A case for creativity in B2B content

In 2019, content is coming to the forefront of B2B marketing—58% of technology content marketers are seeing budget increases in direct response to customers’ expectations for more robust content experiences. As the B2B content space becomes more crowded, stories, creativity, and personal connections have become more important than ever.

Long perceived as a group driven only by logic and numbers, B2B buyers are actually more driven by emotion than consumers.  In a recent study, Google and CEB’s Marketing Leadership Council found that while most B2C brands have emotional connections with 10% to 40% of consumers, most B2B brands exceed 50% in terms of emotional connections with their customers. B2B buyers are almost 50% more likely to buy a product or service and eight times more likely to pay a premium when they see personal value—an opportunity for career advancement, for example, or pride in their purchase.

Don’t ‘Sell to the Business’—Connect with the Buyer

Corporate buyers have always craved relevant information and convincing data to improve their decision making and better justify their purchasing decisions to internal stakeholders. But marketers who want to differentiate their content from competitors are wise to take a more qualitative approach to how they develop their content. As Google observes:

“B2B marketers ultimately need to reach business decision makers, but those customers deal with the influences of purchasing committees, third-party buying consultants and corporate procurement processes. This framework distances marketer from customer and assumes a “rational” frame that’s devoid of emotion.”

Corporate buyers are hungrier for content that compels—stories and insights that touch on both personal and customer-aligned emotional drivers, which guide their purchasing habits in more nuanced, undetectable ways. While marketers need data to build a foundation for their value propositions, it is relatability, character-driven narratives, and genuine care that are absent from most B2B content today.

Marketers should prioritize this approach at first engagement. Enhancing content at the top of the funnel with genuine, creative storytelling can grab the attention of buyers who would otherwise ignore it as well.

Creativity and Customer Experience are the Real Differentiators

It used to be that the best way to differentiate one’s brand was to sell at a lower price or offer a better product. While these two strategies still hold some weight, there’s a new metric for measuring brand success: customer experience.

Today’s customers expect brands to operate smarter and faster on every channel. While technology plays a significant role, creativity is what turns elemental experiences into memorable ones.

For example, it’s easy enough to write a report to showcase a data set. But without the creative element, a 3000-word document about technology adoption in the manufacturing sector just won’t be worth the reader’s time. Instead of simply listing statistics, brands need to apply creative skills to generate insights and link them to real, human experiences.

In this way, creativity goes beyond turning something mundane into something beautiful. In business, creativity becomes the functional manipulation of something inherently valueless into something undeniably valuable—something that calls people to action.

By 2020, creativity will be the 3rd most important work skill according to the World Economic Forum. Those businesses that prioritize a creative approach to content and other marketing assets will soon overshadow those who compete on product and price point alone.

Invest in Creative Talent

Deep insights are fundamental to B2B content strategy. But in 2020, creativity will be the competitive differentiator in both new and crowded markets. Real stories from buyers’ peers, crafted into compelling and emotionally meaningful content, capture attention in ways that special product features and performance data cannot on their own. Make creativity the capstone of your data-driven content strategy as you craft your long-term content strategy in the coming year.