If you follow my blog, you know I recently made a plea for the return to creativity in marketing, inspired by my trip to Spain and my visit to the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia, designed by the incredibly famous and thoroughly original architect Antoni Gaudi. I bemoaned the fact that our tech-driven, data-focused, hectic world is making it tough for marketers to infuse their work with creativity—and why that threatens marketing ROI.

Then I got to thinking: Can we be bold, imaginative, and inventive when marketing B2B products and services? The answer is an unequivocal, all-caps, boldface YES.

Here’s my take on why B2B marketing is in dire need of a more creative bent and how to start applying a Gaudi-like approach to drive better results.

The Big Play-It-Safe Risk

Judging from some of the work I see, a lot of folks seem to believe B2B marketing can’t be playful, thought-provoking, or imaginative. I sense a low tolerance for taking creative risks and a preference for blending in. Sadly, this philosophy usually rears its head in the very industries where differentiating yourself from competitors is both incredibly difficult and incredibly important.

Professional services is a prime example: Many accounting firms attempt to distinguish themselves based on “great client service.” But did you ever know an accounting firm that didn’t tout their client service? Put that alongside the fact that most firms have similar offerings, and you end up with a giant sea of sameness.

That’s not to beat up on accountants. (One of our long-standing clients is an outsourced accounting and finance firm!) The same can be said for law firms, investment banks, and many other professional service providers, especially in the middle market.

What many don’t realize is that playing it safe is about as risky as you can get. By failing to stand out, these companies set up their marketing to fail. It’s a sure-fire way to waste budget, lose ground to competitors, and fall short of your growth goals.

B2B Buyers Are People, Too

Taking a safe approach to B2B marketing never worked, but it’s even less effective today thanks to the new dynamics of B2B buying.

With more millennials advancing into mid-level decision-making positions, your B2B buyer is now younger, more digitally savvy, and more accustomed to spending much of their buying journey online. Yes, they want to know how your product solves their business problems. But they also want to be engaged and inspired. They want to be moved emotionally. And they want to understand how you feel about a subject, not just what you know about a subject.

No matter the demographics or psychographics of your audience, you’re always selling to people with real lives and real challenges. Every business is a people business, regardless of your product or service. Your buyer is a human being who wants to make a connection with a company that truly “gets” them. They don’t want to be sold.

On top of all that, today’s B2B buyers are stretched thin. They don’t have the time or patience to sift through a lot of generic marketing to figure out how one vendor differs from the next. Especially when there are B2B companies willing to showcase their uniqueness and how it delivers value.

You Know It When You See It

What does creative, thought-provoking B2B marketing look like? Here are a few examples that recently caught my eye.

This Cushman & Wakefield video is more like a consumer TV spot, using dramatic music, language that stirs emotion, and a Nike-like tagline: Better Never Settles. (Much more attention-grabbing than saying, “Our real estate services solve your problems so you can succeed.”)

Characters from The Office promote AT&T Business’s Next Level Network in this ad. When Darrell flips a switch and proclaims, “Boom – Internet! That’s why I’m the Chief Technology Officer,” a confused Kevin replies, “But all you did was plug it in.” (Much more powerful than saying, “Our advanced networking technology reduces your system administration burdens.”)

Teamwork.com uses a horror movie-like trailer that’s a bit irreverent but undeniably funny, striking fear of “The Client” into the hearts of viewers. (A lot more effective than saying “Teamwork helps you respond to client requests and meet tight deadlines effectively.”)

Dipping Your Toes into the Bold End of the Pool

Even if you’re not ready to go way out on a limb with your B2B marketing, if you expect to achieve a strong ROI you need to break out of the me-too mold. Here are some ways to get started.

• Shine a spotlight on your SMEs. Your subject matter experts can prove one of your best differentiators, especially in a crowded market. Leverage their experience and insight to create thought leadership content that’s authentic and original, with a unique perspective. No more generic blogs based entirely on AI input. If your content isn’t more thought-provoking than what AI serves up, your buyers will go directly to ChatGPT.
• Tell a story. Storytelling isn’t just for songwriters and novelists; some of the most effective B2B marketing tells a story that draws buyers in. If it’s relevant to their challenges and evokes an emotion, they won’t just listen. They won’t just be moved to act. They’ll become fierce brand loyalists and advocates. Taylor Swift’s mind-blowing Eras Tour revenue figures prove the point.
• Offer an opinion. I once wrote a blog claiming that inbound marketing is dying. Some might find it an extreme position, but that was my candid point-of-view. While you should never go for shock-value, sharing your opinion on a subject is a great way to engage with buyers, spark conversation, and generate word-of-mouth.
• Don’t take efficiency to extremes. Templates can jump-start the process, but rely on them too much and you’ll inhibit creativity. Production schedules and budgets are important guardrails, but they should never squelch a stand-out concept. Allow time for brainstorming and collaboration, and you’ll develop ideas that perform better.
• Create visual appeal. A talking-head video won’t get much play…but a video that’s crafted like a short film will. Draw your buyers in with strong visuals that engage, inspire and stir emotions. Yes, even for accounting.
• Use analytics prudently. At Marketri we’re big proponents of using data to drive decisions about how and where to spend our clients’ budgets for the best results. We’re all about optimizing campaigns to squeeze more results out of every dollar. But we also keep those numbers in perspective, balancing data and analysis with creativity.

I can’t even imagine what the world thought of Gaudi’s unique architectural designs when they were first unveiled. He would have set social media buzzing! But this creative risk-taker’s work moved people in ways no ordinary buildings could. If we take a page out of Gaudi’s playbook, we can move B2B buyers in ways no competitor can match.

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Schedule a call with Deb Andrews to learn how Marketri can combine strategy, creativity, and execution to drive predictable, profitable revenue for your B2B company.