How to Build a Strong B2B Brand Strategy

Your brand strategy outlines how you will present your brand to the market and differentiate it from competitors. This strategy serves as a roadmap for building and managing your brand in a way that aligns with your company’s overall business objectives.

An Effective Brand Strategy:

• Includes clear definitions of your brand’s core values, messaging, and visual identity
• Is relentlessly focused on your customers
• Clearly communicates what the brand stands for
• Is consistently executed across all touchpoints to build trust and loyalty over time

9 Keys to a Strong Brand Strategy

1. Align around Your Brand Purpose

This is why the brand exists beyond making a profit. You should be able to express this in one sentence. For example, a software company like Cirrus Secure that offers a loan origination platform might say, “We exist to help SBA lenders and small businesses prosper.”

A sales coaching consultancy might state, “In our perfect world, customers love being sold to because every step in the sales process delivers maximum value.”

2. Define the CORRECT Target Audience

Clearly define who your audience is. Understand their needs, preferences, and behaviors. Building a brand around customer insights ensures that it resonates with them on a deeper level. Your target market is NOT your total addressable market. Your brand strategy needs to focus on the key personas that you MUST engage and persuade if you want to drive revenue.

Free Tool: Use this Voice of the Customer questionnaire to conduct your interviews with customers. (The file is set to view only, so click "file - make a copy" to make your own copy.)

3. Identify Your Brand Promise and Incomparable Advantage

This is the thing you are able to do uniquely/better than anyone else that matters to your customers. It must be something that solves an urgent and expensive problem. Otherwise, you have a problem/solution fit or a product/market fit problem.

4. Nail Your Positioning and Differentiation

Positioning is the brand is compared to its competitors in the minds of customers. For example, you might have a workflow automation software solution that is categorized or positioned as a highly customizable technology provider, or a mature SaaS solution that has hit the one-size-fits all mark for their customer base.

You can be first, have a strong alternate position, or reposition a competitor. If you don’t have a memorable position that fills a hole in the prospect’s mind you will NOT be remembered.

Watch this episode of The Marketing Blender Show for more about the power of Positioning.

Differentiation is how distinct the brand is compared to the rest of the competitive landscape. This might be differences in your product or service, your company culture and purpose, or other elements.

4. Develop a Consistent Brand Voice and Messaging

Craft a tone and voice that aligns with your brand's values and resonates with your audience. Ensure that your messaging remains consistent across all channels—whether in social media, ads, or customer service. This doesn’t mean that individual brand advocates on your team all have to sound the same, but your marketing materials should.

5. Design a Memorable Visual Identity

Your brand's visual elements—logo, colors, fonts, and design aesthetics—should be recognizable and cohesive. This creates visual consistency across all touchpoints, reinforcing brand recognition. People trust what they recognize and don’t have to “figure out.”

6. Build an Emotional Connection

Focus on creating a relationship with your customers by tapping into their emotions. Brands that connect on an emotional level tend to build stronger, more loyal customer bases. This may sound “warm and fuzzy”, but being deliberate about the emotional aspect of the buyer journey is highly strategic.

7. Deliver Consistent Brand Experience

Every interaction with your brand should reflect its core values and promises. Consistency in product quality, customer service, and communication reinforces brand trust and loyalty. Your strategy should include specifics about how you will create positive touchpoints throughout the sales cycle.

Here is an example of core values develop[ed for one of my clients. We made sure they are unique to the brand AND easy for everyone to remember!

8. Encourage Customer Engagement and Feedback

Encourage customers to interact with your brand and provide feedback. Use this input to evolve and refine your brand strategy based on their needs and experiences. Your strategy must include a mechanism for knowing whether or not you are “winning.” Share of voice and brand sentiment are trackable metrics, and you should know yours.

9. Adapt to Market Changes

Stay agile and responsive to changes in your industry or audience preferences. A strong brand strategy evolves over time, keeping the brand relevant and ahead of market trends. But don’t change just because a competitor is scaring you. Understand what the foundations of your brand are so you can remain strong.

Want to learn more about branding can drive revenue, reputation, and resilience for your business? Reach out today!