Using Humour in B2B Marketing: A Serious Guide

It’s a funny old world, business-to-business marketing. We spend our days crafting serious messages about ROI, efficiency, and compliance, yet the people we’re selling to are, well, people. People who enjoy a good chuckle. This post makes the case for embracing humour in B2B marketing, not as a distraction, but as a powerful tool to make a real point, especially when dealing with topics that are, frankly, a bit dry.

Our Fear of Messing Up: The Comedy in Caution

A piece of research that landed this month, on 10 December 2025, caught my eye. It talks about the “Fear of Messing Up” (FOMU) that paralyses British shoppers at the checkout [1]. They get so worried about making a mistake with payment details that they abandon ship. It made me laugh because it’s the perfect metaphor for the B2B buying committee. You know the scene: a dozen stakeholders, each terrified of being the one who approves the ‘wrong’ thing.

This paralysis is comedy gold just waiting to be mined. Think of the characters: the finance director who sees every purchase as a personal affront to the balance sheet; the IT manager who ghosts you for three weeks then asks if you’re GDPR compliant in Timbuktu. We can use this shared experience to create marketing that empathises, reassures, and gently pokes fun at the absurdity of it all. It shows we get it.

The Confidence Gap: Using Humour in B2B Marketing to Highlight Risk

Here’s another source of unintentional comedy: the vast gap between how safe SMEs think they are and how exposed they actually are. Recent data from Aviva shows that while 98% of small firms believe their cyber security is up to scratch, attacks are rising and they remain woefully underprepared [2]. It’s the business equivalent of strolling through a minefield while admiring the pretty flowers.

From Punchline to Pipeline

This misplaced confidence is a delicate subject. A finger-wagging post about impending doom will just get ignored. But a witty take on the “DIY CISO” who thinks a complex password from 2019 is an impenetrable fortress? That might just land. It opens a conversation without being preachy. Add to that the news that UK SMEs lost a staggering £13.6 billion last year, not through elaborate fraud, but by simply failing to manage legal risks, and the picture gets even more absurd [3]. They’re not being robbed; they’re leaving the cashbox open with a ‘help yourself’ sign.

Using humour here isn’t about trivialising the risk. It’s about making the message memorable. As Marketing Week and others have noted, humour is a key creative differentiator [4]. When you make someone smile, you create a connection. You become a trusted advisor, not just another vendor shouting about threats.

Putting Wit to Work in 2026

So, how can you start using wit in your own campaigns? It’s not about turning your entire brand into a stand-up routine. It’s about finding the human truth in the corporate jargon. As Ogilvy UK rightly points out, you need to find your funny bone [5].

Start by identifying the absurdities and frustrations your customers face. The nonsensical approval chains, the corporate buzzwords, the tech that promises to simplify but adds three more steps. Acknowledge these truths with a knowing wink. In a sea of serious, data-driven, and often dull content, a little bit of wit can be your most effective asset. It reminds everyone that even in B2B, we are all just people who enjoy a good story, especially if it’s a funny one [6].

References and Further Reading

[1] SMEs count the cost of Brits’ ‘Fear of Messing Up’ (FOMU) at checkout. https://channelx.world/2025/12/smes-count-the-cost-of-brits-fear-of-messing-up-fomu-at-checkout/

[2] UK SMEs face rising cyber exposure, but the smallest firms are the least prepared. https://www.aviva.com/newsroom/news-releases/2025/12/uk-smes-face-rising-cyber-exposure-but-the-smallest-firms-are-the-least-pre

[3] Last year, UK SMEs lost £13.6 billion simply by not managing legal…. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/the-legal-director_2_last-year-uk-smes-lost-136-billion-simply-activity-7404480047526469632-4kFA

[4] The Year Ahead 2025: Humour continues to be a creative…. https://www.marketingweek.com/year-ahead-2025-humour-creative-differentiator/

[5] B2B marketing: find your funny bone | Ogilvy UK. https://www.ogilvy.com/uk/ideas/b2b-marketing-find-your-funny-bone

[6] In search of the funniest B2B adverts. https://mediacat.uk/in-search-of-the-funniest-b2b-adverts/

Kevin Harrington

I’m a UK-based B2B marketing consultant, specialising in strategic advice for SME business owners. I bring extensive hands-on expertise to every client engagement. Senior leadership roles across technology, media, payments, and publishing have shaped my practical approach. Highlights include serving as Chief Marketing Officer at The Panoply plc (now TPXimpact), Chief Commercial Officer at Tungsten Network, and Global Marketing Director at BBC Worldwide. Over the years, I’ve guided numerous SMEs through transformation and value creation. Helping businesses evolve and thrive is a genuine passion. Practical marketing insights and succession planning strategies are at the heart of what I do, as I believe growing a business’s asset value should be a rewarding and positive journey for every entrepreneur.

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