How do you make someone fall in love with your 'brand'?
From 36 love questions to 36 B2B relationship questions
Perhaps you know the famous “36 questions to ask to fall in love”: questions that are so good that people feel connected faster. We wondered: does this principle work just as well in B2B? Provided you translate the questions to the context of your target audience, of course ...
‘Courting’ in B2B: from initial attention to collaboration
Look, when you get to know someone, you don't immediately ask them to marry you. Yet there are a huge number of marketers who get bluffed this way. Have you downloaded a whitepaper, you immediately get a sales rep on the phone. To drive you crazy!
You build a relationship slowly. Even with a B2B customer. That's why we looked at the 36 ‘love’ questions. How can you use them intelligently?
To do this, we linked them to the classic AIDA model: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. Think of it as phases of business courting. What does that roughly look like? We'll stick to 15 questions for a while - but you get the idea. So be creative and make it your own 36 B2B questions.
1. Attention - the first encounter
A tasty opening sentence: that's what will get your target audience's attention as a content Casanova. Think of content that stimulates, challenges and arouses curiosity. For example, questions like:
- If you could have a business lunch with a visionary from your industry, who would it be and why?
- How do you make your boss really happy at the end of the year?
- How often do you write a customer proposal entirely with AI?
- If you have to choose between a bin of content bagger at a wonderfully low price, or a small content gem with effect at a high price - which one?
- Visual test: do you prefer A or B - or does it not matter to you? Why?
These are excellent starting points for short LinkedIn posts, polls, blogs or open-ended questions in webinars.
2. Interest - the deepening conversation
The first step has been taken. People like you at first sight. But of course, that is not enough. Now you want people to remain interested in you. You go deeper into their realities, processes and challenges:
- How do you prepare for important business meetings or pitches?
- What makes working with a supplier valuable to you?
- What is your biggest challenge in convincing your internal stakeholders?
You can use these kinds of questions perfectly in interviews, customer cases and panel discussions. This is where the stories that carry your thought leadership are created.
3. Desire - building trust and liking
You notice it: the customer is actually keen to talk to you further but is not yet sure if this is going to be him. This phase is all about credibility and emotion behind reason:
- How do you make sure you make the right decision?
- What makes your product/service credible and reliable for your customers?
- How important is personal interaction in your decision-making process?
- What would motivate you to enter into a long-term partnership?
These are goldmines for content on brand promise, service, support, onboarding and partnership.
4. Action - a concrete proposal
Finally, what does a next step look like? Then you end up with questions like:
- How do you determine whether an investment in our technology is worthwhile?
- What are your main criteria when selecting a strategic partner like us?
- What concrete steps could we take right now to convince your boss?
This is content for decision makers: clear propositions, ROI stories, comparisons, decision frames.
How to cleverly incorporate these 36 B2B questions into your content
These B2B questions are not a survey. They are building blocks for your editorial calendar. You can use them in different ways:
Interviews and customer cases
Use the questions to guide podcasts, video interviews or in-depth written customer stories. It will give you sharper quotes and more honest insights.White papers and reports
Gather answers from various interviews and compile them into an industry analysis: trends, bottlenecks, opportunities, best practices.Blog articles and LinkedIn series
Take one question per article and write sharp, niche-specific analysis around it. That way, you build a recognisable series.Webinars and panel discussions
Have experts respond live to a selection of questions. This generates excitement, disparity of opinions and therefore interesting content.Email campaigns and nurturing flows
Use the questions as conversation starters in emails: “How do you deal with X?” and link content to it that answers or shows examples.
The bottom line: you have to earn a customer's attention
An effective content marketing strategy for B2B niche players is not about quick conversions, but about building long-term relationships. It's like love. After all, it's not about you at all. Nobody wants to date “ a thought leader”. Good content and brilliant marketing are mainly about you structurally having better customer conversations than your competitor.
By putting sharp, relevant customer questions at the centre of your content, three things happen:
- You get to know your target audience better than anyone else.
- Your content aligns much better with their real-life decision dilemmas.
- You automatically position yourself as a serious interlocutor, not supplier number 7 in line who prefers to babble about himself. [boring!]
Would you like to develop this further for your niche, preferably with concrete formats, questionnaires and a content plan that suits your target audience? If so, this is exactly the kind of strategy we would like to think about with you.