Are You Really In The B2B Or B2C Market

It's Time We Make Marketing More Human

Your customers are people, not corporations. They hate inhumane marketing as much as you do, we promise. Let's change the expectation of what B2B marketing is together.

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It's Not B2B Or B2C Marketing Anymore, But H2H

Is your business selling to other businesses? Then you're in B2B marketing. If you're selling directly to consumers, that's B2C. If you rely on peer-to-peer endorsements, P2P is your thing. If you market to government agencies, it's called B2G.

These classifications aim to help marketers qualify their target audience and follow marketing best practices. However, the unifying thread among these audiences is H2H or human-to-human marketing.

It emphasizes that behind every business, consumer, non-profit, or government body is a human making a decision. In today's digital marketing era, H2H can be a huge differentiator that builds trust and taps into people's emotions, which is crucial in the buyer's decision-making process.

Ways To Apply H2H Marketing And Sales

There is no predefined checklist of H2H marketing practices that you can follow verbatim.

Rather, H2H is more of a blanket term that can be applied across the board and, better yet, is likely to touch on many of the marketing strategies that you're already using.

Here are five great ways you can think about your marketing.

Talk Like An Actual Person

As an expert on your company's offerings, you may find it challenging to explain your product to customers and potential customers who are not as knowledgeable.

This is known as the Curse of Knowledge, which can hinder effective communication.

Curse Of Knowledge Social Experiment

An experiment showed that when an expert tapped out a song, only 2.5% of listeners could identify it, despite 50% of the experts believing that listeners would be able to.

Therefore, it is important to be aware of your knowledge bias and consciously examine your marketing materials.

One helpful technique is to imagine having a conversation with a client about the product and jotting down the "transcript" of this mental conversation.

Humanize Your Bots & Automations

It's ironic, isn't it? Bots and automation are everywhere these days and have become a permanent part of marketing.

This trend is not going away anytime soon.

Take the example of chatbots that pop up on a website. Visitors now recognize them as robots and appreciate them for their quick answers and solutions.

In fact, 69% of customers prefer to communicate with chatbots.

However, it's important to maintain a human-to-human mentality when designing your bot. Use casual and conversational language, give it a name and a photo, and even add a playful sense of humor.

Even though visitors know they are talking to a bot, they will appreciate the reminder that there are real humans behind the scenes.

Embrace Shortcomings & Be More Transparent

When considering your prospects, it's easy to feel like the digital world is one-sided. However, if you take the time to nurture them effectively, they will have the opportunity to ask questions and voice concerns to the actual people behind your business during the sales process.

Unfortunately, many marketers miss this chance earlier in the process, such as during marketing efforts.

As marketers, we often avoid highlighting any imperfections in our company and only focus on the positive aspects. However, buyers are wary of companies that only focus on the pros and ignore the cons.

It's important to provide an honest and balanced view, as no product or service is perfect for everyone. By proactively addressing any shortcomings, you can gain your buyers' trust and alleviate their concerns and objections.

A great example of this is Dominos Pizza.

After experiencing a decline in sales for two years, they launched a nationwide campaign admitting that their pizza tasted bad before making improvements. This level of transparency in their messaging resulted in a nearly 15% increase in year-over-year same-store sales.

Use Real Life Stories From Your Customers

Incorporating a customer story into your marketing can be more effective than a traditional sales pitch.

Consider featuring a customer you have helped as the main character in your success story. Why did they seek your assistance and how did you provide it?

According to research, if people connect with your brand's story, there is a 55% chance they will purchase from you in the future, with 15% buying immediately.

This shows that storytelling marketing is a powerful and essential component for any marketer in any industry.

Incorporate User-Generated Content (UGC)

It's rare for anyone to trust a company's marketing message at face value, especially when it comes directly from the source. Instead, your audience is naturally skeptical of such claims.

However, they are more open to hearing the opinions of like-minded peers. In fact, when it comes to making purchasing decisions, consumers are 92% more likely to trust their peers over advertising.

That's why user-generated content (UGC) is a crucial tool for every H2H marketer. There are plenty of ways to incorporate UGC, such as sparking conversations on social media, encouraging people to share photos of your service or solution in action, and having them review you on a third-party website.

Concluding Thoughts On Being Human

Regardless of the type of business you are, what is important to remember is that you're always going to be dealing with humans on the other end of your marketing and sales conversations, humans with raw emotions, desires, needs, and wants, it's important to remember that when you are determining what to share with the world.

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