Marketing with creativity a lot more successful
We all know that creativity is important. Incredibly important even and essential within B2B marketing; you can’t escape it.
Yet many campaigns have other priorities than creativity. And that’s a shame!
When you start creating a new campaign, you need to include the creative aspect from the start.
But… unfortunately, many organizations do not have the right data or the right knowledge to do this.
Or they lack good examples of creative campaigns or previous campaigns that have run well using creativity.
That’s why in this blog we tell you why you should never forget creativity in campaigns and what is important for a good, creative campaign.
A campaign that appeals to your target group.
Does creativity contribute to the growth of your company?
The answer is simple: YES!
Powerful ads leave more impact. They ensure that the advertisement and the message behind it are remembered by the consumer.
And the more it is remembered, the faster the link is made between the advertiser and the consumer.
Of course, you might say, but this is not nearly as obvious.
Good ads stick in the mind of your target audience.
Almost half of the success of your campaign and of good advertisements is determined by the creative aspect.
Once you have a strong creative strategy, create campaigns that win. Campaigns that appeal to the target group.
The interaction of these types of campaigns is higher and they get more clicks and conversions.
With the right campaign material, you have up to almost twice as much price power, and there is five times more shared market growth.
And in addition, a strong, creative campaign is also 16 times more profitable.
These are some of the results of a study by LinkedIn’s B2B Institute and System1.
Few creative ads according to research
LinkedIn’s B2B Institute and System1 examined what percentage of their analyzed ads scored between one and five stars.
From previous assessments (through the ESOV strategy) by System1 from more than 40,000 advertisements, the organization has been able to draw up the scale below.
The ‘star rating’ and market growth go hand in hand, assuming 10% ESOV in each category.
“Brands that set their share of voice (SOV) above their share of market (SOM) tend to grow (all other factors being equal), and those that set SOV below SOM tend to shrink. The rate at which a brand grows or shrinks tends to be proportional to its “extra” share of voice (ESOV), defined as the difference between SOV and SOM.”
– LinkedIn Ads Blog, January 2020
The score scale is organized as follows:
^ Image 1:LinkedIn’s B2B Institute and System1 report, page 10:
Of the 1,700 ads analyzed by LinkedIn’s B2B and System1, only 0.1% (!) achieved five stars on the one-to-five-star scale.
- 76.7% of all ads scored 1 star
- 18.8% of all ads scored 2 stars
- 6.0% of all ads scored 3 stars
- 0.4% of all ads scored 4 stars
- 0.1% of all ads scored 5 stars
^ Image 2:LinkedIn’s B2B Institute and System1 report, page 11:
Which aspects are important for the profitable and creative success of advertisements?
Before you can start with the creative part of your campaign, there are a few basic parts that need to be looked at:
- research ad recognition and ad recall;
- calculate the sympathy for ads and the clarity.
Once this is clear, you can move on to the creative part.
In general, the successes can be divided into these five categories: the storyline, characters, music material, emotion, and smooth advertising:
- Story: those who can tell the story well can achieve their goal;
- Characters: we all want to be able to encourage someone (or something);
- Musical material: music appeals to the heart and to the imagination;
- Emotion: like music, emotion speaks to the heart;
- Smooth advertising: brand recognition reinforces the message (by using recurring logos and/or characters).
Nikon:
Nikon has a recurring song that is used in a lot of video ads. ‘Welcome, Home‘ (2007) is a song by Radical Face and has been used since 2010 for the Nikon ads, which were broadcast in several European countries:
Albert Heijn:
When it comes to smooth advertising, the Dutch supermarket chain is a standout. For a period of 10 years, there was always the same premise: a character.
Namely Harry Piekema’s Henk van Dalen!
Actor Harry Piekema as Albert Heijn’s Henk van Dalen character (2004-2014)
Respond to the emotion
The emotional value associated with advertising plays a major role in your marketing success.
Marketing expert Les Binet says: “Use the power of emotion. Automatically thinking of your brand when buying is only half the battle. Advertising should also reinforce brand preference. The other approach is to create associations between the brand, the buying opportunity, and a relevant feeling and feeling that encompasses buyers to choose the brand.”
Responding to emotions also creates affection.
When we find a brand attractive, positive thoughts arise about its benefits.
For example, it is likely that customers will also rate your products and services more positively.
Creative work and data-driven marketing go hand in hand. Together they ensure success and more customers.
As already mentioned, creativity is important, but creative material is essential.
People are story thinkers, not logic thinkers.
So, there you go.
Invest in the creative!
Read More: 3 steps that will help you grow your brand
5 reasons to use LinkedIn for B2B marketing
With more than 750 million members worldwide, LinkedIn has become the number one website for companies.
That alone should convince you to focus on marketing via LinkedIn.
Curious about 5 other reasons to get started with LinkedIn for B2B marketing? Then read on!
On LinkedIn, as a B2B marketer, you can find a new business partner, introduce a company to potential customers and attract new talent to join your company as an employee.
But you can also get valuable benefits from it with the right use of marketing.
Reason 1: Content!
Where social media channels are often used as a pastime, which is different from LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is mainly used for professional networking and for development. A time investment!
LinkedIn users are often engaged in self-development and gaining knowledge about their field.
When you use LinkedIn for B2B marketing, you have the advantage of context. Users are open to content that is really relevant to them.
As a company, you can perfectly respond to this with your content!
Example: A LinkedIn user is looking for a time management solution for his/her company or training software for their employees, and look – there you are.
When you advertise on LinkedIn, your ads appear in a news feed filled with industry news, expert advice, and insights and recommendations from colleagues.
An advertisement on LinkedIn will therefore be better received in this context than an advertisement on Facebook.
When a lead generation ad is shown on LinkedIn, it is shown to people who want to improve their industry. When it is shown on Facebook, it is visible to someone between different private photos.
This may be the same person, but think about it: When are you most likely to fill out a form to read a work-related white paper or case study? When you’re in relax mode? Or when you’re in work mode?
Much of the data LinkedIn uses for ad targeting comes directly from its users.
If used in the right way, this data brings your company to the attention of the most valuable target groups.
Reason 2: Business targeting capabilities
For each campaign, you need to carefully consider which target group you want to reach and how you can reach them.
This way you can reach users who are actually looking for your product or service. This way you can respond to their questions and needs.
But what possibilities are there in terms of targeting?
Target at the company level
Often you already have an idea of which or what kind of companies you want to focus on.
Based on a company level, you have several options.
On the one hand, you can choose a specific industry and, for example, companies with a certain number of employees with LinkedIn for B2B marketing.
Do you already know specific company names? Then you can also reach the employees of a specific company by targeting company names.
Depending on your target group, you can already target very specifically with this option.
Target at the job level
Do you not want to focus on specific companies, but on functions?
Then you can target based on job titles.
Because everyone on LinkedIn has entered a job title, you can target very specifically in this way.
In addition, you can also select based on seniority. For example, don’t want to reach interns with your ads? Then you exclude it.
Targeting on a personal level
Don’t know someone’s exact job title? Or do you want to reach beyond industry or function?
Then you can also use targeting based on skills, groups, education level, etc.
For example, when you use multiple IT job titles, you might reach people with those job titles, but not someone in IT with an unclear job title.
One way to address this is to also target skills. This way you also reach people who have IT skill on their LinkedIn profile.
What works best? That’s a matter of testing!
Set up different audiences with the same ads and compare the results.
Reason 3: Use your own data effectively
Do you already know who exactly you want to reach?
Upload a list of emails and LinkedIn will match those emails with user profiles.
When your list successfully matches 300 or more profiles, the end result is a matched audience that you can use in any campaign on LinkedIn.
Do you want to reach people who are similar to your current customers?
Then create a look-a-like audience based on your customer list.
In this way, LinkedIn looks at which profiles match and match your current customers.
This way you reach a completely new target group.
Reason 4: The right tool at the right time
Of course, it has been known for a long time that it is becoming increasingly difficult to reach people organically on social platforms.
Social advertising is one of the ways to reach prospects.
LinkedIn’s advertising platform provides everything a marketer needs to ensure that the ads reach the right people with an effective ad spend.
In addition to the countless targeting options that LinkedIn offers, there are also multiple advertising products available.
Re Objectives
LinkedIn offers different advertising goals so that there is always a suitable objective for your campaign! Below they are listed:
Knowledge
Brand awareness: Tell people about your product, service, or organization.
Consideration
Website visits: Drive traffic to your website or marketing landing pages.
Interactions: Increase engagement with your content, such as likes, comments, shares, landing page clicks, or clicks or tracks from your LinkedIn page.
Video views: Share videos with more people.
Conversion
Lead generation: Find leads on LinkedIn using a lead generation form pre-populated with LinkedIn profile information.
Website conversions: Capture leads on your website or drives leads that are valuable to your business.
Applicants: Tell more people about relevant vacancies at your company or send applicants to your vacancies.
Talent leads: The talent leads objective is only available to companies with an active LinkedIn Recruiter contract. Generate leads from candidates who are interested in career opportunities within your company.
Reason 5: Make use of your employees
As with everything in business, your employees are the most important thing.
Give them the resources they need to thrive.
Employees can be a good source for distributing content on LinkedIn.
With well-optimized profiles, employees can become important assets and spokespersons for your company.
Optimized profiles — both your company’s and employees’ — boost visibility in search results.
Google doesn’t leave LinkedIn out of the page-crawling fun. Google will crawl both employee and company profiles. So use your profiles and update them regularly to highlight what’s important.
Another way to get more out of LinkedIn is through employee reinforcement.
When an employee shares one of your LinkedIn posts, the organic reach will be strengthened.
As with Facebook, organic posts on business pages rarely appear in the average user’s newsfeed.
But once someone shares the post, it will appear in many more feeds. Take advantage of that!
Time to get started and get the most out of your LinkedIn page! Do you want to know more about LinkedIn for B2B marketing or do you need help? Please contact us!
Read More: Create perfect lead magnets that customers can’t ignore
