One of the biggest marketing challenges faced by industrial B2B companies in today’s world is communicating technical or complex products in an engaging way. Given that it takes just 50 milliseconds for a user to form an initial impression of your website (and your brand), capturing and maintaining the attention of potential customers is the key to success. But how can companies part the sea of sameness to stand out against competitor brands in the B2B market?
1) Know Your Audience
To reach into the mind of your audience and truly connect with them, you first need to understand who they are. It sounds like basic marketing, but how often do businesses revisit their audience analysis? In an ever-changing world, people’s environments and motivations constantly shift, so you must reanalyse your target audience regularly.
Another factor here is that B2B companies can sometimes misinterpret their buyer motivations. The easiest way to overcome this is by examining your current customers. Speak to them and ask how they see your brand.
What needs do you fulfil for them, and what do they value from your company above all else? This exercise often opens eyes and can reveal significant opportunities to capitalise on further. It might also highlight gaps in your current offering, allowing you to make improvements.
2) Define Your USP
A clearly defined key differentiator is the foundation of a successful strategy. What makes your brand stand out against the others in your space? What does your team do best above competitors? Own it and amplify it. A strong unique selling point (USP) is your gateway to earning a place in the minds of your customers.
The easiest way to craft a compelling value proposition is to first look at your product or service in terms of customer pain points.
Many brands fall into the trap of basing their USP on unique features they offer, but at the end of the day, what customers really care about is how your company will solve their pain points. With this in mind, develop your USP with a problem-focused mindset. How will you solve the challenges your customers face, and what makes your solution better than competitors?
3) Demonstrate The Benefits In A Relatable Way
Consumers are bombarded daily with brands promising to change their world, save them money, and give them back time. After a while, this becomes a repetitive noise that their brains tune out. So, how can we make them sit up in their seats and pay attention?
Highlighting real-world examples of how your product has helped similar businesses is a fantastic way of demonstrating the benefits of your offering to your audience. Marketing doesn’t have to be convoluted, clever, or gimmicky; it just has to be authentic and relatable. Strong case studies, success stories and social proof lend credibility and speak to potential customers louder than any claims your company makes about itself.
91% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service. (Video Marketing Statistics 2024)
4) Cut The Jargon
Stripping back the jargon from your marketing endeavours is like ripping off a plaster. It can be a painful exercise that pushes you out of your comfort zone. Still, it is absolutely necessary if you want to push your brand beyond the sphere of competitors.
It’s very easy to become enamoured with the words you use to explain and describe your product, but in reality, the mind of a customer is lazy. They want to hear things in a clear and concise manner. If they must decipher your language to determine what you’re saying, you’re doing it wrong.
Industrial B2B companies often make the mistake of using overly technical language because they feel it defines their space and gives them a stronger voice. However, the truth is that the technical nature of the landscape is already a barrier for potential customers, and using jargon and complex language further alienates them. Of course, your business still needs to speak the language of the industry that you operate in, but this should be done as succinctly as possible. Make each word count, and remember that simplification is the ultimate sophistication.
5) Deliver An Integrated User And Content Experience
User experience and content experience are often viewed as separate entities, with content coming secondary to UX. However, for B2B companies, quality content is the cornerstone of the user experience, especially where the buyer journey is complex. Prospective customers depend on your content to help them make a purchasing decision, and they expect your content touchpoints to be consistent, connected, engaging, and relevant.
In order to achieve this to the best effect, the user experience and content experience should be married together. Use core content as the foundation of your user experience, not the other way around. As you develop your content, consider the most logical way to present it to your audience. People are intuitive
beings, and they want their customer experience to mirror this, so always ensure your information is presented in the most accessible and straightforward way. Once a solid content experience has been mapped out, you can move on to the user experience and how the content will be delivered.
It may seem like a cart before the horse scenario, but the ultimate result will be a more cohesive and rounded-out user experience.
6) Get Creative With Storytelling
B2B marketing doesn’t have to be mundane. Adopt a willingness to break away from the norm, and your brand will reap the benefits. Storytelling is an excellent tool that engages the consumer on a deeper level and humanises your brand, making it more relatable.
Stories are remembered up to 22 times more than facts alone.
- Dr Jennifer Aaker, Behavioural Scientist
Studies have shown that stories are remembered 22 times more than facts alone, so if you’re operating in an area that is very technical or governed by a lot of regulatory compliance, storytelling is a fantastic channel to break the cycle of monotony.
Attributing a story to your brand and products might seem daunting, but all you need to do is reflect on your true brand purpose. What motivates your company to do what they do? Why does your product or service exist, and how does it satisfy this goal? You may begin with broad strokes, but your authentic story will emerge as you drill down into a distillation of this.
7) Embrace A Visual Narrative
A picture speaks a thousand words, and a video is worth a million. As consumers increasingly prefer video content, businesses should consider how to use this in B2B marketing strategies. Visual narratives breathe life into complex ideas, making them much more engaging and digestible for the consumer.
The challenge faced by most B2B brands when it comes to visual storytelling is knowing where to start. Many marketing teams need more design expertise to produce high-quality visual content that strikes an emotional chord. Working with a third-party Design team, such as the team at Maverick, makes this task less daunting. And the results speak for themselves - 90% of marketers say that video content has helped them generate leads. It's an activity worth pursuing.
Conclusion
In the competitive B2B market, differentiating your business is the key to rising above and capturing that valuable space in the minds of potential customers. As intimidating as it sounds, if you commit to the process with a sound plan and an open mind, you’ll go far. It’s a leap of faith that will repay you tenfold.
Talk to the Brand team at Maverick if your company is ready to set your brand apart. Our brand work has helped companies experience a wide range of immediate positive impacts; such as increased quality and volume of leads, a shortened sales cycle, and increased win-rate.
See how we have helped shape brands to excel in their industry and enter global markets in these case studies for software brands, manufacturing and scientific and engineeering.