Why most B2B campaigns play it safe (And why yours doesn’t have to)
It’s difficult to recall a truly memorable B2B marketing campaign—and that’s not uncommon. Many B2B campaigns tend to adopt a more cautious approach, prioritizing clarity, professionalism, and practicality. Traditionally, B2B marketing content has always leaned heavily on being informational and straightforward as in the long-run, as they involve multiple stakeholders. Some classic B2B marketing strategies, think direct mail, trade shows, and personal selling, have long been effective in reaching these decision-makers. Although these methods are effective, they’re not creating something different.
So, here’s where LOKi Digital plays a pivotal role. As a B2B marketing agency, we challenge conventional norms by designing strategic and compelling B2B campaigns that prioritizes both storytelling and results. We help our clients craft narratives that not only connect with every stakeholder in the room, but also ensure their needs are not only heard but remembered long after the conversation ends.
Understanding Your Audience
Most B2B campaigns are very nuanced with lengthy decision making processes involving multiple stakeholders in a committee. This means that you will need to interact with different audiences, each with different objectives and directions for the company. For example, a CEO might be more focused on the position and direction of the company, while a CFO might be more concerned with the company’s finances. The real challenge here is coming up with a solution that meets the needs of all these stakeholders at once.
Take our Kimberly-Clark Professional ICON campaign as an example, where we analysed the different stakeholders that they are targeting to craft a comprehensive solution for their problems. LOKi’s role in this campaign was to present the findings in the survey in an engaging way to stakeholders. One such example of this was a hygiene guide in order to reach and educate the decision-makers within the industry.
As a B2B marketing agency, we know that B2B decisions are usually made by a committee of stakeholders and not just 1 person alone. When trying to engage with businesses, we understand the communication nuances needed, in order to reach different stakeholders with different concerns to convince them to make a decision.
Building Connection Through Storytelling
At LOKi Digital, we believe in the power of storytelling to bridge the gap between the buyers and the business. By creating narratives that highlight real challenges, successes, the campaigns we come up with are able to build connections with the audiences. For most B2B campaigns, they are practical, functional and sometimes lack a storytelling flair. But LOKi knows that our B2B audiences are also humans and might also resonate with impactful stories. For our digital agency, storytelling is important in humanising the brand through connection.
A case study we would like to share would be our U-Mobile B2B campaign. LOKi Digital assisted with the company’s corporate re-brand, by showcasing U-Mobile ESG(Environmental, Social and Governance) efforts. Our digital agency had accomplished this by creating a video series that highlights the unique stories of their sustainability advocates.
Throughout this campaign, we have also made efforts in crafting feature stories with these businesses that practice sustainable ways of operating, while continuing to engage with their customers.
For LOKi Digital, emotional connection matters even in B2B marketing. Data shows you leads but only stories can inspire your audience. By creating narratives that can shape and reflect the values of a business, we help brands build trust, drive impact and stand out in the market.
Testing Unconventional Ways To Engage Your Audience
When it comes to engaging your audience, it’s important to let your audience respond and engage with your brand and products. This is to let your audience feel connected to your brand and want to learn more about what you have to offer. With so many brands in the market, many companies can struggle with retaining their audience’s attention after the campaign is over in order to stand out amongst their competitors.
LOKi Digital did this with the Kimberly-Clark Professional WYPall Virtual Walkthrough campaign. The purpose of the campaign was to educate the decision makers in the manufacturing industry on the benefits of using WYPall products through a fun, gamified digital wall. This virtual wall help makes the learning process more fun and interactive and with the additional help of infographics and targeted ads created by LOKi. The campaign has successfully positioned WypAll as the more intuitive and effective advanced cleaning solution in the manufacturing industry, while collecting email leads to help reconnect them in-between the advertising process.
At the end of the day, there are many ways to keep the audience engaged while driving results. From interactive content to gamified experiences, these are the more impactful and memorable experiences that will keep your audience interested in your brand in the long term. For B2B campaigns, what companies are looking at are leads, ROI and results. Oftentimes, engagement is the tool to driving continued leads and sustained interest in a brand.
Create Strong Visual Branding
A strong visual identity can help make any brand stand out. In the world of B2B marketing, visual branding can either make or break a brand’s appeal to their audience. While B2B campaigns are seen as traditionally functional and safe, it doesn’t mean that they have to be just that. While it is very important for a brand’s visuals to be closely tied in with brand identity, brand guidelines shouldn’t dissuade us from pushing for more exciting visual representations to support a brand’s voice.
One way to create powerful branding that really resonates with your audience is by having a consistent and unified look to all branding elements. An example of this would be the NIPSEA campaign. For this campaign, LOKi was in charge of introducing an important unifying visual identity to strengthen NIPSEA’s brand identity and position NIPSEA as the paragon of authority of colour and design.
Ultimately, strong visual branding is more than just aesthetics. It’s a strategic tool that shapes brand perception and drives engagement. In B2B marketing where brands often compete for buyers’ attention in a saturated market, a distinctive and cohesive visual identity can help brands stand out. At LOKi, we believe that when visuals represent the brand’s voice with clarity and creativity, they become another powerful tool to help brands stand out to their audiences.
B2B Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Have Fun
B2B campaigns don’t mean that you have to play it safe with your taglines and proposals. Just because you’re speaking to businesses doesn’t mean you can’t play around with your messaging. In fact, some of the most effective B2B marketing campaigns today break convention by creating bold taglines, injecting unexpected humour or have striking visuals that makes their audience turn heads. B2B buyers won’t remember the company for their innovative products, but the silly business idea that made them smile, and this is what turns them into repeat customers.
Back in 2022, LOKi rolled out the “Making Cement Sexy” campaign to give the brand a fresh new look on social media. As part of this B2B campaign, we also launched an ESG content series that showcased YTL’s commitment to corporate responsibility, helping to reinforce the brand’s relevance and strengthen connection with stakeholders and industry partners.
One initiative we’re especially proud of from this campaign is a short-form video series featuring DIY cement homekits, which reimagined B2B content in the cement space by bringing the product into everyday, relatable moments for consumers.
All in all, behind every business decision is a person and people connect with stories, humor, and creativity. If your content is interesting, your audience will naturally interact with it.
Always Be Testing
The key to creating a solid B2B campaign strategy in the long-term is finding the most effective way to communicate the same topic in different ways to the audience, so the brand doesn’t sound too repetitive. There is no fixed formula for success, the only way to find out what works best for your audience is to keep testing and testing different strategies and seeing what resonates with them the most. This means experimenting with a wide variety of content formats, be it LinkedIn posts, social media videos or statics. It’s about seeing what drives the most engagement to the clients’ brand and being willing to adapt quickly.
A case study we would like to share would be TUV SUD, in which LOKi was in charge of TUV SUD’s digital marketing efforts in promoting their global services to their target audience.
The B2B campaign targeted key decision makers to raise awareness of TUV SUD’s Global Market Access services. Some of the formats included an interactive quiz that tested users’ knowledge on expanding businesses into international markets, while generating leads for the campaign.
Other formats included infographics, eDMs and whitepaper ads in order to generate leads for the campaign.
Therefore, a strong long-term B2B marketing strategy involves communicating the same message in diverse, engaging ways, and continuously testing to see what resonates. By being willing to adapt quickly, brands can build campaigns that feel fresh, relevant, and consistently engaging. Without losing sight of the core message and sounding repetitive.
Measure What Matters
No matter how good storytelling is, all of this does not matter unless there are tangible results. LOKi understands what truly matters to B2B marketers – which is results. At the end of the day, all campaigns must drive results and add value to B2B buyers’ investments. That’s why every campaign we run is built on clear objectives, backed up reliable data and research and lead optimised. From engagement rates and lead quality to conversion tracking and ROI, we focus on the metrics that drive clear results for our clients.
As IQVIA’s digital agency, LOKi leads the charge in developing impactful digital campaigns and conducting smart media buying strategies to promote the brand’s services.
Our work covers a wide range of medical topics, supported by content creation and other media strategies. This includes everything from whitepapers to LinkedIn ads, infographics and media buying strategies.
At LOKi, we don’t create B2B content for the sake of visibility, but instead we ensure that it contributes to business goals. In B2B marketing, success isn’t just about being seen, it’s about contributing to the more important metrics: ROI.
Breaking The B2B Marketing Mold With Purpose
For LOKi Digital, we don’t break the B2B mold just to be different, we do it to make a difference. Every bold visual, clever tagline, or unconventional idea we execute is grounded in strategy, insight, and results. It’s not about throwing out what works, but evolving it into something more results-driven. We understand that in today’s B2B landscape, we understand that even B2B audiences are seeking more than just information, they are looking for meaningful connection. They want to understand the stories behind the businesses, form authentic engagements, and interact with content that resonates on a more human level.
If you’re interested in taking your campaigns to the next level, feel free to reach out to us!
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