esk’s B2B marketing: 5 ways you can learn from it.

Brand storytelling is a challenge for most B2B companies. But not Zendesk. They have been a C5 Creative Partner for years and an inspiration.

Ethan Kanat is Senior Creative Principal of Zendesk. He was recently invited to speak on our Best Story Wins Podcast about how the Zendesk marketing team works. Ethan Kanat’s intelligence and insights are particularly impressive, but the most striking thing is how he and his Zendesk team approach everything they do. They always push themselves to grow and innovate. Zendesk’s brand is one that you can imitate. You can build a B2B brand by adopting the Zendesk team’s mindset and strategies.

How to master B2B marketing like Zendesk

Take an empathetic marketing approach or make the little things easier. These are smart ways to provide value and have a large impact, just like Zendesk.

Kanat said that Zendesk’s team goal is to be obsessed with customers. He says that while many tech companies claim to be customer-focused, they are actually very tech-focused. This leads to marketing that is weak and not aligned with the needs of their customers.

Zendesk is a platform for customer service. They are always thinking of the customer and the customer’s customers. They always consider the needs and wants of the customer, whether it is the marketing content they produce, the tools that they develop or how they present their demo.

Tip: Use Ideal customer profiles and personas to identify your customers and their needs, and then use these tips to adopt a more customer-first mindset throughout your buyer’s journey.

For example, one of the best methods to add value to your customers is by educating them with information that’s easy to find and consume. Zendesk empowers users with an impressive training center. They not only provide a variety of training videos but also show the length of each video. Customers can easily find the content that they are interested in and have the time to watch. It may seem insignificant, but adding video length is a great opportunity to show your customers that you care about their time.

2) Stretch your creativity.

Zendesk is unique in the B2B world because of their distinct and clear personality, as well as for taking creative risks. Their branding is friendly and cheerful. The customer success stories they share are more like video features, rather than boring case studies. Kanat attributes this creativity to Zendesk’s team not looking to other brands or agencies for inspiration. He’s not the only marketer who has said that recently. Drew Hoffman, SentinelOne’s VP of Brand, said he gets his marketing ideas from film directors.

Kanat says that good inspiration comes from good sources. We’re always talking about books, movies, music, and art. The Zendesk team also goes on field trips and does crafts. They can break out of the creative ruts marketers tend to fall into and create content in a unique way.

Tipspan size=”font-weight 400 ;”>: A common misconception in B2B marketing is that it has to be boring. Follow our tips for brainstorming ideas that are innovative.

For example, their Conversations with Zendesk series of videos covers some of most common issues within the industry. Instead of boring discussions, the series uses a roundtable format that is more like a gameshow.

Make your brand story personal and emotional.

We are personally offended by the widespread myth that B2B purchasing is not emotionally charged. The experience will be emotional if a person is involved in the purchase. Zendesk understands this and creates stories that are emotionally driven to help them achieve their goal of putting the customer first.

We all have good and bad experiences as customers. Kanat says that they like to use these stories to personalize the experience. Zendesk’s storytelling is grounded in emotions. Whether it’s about how their product transformed the small business they worked with or about their frustrations dealing with customer service.

Tip: To create strong emotional connections with your stories, take a empathetic brainstorming approach. Understanding your audience’s emotional drivers will help you create stories that appeal to them. Here are 15 examples of brands who have turned empathy into marketing content.

Social media can be a fun way to engage with your audience. Zendesk uses Instagram as a way to educate and entertain customers with humorous memes.

4) Make things as simple as possible for your customer.

It is simple. When you look at the buyer journey of most brands, it is either confusing or complex. This is a problem that affects all channels. There are many ways that brands can make the customer’s experience difficult, from clunky user interfaces to explaining videos that are too long.

We want to simplify things. Kanat says that they use this as a litmus test to measure the quality of their work. His team is always evaluating everything and asking how they can help people better understand their brand, value, etc.

Kanat’s team tries to simplify things by asking themselves how they can make it simpler. Kanat says, “You need to remove the complexity.” Kanat says, “You need to remove all the things that could confuse or distract people.” This can be done by simplifying your language, visuals etc. These tips can be used to reduce the noise throughout the buyer’s journey.

Zendesk’s product demo, for example, is easy to use and simple, with clear visual cues.

Show off your culture and people.

Zendesk puts people first, literally. Their website is filled with people-centric images. They even use their clients’ images for testimonials. They encourage team bonding activities. As Kanat noted, the team recently took a class on sandal making.

The focus on people, both internally and externally, goes a long way in humanizing the brand. It also proves that you are not engaging with robots when you contact them. Also, they are transparent about their brand, culture, etc.

Your culture can be easily turned into content for your social media pages or other marketing materials. See our guide on culture marketing for more ideas.

Zendesk, for example, not only displays fun things such as visual diaries of employees’ days off but is also transparent about their beliefs and who they are. This is done very effectively by displaying statistics on age, gender, race and other factors. They do this by clearly showing statistics on gender, race, age, etc. It’s a level transparency that most brands do not show. Yet it is extremely effective at attracting employees with similar values.

Remember: Good marketing is good brand storytelling

Zendesk may be a star in B2B, but they’re not the only masters of brand storytelling. Canva’s team of marketing experts has more ideas and inspiration for bringing your brand’s story to life. You can also learn how VideoAmp created a culture that is worthy of bragging about.

You should have a solid content strategy that will guide your marketing. Use our content strategy toolkit if you want to learn how to do it yourself. See our tips on how to find a partner who can help you bring your strategy into reality. Remember, the best thing you can do to stay on top of marketing trends, is to keep yourself informed. Subscribe to the The Best Story Wins Podcast and begin with Kanat’s episode to get more ideas on how to win your market.

The post 5 ways Zendesk masters B2B marketing (and you can too) first appeared on column five.

Author: Katy French