Crafting a Brand’s B2B Story: What You Need to Know

Meta: Crafting a great brand story for your business is essential in B2B marketing. Make your brand story authentic and connect with your audience for maximum effect.

Creating a B2B story for your brand is one of the best and most important things you can do for your business. Being clear from the start who you are, right down to your very core, alongside a moving and inspiring brand story is an incredible way of connecting with both customers and other businesses. However, not just any brand story will work, especially for B2B marketing. You need to ensure that you are authentic and heartfelt, giving your audience something to latch onto and resonate with. Talk from the heart, and use real stories from the core of your business to really connect with your audience and show them what sets your brand apart from the crowd. We’ve put together a guide of all the things you need to know for creating your own brand story:

Be sure of your vision and values

The first thing you should do if you are trying to build a brand story is to identify your brand’s “personality”, that is, the values of your company and its mission. This will give you the roots of your brand story and give people something to connect with.

Whatever your company values are, you should be sure to include them in every single decision you make and all of the marketing you do. Whether you are like Apple and worship innovation, or you’re like sports company Nike who are all about inspiring every athlete, your brand values should be central to everything you do. Including your vision and values in everything you do ensures that you are authentic, which customers are always searching for in the brands they want to buy from and support.

Connect with your customers

On the subject of appealing to your customers, an important step in creating your brand story is to work out what your customers will resonate with and relate to. Creating a brand story central to things that are important to your target customers is essential in making them feel connected to your brand and tugging on their heartstrings. Investigate your target market with insights and data to determine what they are looking for in a brand, what problems they are trying to solve and the other kinds of companies that your target customers are resonating with. Try to match this to an extent, as you are trying to break into a market rather than completely separate yourself from it.

When in doubt, outsource

If you’re struggling to create your own brand story or don’t even know where to start, or perhaps you’re simply too busy to invest the time into such a big task and give it the focus it deserves, then consider outsourcing this. For example, Percepto branded content marketing is a great choice for working on marketing your company and telling your brand’s authentic B2B story that will help to launch your business forward in the world and tug at the heartstrings of anyone who reads it. Digital branding specialists are an excellent way to boost your brand and expand your reach, really bringing your business to life.

Be authentic

Being authentic is something that a lot of brands fail at. You should do what you can to capture real-life stories from your company to tell your brand story and resonate with your audiences. Each one of your staff members will have their own personal stories of how they came to work in your company, what their life goals and values are and things that they have done to add to the overall makeup of your company. From charity work to a rags-to-riches backstory from one of the higher-ups in your company, investigate the lives and lived stories of your employees to create a unique and truly authentic brand story for your business.

Be a storyteller

No matter what the purpose of your story is – if you’re writing a novel, writing a movie or writing your brand story, you’re still telling a story from the heart. For a really engaging and captivating brand story, follow the classic 8-point narrative structure. Start with introducing the reader to your brand, something which triggered characters to set off on their goals, their journey following these goals, any challenges they have to overcome, a critical choice, a climax, the consequences from your critical choice and then the resolution, i.e., your company as it is today. Write this from a captivating, marketing perspective and try to really connect with your audience while you tell your authentic story.

Show and Tell

As important as telling your customers your brand story is, you should also be sure to show them. Connect with your customers through video or images showing where the brand started and where it is now. Combine this with your verbal story to really engage with your audience and connect to them.