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 more connected to each other. The results were remarkable: people fell in love again, marriages were saved, and the percentage of successful dates rose dramatically. So then we wondered: does this principle work just as well in B2B? Because the sometimes dramatically long B2B lead cycles could use a boost. That's why we're offering a lesson in B2B courtship!
‘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!
A relationship is built slowly. And that certainly applies to your relationship with a B2B customer. Most lead cycles (read: courtship) last as long as two years (!). To speed up that process a little (two years of dating is a bit outdated, isn't it?), we looked at the 36 ‘love’ questions. How can you use them wisely?
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 glance. But that is not enough, of course. Now you want people to become interested in you, and to stay interested. To do this, you delve deeper into their reality, processes and challenges. You show that you are not new to this, but that you really add value:
- 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 can see it and you can measure it: the customer is keen to continue the conversation with you but is not yet sure whether this relationship will actually happen. In this phase, it is therefore important to find and address the credibility and emotion behind the rational argument. You could ask questions such as:
- 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?
- What should a partner definitely not do? What causes deals to fall through?
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?
- Who should give the final go-ahead and what does he/she consider important?
- What concrete steps could we take now to convince you or your boss?
- What can I do or show you to help you make better-informed decisions?
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 also smart building blocks for your editorial calendar. You can use them in various 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 therefore not about quick conversions, but about building long-term relationships. Real love, in other words, and your customer will notice that. Want to seduce someone? Then know one thing: it's not about you at all. It's always about the other person. Nobody wants to date a ‘thought leader’, but they do want to date someone who is a good listener and can turn issues into solutions. Good content and brilliant marketing are therefore mainly about you having structurally 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? And could you use some help in drawing up concrete formats, questionnaires or a content plan that perfectly suits your target group? Then these are exactly the kinds of questions we would be happy to help you think through. May we invite to our dance book?