If fear is the “granddaddy of emotions” in B2B, what are those words doing on your homepage?

In her recent interview on The Knowledge Project podcast, positioning expert April Dunford named fear as the “granddaddy of emotions” in B2B. Her interview made me think about what B2B can learn from consumer psychology, more commonly applied to B2C. And because I’m a copywriter at heart, I’ve been searching for B2B messaging that actually […]

In her recent interview on The Knowledge Project podcast, positioning expert April Dunford named fear as the “granddaddy of emotions” in B2B.

Her interview made me think about what B2B can learn from consumer psychology, more commonly applied to B2C. And because I’m a copywriter at heart, I’ve been searching for B2B messaging that actually speaks to fear-based emotional needs. 

Just like consumers, B2B buyers fear uncertainty

Uncertainty affects all buyers, yet fear is a stronger driver in B2B. Why? Because where there’s risk, there’s fear. And there’s usually more jeopardy in B2B than B2C. Businesses risk growth, profits or employee relations. B2B buyers also feel personal risk and fear of failure.

Fear of not getting promoted.

Fear of making a bad decision and paying for it with their job.

Fear of criticism. Fear of the unknown.

Fear of professional embarrassment.

Fear of feeling like an imposter.

Even on project level, I often see creative fear with my own B2B clients – fear of unconventional messaging, outside the safety of the status quo. Clients have briefed me initially about wanting to stand out, only to withdraw to safer waters when I’ve asked more questions during the discovery phase. 

Fear needs reassuring words

Fear-based marketing has an iffy reputation, but I’d prefer to look beyond activating the threat response with language. I think of fear as a hesitation and motivator for B2B buyers. It helps me build layers of reassurance into client copy, rather than dwelling too long on anxiety-inducing pain points. 

None of us feel fear as an isolated emotion. It merges with other (often unspoken) motivations too. B2B buyers also want to showcase their intelligence, behave consistently, protect their status (or wealth), seek praise, increase their influence, get promoted, make more money, and feel safe.

Complex emotions + multiple decision-makers = difficult buying process

When I try to step into the shoes of B2B buyers, I never just find logical thought processes. This research from Gartner suggests why –

“The typical buying group for a complex B2B solution involves six to 10 decision-makers, each armed with four or five pieces of information they have gathered independently and must de-conflict with the group … These dynamics make it increasingly difficult for customers to make purchases. More than three-quarters of the customers Gartner surveyed described their purchase as very complex or difficult.”

Complex emotions, multiple decision-makers, and a difficult buying process. It’s an intense, none-too-logical cocktail. In fact, as well as nominating fear as the key emotional driver in B2B, April Dunford also pointed to some unexpected competition. Clearly, buyers look for reasons to pick one business over another (and often default to the safety of the market leader). Here’s the kicker: plenty of times they don’t decide at all. The buying process is unresolved or postponed. 

So if decision-making itself is so difficult, why does B2B messaging currently focus mainly on ease of product use? B2B buyers are partial to many layers of decision-making bias, from groupthink to Zero Risk Bias. And yet, so much B2B messaging focuses on surface-level product benefits, like speed and ease. Isn’t it time to recalibrate and create messaging that addresses buyers’ fears?

Unlocking ease faster (yawn) could be the header of just about any B2B homepage

If B2B buyers’ most vivid emotion is fear and all its complexities, what’s the deal with speed and ease? Where’s the reassurance for prospects hoping they won’t make a bad decision, or that a smart choice will boost their promotion chances?

I don’t believe most B2B buyers are tapping their fingers impatiently, looking for an easy solution in seconds, as web copy messaging suggests. I think buyers are more likely to be wary, ambivalent or hesitant, which translates to feeling constricted, knotted, tense or jittery.

Messaging that only speaks to the solution-focused finger-tapper misses a big opportunity to go deeper. It’s all very rational and uninspiring. 

After all, it’s a given that we buy stuff to make our lives easier, and for things to happen faster. Those aren’t really benefits. They’re just expectations.

And here’s another problem. If many B2Bs rely on messaging about speed and ease, how can buyers choose between them? When I’m overwhelmed by choices that feel roughly the same, I’m most likely to default to the safest option. That’s great for the market leaders, but what about everyone else? Fear of change makes us stick, not twist.

B2B web copy that’s stale, sterile or samey misses a trick, because buyers do lots of the groundwork online –

“Today’s business buyers do not contact suppliers directly until 57 percent of the purchase process is complete … That means for nearly two thirds of the buying process, your customers are out in the ether: Forming opinions, learning technical specifications, building requirements lists, and narrowing down their options, all on their own, with minimal influence from you.

It’s Marketing’s job to influence the 57 percent of the sale that occurs mostly on the web, before Sales contact …” (Think with Google)

The myth of the rational B2B buyer has fizzled out

“We have Palaeolithic emotions, Medieval institutions, and Godlike technology.”

(EO Wilson)

The lessons from consumer psychology convince me: whatever the industry, don’t assume buyers are logical and rational. B2B buyers might not be as impulsive as B2C, but they still feel deep emotions during decision-making. In fact, it’s arguably harder to rationalise buying non-consumer stuff that we can’t see or touch – like B2B services or SaaS. 

Here’s another issue to address – how to speak to multiple buyers at different stages of the funnel? I think if we nurture emotional decision-making in B2B, we can make progress here too. Yes, we’re connecting with buyers with different job titles or other demographics, but they could have emotional motivations in common.

Here’s what Google discovered about B2B buyers back in 2012 –

“To stand out, B2B marketers need to create excitement — anticipation of both professional and personal rewards. How? By building emotional connections with their customers … B2B purchasers are almost 50% more likely to buy a product or service when they see personal value — such as opportunity for career advancement or confidence and pride in their choice — in their business purchase decision. They are 8x more likely to pay a premium for comparable products and services when personal value is present.”

Although Google’s findings about emotional connection are more than a decade old, I still see many B2Bs that still lack emotionally compelling copy. If you need proof, visit a random selection of B2B homepages. Most likely you’ll find a snappy list of features (and benefits, if you’re lucky), a dash of social proof, and an uninspiring word salad in the headers. It’s all very spiritless and methodical.

Clearly logic can only get you so far. As Rory Sutherland explains in his rules of alchemy“Solving problems using rationality is like playing golf with only one club.”

Web copy can tackle the unspoken questions

Web copy, and homepage messaging in particular, can be a missed opportunity. On the surface, buyers might ask logical questions about product and price, but their deeper questions often go unanswered –

Do I understand this offer? Where does it fit among the other stuff in this category? Do I know enough to consider it? 

Is it memorable? Will it stick in my mind beyond first glance?

Should I trust them? Which seller should I trust more?

What does this reflect about me? Will this turn out to be a smart decision?

Deeper questions call for deeper copy

B2Bs need eyebrow-raising web copy for attention, layered with deep content to build credibility and trust. In my experience, this only happens when we connect the messaging dots. Reassurance should be higher up the hierarchy than speed and ease.

So what does that look like for a web copy project? For me, it starts with immersion in the emotional soup of buyers’ brains. This makes creating the “thinking draft” of a new project easier, because my discovery phase dwells on the emotions. By the way, while AI is a useful research companion, it can’t do this as effectively as a human. For now, while AI can pull out recurring patterns from the research, only humans can add the emotional nuance. 

B2Bs that resist bland messaging

So what does personality-rich, reassuring B2B web copy look like? Here’s my recipe for influencing whether your website gets noticed, added to buyers’ bookmarks and shared around the office. 

My process for optimising homepage copy works on three different levels –

  1. Voice/messaging
  2. Structure/formatting
  3. Word choice

Right now, let’s look at voice and messaging. A full copy upgrade also includes structure (eg lists, crossheads, numbers) and word-level analysis (eg microcopy, naming concepts, calls to action).

5 strategies for reassuring B2B messaging

  1. Unbland your tone of voice
  2. Firm up your Big Idea
  3. Add specific, relatable examples
  4. Surprise us!
  5. Reframe buyers’ fears

1 Unbland your TOV

Who’d have thought a B2B could get away with casually mentioning strippers in the White House on their homepage? 

Hashtag Monday can (they do email marketing for ecommerce). You’ll also find a cat rubbing its tail on your face, bags of money, and some dirty little secrets: total commitment to an irreverent tone of voice. I suspect the copywriter had fun with this brief. This is sass for CaaS, for a B2B with a dirty laugh. I love writing for creative-as-a-service B2Bs. They’re usually open to more colourful copy. 

Hashtag Monday looks and sounds more like a sassy B2C. Witty (and a smidge saucy) is far more memorable than friendly and informal. And just because your tone of voice is playful, it doesn’t mean you don’t take your work seriously. 

Copy with a distinct tone, personality or even writing style is always going to be more salient for buyers. I’d take geeky or sarcastic ahead of those reliable indicators of dull, dull, dull – professional, informal, friendly. An unexpected tone of voice like this is one way to differentiate your B2B among flavourless competitors.

2 Firm up your big idea

Gumroad’s big idea for buyers is simple. It’s all about setting a relatable first milestone – earn that first dollar online (Gumroad is an ecommerce marketplace for creators). A clear big idea reassures buyers that they understand how a product relates to everything else out there in a similar category.

Gumroad’s big idea positions them as the buyer’s trusted sidekick. The message is – anyone can do this, and Gumroad is your wing-woman right from the start. 

I’ve always found it more intuitive to hit on the big idea (then the voice and personality) with small businesses and solopreneurs than with bigger B2Bs. I recently worked with a global marketing B2B. Even after being well-briefed, plus hours of research, the big idea (and messaging hierarchy) only took shape when I listened to a sales pitch from someone outside the marketing team.

3 Add specific, relatable examples

Make things more relatable by backing up your use case with a specific, achievable example. Specifics are grounding and reassuring. It’s simpler to step into a specific picture than to weigh up abstract benefits. Here’s how Gumroad does it. 

4 Surprise us!

Hello again, sassy Hashtag Monday. First the homepage hits you with cold, hard facts above-the-fold (specific numbers equal reassurance and trust) – Hashtag Monday helps eCommerce brands squeeze an extra $30,000-$225,000+ in untapped revenue in 45 days or less, without paid ads. 

Later, after drawing you in with those super-salient mentions of strippers and bags of money, you get a surprise that sticks. Big tick for memorability.

5 Reframe buyers’ fears directly

Take buyers’ fears and address them head-on. Gumroad nails it again with this validation and reassurance. That’s not fear you’re feeling. It’s excitement.

Takeaway: the case for reassuring web copy

Too many B2Bs emphasise speed and ease in their messaging. This fails to reassure buyers’ during the complex, often fearful, decision-making process. Time to blaze a trail?


Sue Moore is a B2B copywriter and messaging strategist at Virtual Gold Dust