Are you going about your B2B marketing all wrong? CEB’s Karl Schmidt explains why the real driving factors behind B2B buying decisions are far more personal and emotional than you think.

Uncovering the Underutilized Power of Emotion in B2B Marketing

When it comes to making purchasing decisions, we all know our choices aren’t always based on logic and reason. Why do you think they keep making red sports cars with terrible gas mileage and keep putting candy bars near the checkout?

Of course, acting on a last-second impulse purchase is one thing, but what happens when we’re forced to make a decision on a product or solution that could make or break our business? What happens when that involves navigating a complex buying process, requiring us to loop in multiple stakeholders across various departments, or when it takes maybe a year or even longer to finalize the purchase? Surely with everything riding on that kind of decision — not to mention with that amount of time to really think things through — our approach becomes more rational than emotional…

After all, it’s strictly business, right?

Wrong. According to the surprising findings in “From Promtion to Emotion: Connecting Customers to B2B Brands,” a whitepaper from CEB in partnership with Google, when it comes to making the purchasing decision, the personal value a B2B solution offers has 2x the impact of the business value it provides. Not only that, CEB’s findings also show that B2B customers are in fact much more emotionally attached to the brands they purchase from than B2C customers are.

How personal and emotional is B2B buying? It turns out the answer is very. And if you’re not targeting your marketing accordingly, you’re missing a huge opportunity to really resonate with your buyers and to help guide them more effectively down the path to purchase.

This Week’s Guest

“If we think about the risk we take on from making a large [B2B] investment…we’re talking millions of dollars. These are career-altering type risks and if we don’t think about what it takes to overcome that risk, from a personal, emotional perspective…then we’re missing where we as marketers should really be focused.”

— Karl Schmidt, Practice Manager at the CEB Marketing Leadership Council

Key Takeaways

* Do customers feel closer to Cisco than Apple? When it comes to having an emotional connection with buyers, B2B brands actually score higher than top B2C brands. [3:10]

* Personal risk plays a huge role in influencing a B2B buying decision: Think about purchasing an iPad in comparison to investing in a CRM solution. [5:20]

* Marketers need to “win the elephant and the rider”: Appeal to both the rational and emotional side of B2B buyers. [9:55]

* Don’t let your buyers end up in the “unhappy valley”: Avoid limiting your emotional messaging and engagement to the demand generation stage. Connect with your buyers on an emotional level throughout their entire journey. [15:02]

* Personal value has 2x the impact on the buying decision than business value. Decisions can often be influenced by effectively answering questions like, “Will this purchase make my team more successful?,” and “Will it make me viewed as a strong leader?” [19:20]

* The big opportunity for B2B marketers: This opens up a window for marketers to really resonate and differentiate themselves from competitors. [22:25]

* One company pushing all the right personal and emotional buttons: Xerox is a great example of a company taki...