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Is Your B2B Marketing in 3D? Or Stuck in 2D?

by Jennifer Beever

Just as technology emerged in the movie industry to make 3D movie production  more cost-effective, so too has it  emerged to provide B2B marketers with a 3 dimensional, not 2 dimensional, platform to provide compelling information about products and services and engage the people who like them.

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People buy from people they like. This has been true well before use of the Internet . Remember the boring person who spits when they talk and who cornered you at the cocktail party? Your eyes glazed over, and you excused yourself to refresh your drink (and wipe off your face). What about when you got the overly assertive (aggressive?) sales pitch at the lunch that was intended to “get to know each other?” You looked for the first excuse to leave early.

Now, in social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, people choose whom they want to follow. Most people want to follow people who are interesting and have relevant stories to tell. They do not want to follow people who only post business pitches. They especially don’t want to follow those who repeat the pitches, over and over again!

How do you get people who wear 3D glasses to follow you?

Be Interesting in Your Social Networks.

It’s more important than ever to be interesting. Don’t copy “stuff,” but do create original materials. Don’t push your features and benefits out, but do tell a story that has some emotional context. And, yes, even your software product or your black box network router has a story, because it has changed the way people do business and made their lives better. Even better, get your customers to tell people online how your product or service changed their lives.

Be Your Brand Online

It’s also critical to know whom you want to personify online to represent your business. Don’t merely express your individual opinion online when you are marketing your products or services. Be your brand. Spend some time figuring out what your brand is (if you don’t know already). Then represent it creatively and “engagingly” online, and your customers will represent it as accurately as you do.

At Marketing Profs 2009 B2B Forum in Boston, Jay Baer said, “Be 3 dimensional in your social networking. Save the 4th dimension for Facebook.” (In my opinion, you could let loose a 4th dimension on Facebook, but set up your privacy settings so that your work connections don’t see that)

By all means be interesting and market in 3D. Don’t be 2D! What do B2B marketers think? Are you 3D or 2D? What are the obstacles to being 3D in your marketing?

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