B2B brand messaging: what to include and how to use it
Issues with your marketing can often be traced back to your brand messaging. Product demo requests few and far between? Review the messaging on your product page. Low engagement on your LinkedIn content? Look at the key messages (i.e., the key ideas) you’re sharing in each post.
When your brand messaging lands with your audience, it sets the stage for meaningful relationships — and powerful business growth. In contrast, if your message falls flat, potential customers are likely to scroll right past your content.
Think about the last time you were engaged in a conversation so interesting or free-flowing that you could have kept talking for hours. The kind of conversation that leaves an impression. Your B2B brand marketing should strive to achieve the same goal — to make your company memorable and keep your audience sticking around.
In this guide to the verbal side of B2B branding, we’ll cover:
Brand messaging vs. content
Why brand messaging matters
Key elements of effective messaging
7 steps to create your brand messaging framework
Sharing your brand values in your messaging
Examples of values-driven messaging
Brand messaging vs. content
At Scribe National, we’ve met numerous marketers and founders who are (understandably) eager to skip the brand messaging stage and move straight to content creation. However, this approach doesn’t do your B2B brand strategy any favours.
Brand messaging is the foundation of your content marketing. It encompasses the core messages and values a company wants to communicate to its audience — often through content. A brand messaging framework or brand bible contains guidelines on the voice, tone, language and key points that define a brand’s identity and value proposition.
Content, in contrast, refers to the marketing materials you create and distribute to engage, inform, entertain or persuade your audience. Without a brand messaging framework in place, your content won’t have a clear and consistent identity across all marketing channels. It’ll be less likely that the content will help you build trust and authority, or reach your other marketing goals. Learn more about our B2B copywriting services.
Why brand messaging matters
If you’re feeling the pressure to be omnipresent online, you’re in good company. But as we’ve discussed, it’s not enough to just pump out content. In fact, the opposite is true — quality trumps quantity for discerning B2B buyers. This means the content you create must be original, carefully thought out, impeccably written and on-brand. It’s a tall order.
HubSpot’s 2024 State of Marketing Report shows that 19% of marketers with effective strategies in 2023 listed their top goal for 2024 as increasing brand awareness and reaching new audiences. Thoughtful brand messaging that builds recognition and affinity among buyers is key to making this happen.
There are myriad reasons for investing in the verbal side of B2B branding, beyond generating awareness. Here are just a few that might be on your radar:
Building trust and credibility
Driving long-term sales growth
Maintaining market visibility
Differentiating from competitors
Boosting the success of specific campaigns
Supporting employee recruitment
Creating brand loyalty and/or reducing churn
Improving pricing power
Forging strategic partnerships
Elements of effective brand messaging
Brand visuals often get all the glory. However, targeted messaging is critical to building the "know, like and trust" factor you need to move prospects along the path to purchase. Before we dig into the steps involved in creating your brand messaging, let’s discuss the end result you should aim for to make it effective.
Effective brand messaging has five elements.
Element 1: crafted for a specific buyer
When your target audience reads or hears your messaging, they should know you’re communicating directly with them. If it’s unclear or if they’re unsure how your solution applies to them, they probably won’t buy from you. This is why it’s wise to focus on one specific customer segment at a time as you craft your messaging. You’ll likely need more than one set of messaging if you serve multiple types of customers. Don’t try to make one size fit all.
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.
Element 2: written for a specific purpose
Messaging changes depending on context. For example, the intention of your messaging in a specific situation may be to drive awareness vs. nurture leads at the bottom of the funnel. This is an important distinction to consider.
Usually, brand messaging fits one of these four purposes:
Awareness: This 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 mission, vision and values. Being transparent about what you stand for can increase brand affinity among 94% of consumers.
Education: This messaging explains the benefits of your product or service. It’s 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.
Decision: This messaging is intended to drive conversions. It leverages social proof like testimonials and case studies, as well as directly makes offers to your market, inviting them to engage with and buy from you.
Loyalty: This messaging reinforces the value your company delivers to customers and shares your appreciation for their business. It’s critical for reducing churn and has other benefits like encouraging referrals.
Element 3: compelling in nature
Capturing and keeping your audience’s attention is essential to winning their business. Remember, you want to stop the scroll. 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.
Element 4: consistent and on-brand
Inconsistency in your brand messaging detracts from your credibility. Consider your company’s mission, vision, values, brand personality and voice, and ensure your messaging consistently reflects them. 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.
Element 5: contains a call to action
Consider what kind of call to action (CTA) 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? CTAs on landing pages can increase conversion rates by 80%, so craft your messaging wisely here.
Also think about the strategic placement of your CTAs. For example, CTAs inserted as anchor text in blog posts can boost conversion rates by up to 121% more than banner ads.
7 steps to building and using a brand messaging framework
We’ve talked about brand messaging vs. content and the key elements of effective messaging. Now, let’s walk through how to create and activate a B2B brand messaging framework that you can use to inform your marketing content from here on out.
1. Cover the core components
Don’t skim over the essentials. While the visual aspects of your brand are important, branding dives much deeper than your logo and colours. You need a messaging framework that communicates your mission and values, and that makes it clear you’ve got a unique solution to your market’s problems.
Learn more about the core components of a rock-solid brand.
2. Conduct customer research
Understanding your customers’ behaviour and goals is imperative to branding, and generating and capturing demand. Conducting a voice of customer analysis (a form of customer research) can help you achieve this, and ensure your target market knows your offerings are tailored to them.
Create a loyal fan base that raves about your products. Dig into customer research tactics and tips.
3. Establish your brand voice
To create a brand voice your customers want to hear, start by assessing your audience and competitors. Identify phrases that resonate with your buyers and gaps in the market that you can fill. Knowing your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses can help you stand out and develop a voice that avoids jargon and corporate-speak.
Explore a few B2B brand voice examples.
4. Write your brand story
An impactful brand story should have heart, evoke emotions and differentiate your B2B company from similar brands. It should also strike a balance between talking about your organization and bringing your audience into the narrative.
When you combine a strong brand story with high quality offerings and targeted marketing, you can boost your visibility, revenue and impact while nurturing authentic relationships with customers.
5. Articulate your value proposition and key ideas
Your brand messaging should convey your company’s value proposition and consistently integrate it into all of your marketing content. This value proposition is part of your key messaging — i.e., the key ideas you want to communicate to your audience.
Key messages address the primary concerns and needs of your target market, emphasizing how your solutions effectively solve their problems and add value to their businesses. These messages are designed to be clear, concise and memorable. Remember that your brand messaging framework should include awareness, education, decision and loyalty messages for buyers at different stages of the journey.
6. Develop a customer-centric content strategy
Every aspect of the way your B2B company interacts with your audience contributes to their perception of your brand. So, be sure you’re delivering exactly what they need. Create branded content for each customer use case your company serves.
Beyond addressing use cases, your brand messaging should also be imbued into content that supports customer experience, which in turn, drives retention. Learn how our b2b marketing agency can help you develop a long-term content marketing strategy.
7. Leverage content to build your brand
A brand messaging framework is an incredibly effective tool, as long as you take the time to weave your messaging into your content.
You now know the core components of B2B brand messaging, how to conduct customer research for the best results, and how to establish a distinct and consistent brand voice. You’ve also got the road map to a strong brand story, compelling messaging and a customer-centric strategy to translate your messages to your content.
Here are a few ways to leverage content to build your brand:
Get specific about which topics you cover and stick to those subjects when developing content. Everyone knows Bill Nye the Science Guy, and they wouldn’t expect him to create a cake decorating tutorial.
Stay true to your brand values. For example, at Scribe National, one of our brand values is “curiosity”. We want to encourage our clients to be creative and bold, so we regularly post about unique marketing campaigns on social media to inspire our audience and encourage them to try new things.
Deepen your connection with your audience through the content you create to positively influence their perception of your company. Make sure the blog posts, customer stories and ebooks you publish help your readers achieve their goals. Ask your customers for feedback and implement it to improve your content.
4 values-driven B2B brand messaging examples
Buyers want to support brands that align with their values — and 82% say they would spend more to do so.
The good news? With your new brand messaging, you’ve now got a roadmap to successfully sharing your values. This also solidifies your emotional connection with your audience. Surprisingly, it’s often a missed opportunity — 40% of websites don’t express the company’s purpose, mission, vision or a commitment to specific values.
When you take the time to weave this narrative into your marketing content, you leverage the opportunity to prove that your company is worth supporting. Let’s look at four messaging examples that show how B2B companies are sharing their brand values.
Microsoft
This tech giant’s mission is to “empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more,” and the company showcases this through consistent content marketing and relevant blog posts.
The brand’s blog topics range from creating workplace accessibility to making a commitment to sustainability, and are all artfully tied to the company’s cornerstone — technology.
Formlabs
Formlabs is a 3D printing company that seeks to allow users to create anything their industry may require. This includes medical research, automotive and aerospace manufacturing, custom products and more.
The company’s goal is to make 3D printing accessible for everyone. Formlabs walks the talk when it comes to accessibility, sharing its resources through education and equity initiatives, as well as social media posts.
Atlassian
Atlassian is a productivity software company that makes project management tools like Trello and Jira. Not only does this powerhouse brand provide organizations with the tools to work smarter, Atlassian also offers guides and exercises to help its audience improve teamwork and productivity.
Atlassian’s blog posts offer insight into values that the brand and its customers share, such as leadership, teamwork and more. This content helps readers improve their communication, resilience and creativity in the workplace.
Medallia
A customer feedback management software platform, Medallia helps businesses gather and analyze customer feedback in real time. Using this insight, companies can take steps to improve their customer service experience and better cater to their audience.
Medallia’s blog posts make it clear that this brand values customer experience. The organization’s posts include helpful tips about handling feedback and how it can improve company culture, market research and digital experiences.
Stick with us! This post is part of a series on developing a 10-step content creation workflow for exceptional results. Read the first post.
A solid marketing foundation
Thoughtful brand messaging is the foundation of every great piece of marketing content. We’ve now covered why it’s integral to successful content, what makes for effective messaging and how to build your messaging framework. You’ve also got four brand messaging examples to lean on when it comes to sharing your values in your B2B brand marketing.
Looking for a little more guidance? Download our free brand guide for a list of practical action steps to help you develop strategic messaging that gets results and drives sales.
