The Evolution of B2B Marketing—Brain to Brain

We have been talking about B2P (Business to Person), P2P (Person to Person) and H2H (Human to Human) as the changing face of marketing. What’s common to all of these is the fact that marketing is done Brain to Brain. Interesting evolutionary spin on B2B marketing! It’s important to remember this as marketers. You are not marketing to search engines, digital channels and multiple devices. Behind any and all of these is the human brain. You have no choice but to anticipate how a human brain will think and react in order to motivate that targeted brain into positive action. I know this sounds a little bit geeky and futuristic, but in fact, it is going back to the very roots of traditional marketing that are grounded in buyer psychology.

The human brain is a fascinating world that “explorers”, scientists and psychologists have been researching for centuries. What’s different today is the plethora of external stimuli the brain is subjected to, and a huge chunk of that comes from digital media. From the colours in your company logo, to the size and colour of your “click here” button, to the graphics on your landing page, to the content on your blog, to the download link in your email newsletter—there is no limit to the permutations and combinations you can use to effectively influence buyer behaviour. The cherry on top, of course, is personalization. So not only do you need to be acutely aware of marketing to the human brain but you also need to ensure that you are marketing to a specific persona that is your target buyer.

The Content Marketing Institute has some useful insights on how to develop and adapt your content strategy and content marketing campaigns using consumer psychology.

Peter Fader, Wharton Professor of Marketing

The lines are definitely blurring between B2C and B2B with Brain to Brain being the marriage of the two disciplines. Peter Fader, Professor of Marketing at The Wharton School of Business makes a great point, “All industries can learn from each other—if they were willing to accept the fact that the basic behavioral patterns are astonishingly similar across domains. Every company does some things well and other things poorly, but they spend way too much time convincing themselves why their industry (and company) is unique. Instead they should actively look for (and celebrate) the similarities rather than hyping up the (surprisingly small) differences.”

We need to look for, identify and prepare to take advantage of these similarities.

In our efforts to manage buyer expectations, we need to understand and Remember these Distinguishing Characteristics of Today’s Buyer in Order to Build Engagement .

Basic human emotions and instincts are, on average, similar in most people. If we are able to make those fundamental connections in our demand generation and brand marketing activities, the differences are easier to manage. That is the premise of successful brands defining certain core values that their brand promise delivers across the board, in all geographies, across all categories of buyers and for every product or service within their portfolio. Once buyers are able to recognize, respect and feel inspired to engage with those core values that resonate in their brains, they become open to receiving more focused, personalized messaging.

Personalization is not easy, mind you. Here’s a quick refresher on 6 Ways to Humanize Your Brand and Enhance Customer Experience .

Your organization can enhance demand generation by crafting unique campaigns that:

• Proactively seek buyer feedback


• Target specific personas


• Innovate customer communication methodology


• Leverage lead generation solutions that allow a holistic, real-time 360° view of your campaign effectiveness.

Let’s discuss below what other ways we can incorporate this concept of “Brain-to-Brain” in our B2B lead generation.

The Evolution of B2B Marketing—Brain to Brain