B2Cs are the kings of viral content online. Engagement is easy for consumer-directed products. Advertising stuff that people already love and need is easy, regardless of whether it’s in food, retail, travel, or any other type of sexy business.

But that doesn’t mean that B2Bs cannot score online. B2B brands have been responsible for some of the most memorable and interesting digital campaigns in recent years. Bottom line: Every company has the same content marketing tools. It’s only a matter how they are used.

Let’s look at some B2Bs who created memorable campaigns to illustrate the point.

VeriSign

VeriSign, an ecommerce security provider, faced a problem. Because of security concerns, customers sometimes abandon their virtual shopping carts at checkout. VeriSign created a viral video about Liberty Fillmore (a.k.a. The Cart Whisperer) to raise awareness and build trust in its product. The Cart Whisperer. His life mission was to save abandoned shopping carts.

The videos were not only funny, but also linked to a website Liberty created. Visitors could view all the videos, submit photos and even read Liberty’s poetry. They could even learn more about Liberty’s sponsors. The site gained popularity online and was mentioned in the blogosphere. Traffic to the site eventually remained steady without the addition of new videos.

Grasshopper

Grasshopper, a small-business phone company, is focused on providing solutions for small businesses. They sent out 25,000 chocolate-covered grasshoppers in an effort to generate buzz about their brand (by the by, those were real grasshoppers). A URL was included with the package that linked to a company-made video about entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs should be willing to take risks. In this case, the video received over 8,000 views per day and gained a lot of attention.

CISCO

CISCO, a Telecom giant, is not new to social media. It has a strong online presence and often runs campaigns that are different from its usual engagement strategies. One of its most successful campaigns was to launch a new router entirely through social media channels. This campaign saved the company approximately $100,000 in marketing expenses.

IBM

IBM is another B2B that has a strong social media presence. It used analytics to identify its target audience and trained its sales team on how to monitor social media and engage potential customers online. They nurtured these relationships online and drove potential customers to their websites. This resulted in a 400% increase of sales.

Brother

Brother created a humorous and creative solution to raise awareness of the labeling equipment. Brother created a mockumentary about a branch manager who is obsessed with labeling products in her life. In an unexpected way, the video highlighted the many benefits of their product.

Brother promoted the video on social media and ran a contest. They offered a trip to Mexico for one lucky sharer to encourage them to share the video.

Takeaways:

What are the commonalities of all these successful B2B campaigns?

Creativity

Each company had an innovative approach to marketing. They didn’t rely on contests for their sake. Instead, they added a fresh, relevant perspective to their marketing efforts. This is sure to grab people’s attention. Although small businesses may be able to run a successful campaign with no cost internet access, these examples all required the assistance of professionals.

Contact Kobe Digital to ensure that your brand’s advertising inspires people. We can help your B2B gain online traction with sound strategies and foolproof technical deployment.

Humor

Even if your brand isn’t a comedy-friendly one, humor can still be a great tool. It’s a great way to make people laugh and start a conversation. Humor is key to viral content. Laughter, not just touching cat videos, will set you apart from your competitors. It can also backfire. It can also backfire.

Video

You can watch videos in a way that is almost impossible to ignore. It should be short, informative and entertaining. The Cart Whisperer demonstrated that B2B brands do not necessarily need to create videos about their products. Although VeriSign’s name doesn’t appear in the cart video’s title, the concept is still relevant to their business. Online videos are also relatively inexpensive, which can lead to a potentially large ROI.

Social media

It is easy to have a basic social media presence. It’s easy to just throw a bunch of uninspired links into Facebook and call that a day. This won’t get you any new followers, nor will it drive engagement. As demonstrated by IBM and CISCO, B2Bs have the potential to create great campaigns that generate big returns. It’s easy to find and nurture your target audience.