Synopsis
This blog explores the business-to-human (B2H) approach that transforms cold data points into customer relationships. Learn why successful B2B marketing requires treating businesses as real people with genuine needs, emotions and decision-making complexities. We aim to cover practical tactics for humanizing your marketing efforts from data collection to customer engagements while highlighting how this approach drives better results than traditional tactics.
The B2H Approach in B2B Marketing
The B2B marketing world has come obsessed with automation, AI, algorithms and data. While these tools are powerful and effective, somewhere along the way we do tend to forget something fundamental… it’s not a business that makes the decision, it’s people.
This realization led to what is known as the Business-to-Human (B2H) approach. It’s not about throwing away your martech stack or abandoning first-party, data-driven strategies. Rather, it’s about remembering that behind every engagement, every contact email address, job title and intent signals that there is a real person trying to solve their own challenges
Why Traditional B2B Marketing Falls Short
Traditional B2B marketing treats companies as single entities that make rational, predictable decisions. As marketers, we segment by company size, industry, revenue, geography and more, that allow us to create buyer personas. We then automate sequences that feel like they were created and driven by AI.
What does the result of this look like? Well, marketing that doesn’t really connect with any audience. Open rates start to plateau or drop, conversion rates continually disappoint and sales cycles that drag on. All this stems from never building genuine relations with the humans that are making the buying decisions.
What B2H Marketing Looks Like in Practice
It all starts with a simple shift in perspective. When creating your campaign or strategy, rather than ask “what does this company need?”, you should ask “what do the people at this company need to make them successful in their role?”.
This slight change allows us to be better at collecting, interpreting and acting on data.
Getting Personal with Data Collection
When we help clients build their customer insight, we don’t just track company-level metrics. We pay particular attention to the individual engagement patterns, content preferences and intent signals that begin to reveal personal challenges or motivations.
For example, if someone from your target account repeatedly visits your pricing page and then begins to download case studies, that’s not just browsing behavior. It would suggest they’re building a business case and need proof points to present their findings internally rather than another sales pitch about features and benefits.
Content That Speaks to Real Challenges
B2H marketing acknowledges that decisions are rarely rational. Nowadays, decisions can be influenced by career concerns, team dynamics, personal preferences, past experiences and emotional factors.
Your messaging should speak to these human concerns. Instead of leading with features and benefits, start with the problems that might keep them awake at night. Address their fears about making a wrong choice. Understand and recognize the dynamics they navigate within their organizations.
Understand Context Behind Data
B2B marketing typically follows predictable nurture sequences based on demographic data and engagements. Whereas B2H marketing pays closer attention to the human context behind the data.
Maybe the prospect has been promoted to a new role. The problems they need to solve now have likely shifted from what their problems used to be. Therefore, your previous messaging may no longer resonate.
The Technology Behind Human Connections
B2H marketing often requires more sophisticated technology, which makes this a little ironic.
To understand and connect with humans at scale, marketers need platforms that can process this complex behavioral signals and deliver personalized experiences.
This is where sophisticated customer intelligence solutions become essential. The best systems don’t just collect data about companies, they also build comprehensive profiles of the people within those companies as well as tracking journeys and preferences.
Using technology to enable humanity gives marketers the insights they need to craft messages that feel personal and relevant, even when they’re delivered at scale.
Making the Shift
- Start with your data strategy
Audit your current data collection practices. Are you only tracking company-level metrics? Can you identify specific people who may influence buying decisions?
- Rethink content strategy
Create content that addresses the human side of business challenges. Instead of just explaining what your product or service does, explore why current processes are frustrating for the people dealing with them every day.
- Personalize based on role and context
Different people evaluating your solution will have different concerns, for example, a CMO will have different challenges and concerns than a CTO, or CFO. Your marketing should acknowledge these different perspectives and speak to the specific needs and worries of the audience.
- Measure human metrics
Traditional B2B metrics focused heavily on leads generated and deals closed. While these remain of paramount importance, B2H metrics also track the depth of engagement, the strength of connection with key stakeholders and the development of the relationship.
Caring = Competitive Advantage
B2H marketing isn’t just about being nice or following the latest trend. It can be your competitive advantage.
When your competitors are all sending the same robotic emails and generic LinkedIn posts, your unique human-first approach stands out.
Remember, people buy from people. They trust people who understand and empathize with their challenges and concerns. In an increasingly automated, AI-driven world, the companies that remember how to be human will win more deals and build stronger customer relationships which in turn help to grow the size of the company.
Going Forward
The shift to B2H marketing is not an overnight fix. It requires changes in how you think about your data, how you structure your campaigns and most importantly, how you measure success.
However, the companies that are making this transition are seeing remarkable results including higher engagements, stronger customer retention and even shorter sales cycles!
Your prospects aren’t just companies to be targeted. They are people with goals, concerns and challenges. By treating them as humans with these emotions, you will see how it transforms your marketing results.
