Note: This is a two-part blog series. Read “Minding the B2B Marketing Effectiveness Gap – Part 2” for specific recommendations your brand can use to mind the gap.
B2B marketing is challenging to get right. Aside from B2B targets being more difficult to reach through traditional marketing channels, marketers must balance creative demands, budget limitations, channel decisions and the desire for instant gratification over long-term value generation. As an ag marketer you are likely to deal with these challenges because like other B2B targets, farmers are a niche audience and brands can have a hard time differentiating themselves from their competition. As a result, ag marketers often give in to short-term tightly targeted campaigns. According to the B2B Effectiveness Code study, this creates a B2B marketing effectiveness gap. In this blog, we explore what brands can do to mind the gap.
B2B Marketing Effectiveness Gap
A study by the B2B Institute revealed that B2B marketers need to strike a better balance between short-term sales activation and long-term brand building to achieve marketing effectiveness and business growth. Achieving that balance will assist brands in achieving top of mind awareness. In other words, increase the propensity of the brand to be thought of, or noticed, during the customer journey. According to research conducted by Peter Field and Les Binet, the ideal mix in B2B is a 46/54 budget split between long-term brand building and short-term sales activation. B2B marketing effectiveness can also be improved by employing:
Emotional advertising as a powerful tool for building B2B brands. According to Field and Binet, emotional advertising is more effective at driving long-term brand building than rational and informational advertising, which is a better driver of short-term sales activation. Emotional creative work is significantly absent from B2B advertising.
A large-scale brand awareness campaign. Growth in B2B is dependent on reaching a large audience, many of whom are not currently in the market for your products or services. According to Professor John Dawes of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, 95% of B2B customers are not actively looking to buy at any one time. Therefore, it is important to advertise to people who are not currently in the market so that when they are ready to buy, they are familiar with your brand.
Fewer, larger campaigns that focus on long-term and impactful creative campaigns and channels rather than a series of small tactical campaigns.
How emotional advertising increases marketing effectiveness.
Emotional advertising is a more effective way to build B2B brands’ value and memorability over the long term. When a brand can make a consumer feel a certain way, the generated emotion will help them recall a certain brand or product and motivate them to act.
The proof? There are countless studies on human behavior but instead, let’s put it to the test. Think about the last commercial that reconstructed a moment or facet of your life on screen, and made you feel pride, understood, validated or teary-eyed? If it takes you a while to think of one, it’s because of the lack of emotional advertising! And when you do recall one, it’s probably from a while ago but you still remember it because of what it made you feel. Perhaps, it was one of the following three gripping examples that came to mind, that used emotional stimulus effectively. A 2013 ad from Dodge, “God Made a Farmer,” had farmers feeling nostalgic. Using Paul Harvey’s speech from the 1978 FFA convention paired, with images of diverse farmers, made those involved in ag feel appreciated for the tremendous amount of work and resilience that goes into what they do. Another remarkable example is from Carhartt with their 2021 Mother’s Day campaign “The Shift that Never Ends.” Featuring real hardworking moms, the campaign recognizes the tremendous efforts of moms everywhere and centers around a relatable message: no one deserves a day off more than mom. Several years ago, Volvo Trucks launched the Live Test Series campaign, which effectively targeted truck buyers' influencers by communicating the benefits of their trucks through over-the-top and dramatic tests. The campaign left a lasting impression and increased truck buyer consideration by 46%. B2B needs to take a page out of the B2C marketing playbook and unfurl more emotional stimulating advertising for one reason. It works.
Rational and informational advertising, on the other hand, is more effective at driving short-term sales. This type of advertising focuses on the features and benefits of a product or service. It can be effective at convincing people to buy something, but it is not as effective at building a long-term brand.
Deploying larger scale marketing to increase B2B effectiveness.
A campaign developed to generate brand awareness does not directly promote your products or services, but it does help to make your brand more familiar to potential customers. Content marketing is a powerful tool for building brand awareness. Content marketing involves creating and sharing valuable content that is relevant to your target audience. Particularly, solution-based content. This type of content can help to attract new customers and build relationships with existing customers.
Fewer, larger, daring and bold creative campaigns can increase marketing effectiveness.
This approach is more effective than spreading resources across several smaller campaigns because it allows marketers to build brand awareness and credibility more quickly than a series of smaller campaigns. It also helps achieve greater messaging impact. Adventurous creative can help build relationships with B2B decision-makers because it’s more likely to generate attention and interest from these individuals. How? When a brand gets out of its comfort zone, customers and the industry take notice. What’s more, prospects are more drawn to the buzz. For example, at the 2023 National Agri-Marketing Conference annual Best of NAMA Awards, the Best of NAMA Grand Champion award went, well-deservingly, to the Idaho Potato Commission’s “Frites by Idaho” PR campaign. The PR campaign was created to promote Idaho potatoes and get people talking. Featuring a limited-edition French fry scented perfume, it was a resounding success. Not only was it the talk of the event, the campaign garnered attention across the nation. All agri-marketers and manufacturers of ag inputs and equipment in attendance walked away with a new appreciation for taking creative risks.
Now that you’ve learned ways to mind the B2B marketing effectiveness gap, download our Discovery Map, a tool that includes the questions a brand needs to ask themselves and know before kicking off effective strategy development. If you need fresh and outside perspective from industry experts, or assistance procuring the industry and market background required, we can help. Contact us when you’re ready to kickstart business growth.