Too much of the sales and marketing messaging in the B2B world is just plain robotic. It’s stiff, predictable, and packed with “corporate speak”. You feel like you’ve heard it all before … and you have. Which is why so much of it gets ignored. So, I decided to try an experiment: I would see if an actual robot could come up with something better (looking at you, ChatGPT).
Getting emotional about B2B messaging
I went onto ChatGPT’s AI platform and asked the robot to:
“Write me an emotional tagline for a B2B business.”
Why “emotional”? Because messaging that makes an emotional connection with your target audience is much more likely to get remembered and provoke action. Research by Harvard Business School professor Gerald Zaltman found that 95% of human decision making takes place in our subconscious. This means we’re not nearly as logic-driven as we are emotion-driven. It’s human nature to decide with our hearts, and then rationalize that decision with our minds. So I was looking for a B2B tagline that would really connect on a heart level.
And what message did the robot come up with?
In milliseconds, ChatGPT responded to my “emotional tagline” request with:
“Unlocking Success Together: Empowering Your Growth, Enriching Your Future.”
My first thought? Yikes. This certainly didn’t “unlock” any emotions for me. Instead, it felt like all the other vague, empty promises I’ve been ignoring for years – nothing but classic “corporate speak” and overused buzzwords.
Admittedly, this tagline was anything but emotional or visceral, but I felt the robot deserved a second chance. So, I tried something slightly more specific in hopes of getting a more relatable response:
“Write an emotional tagline for a B2B technology company.”
Unfortunately, here’s what came back:
“Empowering Innovation, Transforming Tomorrow.”
My question had added detail, but the answer did not. No emotion here, just the usual bland references to empowerment and transformation.
Third time is (not) the charm
Ever the optimist, I decided to give the robot one last shot – this time with a harder swing towards the emotional angle:
“Write a business tagline that makes me feel seen.”
And the answer?
“Your Vision, Our Passion: Empowering Your Success.”
Seeing a version of “empower” for the third time made me give up. Sure, we all want our customers to feel like we’re invested in their vision and success. But when you hear this stuff all day everyday from companies around the world, it’s just white noise.
What was really happening here? ChatGPT was feeding me these bland corporate taglines because that’s exactly what it sees everywhere online. ChatGPT was writing robotic taglines simply because that’s what B2B companies do.
How robotic is your own B2B message?
Take a look at your tagline (or for that matter, your website, your sales decks, and all your other company communications), and ask yourself if it reads like a robot wrote it. If the answer is yes, then it’s time to get some emotion back into your B2B message and start talking like a human again.
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