How about your messaging?
About ten years ago, I had the opportunity to talk to the CEO of Priceline, then a leading Web 1.0 company. He said something that stuck with me; that there were four key reasons why people used the net. They were: 1) To get information, 2) For price or lower cost, 3) For convenience, and finally 4) For entertainment. He maintained that the most successful sites combined elements of each. It was the fourth reason that I found somewhat interesting at the time, the idea that people would come to a site, even a business site, for “Entertainment”.
There is value in using humor and fun in corporate messaging. They provide entertainment. Humor has the ability to break down barriers to truth and allow us to see things in a new light. Fun is the enjoyment we get as a result. It seems to me that many times in the B2B marketing world we are way too serious. We are so wrapped in the drive to get new customers, make revenue targets and meet deadlines that we forget about the aspect of humor or fun in our messaging. We may provide information, competitive pricing and convenience or utility, but if we lose the entertainment value we lose part of the human connection.
Some of the seriousness of B2B messaging is lessened by the informality of the internet. This is especially true in blogging where genuine voice is appreciated. Of course one can go over the top. It would be odd to hear a medical pacemaker company say their device can “Take a licking and keep on ticking,” (an old Timex tagline) Or maybe not. It’s something I would want if I had a pacemaker. Alternatively we could say that the device has a mean time between failure of .63 trillion seconds. Which will you remember?
Personally, I tend to err on the side of humor at the risk of going over the top.