Events

How do you market to professionals with a human touch?

This question was posed to me this week by LinkedIn at their Ad Week Europe session in London. Much is made of the differences in B2B and consumer marketing. Ultimately marketing is about people. Technology has blended our lives, and it’s not always possible to distinguish between professional and private personas anymore. I actually don’t see the B2B space as all that different from consumer marketing. There are, of course, different tactics and often bigger budgets in consumer, but B2B is just as much about emotional engagement through inspirational and creative content.

Organizations, whether they are consumer or B2B facing, should know that their most powerful marketing channels are their people. They are the immediate window into the brand on a daily basis and they bring an organization’s purpose, values and brand to life. External marketing and paid campaigns are then simply extensions of these, rather than loose wrappings.

At the heart of it all is an organization’s purpose; it is crucial for people engagement and much more. Our own research with the Harvard Business Review found that a strong sense of collective purpose drives employee satisfaction, can positively impact an organization’s ability to transform, and increases customer loyalty. When people believe in their organization’s purpose, they are more likely to become its most positive advocates, thereby reinforcing the brand. When purpose drives the marketing, not the other way around, this becomes marketing gold.

However, a purpose must accurately reflect the organization and not be akin to a statement of intent. At EY, for example, our purpose of “building a better working world” is ambitious, but it relates to our role in building trust and confidence in the capital markets and supporting our clients’ aim to drive sustainable growth. We are currently activating this purpose and LinkedIn has become a strong platform for reaching our critical audiences –both internal and external.

The relationship between purpose, marketing and audiences is still complex. Over the two plus decades I’ve spent in branding and marketing, I have come to think that there are five guiding questions all marketers should ask: