"What if I look like an idiot?"
And other reasons B2B marketing plays it too safe
‘Good marketing is all about taking risks!’ cry a million identikit LinkedIn gurus in their AI-written, templated posts. ‘Push the boundaries! Get out of your comfort zone!’
They’re not wrong. If you want people to see, read and remember your content, you have to do something different. But if it’s so clear cut, why do so many of us play it safe?
Urging people to ‘take more risks’ isn’t helpful without asking the obvious (and more interesting) question - why do we find it so hard to follow that advice?
1. Personal risk
‘What if I look like an idiot?’ is a question that stops us trying new things. Writing funny, quirky or provocative copy. Trialling a hook, concept or marketing asset which is unconventional in our category.
Personally, I risk looking like an idiot every time I create one of my LinkedIn videos (example further down this post). But I posted the first one, no one died, and so I kept on doing it. Partly because people notice and engage with them but also because I have a lot of fun doing them.
The answer to ‘What if I look like an idiot?’ is ‘You might’. Is that a risk worth taking in order to have fun at work, try new things and potentially produce more effective marketing? I’d argue yes - but only you can decide if you feel the same.
2. Professional risk
‘What if I make my company look bad?’ Fear of reputational harm keeps a lot of marketers firmly within the vanilla content spectrum.
As Pretty Woman fans might say: big mistake. Huge.
Unless you’re a potty-mouthed, unhinged, no-boundaries marketing maverick (strangely uncommon in the B2B world), the risk you’ll damage your company is tiny. Negative brand perception is less common, lasting or powerful than most of us believe. According to Jenni Romaniuk, ‘thinking negatively of a brand is rarely a reason why someone with no experience with a brand doesn’t buy it. A much more common reason for lack of buying is a lack of mental availability.’
And you know what doesn’t build mental availability? Bland, forgettable content.
Dull content is less effective and more expensive than standout stuff. ‘An interesting ad is more effective, more memorable, and so its media spend goes further. When you invest in an ordinary ad, you need to spend more to get the same results.’ So says System1’s Tom Ewing, based on The Extraordinary Cost of Dull research.
The biggest professional risk, for marketers who want to cost-effectively generate revenue, is not taking risks.
3. Organisational risk
B2B firms are inherently risk-averse. Of course they are! They’re set up to maximise profits, protect employees, retain customers, avoid litigation and adhere to legislation.
Avoiding risk makes sense in so many scenarios, but it doesn’t create a culture where experimentation comes easily. As a marketer wanting to jump on a social media trend, capitalise quickly on a live news story or express a strong opinion, life isn’t straightforward.
I have no useful advice to offer if you’re working in a severely risk-averse organisation and you want to do fun, interesting, effective marketing. (Unless you’re the senior marketer, in which case you can at least start to role-model a more risk-taking approach.)
All I can do is offer my commiserations, along with this video of an organisation which (surely) is even more cautious than yours.
To sum up. Are you ready to take a risk? Or are you already taking one, by playing it safe?
I’m Heather Barnett, a freelance B2B copywriter and creator of silly videos about marketing. This is my regular newsletter with tips on creating better B2B content.
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