The document discusses how to make B2B marketing and storytelling more engaging by moving away from the conventional wisdom that B2B content needs to be boring. It recommends focusing on principles of storytelling like starting with why the product or service matters to customers, engaging their emotions, emphasizing human insights and experiences, keeping content simple, and speaking in plain English. The objective is to transform static B2B content into more shareable and engaging formats.

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Bypass Boring: B2B Storytelling For A
Bite-Sized World
Scott Donaton
Chief Content Officer, DigitasLBi

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Beyond Boring
BtoB has a perception issue:
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B B

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7. “I've learned that people will forget what
you said, people will forget what you did,
but people will never forget how you
made them feel.”
--Maya Angelou
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The CONVENTIONAL WISDOM
 B2B content, because it typically involves complex, technical information that
often needs to clear legal or regulatory hurdles, is boring.
The SCARY
 Your audience often knows as much or more about a topic than you do.
The SCIENCE (of a story)
 The human brain has evolved to make sense of the world through
stories: Most b2b ads target the rational brain, but the rational brain
justifies decisions the story brain has already made

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START WITH WHY
 The role your brand or product plays in people’s lives
 Principles of great storytelling apply
 Ideas based on human insights

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FIVE PRINCIPLES
 Strive for simplicity
 Engage emotion to engage understanding
 Data are humans in disguise
 Empathize
 Speak English (at least in English-speaking countries)

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Strive for Simplicity

12. INNOVATION INSPIRED BY YOU

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Engage Emotion to
Engage Understanding

14. "We really wanted to build more of an
emotional connection with our customers."
— Don LeBlanc, CMO at Vistaprint
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Empathize

17. Psychology of Change
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Data are humans in disguise

20. The Music of Business
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Speak English

23. Breakthrough
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25. It doesn’t have to be expensive to be sexy

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The Objective: Transform under-performing, static content in shareable, snackable,
engaging formats.
Content re-imagined

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THANK YOU
(HOPE I DIDN’T BORE YOU)
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