Peter Weinberg and Jon Lombardo wrote an article for MarketingWeek titled Three rules for more effective B2B marketing (8 Feb 2021).
« In B2B marketing, one of the best investments you can make is top-of-funnel brand advertising. It’s contrarian, since most B2B marketers spend all their money at the bottom of the funnel. And it’s proven to be the right path as well, since evidence indicates that brand can create more long-term value than lead generation tactics. »
« But let’s assume for a moment you’re already investing in brand advertising. What else can you do to gain an edge over your competition? Well, may we politely suggest you take a hard look at your creative? Because according to our new research, 77% of B2B creative is…well…terrible. As in, not effective. As in, *zero* impact on the bottom line. Your campaign may still be delivering profits, but it’s the media doing all the work, not the creative. »
« According to the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, great creative is 10 to 20 times better at driving sales than mediocre creative. And if you can combine great media with great creative, you can create extraordinary growth for your business. »
« to quote [Jenni] Romaniuk, “mental availability is about making your brand known and easily thought of in buying situations”. »
« In other words, the B2B brand that gets remembered is the B2B brand that gets bought. The marketer’s job is to create long-lasting memories in the minds of category buyers. »
« Rule #1: More emotions, more growth. The human brain tends to remember emotions and forget facts. And the stronger the emotion, the stronger the memory. Applied to B2B marketing: if your ad makes a buyer laugh or cry or smile, your message is much more likely to be recalled in a buying situation. »
«Rule #2: More branding, more growth… By leveraging what System1 calls ‘fluent devices’ (“brand codes” in Ritson-speak, and “distinctive assets” in Romaniuk-speak). Logos, fonts, colours, taglines, and jingles are all fluent devices that ensure the ad gets linked to your brand… Characters are like super-logos, giving the buyer a character to relate to emotionally, while also increasing brand recall. »
« Rule #3: More commitment, more growth… And by commit, we mean spend astronomical – or at least stratospheric – sums of money running that creative in every relevant media channel, every single year… The evidence shows brand advertising wears in and becomes more effective over time. So please, for the love of God, stop launching new creative every quarter. »
« The LinkedIn B2B Institute’s webinar presenting the full results of the research can be watched here. »
Articles of Interest 