By: DemandLab on August 12th, 2022

4 Ways Creativity Plays a Role in B2B Marketing

Creativity in B2B marketing is having a moment.

Cannes Lions launched a new creative B2B award this year. And a recent LinkedIn survey reported 82% of global B2B marketing leaders say B2B “creative confidence” is growing. In addition, 81% of senior B2B marketers believe B2B brands are producing creative campaigns that rival consumer brands.

From a financial perspective, a July 2021 survey of worldwide B2B marketers found 66% of respondents planned to increase their B2B content marketing spending in the next 12 months, which could allow creativity to thrive across industries.

Regardless of stats, one crucial tenet remains: You’re still communicating with people. As DemandLab CEO Rhoan Morgan pointed out in 2020, we are marketing to humans, not businesses.

Maybe B2B customers need to feel even more connection and empathy. People don’t just want sales pitches: They want stories. Businesses should make content that both educates and entertains.

And how can they do that? With creativity.

At DemandLab, we believe creativity in developing and deploying customer-aligned experiences will bring that “wow!” factor.

Here are some examples of how we’ve used creativity to help our clients succeed:

1. Drive emotion

Potential customers want to know you feel their pain points—and what you can do to help. And the stakes can be even higher with B2B: If someone makes the wrong decision, their job is at risk. Create content showing customers what’s possible and how you can improve their lives at work.

To entice prospective customers for global fintech company Ipreo, the DemandLab content team developed interactive content explaining the risks facing private capital market participants. By doing so, we caught the attention of a hard-to-reach audience and positioned Ipreo as a solution to their problems. The work led to a 33% sustained increase in web traffic and $800k in new sales opportunities.

2. Ensure your product or service stands out

Are you thinking about creativity for the product/service you’re marketing? Your product or service still needs to be viable in the market. So, how does it differ from the competition? Help prospects understand why you stand out, whether it’s through knowledge, new products or services, or even a unique spin on something that’s been around a while.

When PEF Services, a boutique fund administration firm, needed to market its premium services, DemandLab engaged PEF subject matter experts and created a collection of high-quality white papers. This material doubled brand engagement within a year and has allowed PEF to demonstrate expertise as they compete with larger firms.

3. Showcase your expertise—and your experts

How many websites have links for users to “learn more” about your product or service? They can learn even more through your subject matter experts. They are—literally!—human resources offering knowledge that prospects can’t get anywhere else: But how are you featuring them? Hearing anecdotes or advice from experts who’ve faced similar issues helps audiences relate and inspires them to act.

Private equity firm LLR Partners and DemandLab collaborated on creating thought-leadership content that delivered relevant and valuable peer advice to executives of fast-growing companies. The resulting “GrowthBits” blog helped this investment firm achieve 82% database growth, 62% increased reach on LinkedIn, and 32% increased engagement.

4. Use data to personalize the experience

At first, you might think data and creativity live far, far away from each other. But think about it. Marketing technology—and the strategic use of data derived from it—allows you to reach the right audience at the right time with the right message. Once your marketing campaigns hook prospects, they must be appropriately qualified, tracked, and pushed to the right team for action. Getting disparate groups to collaborate toward a common goal—what’s more creative than that?

A lead lifecycle can help you prioritize, evaluate, and segment to obtain the most qualified leads. You can also use it to gather data on your prospects to nurture them with targeted content. DemandLab worked with a higher education institution to modernize their marketing, automate lead acquisition, and generate detailed lead lifecycle reporting. This work boosted enrollment by 8.6%.

Use creativity—creatively

Successful B2B marketers realize it’s not about them. It’s about the customer, and creativity shows up in unexpected ways to help us engage with them. We’re all still people behind the B2B products, services, and processes. Companies that display empathy, share learning experiences, and use their resources to market strategically and creatively will find themselves in the lead.