All You Need To Know About Disruptive B2B Marketing
If you want to learn about disruptive B2B marketing, why it’s a robust strategy, and how it is the solution today, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s explore the topic in-depth to shed light on B2B marketing and disruptive marketing, and also the reasons why disruptive B2B marketing is the solution.
Table of Contents
- What is B2B Marketing?
- The Changes In B2B Marketing?
- What is Disruptive Marketing?
- Examples of Disruptive Marketing in the Real World
- What Make Disruptive Marketing A Robust Strategy?
- Top Reasons Why Disruptive B2B Marketing is the Solution
- Disruptive Marketing Tips for B2B Brands
- Conclusion
What is B2B Marketing?
As the name suggests, B2B marketing refers to the marketing of products and services to other companies and organizations. Unlike B2C marketing, B2B marketing holds several key distinctions that are oriented towards businesses and not customers.
Examples of B2B marketing include:
- A company that manufactures industrial pumps trying to sell their products to an oil and gas production company.
- A construction company trying to market and establish a contract to build a PR firm.
Furthermore, the content of B2B marketing tends to be more informational and straightforward than B2C marketing. This is because a firm’s buying decisions are based on the effect it has on its net profits, compared to consumer decisions.
What Are The Changes In B2B Marketing?
The way B2B companies market and interact with their customers has changed dramatically. Nowadays, it’s becoming more difficult for your business to rise above others online due to the increase in competition As a result, former giant organizations are either busy reinventing themselves or risk being trapped in corporate history books. Therefore, understanding the core elements that have changed is vital:
How We Access Content
Just over a decade ago, Apple launched the iPhone, which revolutionized the smartphone market and then subsequently revolutionized many other industries. The iPhone was initially ridiculed by the likes of Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer. He made fun of the fact that the $500 “world’s most expensive phone” would not appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard.
The results? Ten years later, two-thirds of the world’s population is online via mobile devices, and smartphone users now account for 73% of internet use. As a result, this trend has created new ways of doing business today.
Companies like Uber, and Deliveroo, as well as hundreds of B2B apps such as Xero accounting software, and Goonder, have taken advantage of these new trends.
Where We Access Content
Nowadays, people can access the internet at any time or location. This is a result of the increase in smartphone usage, and it’s only going to increase as more business tasks move into the cloud.
In many Asian markets, villages and towns are increasingly bypassing laptops and fixed-line broadband and favoring the geographic reach provided by 4G and wireless technology. And the arrival of 5G will no doubt change everything again.
How We Consume Content
Creating a connected community has always had different effects; with a deluge of communication via email, Facebook Messenger, SMS, WhatsApp, Telegram, and many other digital and social platforms reducing people’s attention span.
What is Disruptive Marketing?
Disruptive marketing means turning all marketing rules on their head, shaking things up, and changing perceptions not just about your business, but about the industry as a whole. In other words, you simply take all the marketing rules you’ve been practicing faithfully and stomp on them.
Most brands initially used an unapproachable way of marketing. However, it isn’t ideal for most customers nowadays because they want to be part of the conversation. Disruptive marketing makes that possible because it connects consumers with brands on a more human level.
Disruptive marketing embraces concepts that are outside the norms. As a result, people are forced to stop and look. People want to be part of that story because disruptive marketing can take a simple, everyday something and make it unique in the eyes of people. A perfect example is how Uber disrupts the market by changing people’s perception of what a taxi service is.
Examples of Disruptive Marketing in the Real World
Let’s be honest – disruptive marketing isn’t quite as easy as it seems. However, brands that employ disruptive marketing, regardless of the type of product they sell, are often successful. Here are some examples of how disruptive marketing campaigns can change and increase brand awareness.
Toyota
Historically, automobile companies aren’t typically known for their humor because their advertisement is all about showcasing innovation and sophistication. However, Toyota changed all that when they designed a comedic ad talking about cars fueled by bullsh*t.
Launched in 2015, the advertising campaign was an exciting way for Toyota to show their fans that it can have a sense of humor. Not only was the ad interesting, but it was also proof that Toyota was taking another step in its mission to make cars more sustainable.
Nike
Nike is one of the masters when it comes to disruptive marketing strategies. They have empowered individuals around the world to become athletes in their own right by changing the way people think about health and fitness.
In 2015, they ran an ad campaign called “better for it” on YouTube. The disruptive marketing campaign is about two adopted sisters, Lily, and Margot. Both are very different. One of them has a YouTube channel with large followers and also loves to workout. The other has a different viewpoint when it comes to fitness and hates working out. Consequently, they both got into a competition.
Nike was very successful as a result of that ad because most women can see themselves as either Lily or Margot. Nike’s goal in this campaign was to provide customers with a relatable experience. This shows that they are not only a brand for people who love fitness but also a company that is willing to support less athletically minded people.
HBO
Entertainment experts HBO launched an ad campaign in 2015 to introduce the HBO Go platform. The platform allows HBO subscribers to log in from a variety of devices so that they can use the service wherever they are.
Subsequent series of ads show that the family is dealing with the embarrassment of watching gory, graphic, or cruel scenes together, and it might be better to use the privacy of HBO Go instead.
The HBO product may not be completely disruptive, however, the ad was so unique that they avoid following the obvious path of suitability for watching your favorite shows and movies anytime, anywhere.
What Make Disruptive Marketing A Robust Strategy?
Highlighted below are the various aspects that make disruptive marketing a robust strategy:
Affordability
To be effective, disruptive marketing doesn’t have to be expensive. Instead, it should change the way things are done and challenge people’s perception of your product.
Approachability
One key advantage of disruptive marketing is that it tells a story that people tend to understand. Nowadays, effective branding of storytelling is also very important because over 92% of consumers want to see ads that appear to be stories.
Curiosity
Disruptive marketing is unique. Therefore, it attracts people, arouses their interest, and makes them search for more information. Studies have shown that most consumers love buying from innovative companies. That’s why people prefer disruptive marketing campaigns to get them to come up with a whole new direction.
Not Easily Duplicated
According to RetailWire, the top five brand attributes most important to millennials is trustworthiness (31%), creativity (29%), intelligence (23%), authenticity (22%), and confidence (21%). In disruptive marketing, all of these attributes are integrated and cannot be easily replicated. Consequently, customers will most likely ignore companies that are replicating the same tactics.
Room for Improvement
Traditional marketing classifies brands into “categories”, but disruptive marketing does not follow the same rules. Thus, it offers you the opportunity to try out new things and improve with time.
Top Reasons Why Disruptive B2B Marketing is the Solution
As stated earlier, the crowd you need to rise above online these days is much, hence, it’s quite difficult. However, disruptive marketing is the best way to achieve this. It’s about making sure that people have no choice but to take notice of what you’re doing. The cool part about it? You don’t have to play by the rules. Anything goes, and you tend to see more results as you become more creative.
The basic idea is to disrupt the boring waves of B2B content, and we’ve rounded up five areas you can focus on to do just that.
Take Advantage of Pop Culture
No doubt you have heard the word ‘viral’ in recent years more than you have heard in your entire life, right? Well, there is a good reason behind that. There has never been a simpler reference point for what everyone in the world is looking at than this digital age. All you have to do is to watch what is going viral!
Subsequently, you take something new and relevant that will most likely resonate with people and work that into your creative idea to grab their attention.
Give Away Something Useful Or Informative
No, I don’t mean you should give away another damn tote bag or umbrella. Frankly speaking, it still baffles me that people still dish out the same promotional items and classify them as a memorable piece of marketing. Nothing is exciting about having countless oversized t-shirts with a random product poorly written on them. If you want to have a memorable piece of marketing, try offering something fun, useful, or informative (that aligns with your business offering). It could be a book, gadget, or gift card.
Make a Podcast
In recent years, there has been a rapid growth in the number of people that listen to podcasts. Its popularity has soared that nearly 67 million people listen to podcasts each month in the United States. This shows that making a podcast means a lot of people are most likely to listen to your message. While it may not be easy to sit and record the next Serial, you need to understand that people love listening to podcasts.
Be a Guest on Podcast
We understand that it’s unrealistic for everyone to create their own podcast. However, it is possible to appear on a podcast created by someone. You need to look for podcasts playing in your business-related scenes and approach them for an interview. Consequently, this will help create good branding and building authority, and also make you reach a whole new audience of potential customers.
Use Google My Business
Another great choice at the moment is Google My Business. This is because a lot of businesses aren’t using it (probably because they haven’t discovered its relevance), hence the pool isn’t muddied yet. Plus it’s a huge advantage if you run a storefront because Google My Business is geographically targeted.
Disruptive Marketing Tips for B2B Brands
Highlighted below are the top disruptive marketing tips for B2B brands:
Be Consistently Relevant
According to the Brand Relevance Index, the most successful companies are the ones that make a difference in the lives of our customers. To achieve this, they needed to be consistently relevant.
For your marketing campaign and product to be relevant, you need to understand your customers’ unique needs and expectations. The truth is, you’re already falling behind if you don’t know your customers. Therefore, using a tool like Google Analytics will help you better understand your audience and their behavior.
Know Your Market
Before creating a disruptive marketing strategy, you need to know your market very well. Uber wouldn’t know what needs improvement if they didn’t know the taxi industry like the back of their hand.
The key here is to find a group of potential clients whose needs are not currently met or weaknesses within the industry. Subsequently, it would be easy to fathom how your brand can come in and provide the solution to these needs.
Break The Rules
For you to disrupt an industry, you must know everything about the industry’s existing rules and convention. This information will make you ascertain if you can redefine the rules – or throw them out the window completely.
Do The Unexpected
This is the time to tap into your competitive advantage. Keep in mind that your audience may not know they need your product or service until you show them how to take advantage of it (remember the Uber example). Thus, identify what makes your brand unique and use that to fuel your marketing campaign.
Conclusion
Today we live in an evolving and dynamic world. The rate at which technology, products, and services evolve is unprecedented. As a result, people are spoilt for choice. Thus, one of the biggest challenges businesses face is how to stand out from the crowd. This is where disruptive marketing can help you compete more effectively in the global marketplace and capture your customers’ attention. Therefore, as a B2B brand, creating a disruptive B2B marketing strategy should be at the top of your priorities.
