B2B brand strategy: how to nail your messaging

By Rachel Henry

What’s the difference between brand messaging that moves your audience to action, versus words that make them want to take a nap? A few variables top the list, including specificity, purpose and compelling writing. However, there’s more to it than that — and it’s critical to your B2B brand strategy to get your messaging right.

Magnetic brand messaging is a foundational element of any content you create, which makes it one of the most essential types of branding you can employ. While most tech companies can produce useful content about topics relevant to their audiences, infusing your brand messaging into your content requires another level of skill.

In this blog post, we’ll explore how to nail your messaging when crafting your unique B2B positioning strategy, including:

• Starting with your ideal buyer in mind

• Being purposeful in your approach

• Writing in a compelling style

• Staying consistent and on-brand

• Guiding your audience with a call to action

• Addressing each stage of the buyer’s journey

5 elements of all-star brand messaging

Brand visuals often get all the glory. However, if you think about what makes a good brand, you’ll find that solid messaging is a must-have in your tech company’s B2B brand strategy.

Employing B2B positioning strategies like messaging helps you build the "know, like and trust" factor you need to move prospects down your pipeline. Messaging and brand voice also enable you to differentiate your content from your competitors’. So, let’s dive into the key components of A+ brand messaging.

1. Craft your messaging for a specific buyer

Building a strong brand requires honing in on one specific type of customer (or at least one at a time) as you craft your messaging.

When your target audience reads or hears your tech company’s messaging, they should feel like you’re communicating directly with them. This is crucial because if your market doesn’t understand how your solution applies to them, they won’t buy from you.

Another bonus? Being specific in your messaging helps weed out unsuitable buyers. Gartner predicts that by 2025, 75% of companies will ditch poor-fit customers by proactively ending the relationship due to the cost of retention. Messaging can help you make this move.

2. Write for a specific purpose

Is the intention of your messaging to drive brand awareness or nurture leads further down the funnel? This is an important distinction to consider.

Buyers are usually 57% of the way to a purchasing decision before they engage with a sales rep. This is why producing high-quality marketing content is imperative. It also means you need to provide your audience with the opportunity to engage with and learn from your brand at all stages of the buyer’s journey. We’ll dig into this in more detail shortly.

3. Make your messaging compelling

Capturing and keeping your audience’s attention is critical to winning their business. Remember, you want to stop the scroll and avoid the snooze-fest. So, use hooks like thought-provoking statements or questions in your brand messaging where possible.

Try some technical tactics, too. Use a concise, active voice to make your writing engaging, and vary the length of your sentences to keep them from feeling repetitive.

4. Stay consistent and on-brand

Inconsistency in your brand messaging detracts from your credibility. Consider your tech company’s mission, vision, values, brand personality and voice, and ensure your messaging consistently reflects them.

Aim for every piece of content you create to be specific, purposeful and compelling. If you stay consistent, your brand messaging has a greater chance of helping you build awareness and credibility while generating qualified leads and sales faster.

5. Finish with a call to action

No one is a mind reader, which is why your messaging should guide your audience where you want them to go next.

First, consider what kind of call to action you want to include in your content. Do you want your audience to download a white paper, read a case study, attend a webinar or book a demo?

Second, think about the strategic placement of your call to action. For example, calls to action inserted as anchor text in blog posts boost conversion rates by up to 121% more than banner ads, according to HubSpot.

4 types of messaging your B2B brand strategy must include

Smart brands know you’ve got to show love to both your long-time fans and the newcomers to your world. This is why you need multiple types of messaging to support your tech company’s marketing and sales efforts.

Each kind of messaging serves a different purpose at various stages along the path to purchase. This will help guide your audience to the next step in the buyer’s journey.

• Awareness messaging covers the basics of your industry and offerings. For example, “demystifying the martech landscape” could make a great awareness-level landing page, blog post or infographic topic.

  Awareness messaging should also give your target market an idea of your company’s mission, vision and values. Being transparent about what you stand for can increase brand affinity among 94% of consumers.

• Education messaging explains the benefits of your product or service. This is more effective than focusing on features because it shows your audience the transformation you can help them achieve, which is why 99% of the highest performing brands use benefit-driven language.

  Education messaging can also share your company’s unique approach to your work, such as specific processes you follow. Just remember to make it interesting.

• Decision messaging is intended to drive conversions. It leverages social proof like testimonials and case studies, as well as directly makes offers to your market.

  More than 90% of website visitors who read your headline also read your call to action, so craft your messaging wisely here. Specific calls to action can generate conversions like email list signups, webinar registrations, demo bookings and more.

• Loyalty messaging reinforces the value your tech company delivers to customers and shares your appreciation for their business. It’s critical for reducing churn.

  This messaging should make it clear how customers can continue to work with you (or expand their relationship) and the benefits they'll experience as a result.

Keep your brand in demand with strategic messaging

We’ve now covered the five elements of brand messaging that can make or break your B2B brand strategy. Of course, stellar visuals matter, but building a strong brand for your tech company also means fine tuning the verbal and written aspects of what makes a good brand.

Strategic B2B positioning strategies consider how to reach your audience at all junctures along the path to purchase. You’re now prepared to do that with an understanding of awareness, education, decision and loyalty messaging.

Looking for a little more guidance? Download our free brand guide for a list of practical action steps to help you develop strategic branding that gets results and drives sales.