B2B Tech Audiences: 4 Jedi mind tricks to find out what they really think about your marketing

When you think of B2B marketing, what’s the first thing that pops into your mind?

The massive purchases?

The complicated way they have to be made, dodging red tape like a kid’s skipping rope?

Or what about the different opinions floating around the meeting room, full of desperation over which audiences should be marketed to in which way?

Boy, I’ve been there.

It’s a tricky one, isn’t it?

Well, what if I add another challenge to the mix. This B2B audience you want to reach so badly – they’re a B2B tech audience.

Now hold on. Before you go running off in a panic, I have something that will flip your preconceptions right on their head.

For a long time, marketers assumed that B2B and B2C audiences are totally different entities – chalk and cheese, sun and moon, Voldemort and Dumbledore.

Now, people are arguing the exact opposite: That B2B and B2C audiences are exactly the same, and driven by all the same motivators to boot.

The problem? 

Most tech marketers find their audiences sit somewhere in the middle. 

Like vegan cheese and high-heeled crocs, B2B audiences are different — just not in the way you originally expect.

Let’s start by taking a look at those differences, shall we?

2 ways B2B tech audiences think differently 

Mo’ people, mo’ decision-making

As Uncle Ben once said in Spiderman, “with more people comes more decisions to be made”. 

(Or something like that, I haven’t seen it in years.)

The point is, B2B marketing is made instantly tougher by the number of people you need to convince to purchase from you. 

Each of the people will have wildly different priorities — ranging from the product team wanting the most state-of-the-art tech no matter the cost, to the finance team bootstrapping and cutting back everywhere they can to recoup costs.

Even that could result in a (professional) fight across any boardroom table.

Now add in their different levels of understanding — again, you wouldn’t expect finance teams to have the same understanding of the product as, well, the product team. 

And even if you do convince both teams to cooperate and purchase from you, are they in control of the buying process? Chances are you’ll have to put in the extra effort to reach the lofty heights of the C-suite. 

It might come off as precarious and persnickety, but it all affects the way your B2B tech audience will respond to your marketing.

‘Who do you think you’re talking to?’

Chances are, when you’re talking to a tech company, you’re talking to an expert in their field. 

They’ll already have an amazing understanding of how your technology works, and yes, they do want to hear all of the specs and features, please and thank you.

Now, as you’ve heard from every branding agency and marketing mogul in the world, you’re supposed to ignore the features, and only talk about the benefits.

But that’s where they’re wrong. 

(Mostly. No libel here.)

As with most monster-sized organisations, you could also be talking to any number of different people with different positions — Carol in Finance and John from Procurement aren’t going to be in cahoots over the ins and outs of their own tech!

And, to turn this challenge up from Nando’s Medium to an XXXHot spice level, you might need to talk to both of these audiences at different stages of the buying process.

Much like you had to impress the judges on Britain’s Got Talent before you could get through to the next round, you’ve got to first impress the Simon Cowells and Amanda Holdens of the business.

Ready for the full report? Download it here >>

2 ways B2B tech audiences are just like any other audience 

They’re still human (we hope)

Yes, AI is taking over at a monumental pace. But the last time we checked, the humans were still in charge.

Even though someone in B2B tech might be more interested in specs and stats than your average audience, it’s super important to reach them from a human perspective. 

They’re not going to sit and read through your wall of text if there’s nothing to engage or interest them. 

As seen in (almost) every audience ever, emotion still has a huge impact on buyer behaviour.

Just like any other audience, you need to weave a story into your content. Use emotion and storytelling to show how your product will benefit them. 

(For bonus points, you can use our 13 Lenses Checklist as a guide to keep track of this across all of your B2B tech content. A little refining goes a loooong way.)

“It’s not exactly brain surgery though, is it, Konrad?”

Actually, dear reader, wait ‘til you hear that you’re not too far off.

Researchers have even tested people with brain scans and found that buyers use emotions over information like facts and features when making purchasing decisions.

So, as well as facts, figures, and features, B2B tech audiences also need a good dollop of emotion in their marketing — storytelling, metaphors, analogies, you name it. 

Anything that reaches their emotional side, as well as the practical.

They don’t know everything you know

Sometimes, your clients’ internal monologue can sound something like Ben Stiller in the movie Dodgeball:

“I know you. You know you. And I know you know that I know you.”

The thing is, they don’t. 

When you’re talking to experts, it’s easy to fall victim to the ‘curse of knowledge’. That’s where you assume they know everything you know. 

(And assume they care about your product just as much as you do. 

9 times out of 10, they don’t.)

Instead, you’re left with a knowledge gap that can mount into a crevasse as time goes by. The longer you just assume they get it and they’re hanging onto your every word, chances are they’re just hanging on until the end of the meeting so they can go to lunch.

So your job in this scenario is to figure out exactly what your audience does know, what they need to know, and how to communicate it in a way they’ll understand immediately.

The single best way to approach your B2B tech audience

You might think you’re doing these B2B tech audiences a favour by treating them exactly like you would a B2C customer.

After all, if you think that B2B and B2C audiences are pretty much the same, with the same needs and wants, then that’s a surefire way to approach them, right?

I’ll let you in on a secret.

They hate it.

They’re tired of agencies trying to convince them to ‘think more B2C’ when it comes to their audiences.

On the flip side, agencies have a sworn duty not to let these B2B tech marketers fall into the trap of treating their audience like emotionless tech robots.

So, what do you do?

It’s a simple, one-word answer: balance.

Yes, striking that balance between restraint and robotic copy is a tricky tightrope to tread.

But there’s one really easy first step you can take.

Our new report, in collaboration with The Fountain Partnership and YoYo, has it all. 

It shares key insights for marketers in the tech sector, like what the future holds for tech marketing in 2024 and beyond, how AI can impact your marketing — for better and worse — and how to balance great copy practices with impactful ads and design.