What journalism taught me about emotion in B2B marketing

Kipinävuoro: Denise Wall
Kipinävuoro is a writing by a member of the MarkkinointiKollektiivi community about their observations in the field of marketing.

It’s very tempting to rely exclusively on fact-based and highly technical arguments when building a B2B brand, but research – and experience – show that emotions can have a long-lasting impact in B2B marketing.

We all know the case for highlighting the technical and rational aspects of our B2B marketing communications. After all, we argue, that’s what interests subject-matter experts. However, in addition to research demonstrating the power of emotion-driven marketing, my many years in journalism have shown me that one of the most effective ways to move people on complex issues is to weave human emotions into your narrative.

Marketing experts and analysts have already established that in an increasingly complex B2B decision-making environment with multiple stakeholders, we need to meet each kind of audience segment with arguments that resonate with them. For technical experts and technology end users, rational arguments involving data and functionality will likely trump all other considerations. But the further removed a decision maker is from the day to day use of a product or service, the more likely it is that a different kind of appeal is required. That’s where creating a positive emotional association with your brand could tip the scales in your favour.

I had a similar epiphany as a young television journalist working the business and economy beat decades ago. I believed that good journalism depended solely on reporting facts and figures. I soon realised that while data and technical accuracy are important, stories that centre people travel further, and longer. So I learned to appeal to human emotion by highlighting the real-world impact of economic factors such as inflation on ordinary people, for example. 

One popular technique was to gather a basket of groceries and show how the prices of bread, milk and perhaps baby diapers had changed over a 12-month period. Highlighting these bread and butter issues create an emotional response that helps people understand how rising prices affect them personally, albeit negatively. I’ve since come to see that adopting a similar approach can help marketing messages resonate among different audience segments.

Emotional messages pack a long term punch

In a report by the LinkedIn B2B Institute, The 5 Principles of Growth in B2B Marketing, the authors note that while rational messaging is effective in reaching audiences in the short-term, if you want long term effectiveness, then you should employ more emotional messaging. And while it’s easy to see the relevance of emotion in the B2C realm, the same study points out that in B2B decision making, emotion overrides rational considerations 35% of the time, bringing it close to the 42% weighting seen in B2C decision making.

What kind of emotion is relevant to B2B marketing, you might ask? Well, feelings such as trust, confidence, a sense of partnership, inspiration, optimism, and even humour all have the power to make the difference between a purchasing decision and a hard pass. Used authentically and strategically, you can craft compelling B2B messaging that pitches the benefits of your product or service while conveying a sense of empathy in your understanding of your customers’ key challenges, inspiring trust in your ability to help them solve their most pressing problems, and nurturing confidence that you can help their business will grow and prosper over the long term. 

But don’t take my word for it. Check out this LinkedIn article to see how leading brands like Amazon, Lloyd’s Register, KPMG and others have leaned into techniques that elicit emotion to move audiences – and maybe you can too.

The writer Denise Wall is a marketing communications professional with an extensive background in journalism.

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