B2H: The New Mantra For Marketeers
‘When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion.’ – Dale Carnegie
No wonder leveraging emotional intelligence is the key to know your markets better. Even in advertisements, emotions are the center of attraction. Personalizing the marketing efforts is the authentic need of digital businesses. It is because you want your audience to FEEL something.
The lack of human connection resulted in robotic boredom in the market.
Now, brands are revolving around creating ‘more’ human experiences for the customers. Making rare and authentic connections is about EMOTIONS. B2H, the bedrock of empathy rather than rationality, is the new mantra for marketers.
Defining B2H (Business to Human)
After spending millions on marketing, brands want to now stand out by appealing to “feelings” which influence likes, dislikes, trust, or distrust
Initially, companies were marketing to a generic person rather than actual humans. However, B2H says ‘People’s emotions matter more than ever’. Seeing that trust cannot be built via algorithms, B2H is rising in the form of human marketing to target every human being behind the screen.
Let’s welcome the role of humanity in business with open arms. It’s time for B2H connections!
How to Market Business to Human(B2H) Movement?
B2H definitely sounds exciting. Implementing it might not be easy as a cakewalk. Here are a few considerations for marketers to begin with B2H –
Build Empathy – Be In Their Shoes For A While
The principal driving B2H marketing is EMOTIONS. Unveil the roots of customers’ needs, wants, and desires. Then take a step back to focus on the emotional aspect of marketing your business.
Ask questions from your customers to uncover the root pain points.
What are they struggling with? Check where the struggle is coming from.
What are their goals?
What’s the potential in your product/service that can help them?
Conduct surveys, user group engagements, focus groups, or connect with sales & support teams for customer conversations. Use CSAT scores to measure customer delight. A CSAT score of 70-90 is a positive sign for your brand.
According to a research by Salesforce, 90% of the customer’s journey is complete even before they come in touch with the sales representative. Creating empathy and emotional connection does that. So, be in their shoes. Empathize with them in their situations. Put yourself in their environment and story to comprehend their emotions. The work of a marketer here is similar to that of a psychologist or a therapist.
Put more effort to understand what they think, feel and decide and why they do it.
Towards the end, your solution must seek to motivate and uplift the spirits of your customers.
Authentic Engagement
While engaging with customers, show empathy. Make authenticity the most used ingredient in your marketing. For instance – Go on like this. We understand what you’ve to go through the whole day updating your systems. Instead, you can do it quickly within a few minutes.
Show extra care and affection. Understand what it means for them. And then explain how you can make their lives easier. Your simple acknowledgment and appreciation can change their mindset. Plus, it builds trust in the customers leading them to a sound purchase decision.
Starbucks is the prime example of perfect authentic engagement. Drawing a smiley face, and knowing your name, are signs of a brand that cares. Starbucks prides itself on warm and friendly interactions.
Excellent brands always go beyond a good experience. They focus on customer delight by making it a memorable one for their consumers.
Pro-tip – It’s more about leveraging all the channels & serving to transform the needs of the customer. For this, it is imperative to understand first hand customer experience which necessitates robust market research via surveys.
Identify The Impact of B2H On Customers & Employee
Lay out a marketing plan that puts B2H foremost. Business to Human improves customer relations and creates a strong internal team.
Human customer relations can incite a more purpose-filled work environment. Because business has to be more about emotions rather than transactions.
Construct a team that deeply cares. A team that puts customers first. This engenders trust in the customers. And, they buy from brands that are trustworthy.
You can use NPS (Net Promoter Score) to check customer satisfaction. Businesses with NPS of 90 or above are the ones who keep their customers on priority.
We all agree that data is rational and functional. But there lies a magic in the power of storytelling that connects brands with the customers in an emotional and impactful way.
As per Headstream’s research, if people fall in love with your brand story, it can do wonders. 55% are likely to avail your services in future, 15% will buy the product ASAP and 44% will spread it further.
Wrapping Up
B2H is in the spotlight post-pandemic and every business has rethought its digital presence after COVID. The digital-first world leaders aim towards B2H marketing to build strong relationships with external clients and internal teams. Remember that your customers are humans no matter what type of marketer you are. You’re marketing to human beings. Focus on making human lives better.
”The only way to change someone’s mind is to connect with them from the heart.”
-Rasheed Ogunlaru