Four Elements for Effective B2B Brand Messaging

B2B brand messaging is a foundational component for effective marketing. Without solidified brand messaging, an organization does not have any direction or clear understanding of what the offering is and how its product or service is valuable to buyers in the marketplace. Brand messaging also drives almost every marketing activity you can think of, from content to a website and more. A brand that is consistently displayed across various marketing mediums can yield up to a 23% increase in revenue. Consistent and impactful brand messaging is not only a best practice but when done correctly, a revenue booster. Getting messaging right can take some time, but these four elements can help round out your B2B brand messaging process, whether you are building it from the ground up or making updates.

Research Competitors

While many marketers understand the importance of conducting research for understanding how messaging is working and how effective other marketing efforts are, many tend to overlook competitive research when it comes to defining or revamping brand messaging. It is essential to understand how competitors are positioning themselves and notice any key differentiators they are using. Without knowing this information, it is extremely difficult to know what it takes to set your company apart from the rest of those in the industry. Conducting research can be done by any of the classic processes such as SWOT or Porter’s Five Forces, but one way to simplify things is by constructing a matrix of your company’s current or ideal messaging and your competitor’s main points. This allows easy comparison of what your organization is offering and what competitors are saying as well. The goal is for your messaging to stand out amongst competitors, which happens through key differentiators and unique value propositions. As messaging is solidified, it is important to continue conducting this research to understand if there have been any changes. When industries change, often does the messaging, so ensure your organization keeps this on the list for B2B brand messaging.

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Conduct External and Internal Interviews

Along the same lines of conducting research is conducting external and internal interviews. One of the most important things about B2B brand messaging is ensuring it connects with target audiences and personas. Through these interviews, your organization can gain more insight into what is resonating, what is not and ideas to improve.

With external interviews, you are obtaining direct feedback from those that experience the messaging. Even if you have not formally defined messaging, asking questions such as those below, can help understand what audiences are looking for to resonate and ideas for improvement.

• What taglines or messaging points resonate with you? What do you look for in a brand when trying to understand its offerings and who they are as a company?
• Do you think our brand and messaging elements are consistently displayed in the various marketing channels?
• What recommendations do you have for us?

Internal interviews can offer another perspective. Interviewing individuals from various departments can uncover a host of information that would have otherwise been unknown. Talk to sales, the product team, customer success and even the engineering team to get their take on brand messaging. Each group experiences different things daily and will have their thoughts that can help guide what the widespread messaging is or what improvements or tweaks should be made.

Understand Buyer Personas and Target Audience

B2B brand messaging must resonate with buyer personas and target audiences. They are the ones experiencing your messaging and have to make a judgment on your brand and organization as a whole based on those simple messaging elements they see on social media, your website or in collateral pieces. Answers to the questions below give your team the information to form brand messaging that is impactful and drives action from audiences.

• Pain Points: What are the challenges or obstacles they are experiencing that they need to seek out a solution to?
• Demographics: Who are the personas or audiences? What is their job title? What are they like as a person?
• Firmographics: Thinking about this persona, what company do they work for? Are they a key decision maker? Are they a large enterprise or a small business?
• Behavior: Do these personas like to use certain social media apps? What content do they most often engage with?

Consider All Marketing Channels

As previously mentioned, B2B brand messaging presented consistently across marketing channels is a best practice and revenue booster. When forming messaging, think about the content pieces and mediums the messaging will be used. On the website, in blogs, throughout presentations and on social media are just a few examples. Using one example, one of the most prominent places messaging is used is on the website. As messaging is coming together, think about how it can be used on the website. Maybe dedicate one page to company values? How about using the tagline on the homepage front header? These are small things to think about as you near the end of your brand messaging formation. If there is one lesson to take away here is to ensure your brand and messaging elements are consistent and the same whether it is in a blog, on the website or social media.

Need help with forming your B2B brand messaging or looking to complete a messaging update? Contact us today or request a free marketing consultation! We’ve helped hundreds of clients create and utilize their brand messaging in all aspects of their marketing.