From Bland to Brand: Why B2B Deserves Better Marketing

Some businesses sell to other businesses.

All businesses sell to human beings.

Maybe I’m just not that bright, but I’ve never understood why our industry makes it any more complicated than that.

B2B has stood for Bland 2 Boring for far too long. That’s massively unfortunate. It’s also a massive opportunity.

Consider this: 92% of B2B customers have a shortlist of preferred vendors before they even start the buying process. What does this suggest? Your prospects need to know you before they consider you. Brand awareness is foundational—you’re not in the game if you don’t have it.

Our agency is doing a lot of work with B2B clients, and we’re seeing a hunger for creative brand-building. It’s like they’ve been looking over the fence at the B2C world the last several decades and finally thought, 'Why not us?'

Why, indeed. Complex, inherently dry business messages can be delivered in simple, surprising, emotional, even absurdly funny ways. Brands such as Tubi, Squarespace, and Upwork are proving it. Our industry creates brilliant, culture-crashing work for the Apples and Nikes of the world, and we can do it for Attentive, Seismic, Corpay, Bitly, 8X8, and DataDog too.

And damn, what a competitive advantage it can become. Most consumer categories are packed with highly responsive, marketing-minded competitors. Whether you’re selling shoes or soap, you’re trading blows daily. But in B2B? The likelihood is your rival won’t be hitting back. Your B2B brand will be out there shadow-boxing and looking great doing it. Your window to stand out, to differentiate, to transcend is huge. You just need to put on some gloves and work up a little sweat.

You could wait, of course. Maybe you feel your business is uncommonly unique. Maybe you believe creative branding can happen later or when budgets allow or even not at all.

But that would be overestimating your awesomeness and underestimating your competition. The proliferation of B2B brands in similar spaces is staggering. At last count, there were more than 3,000 registered businesses with the word 'data' in their name. How did I find this information? From a company called DataPoint.

One more set of numbers: 49% of B2B spending now takes place online, and 68% of B2B buyers say they’ll increase spending in the future. And as media weight rises, so too is the bar for creativity. Because here’s the kicker—64% of business buyers are now either millennials or gen z—digital natives who expect compelling, consumer-level experiences when they’re online.

It’s your time, B2B. Develop a voice, summon some personality, take a chance or three. Like a random wildflower pushing up through a grey sidewalk crack, you will be seen. And the dividends (I know you like that word) are there to be had.

Just remember: You’re not communicating to an office tower, org chart, algorithm or bot. You’re communicating to human beings.

B2B is the next frontier for creativity. And creativity can bring B2B to the next frontier of business success.

Good luck out there.