B2B industries are full of ground-breaking innovations, products and solutions. But is B2B marketing keeping up with the pace of change and the expectations of progress?
There’s so much more that can be done to make complex – yet ultimately relatable – topics, products and processes more intriguing to our audiences. Take a patented, industry-leading production method, for example. How could you describe the process, tell a compelling story, highlight its benefits and explain the need-to-know details without sending people to sleep? From pop-up brochures to full CGI virtual environments, visually creative methods can help businesses captivate customers, reveal new perspectives and provide a competitive edge.
What is limitless creativity?
Thanks to a never-ending stream of technological advances, we now have a seemingly limitless array of engaging content options at our fingertips. Why should we settle for stereotypical and overused amplification tactics when we can deliver stories that hit on a deeper emotional level and showcase products in ways that are both accessible and appealing? We understand the challenges related to stakeholder buy-in, budget limitations and the difficultly involved in proving ROI. It’s perhaps no surprise that it’s often easier to get approval on ‘safe’ B2B marketing tactics, such as cookie-cutter ad campaigns – but why not break free from the norm? You’re pushing boundaries through your own product and service innovation – so why aren’t your marketing methods amplifying this innovation in tandem?
Imagine that you developed a fully traceable food and beverage ingredient that surpasses the industry standard, and you want to explain its benefits to customers. You could go for some conventional campaign collateral, or you could develop a short video series asking children where certain food products come from. Closing each video snippet could be the final message, ‘it’s good to know where things grow’. Using this technique, you can draw attention to the benefits of your product, highlight the importance of ingredient traceability, get potential customers engaged and create a visually appealing marketing campaign, all at the same time.
In an increasingly image-dominated world, integrating visual creativity into part of a wider marketing strategy can help to improve and humanise experiences for B2B professionals, capture their attention and drive engagement. These creative tools help when it comes to visualising pain points and support with effectively showcasing formulation benefits and mechanisms of action in an impactful way.
Take fiber sludge-based dust-binding agents for instance. Imagine taking buyers inside a vivid 3D rendering of the circular economy to explore first-hand the productization of pulp and paper industrial side streams that generate fiber sludge – a raw ingredient for industrial-use dust-binding agents that help tackle hazardous pollutants such as road dust. Using CGI technology, combined with smart storytelling, brands can demonstrate in a compelling and engaging way how such innovative materials are not only resource-efficient, but exploit a great deal of underutilised potential in more sustainable manufacturing practices.
Taking customer experience to new heights
Today’s B2B customers want to experience a product, explore its functionalities and understand its use in relation to their specific needs. For example, a functional textile with a water-repellent nanoparticle coating may look just like any ordinary fabric. How can B2B material marketers demonstrate its unique and innovative features to customers in a user-friendly, easy-to-understand format? Visually creative methods such as interactive infographics or an explainer video could help make the complex nanotechnology-enhanced textile production process and its full range of diverse applications far more accessible and impactful.
Whether it’s illustrating an industry-leading product’s ground-breaking benefits in a 3D video or supporting customers via augmented reality with supply chain or production issues (such as equipment repair), harnessing creative visuals can be game-changing. We’re all familiar with visualisation tools like videos, infographics and GIFs, but it’s still striking just how effective they can be in driving engagement and allowing potential customers to connect in greater detail with products and ideas. In fact, in a recent survey B2B companies reported an increase of up to 40% in conversion rates for products advertised via 3D-video.1 Clearly, creative, boundary-pushing content connects with B2B buyers.
Take action and see a real difference
Showcasing B2B innovation through genuinely new and creative visuals demonstrates to customers that you’re a forerunner in your field – both in terms of your value offering and your understanding of what they want. You’re not willing to blend in with the crowd of competent, but ultimately forgettable collateral that B2B buyers are exposed to everyday. You’re a visual pioneer that stands out as a true thought leader and, crucially, as a brand that can be trusted. So, how can you put a new creative ethos into action?
- Don’t make visuals an afterthought – take an integrated approach to your content creation across concept, copywriting and design
- Show, don’t tell – complex concepts are often easier to understand when played out visually rather than through a lengthy text-heavy explanation and static imagery
- Get the right partner on board – like all new things, prioritising creativity to capture attention can be daunting, but help is on hand to guide you to greatness.
Bring your B2B marketing to life
The world of B2B is complex, but your products and innovations make life easier for your customers – and their customers. Now it’s time for B2B creativity to catch up and solve your communication challenges, helping you engage the people who matter. It’s time to illuminate your differentiating factors and truly stand out from your competitors.
Let’s come together to make B2B creativity work smarter and harder for you.
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References
- Louis Columbus, 5 Ways Visual Configurators Are Revolutionizing CPQ, Forbes, 16 Jan 2019. https://bit.ly/3uIqFq5