How To Create An Innovative Campaign For Your B2B Blog
Many people still think that a B2B business is not the place to create an innovative campaign. That the conversation and negotiation between two companies must always be formal, serious, and tedious. And this is because important decisions are being made and they usually mean large amount of money and risk taking.
But the problem starts with a misconception of what innovation or creativity is. You still can have a laugh and remain smart and in charge of a profitable business – there is no scientific evidence saying that boring people are more successful compared to the others.
And if your B2B business has a blog, the chances are that you already understand that you need to follow what is trending and bringing results in the online world. But you might still be struggling to increase the traffic or the number of subscribers to your blog, and this is understandable with so much stuff going on at the same time. So let’s see what you can do to change things in your favor by creating some innovative online campaigns.
Get out of your comfort zone
The first thing you will need to do so to be able to create an innovative campaign fo ryour B2B blog is to leave your comfort zone. You will need to accept the possibility of doing things differently and keep an open mind all the time.
Of course, it doesn’t mean that you will be taking unnecessary risks or that you will go experimental on your online marketing campaign. There is no point in trying to reinvent the wheel either. But you will need to accept the fact that doing things as you have been isn’t bring you the results that you want, so you must change your strategy.
But you shouldn’t neither blame yourself. The online market changes all the time and it is hard to keep up with everything you need and still keep your business running smoothly. All you need to do is to realise that and start getting yourself prepared to be put new ideas into practice.
And also start gathering unbeatable arguments, reports, and statistics if you know that you will also need to convince a board of directors or any other decision-maker along the way.
Make it interactive and creative
One of the best ways to make an innovative campaign is by using all of the creativity that you can find available. And as two or more heads think better than one, you should always try and bring your clients to the process of construction of your campaign. It will also increase engagement if you use catchy content, and it will build awareness to your brand, so it certainly is something you should give a try.
To make it happen, you will have to make your campaign as interactive and creative as possible, so your clients can play a part on it. You can ask them to write or record testimonials about your company, let you know how your products help them to become more successful and then use this information so to create your own blog campaign, for example.
Or you can make your campaign directly interactive by using resources that can create a real life experience to them. For instance, the Israeli energy company Shikun & Binui Solaria created a print ad to promote their green energy solution that would transform itself from black and white into a vibrantly coloured image when looked at it while facing sun light. It later become a YouTube video and it is still mentioned as a successful campaign by several experts.
Make it funny
Yes, everybody loves to smile, especially those who spend most of their days suit up and making delicate decisions. So go ahead and be the one putting a smile on their faces while selling the best product available in the market at the same time.
You will be happy to know that it will increase their loyalty to your brand and the chances that they will buy your products more often. Humor has the same effect of a happy salesperson or waiting staff – how often do you go back to a shop or restaurant where everybody seemed to be in a bad mood?
Campaigns based on funny curated or original content are also shared online more often, and watched several times by the same person. Meaning that your message will be spread to more people than you have expected and that it will be remembered for longer.
As an example, humor was the key to the successful of Cisco campaign ASR 9000 router named “The Perfect Gift for Valentine’s Day”. The video that made the news after appearing on YouTube suggested Cisco’s product as the best way to demonstrate love, and it is hilarious. The idea was created by the stand-up comedian and social media producer Tim Washer.
Relate it to what is trending
Again, you should leave your preconceptions and prejudices behind, and make sure that you keep your eyes and ears open to what is trending nowadays.
The fact that the majority is talking about it doesn’t necessarily make the topic less important or less valuable in itself. What matters here is that you find out what is relevant to your target audience and make the most of it by adapting it to your goals.
You can use the topics that are being discussed in politics, the most shared video, the song that everybody is listening to, the best selling book of the week, or anything else. Think how you can relate it to your company, create a killer post and then launch an online campaign to promote it.
You can either make fun of it or you can join the team (if it is about a cause that matches your company value). It will depend on what makes sense to your company and to your customers. But ignoring something that you should have an opinion about can be as bad as doing nothing at all.
Bring other bloggers and brand ambassadors in
But if you still are unsure about how creative you can be without harming your brand, maybe it is time to ask for support. Letting influencers talk about your posts can be a great way to spread the word about your blog online.
Some of them will require that you sign a contract with them as a brand ambassador, others will write or film a review about your ideas without getting paid for it – in this case, you also won’t have control of what is being said, but it does give more credibility to your message.
The point here is that your blog will be promoted not only among your audience, but also their audience. So choose your influencers wisely as you want that your potential customers are also their followers, or you will be attracting the wrong people to your blog.
The bottom line
Promoting a B2B blog isn’t any different from any other blog. It is just a question of keeping an open mind and trying what has been working so far. You research, compile statistics, and through trial and error and testing, create a winning campaign that will increase your traffic in no time.
In this journey, you can adapt what is happening in the B2B arena in general, to your needs and budget. But what you can never forget is that your online campaign has to match your target audience’s expectations. And this is where you can really get creative….
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Dante Munnis
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- How To Create An Innovative Campaign For Your B2B Blog - June 21, 2016
