Scientific Research: What Motivates Your Target Audience?

Social media is an integral part of any B2B marketing arsenal, but often it can be difficult figuring out what your target audience wants out of this computer-mediated relationship.  

The following research on the subject of human behavior through other online avenues doesn’t directly relate to B2B, but it may prove useful in your own B2B marketing online strategy by helping you think about different things that motivate your target audience to engage with your online relationship.  

Achievement: A sense of achievement may be a strong motivator in keeping your online relationship. Do you have competitions? Do they have a chance to “advance” in any way? If so, test and see which work better than others. If not, perhaps there are ways to add the concept of achievement to your online outreach.
Social Motivation: Our online world is a reflection of our offline world. And offline, we are social beings motivated by social interactions, helping others, and sense of community. If you aren’t including these, develop ways that incorporate the social aspect of humanity into your outreach.  

Immersion: People who are motivated by immersion like to submerge themselves in the social arena and escape from the world. What ways can you help them achieve this? Can you develop ways for them to discover new things and “get lost” in the relationship?

All our behaviors are motivated by different factors. Perhaps these three may prove true for your own B2B target audience. So consider them, and if you think they’re worthy to include in your B2B online strategy, then do so; but as always — remember to test first!

 

Vann Morris is the Director of Buying Behavior Studies with the Atlanta B2B advertising agency, MLT Creative. She is a Social and Behavioral Scientist who is currently working on her PhD in Communications, and uses her strong theoretical background in order to show how scientific theory should be used to develop strategy and effective B2B marketing campaigns.