I'm reading Guy Kawasaki's new book, Enchantment at the moment. In it, he has a quote from another book I read a while back – Annette Simmons' Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins. It goes like this:
People don't want information. They are up to their eyeballs in information. They want faith – faith in you, your goals, your success, in the story you tell.
Of course, in the B2B world, this could be seen as heresy. After all, we deal with rational people making complex decisions over extended periods of time. Surely they need facts, not faith.
This rational view is supported by the wealth of content we are all creating these days (and one of the reasons my blogging has been so pitiful lately). From ebooks to white papers to videos to podcasts, we're doing more than ever before to explain our products and services and how they fit into the customer's world. We're eschewing spin and giving it straight lest our marketing shows. Just the facts Ma'am.
But let's just pause for a second. Let's stop and think about why we're really creating all this content marketing. It's not really about facts and logical argument. After all, facts are a dime a dozen. It's not as if we're in possession of killer facts that our competitors are not (at least not for long).
Then what are we doing?
Well, we're actually creating emotion. This may be excitement and anticipation, reassurance and confidence or any of the wider panoply of emotional responses. After all, study after study has shown that emotion drives behaviour – and it's changes in behaviour we ultimately want to see. Beyond this we're offering a glimpse of the relationship customers can expect from us, a small indication of what our brand is like on a personal level. Even in B2B people buy people.
Fundamentally, as Annette points out, we are encouraging faith. Faith that we'll deliver. Faith that customers won't regret their decision to purchase. Faith that our role in their futures will be a benign and beneficial one.
And by focusing on faith first and facts second, we can create the kind of content that both deepens relationships and delivers results.