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Inside Out and Emotions in B2B Content Marketing

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The latest anticipated summer movie from the acclaimed animation studio Pixar isn’t only for your family. It also has valuable lessons for your e-business.

The latest anticipated summer movie from the acclaimed animation studio Pixar isn’t only for your family. It also has valuable lessons for your e-business.

Inside Out features five emotions (Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust) that exist, personified, inside a girl’s mind as she grows into adolescence.

Despite the power of these emotions, many marketers completely neglect a prospects’ feelings in their B2B content marketing. And the inability to connect on an emotional level turns away potential customers as a result.

Inside Out and Emotions in B2B Content Marketing

How feelings influent your choice

According to a new Nielsen study, consumers today are five times more reliant upon digital content than they were five years ago. In an environment where buyers do most of their research before they ever contact the vendor, B2B content marketing is a huge part of the sales cycle. In Inside Out, the five emotions work together, pushing literal buttons, as they exert control over their host’s feelings. If you want to have control over how your branding and messaging are received, then you also want to appeal to and empathize with your potential customers’ emotions.

Studies in modern psychology have already shown how emotion is a driving force in getting consumers to buy. Pixar, too, understands the importance of feelings as they market Inside Out as “a major emotion picture." Many B2B companies, however, make the mistake of assuming B2B content marketing is solely a cold, facts-driven endeavor. Business-to-business, though, is actually business-to-people. When you get a visitor to your website, that visitor is an actual person with wants and needs.

Movies make a great example here because movies are storytelling. Since humans first gathered around the campfire, stories have been a way of eliciting emotion. Similarly, you want to tell a story with your B2B content marketing to make your prospect feel. Tell a story of what your product does for them. A story of who you are as a company.

The importancy of the content

High-quality pictures and videos on your website help your potential customers understand how your products represent a solution to their problems. Visual imagery is a great way to tell a story and connect that tale to emotion. Another example would be to show your prospects how they themselves will feel after their problem is solved. Other pictures and videos are great for representing the feelings of your brand, whether you are sleek and professional or casual and homey.

Of course, the text of your B2B content marketing tells stories as well. Blogs and editorial content are especially effective at conveying your voice and humanizing your brand. Blogs especially give you a chance to connect with your website visitors and show them that there is a real person behind your business.

Case studies and testimonials are two types of B2B content that are narratives at their core. A good case study or testimonial shows who had a problem and how your solution resolved the issue. That’s classic storytelling at its core – the protagonist who overcomes an obstacle. Whether dealing with inspiration or happiness or pride or relief or fear of failure, you engage with your prospect more when you relate to their emotions.

These are just a few examples of B2B content marketing that tell stories and communicate your message in emotional terms. Which of types of content you choose to deploy is up to you. But whether you want to express the value of your product or the values of your brand, we all have emotions inside our minds. Connect with those emotions, and your content improves exponentially.

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