The Cure for B2B Marketing: A Good Dose of Humor

Do you have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, and getting through the day?  Don’t turn to a sleeping pills at night, just crack open a B2B technology whitepaper, it will make you dose off instantly.  Let’s be honest, 90% of B2B brands are extremely bland, boring and dry. In this post I’m going to discuss some of the problems with current marketing communications, as well as share some examples of companies who are doing it right and getting positive ROI.

The Problem

The B2B space has a serious communication issues with both the visual imagery presented and the copywriting used.

I’m sick of those cliché and overused stock photos in the marketing collateral of business-to-business companies.  I’ve seen the same iStockPhoto model in literally hundreds of websites.  The writing doesn’t get much better.  You’ve got a flexible, scalable, groundbreaking, industry-standard, cutting-edge product?  Really? Wow!

Sophos is a good example of a homepage that breaks away from the clichés.

We are marketing to businesses, when we should be marketing to people.

Business buyers and decision makers are humans made up of flesh, blood, and emotions.  There is more to a large business purchase than just ROI and product specs.  It’s time for B2B marketers to connect with people, truly understand them, and of course, entertain them. I believe we need to shake up the B2B world with compelling and creative marketing that contains a good dose of humor.

Reasons to Use Humor in B2B

Humorous marketing often goes viral, bringing lots of traffic to your website.

When your messaging is spreading like wildfire, you’re likely to reach the desk of important business decision makers.  IBM’s funny video, “Mainframe: The Art of the Sale, Lesson One” has received over 270,000 views.  The video caused blog traffic to increase 25 times, and the campaign received mainstream press coverage. HubSpot, a marketing software company, simultaneously educates and entertains prospects, and four out of the 10 of their most read blog articles from 2009 are fun-based. One of my favorite B2B viral videos is from Cisco for their ASR 9000 router.

Funny marketing has a longer shelf life.

Eloqua’s The Conversation campaign was launched over a year ago, but is still relevant and continues to consistently drive leads for them to this day.  It’s hilarious, interactive and it tackles real problems that companies are having today – without being overly salesy.  Funny advertising can, in fact, directly lead to sales, even in the B2B world.

Eloqua does a fantastic job with e-mail marketing as well.

Humor makes you seem…  Human.

Incorporating personality into your company’s brand makes you seem friendly, approachable and authentic.  This can help you to differentiate your brand from the vast array of competing companies.  Most importantly, you will be remembered.  And don’t think you need an exciting product to have exciting marketing.

Marketing for networking products doesn’t have to be dull, as
seen by this hilarious four page Playboy parody for Sun's Server of the Month.

Why You Shouldn’t Use Humor

Humor may be misinterpreted

What has one person laughing, may have another person furiously angry and offended.  The marketing piece may fall flat, or it may backfire.  I had a lot of positive feedback on my article, “Treat Your Landing Page Visitors Like 5-Year-Olds With ADD” however there was a complaint from a reader whose son has ADD. Also take into account if you’re an international company that the humor may not translate well in other cultures. If humor isn’t appropriate for your audience or might easily be misinterpreted, tone it down or avoid using it all together.

Challenges

There are many barriers in large companies where a marketing piece has to pass through legal, sales, marketing, branding etc. before being approved.  But I encourage you to get in touch with your inner Michael Scott, and at least try.

Feel free to share your experiences or any examples on humor in B2B marketing in the comments below.

Tagged as: brand, marketing, social media