The document summarizes the key discussions and presentations from the B2B Emotional Engagement Conference in 2014. The conference highlighted the growing importance of emotional engagement in B2B marketing as buyers make more emotional decisions. Speakers discussed how marketers need to better understand audiences, leverage content marketing, and focus on building deeper connections rather than just promotions. The takeaway was that B2B buyers are people too, so marketers need to bring more humanity and personality to engage emotionally with audiences.

1. EMOTIONAL
ENGAGEMENT
#b2bconf
B2B
CRUNCHED

2. The B2B Emotional Engagement Conference
www.earnest-agency.com
• November 5th 2014
• http://www.b2bmarketingconference.com/
• #b2bconf
• “Designed to help you put the emotion back
into your marketing”
• Over 200 attendees
• 4 keynotes
• 20 expert speakers
• 1 unmissable day

3. www.earnest-agency.com
We came, we saw, we crunched…

4. Here’s the problem
“Emotion has always been
on the radar – but
marketers haven’t
understood how to leverage
its importance in B2B.”
Joel Harrison, B2B Marketing

5. “We've lost the art of
grabbing attention.
So now it's about
getting people excited
and interested in
what we do.”
Darren Bolton, OgilvyOne DNX

6. “We all know about
product parity but
we're now in a
situation where
there's marketing
parity - we're all
campaigning on the
same issues.”
Chris Wilson, Earnest

7. But remember
“In advertising, not to be
different is virtually
suicidal”
Bill Bernbach

8. “There’s never been a
more important time
to build deeper
connections and really
engage with your
audiences.”
Joel Harrison, B2B Marketing

9. So what are you going
to do about it?
“Marketing needs to
break out of its silo and
do things that are quite
remarkable.”
Paul Everett, The Marketing Practice

10. “Be interesting and engaging
with customers, so that they’ll
call you in and be the supplier
they want to hear from.”
Simon Carter, Fujitsu UK&I

11. “Stop sitting on the
fence. Be brave. Find
an interesting angle
or a unique tone of
voice. You need to be
heard amongst the
noise.”
“Otherwise you just
face indifference like
most other b2b
brands.”
Darren Bolton, OgilvyOne DNX

12. “We've got to get a deeper
understanding of our
audience if we're going to
engage them emotionally.
That's about
understanding how they
think and how they feel.”
Darren Bolton, OgilvyOne DNX

13. “We need to
bring some of the
same personality
and humanity to
B2B marketing
as we do our
everyday lives.”
Stuart Maister, BroadView

14. “85% of the
decisions we make
are made by the
unconscious part
of the brain.”
Chris Wilson, Earnest
And tune into the science of
how buyers really think:

15. “When making a
business purchase, it's
often not about one
decision it's about
hundreds or even
thousands of micro-yesses
and each micro
yes is highly emotive.”
Chris Wilson, Earnest

16. So the question is how?
“When what you do
isn't sexy you need to
approach the market
differently and
engage with your
audience differently.”
Kate Jones, Miele Professional

17. “Do something that’s
worth marketing
rather than creating
empty marketing.”
Paul Everett, The Marketing Practice

18. “The way to connect with
your audience is through
content.
Content is the connective
thread of all marketing.”
Mark Addis, NewsCreds

19. “It's about content
with a cause relevant
to them and their
roles - not about
selling but becoming a
trusted adviser.”
Kirsty Dawe, Really B2B

20. “We call it ‘Youtility’ - providing
free information and resources
that delivers value without selling
to a customer.”
Kirsty Dawe, Really B2B

21. “Helping has become the new
selling. If we help them we've got a
customer for life rather than a one
off sale.”
Kirsty Dawe, Really B2B

22. “Doing nothing won’t always cost
you nothing. Having a lack of
intelligent content will benefit
your competitors”
Catherine Toole, Sticky Content

23. However, bear in mind…
“Content is a hygiene
factor. Just like you
don’t need to be
reminded to wash your
hands after going to
the loo, we don’t need
to be reminded we
need good quality
content.”
Paul Everett, The Marketing Practice

24. “By 2015 the
average person
will be exposed to
15.5 hours of
content per day,
that’s 9 DVDs of
data. You need to
stand out.”
Katie Canton, Birddog

25. 6 rules of content
sharing
1 Be selfish
2 Be focused
3 Be accommodating
4 Be shockingly creative
5 Be storytellers
6 Make it easy to share
Katie Canton, Birddog

26. “How do you get people to
share your content? They
need to care about it first.”
Katie Canton, Birddog
And the big one:

27. “If the experience of
being a customer of
ours doesn’t live up
to what we’re
promising, there’s
only so far our
marketing can take
us.”
Paul Everett, The Marketing Practice
The experience
matters

28. “Ask yourself is marketing
here to be a support
function or strategic asset
to the business – a partner
to Sales, the voice of the
customer and the owner of
the customer experience?”
Paul Everett, The Marketing Practice

29. Engage internally too
“You have to get emotional
engagement from your sales force
too. If you can appeal to their hearts
and minds, then you’re half way
there.”
Simon Carter, Fujitsu UK&I

30. “Encourage your sales force not to
go armed with the long
presentations, but go with pen and
paper, listen to customers and build
an emotional connection.”
Laura Bishop, Accenture

31. Why?
“Those companies with a highly
engaged workforce improved
operating income by 19.2% over
a period of 12 months.”
Fran Brosan, Omobono

32. “You are 50% more likely to get on a
tender if you lead with an emotional
proposition.”
Paul Cash, Rooster Punk

33. “You can
command an 8
times premium if
you can connect
with someone
emotionally.”
Paul Cash, Rooster Punk

34. “Companies who focus on
connecting with the audience
have a growth rate triple that of
their competitors.”
Mark Addis, NewsCreds

35. “Personal value
messages impact B2B
buyers more than twice
as much as business
value messages (42.6%
versus 21.4%).”
Chris Wilson, Earnest

36. Where do you go from
here?

37. “Gather up
insights. Carve
out 5% of your
budget. And go
for it. Adopt an
iterative process”
Jon Moger, Juniper Networks

38. “Pick something that
won't get you fired and
give it a go.”
.
Laura Bishop, Accenture

39. “Dare to be different. If
you don’t you won’t be
remembered on a long
buyer journey.
Every now and then
messaging needs to push
you out of your comfort
zone and make you feel a
bit sick.”
Jade Tambini, DS Smith

40. “Don't be afraid of fast
failure - you don't know
what you don't know until
you've tried it.”
Jon Moger, Juniper Networks

41. “B2B is far more emotional in
its decision making than B2C
because you can get fired for it.”
Jon Moger, Juniper Networks

42. “CEB and Google
found that business
brands had greater
emotional
connections to their
customers than
most consumer
ones.”
Chris Wilson, Earnest

43. “There is no longer an era of change
in b2b marketing, but the change of
an era.”
Paul Cash, Rooster Punk

44. And never forget:
“Business people are people
too – they just happen to be
at work”
Chris Wilson, Earnest

45. That was Emotional Engagement 2014 crunched by:
www.earnest-agency.com
earnest-agency.com
@earnestagency
And a big thank you to:
@marketingb2b
“It’s been emotional.”
Images: Creative Commons Unsplash.com / Flickr