B2B marketing has long been considered a different animal to its B2C counterpart, but in many respects they are very similar and, increasingly, the principles of the latter are being applied to the former.
This is evident in industry best practice which entails the use of emotions in B2B marketing rather than just the traditional appeal to the rational, the aim for broad reach and mental availability and the balancing of long-term brand-building and short-term activation.
And as a new generation of B2B buyers reaches leadership positions, marketing is having to explore new ways of reaching them; TikTok, for example, is not the first platform one thinks of in the B2B context, but accounting software business Sage is finding success there.
Of course, the budgets involved in B2B are very different and there may be multiple decision-makers involved; account-based management is a strategic approach that combines targeted, insight-led marketing with sales to increase mindshare, strengthen relationships, and drive growth in specific new and existing accounts.
