The five rules of B2B communications
In this guest post, OgilvyOne creative director Rob Morrison argues that B2B marketers need to remember to treat their audience like people
First a confession: as a fresh faced junior copywriter I once put a business-to-business concept in front of my creative director which included a briefcase. It may even have had a balding man wearing glasses dressed in a business suit. Yep, I played to the clichés.
I was young and naive.
Thanks Rob, very insightful.
Rob, terrific insights, and you had me right to the end.
Would love to hear your views on launching a new website initiative, and how best to capture your marketing managers attention. Obviously the above applies, yet how far does a small business go (referring to Amex’s story) to capture B2B focus? Cheers.
Hey Louise.
Challenge #1 for Marketing Managers is time. They are simply too busy to pay much attention unless you can demonstrate very quickly that you understand them, their pain and how to solve it. My tip would be to start with as few names as possible, research them to death and do something that targets them and just them – use understanding, demonstration or even ego. But most of all make sure it’s relevant. Happy to help more if you want to send me an email.
Rob
Hey Rob, Thank you for the pointers! And your email?
Sorry Louise.
Bit of a crap CTA wasn’t it. Although in my defence I thought my name would have had a hypolink to my email address. Clearly not.
Addy is rob.morrison@ogilvy.com.au
R..
Awesome post! I will be following those five rules for sure.
Too true Rob!!! In my case, still hard to think that CFOs have a life outside the business.
Any tips on how to engage with CFOs online and offline?
Thanks.
Hey Cassia.
My starting point is always to look at the cliches then stretch from there.
It’s easy to look at CFOs (and finance in general) as “the department who say No”.
– No you can’t have extra budget.
– No you can’t put on extra FTEs.
– No you can’t reduce your stretch targets.
The rest of the organisation can see them as the guys with the black hats. Of course that has a human impact. No one chooses that (maybe apart from Dentists – those guys are just mean).
So, depending on what you’re offering CFOs, I’d think about the psychology of that. Talk to them as people. Give them a chance to be the hero, not the villain.
That help?
R..
Thanks for your tips Rob. Very helpful.
A few ideas came into my mind now!
Cheers,
Great share Rob, thanks. The “craving understanding” point really underlines the current trend towards businesses needing more and more compelling, educational content for their prospects.