Here's how storytelling helps your B2B brand grow

In B2B, you hear about brand storytelling all the time.

"Your brand needs to tell a good story!"

… you'll hear marketers shouting from the roof.

But what does that mean for your business?

Why brand storytelling matters in B2B

In general, you want to avoid giving the impression that your organization is a cold, faceless entity, and this is where storytelling comes in.

Good brand storytelling helps your B2B business connect with your target customer through emotional stories that build relatability and simplify ideas—steering away from complicated technical jargon. 

Brands achieve this by using real-world examples of challenges they had to face and sharing success stories, or through highlighting the importance of the people working for the business.

These marketing strategies help build trust and credibility.

Sharing stories and showing your brand as human, emotional and even ironic can help you paint a transparent picture for your brand, instilling confidence in your customers.

In short, brand storytelling transforms the image of a business from a cold and de-personalized organization to a relatable, valuable ally.

However, storytelling on its own won't deliver business returns.

You need to pair it with great positioning.

A good narrative is a strategic asset that highlights the brand’s identity and showcases how unique your solutions are (i.e. your brand's positioning!).

Working to create a heartwarming tale is useless when there is no synergy with the brand’s positioning, and it can end up being a bad investment for your company.

5 powerful B2B brand stories

Here are a few stories of creative ways to use storytelling to draw attention to companies with an already strong positioning, who took risks in creating engaging narratives and were paid back in growth.

B2B brand story 1 - Cisco

Making complex services seem straightforward and valuable may be a challenge for brands like Cisco. 

As a leading technology company in networking and telecommunications equipment, Cisco chose to showcase its services with their "Never Better" marketing campaign, by highlighting how they make a difference in the real world. 

This campaign used photos, posters, and short-form videos to vividly showcase real-world examples of the company's work around the globe. 

They used documentary-style imagery and a movie-trailer like voice to narrate the videos, describing Cisco’s work in an almost superheroic way.

And they did not forget to strike an emotional chord by creating ads that show how their work helps people in need in emergency situations.

Through this initiative, Cisco positioned itself as a force for change, addressing crucial global issues like clean water access and wildlife conservation. This also resonates with the brand’s mission to positively impact 1 billion people’s lives by 2025.

What sets this campaign apart is its departure from traditional case studies: Cisco proved that creating a compelling narrative can be far more effective when it comes to showing your real-world impact. They portrayed themselves as a driving force in the present; succeeding in communicating that while the technology they deal with is complex, it is used everyday to make the world a better place. 

B2B brand story 2 - General Electric

When you are an industry leader in B2B like General Electric, you can afford to invest in creative ways to market your products, experimenting with different media. 

This led the company to produce its first podcast in 2015—“The Message”—an entertaining podcast connecting the brand’s technology to alien encounters.

Crazy, I know.

This was just the first of a long series of podcasts, some more product-oriented than others, but The Message was a groundbreaking way of using this new medium as part of a marketing strategy. 

By creating this 8-episode branded podcast, GE found an intimate and authentic way to communicate with the audience without pushing the products, but rather sharing the brand’s values: putting innovation first and looking at the future with boldness.

Through the podcast, listeners were able to transfer the values, principles and messages of the story to the ones of the brand.

The podcast was a success, becoming a staple in iTunes top 10 charts, and paved the way for many other brands to experiment with the audio format.

Through a compelling narrative that felt genuine and not just like another product placement, GE was able to massively increase their brand awareness and share its values with the audience. It also reached a new audience target that was beyond the usual one for the company.

B2B brand story 3 - BCLP

Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP, former BLP), a law firm working with financial institutions, knows that it’s important to position a B2B company as a trustworthy and competent ally. To BCLP (and other similar law firms), that means showing how their work can make the difference when helping bankers get out of financial issues.

To explain to its potential customers how BCLP is the perfect choice for them, the company created an ironic and cinematic marketing campaign (“Cautionary Tale”) through a series of short-form videos showing a group of bankers and their “cautionary tales”, moments where BCLP’s help would have been fundamental. 

The 11 short films’ goals was to show a variety of situations in which BCLP could have helped the institutions when bankers didn’t pay attention to regulations.

Along with the 11 short-form videos, BCLP created other pieces of content, such as infographics and quizzes. It's a great example of B2B storytelling that proved successful.

It addresses the tantalizing "what if…?" question, inviting potential clients to wonder: "What if I had chosen to collaborate with BCLP instead of …?"

B2B brand story 4 - Microsoft

A good strategy in B2B storytelling is humanizing your business. This can be especially difficult for big companies (but also small firms). Microsoft understands this. 

Being one of the world’s most influential corporations, Microsoft decided to dedicate an entire platform to showcasing their employees’ success stories. 

Through Microsoft Source, you can access a variety of posts and testimonies highlighting success stories of employees and customers. The platform is also used to share the company’s goals for the future, with sections like Sustainability.

The section, which used to be Microsoft Story Labs, features in-depth profiles illustrating the human side of Microsoft. 

Not just a massive corporation, but a collection of unique and gifted individuals: this way, Microsoft paints the picture of it being a people company, and not just a tech company. Employees are also the best advertisement for the brand. 

Showing enthusiasm for your employees adds a personal touch which helps your brand create an additional connection between brand, employee, and consumer. 

This approach isn't just popular; it's also very effective in establishing an authentic relationshi with the audience, bridging the gap between the company's image and the consumer's perception.

B2B brand story 5 - Adobe

Humor is another strategic tool when creating an engaging narrative for your brand. Adobe's captivating video campaign titled "Click Baby Click," is a great example of it, creating a short film format with a funny twist at the end.

The brilliance of this narrative lies not only in its entertaining plot, but especially in its underlying message. The campaign is able to show in a humorous way a common challenge encountered by businesses – overlooking crucial analytics.

The call to action is implicit yet crystal clear: businesses must pay attention to data and insights.

What sets this campaign apart is its ability to marry a relatable issue with an engaging, humorous approach without making the problem too obvious. The audience is more entertained by the ad and the message gets through subliminally.

Although the campaign is now a bit old, it can still teach us a lesson on how being funny is not enough: you have to show how your company makes a difference. 

This campaign, apart from its funny approach, highlights the significance of aligning storytelling with customer pain points, which is effectively great positioning!

Tell B2B brand stories that sell

My exploration of great storytelling examples shows how narratives rooted in positioning bridge brand aspirations and audience perceptions.

(And they massively increase B2B brand awareness too!)

Yet, this harmony isn't achieved through storytelling alone; it hinges on a deep understanding of a brand's core identity and its intended market. 

Successful narratives amplify positioning, crafting a vivid portrait that distinguishes a brand from its competition.

By emphasizing your unique value proposition and weaving it into engaging stories, you can resonate with your audience and establish a strong connection to reach your business objectives with.

Frequently asked questions

What is storytelling for B2B brands?

In B2B, you can use brand storytelling to create narratives that build relationships with customers. By sharing relatable or moving stories, B2B brands can connect better with their audiences to build trust, brand awareness and ultimately drive sales.

What is the power of storytelling in B2B marketing?

B2B storytelling allows brands to connect with their audiences on an emotional level, making the business look more trustworthy or building loyalty, as a way of gaining new customers.

What is a good example of brand storytelling?

BCLP. Through an entertaining and cinematic marketing campaign it was able to highlight how, by working with BLP, banks can avoid making mistakes that can hurt their firms. Basically, through a compelling narrative, the company showed how fundamental its help can be. This campaign was very successful and exceeded expectations. 

What is an example of B2B branding?

Cisco. The cutting-edge tech company was able to brand itself as an agent of change in the world by showcasing how its complex services are implemented in problematic situations in the world, portraying itself as a present force in the present and diverging from traditional case studies.