Put people at the heart of Strategy
Reared in full-service account handling, adopted by the digital world. Prodigal son, parameter pusher and tactician. Derby.
The rise of Skynet is some way off but I’m seeing a distinct lack of human finesse in modern marketing.
Let me explain… from my (mostly) human heart.
Marketing that cuts through grabs the audience’s attention and holds it by speaking their language. It will address key pain points (which customers never call pain points) before hinting at, or directly offering, a way around that problem.
Key takeaways
- Speak to real people, not businesses: Effective marketing translates corporate buzzwords into relatable language that resonates with customers’ genuine fears, needs, and desires.
- Understand the people behind the process: Building human-centric customer personas helps craft meaningful messaging that addresses real problems in relatable terms.
- Human-first messaging matters: Even in AI-driven strategies, humans make the final decisions – so focus on clear, empathetic communication that connects emotionally and authentically.
Solve their problem, not the company’s
While that’s all well and good in consumer marketing, where we’re talking to people in their real lives about topics or objects they buy with their own money, it seems to change when we crossover into B2B marketing.
For some reason – let’s blame Henry Ford – we immediately launch into a series of buzzwords we would never dream of uttering at home…
Efficiency. Productivity. Scalability. Optimisation. Transformation. I won’t go on.
These might be valid business concerns but they’re not very human. The real skill is making them mean something to people – whether they’re delivering the message or receiving it.
A clear strategy, and one more likely to succeed, delves into your target audience to build out clearly defined customer personas that highlight fears, worries, needs and wants (and occasionally, dreams). Real considerations, from real people – that we need to know – otherwise all marketing activity is doomed to fail.
Drawing out those problems
This is where to use those teams with close customer-relationships.
What’s discussed on prospect or sales calls? What can you learn from existing customers and what nuances can you glean from the way they’re describing their real day-to-day? Are they a founder-owner dealing with the challenges of running a business and trying to find time for a personal life?
Once you’ve identified those problems, the real skill comes in translating your message into human-speak, with your customer persona(s) in mind.
Efficiency = work smarter, not harder. Productivity = get home on time…to name just two.
So, if you sell software to a founder-run business, for instance, efficiency and productivity can be communicated as ‘easy to use’ or ‘helps you get home on time’.
All your messages need to be marketed to humans.
If we don’t understand the people behind the process, we’re never going to get to the heart of their problem. Whatever you say, make it meaningful – let’s market to humans, not businesses.
Humanise your messaging
It’s one thing to weave in business buzzwords, but it’s another to make them your entire brand personality.
Irrespective of your sector or focus and no matter how much AI you’re using, it will be a human who has the final say on whether or not to buy from you. Try to understand, acknowledge and consider these people first. Next, figure out the best message to promote what you do and how you can help.
For now, us humans are still here. Let’s remember that.