How to implement a kicking B2B brand strategy in 3 steps

To draft an effective B2B brand strategy, positioning, go-to-market, and plan execution are the 3 elements that make a difference.

Positioning helps you understand your audience's needs, get to know your competition, and craft a unique value proposition for your product or service—making your brand recognizable and trustworthy.

Your go-to-market strategy sets the practical goals and timelines necessary to achieve your business objectives, and sets the stage for hiring the right talent once you're ready to execute the plan.

Finally, execution is when all the positioning assets, marketing goals, and dedicated team come together to realize the vision. You'll see that it's key to remain flexible at this stage as your brand takes on a tangible form.

1. The strategic step: Positioning, positioning, & more brand positioning

Often overlooked and undervalued, great brand positioning is the core of your B2B brand strategy. Without it, you're just another fish in the sea.

But great positioning doesn't happen on a whim, you have to be deliberate about it and think through many variables.

Start from your ideal target audience

The reason why businesses exist is to help others accomplish things they wouldn't otherwise be able to achieve on their own.

(Without a lot of effort being put in, that is.)

Ask yourself:

What problem do my ideal customers face?

The first step in identifying your ideal customers is understanding the challenges they face. Through market research, interviews, surveys, and a few educated guesses, you can discover new obstacles and problems your possible customers face in the current market.

Which key characteristics do they share?

Once you a fundamental understanding of your customers' pain points, you can start identifying common characteristics shared by them. 

Gathering this data can be done through firmographics (basically demographics but for companies), buyer personas, competitive research, pain point to solution mapping, and buyer journey mapping.

Firmographics are the specific traits and data points used to describe and categorize companies, helping you understand the characteristics of your target audience such as industry, company size, location, and more. 

By finding out what traits you’re interested in, you can craft a buyer persona, a semi-fictional representation of an ideal business customer.

Imagine all the characteristics your dream customer should have.

• How big is the ideal company you want to work with?
• What are the roles and responsibilities within the organization?
• What specific needs does that business have?

Source: Make my persona template by HubSpot

Meet your B2B brand's competition

Ok, you know what your dream customers look like and what problems they face. Now you have to understand who you’re up against. 

Is anyone else solving this problem for them?

• If yes, which B2B firms, and are they doing it properly? If other B2B firms are already working on catering to the needs of your target audience, you need to know their strategies, their strengths, but most importantly their weaknesses. Identifying gaps in their work can help you highlight how your company might be a better fit.

• If no, why, and is it a common enough problem? If no one (or very few people) is working on solving that problem, you have to understand why. Is it an uncommon problem, or did you just find out that there is a niche you can carve out for your company?

If you identify or want to create an untapped market space where there is little to no competition, then you’re implementing a “Blue Ocean strategy”. Blue oceans denote market verticals with virtually no competition, "unknown" markets where you can offer innovative products and solutions and create and capture entirely new demand.

On the contrary, you’re trying to emerge in a saturated market with intense competition, you’re navigating a red ocean. When following the Red Ocean strategy you want to stand out from the competition by highlighting what sets your company apart from the others.

Source: Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne

In a perfect world, what would you do?

This imaginary dimension where your B2B eliminates the customer’s problem for good is called “The ideal state”.

It may seem like a utopian concept, but identifying what the ideal state is can guide your brand strategy by setting ambitious goals.

Continue with your B2B solution

Next step is developing solutions and products that can effectively help you customers today and for the long-term.

What can you do to help your prospective customers? 

This question is answered by analyzing what kind of unique knowledge, expertise, or technology you can offer them.

It could be patents, data insights, or specialized expertise.

This uniqueness establishes credibility and demonstrates your brand's ability to provide valuable solutions that no other brand has. 

You can also highlight past successes, case studies, or testimonials to illustrate your track record of solving similar problems.

Why should the customer choose YOU?

Basically, you have to understand how your solution works in simple terms before explaining to you prospects.

Clearly communicate how your offering solves specific pain points, saves time or money, improves efficiency, or drives revenue growth.

What benefit will the audience gain from your solution?

Focusing on communicating the benefits of a product or solution (instead of merely talking about its features) is called benefit-driven positioning.

Adopting this approach can make your brand appear more appealing and relevant to your customers.

Can you provide it at an affordable price?

And to beat your competition, you “obviously” have to work on your pricing. Is your brand the most convenient for your customers?

This doesn’t have to mean that you’re selling yourself short by being the cheapest solution around.

Pricing strategies involve determining how a product or service will be priced in the market. You can—for example—adopt value-based pricing, setting prices based on the perceived value that a product or service delivers to the business customer, or tiered pricing for ease of choice.

B2B companies often offer tiered pricing structures where customers can choose from different packages or levels of service.

What resources can you allocate to going to market? 

You also have to understand what kind of resources and budgets you can allocate to building a successful B2B brand strategy.

Marketing budgets cover expenses like advertising, content creation, lead generation, and they must aim for good ROI—return on investment.

Companies often consider competitors' budgets, but that's not necessarily a winning strategy.

Every companies' marketing will be different, so allocate a base monthly budget you feel comfortable with (2k to 6k / mo for a small B2B firm is usually a good range depending on your situation) and leave some room for flexibility when the need arises for variable costs like advertising.

End with your stance (i.e. your positioning!)

Communicate what sets you apart from your competitors and what makes your brand different from every other B2B brand.

This is your USP or Unique Selling Point. It's the distinctive quality or feature that makes your B2B solution preferable over competitors.

Your USP can come in many forms, basically anything that makes your business different—it could be a patented technology, a proprietary process, exceptional customer support, or a unique approach to solving industry-specific challenges that only you can achieve.

How does your USP affect the value of your product?

USP is very similar to UVP—Unique Value proposition—a clear statement that describes the benefit of your offer and how you solve your customers needs better than others.

By making sure you’re targeting the right audience (as opposed to trying to appeal to everyone’s needs), and that you’re leading with your differentiating qualities, including the strengths and benefits that distinguish it from the competition, you can craft a general USP for your business that you can later customize a bit to adapt it to each prospect.

Source: Pam Neely on AWeber

Through all of these steps you lay the foundations for a successful B2B brand. The most important thing to focus on when creating your business is positioning. Only after finding it can you move on to focusing on the other characteristics of your brand and to practically drafting your strategy. However, positioning doesn’t have to be rigid.

It evolves with your brand and it’s best to keep it malleable.

Your brand's positioning defines how you want your audience to perceive your brand, reflecting the brand’s values and qualities, and it should be consistently communicated.

It's the mental space you aim to occupy in your audience's minds.

With a good understanding of the customers’ needs, your competition, and a clear USP, you can clearly articulate what you stand for.

What’s a story your audience can relate to?

Connecting with the audience is fundamental.

Through brand storytelling (even in B2B), you can foster a connection with your possible customers. This can be done by telling a compelling story they can relate to, pulling at the audiences’ heartstrings or highlighting how trustworthy your brand is.

To link a compelling story to your strategy, focus on your mission.

This is a concise statement that defines the purpose and goals of a business. It serves as a guiding principle for its actions and decisions, a guiding compass for your employees, stakeholders and customers.

And lastly, after focusing on your competitors, it’s time to talk about your friends in the industry.

Do you have long-time partners in the industry?

Foster connections and create long-term partners in the industry by networking. Building relationships in the B2B space is crucial: have fun and attend industry events, join professional associations, actively engage with industry peers, and share your knowledge on LinkedIn.

By collaborating on industry research and sharing valuable insights you can make your brand appear more trustworthy and increase its reputation among its peers and to future customers. Show everyone how relevant your brand is and become a guiding light in the industry.

2. The operational step: Drafting an effective B2B go-to-market strategy

Now it’s time to get practical and create a successful B2B go-to-market strategy for your brand (i.e. the actual activities to carry out!).

Why GTM strategies fail & how you can prevent it

80%+ of all startups (including B2B) will fail within 2 to 5 years of operations, and the reason in many cases is poor go-to-market plans.

In fact, where you have product-market fit (the product actually solves a problem in the market) but bad GTM, success is not a guarantee.

That is why good go-to-market plans are of the essence to build not only a strong brand but a sustainable business to back it up.

Time works against you as an upcoming B2B brand

Developing an effective GTM strategy takes time, and every day spent on an ineffective approach can drain your resources.

This is why a sense of urgency is critical for new B2B brands.

Encourage your team to continuously assess and iterate on the strategy. Set clear time-bound objectives and regularly review progress.

This helps you keep track of resources and use them wisely.

All your audience cares about is what’s in it for them

Make sure your audience feels like the hero of the story.

Put them at the center of the narrative and highlight how they have a lot to gain by working with you, not the other way around.

Rather than focusing solely on the brand’s story, craft your messaging and value proposition to directly address the audience’s concerns and adopt a customer-centric approach which resonates more effectively.

Employ a “sniper” mentality, not a “shotgun” approach

To avoid wasting resources, adopt what is called a “sniper approach”.

By using a focused approach and investing identifying low-effort, high-return marketing activities, you avoid scattering resources everywhere, basically throwing everything at the wall and hoping something sticks.

(The so-called “shotgun approach”)

Work your way backwards from business goals

To reach your business goals, you need to be able to monitor them often and make sure that you have the necessary resources to reach them.

Set realistic objectives that you can measure and easily keep tabs on, then break them down into goals and milestones.

Draft these goals using the “S.M.A.R.T.” rule (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) to establish accountability.

Plan your resources in advance

Between budget, personnel and technology, you should make sure that your resource allocation reflects your priority. Your budget must support the GTM plan and ensure that resources are available when needed.

Choose the right marketing activities

Between content marketing, social media, email marketing, events—there are plenty of marketing channels you can choose from today, but you have to find out which ones are the best fit for your brand.

To find out how to better communicate with, reach, and distribute your products or services to your target audience, you should focus on a data-driven approach, where the effectiveness of each channel is regularly monitored. In B2B, we can look at specific activities like leveraging LinkedIn, crafting informative blog posts, and engaging in direct email prospecting, each with its unique outcomes. 

Sticking to your guns as you go to market

You'll often see marketing campaigns changing halfway through their course because they're "not performing." But the reality is, you have to be prepared for marketing NOT to perform for the first 1 to 3 tries.

On average, you can expect 25% of your marketing budget to go down the drain. And that inches closer to 50% for early campaigns.

But, if you stop a campaign short on its tracks, that % goes way higher, because the cost of starting a new campaign is much higher than that of maintaining or adapting an existing one. Just like customer acquisition.

Don’t change your plan halfway through

Consistency is key: make sure you and your team stick to the campaign's plan and don’t change it halfway through.

Planning mistakes can happen, but changing directions too often may lead to confusion and your brand’s image can come off as flighty and inefficient. To build trust in the market, consistency should be found in every aspect of the business—in messaging, branding and execution.

Keep everyone on track to deliver by the plan

Team alignment is also important. You have to make sure that everyone is on board with the plan and that all the team members understand their roles and responsibilities in executing the GTM strategies. This can be achieved through good and consistent communication and collaboration.

After all, where would any brand be without great team working?

Only adjust at specific intervals (monthly or quarterly)

Lastly, use KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to your advantage.

KPIs are measurable values that you can use to track your progress.

They are aligned with your business goals, they're quantifiable and can include financial metrics like revenue or profit margins.

Through data analytics tools you can keep track of your KPIs and regularly monitor trends, highlights, or areas that need improvement, which can help you and your team make informed decisions.

You can also compare your results with your competitors’, making sure there are no areas where your brand needs catching up.

By focusing on these concepts, you can help your team draft a robust GTM strategy that is more likely to succeed and less prone to mistakes.

3. The executive step: Getting your B2B brand strategy to deliver returns

Everyone wants to start from this step, just throw a bunch of stuff at the wall and see what sticks. But it's not always the best idea.

Diligently going through your positioning and GTM before publishing content will help you adjust your assets based on real-world findings.

Hire the right talent for your strategy

Of course, working with the right people makes the job feel a lot easier.

From employees to contractors to gig workers, make sure to assemble a team you trust, made up of like-minded individuals who share your goals and can’t wait to reach them together with you.

Don’t rush hiring — work with people that “get” it

When hiring, make sure to take your time and avoid rushing your decisions. A bad hire can compromise your brand’s integrity and is just not worth the price of potentially slower growth. If it doesn’t feel good working with them, keep scouting for the perfect fit.

Now that you’ve assembled your dream team, you can focus on getting everyone to work towards the brand’s growth.

Establish marketing processes as you kick things off

Just like with hiring, don’t rush planning marketing processes, it will fail.

Flexibility is an important quality you have to possess when growing your brand: don’t try to plan and set up everything upfront, instead focus on establishing clear marketing processes as you begin executing your strategy, adapting the process as you encounter real-world needs.

Meet with the team daily for 15 minutes

Keeping track of everyone’s progress helps you and your team stay aligned with the brand values and avoid tackling possible problems when it’s too late. A short 15-minute meeting everyday is a great way to check-in with your team and monitor your brand’s growth.

Take advantage of the marketing funnel

The funnel is is a conceptual model that represents the stages a potential customer goes through: from getting to know the product to finalize the purchase decision, there are three stages you need to be aware of, TOFU (Top of Funnel), MOFU (Middle of Funnel), BOFU (Bottom of Funnel). 

• TOFU is the initial stage, where potential customers become aware of your brand. This is when you want to generate awareness and capture attention via socials, blog posts, YT videos, etc.
• MOFU represents the second stage, when you’re engaging with people who have shown interest in your brand and providing them with in-depth, value-added content like webinars or free tools.
• BOFU, the final stage, is when you push to seal the deal. At this stage, the goal is to convert leads into paying customers through high-intent marketing efforts like product demos and trials.

Incorporating this framework into your strategy allows you to address the distinct needs of potential customers at each stage of their journey, and sets clear responsibilities for your team.

Have people assigned to specific parts of the marketing funnel

To use the TOFU/MOFU/BOFU framework effectively, assign specific team members to each part of the marketing funnel (top, middle and bottom) to make sure that every part of the model is taken care of and that there's a clear focus on the unique needs and objectives of each stage.

Now that you’ve compartmentalized the work, have all teams work from the same task board. This creates cross-functional collaboration and helps maintain consistency and coordination across the entire process, from awareness to consideration all the way to conversion.

Source: Bill Widmer on ahrefs blog

Maintain your messaging and visuals consistent

With this effective and well-defined strategy, you can get to the fun part, maintaining your brand’s messaging and visuals consistency. 

Messaging and visuals are the tip of the iceberg (but they matter)

Remember that you can only get to this part after your positioning is set— but even if it’s just the tip of the iceberg, it’s still immensely important to have consistent messaging and aesthetics. Visuals, logos, and social posts are important, because they are the first things people notice about your brand and what makes it immediately recognizable.

Keep repeating your key messages

Think of the “rule of 7” in advertising, where repetition of key messages is fundamental to make your brand stand out and seal the deal. It's a concept that suggests a potential customer needs to encounter a brand's message at least 7 times before they start considering your products.

Through repetition you create awareness, build trust and overcome resistance. Use different touchpoints and adopt a customized approach to reach your potential customers when timing these 7 exposures.

Now that you know all the steps, you can elevate your brand to success.

With a well-executed B2B brand strategy, you're set to become a guiding light in your industry, helping you grow sustainably and effectively.