than bore. – Renee Yeager, Yeager Marketing
5. Define Three Key Elements
To craft an engaging B2B story, define three key elements: the potential customer, their problem and a guide. As the story unfolds, your customer recognizes their problem, they encounter a guide (you!) who gives them a plan, and this plan leads to a successful outcome. – Wendy Covey, TREW Marketing
6. Start With Insights Derived From Research
B2B audiences are people too, with the same emotions, experiences and biases at work that drive their personal consumption. For marketers, it has to start with insights derived from research. One-on-one interviews, group ideation sessions and job shadowing are three ways to uncover ways to communicate product and service benefits through storytelling, videos, visuals and interactivity. – Eric Gilbertsen, REQ
7. Emulate Journalists In The Media
B2B buyers are typically time-poor, flooded with information and often tackling problems that their business is facing for the first time. A prospect or customer should look at a piece of content and be able to relate to it. Journalists are experts at this. Look at how the media uses your stories, and either share that or emulate it when creating in-house content. – Richard Cook, Champion Communications Ltd.
8. Tell Broadly Relatable Stories
The more specific your story is, the less relatable it will be. The more broad your story is, the more people will be able relate to it. Tell relatable stories that show how your product or service can fix a universal issue. A story should also be focused around one specific action or feeling; any more, and your audience will be confused about how they are supposed to connect. – Justin Buckley, ATTN Agency
9. Integrate More Mixed Media
Integrate more mixed media into your storytelling. Providing audio and visuals with SEO-optimized meta tags, descriptions and so forth will raise your search engine results page ranking, increase accessibility and help fellow businesses find you with ease. Use infographics and videos to break up text-heavy pieces and craft stories using customer case studies, interviews with employees or stories of customer success. – Evan Nison, NisonCo
10. Make It Informative As Well As Heartwarming
A quick (and low-cost) way to do this is to use Ubersuggest and Google Trends to determine what searches are happening around key topics that the brand is an expert on and/or which the businesses they are targeting as leads need to know about. B2B content can be informative and also be heartwarming. We did a campaign around LGBTQ+ execs and how they celebrate pride, which worked really well. – Vix Reitano, Agency 6B
11. Use Case Studies To Focus On Real-World Applications
A great way to get around “dry” B2B content is by presenting your information in a case study format. Have a new software as a service technology? Give a one-paragraph technical overview of the problem you are solving and then introduce the case: “Our client, Jenny’s Boba, was able to process 40% more transactions in half the time with our solution.” You can dig deeper, but focus on real-world applications. – Bernard May, National Positions
12. Rise Above Jargon And Humanize Your Content
Humanizing content entails rising above jargon, looking at real use cases and having in-depth conversations with people to better understand needs and motivations. Arrange regular interactions with current and potential clients to get insights that will serve as a foundation for your content brainstorming sessions, then work on developing story angles that bring these insights to life. – Lars Voedisch, PRecious Communications
13. Share How Your Business Helped Another
Position your B2B content in the real world by sharing genuine stories about how your business helped another. You’re talking to people like you—C-suite executives, marketers and sales managers—so lose the fluff and marketing phrases and get straight to the point. Attract your leads by crafting in-depth case studies that explain your processes and present the amazing work you’ve done for others. – Dejan Popovic, PopArt Studio
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Author: Expert Panel®, Forbes Councils Member
