✍️ B2B’s Creativity & Storytelling
B2B has a nasty habit of being dull and boring. You can ask anyone else about it, and they’ll agree. But I’ll be the first to admit that the industry has been making some strides in its creativity as of late. Various B2B businesses and people on LinkedIn are going out of their way to make funny or interesting content: Robert Mayhew, Konrad Sanders, Knowlton, Louis Grenier—there’s no shortage of clever, creative marketers in the B2B space.
Now, even Natwest is throwing their hat in the ring! Their B2B sector is upping their creativity to reach a new generation of business customers by focusing on finding underpriced attention across social media to market their B2B products faster and more efficiently.
I think this speaks to a larger change that’s occurring in the industry. Usually, B2B is driven by data, metrics, and statistics, using sales as the main way to get customers, but it’s evident now that that method simply isn’t working.
Customers appreciate creativity and storytelling, especially in marketing.
📕 The Hero’s Journey
If you were to go on LinkedIn and look at some entrepreneurs’ profiles, you would likely find that their posts all have some semblance of the Hero’s Journey. For those who don’t know, it’s a method of telling a story from the hero’s perspective, originally created by Joseph Campbell and later moulded into the mainstream by Dan Harmon (of Community and Rick & Morty fame). If you think of classic stories like Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings, they all follow the Hero’s Journey structure, either intentionally or not.
If you want to entice an audience and get them on your side, if you want to make them feel something and convert them into customers, this is undoubtedly a surefire way to do it.
🤔 But Is B2B Actually Taking This Advice?
Well, I like to think so. If our previous articles and the general vibe of the internet are anything to go by, then B2B companies are realising they can’t just bury their heads in the sand and focus on sales while asking their marketing and creative departments to take on stupid workloads.
I like to think that they’re actually trying and are opening themselves up to new ideas and having fun with their marketing, but what would I know?
Sam Hollis is a Writer for Fame, SaaS Marketer, as well as his own fictional short stories. He lives and works in Birmingham with his three cats and his dog (way too many pets, if you ask us)