B2H
B2B and B2C audiences aren’t kale salads and beef burgers.
Businesses are a group of people working together to make a profit from selling a product or service. Emphasis on people. The MD buys mar-tech and marmite. The CMO buys non-GMO products.
Why do so many people seem to forget this?
Purchases are generally made with emotion. We buy with our hearts and justify it with our heads. You could argue that people are more logical at work, but emotions are still present, just with different objectives.
At work, you may purchase or help influence the purchase of software to enhance your chances of a promotion/pay rise. Yes it’s not your money, but you still bought something for your benefit.
Whilst away from work you purchase software that causes you to breakup with sleep, spike your cortisol levels because you care deeply about a digital avatar or football team. *Looking at you, Football Manager.
In both situations, the ‘How does this benefit me?’ question still applies.
Boardroom. Living Room. You’re still talking to a human, no matter how niche or corporate your offering. Sometimes I see some sites and wonder, who is your target audience? C-3PO?
Here at (insert company), we jargon the jargon for jargon. We believe in vague obscure language, and doing things in a way that vague terms.
For me, when someone comes across a business they generally want to know the following:
What do you do?
How does it benefit me?
How much does it cost?
How do you do it?
Answer those questions, as simply and concisely as possible and you’ve got a decent chance of nudging them down the road to purchasing.
I’ve seen so many organisations fail to launch/progress partly because they forgot their entire audience consisted entirely of homo sapiens. So many organisations that do amazing things, add value to so many people’s lives, but their message is lost in a crowd of terms that the Oxford Dictionary struggles with.
I’m not saying every company needs to be a TOV clone of Monzo. Jargon is a great tool to show that you know what you’re talking about. But like most things, too much of a good thing, ends up being bad.
Ah well, I guess that’s why people like me exist. By the way, if you haven’t guessed already, the ‘H’ in the title stands for humans.
Until next time,
Asher