B2B Storytelling – Sell Your Story and Profit From It

Everybody has a story and every business needs B2B storytelling. Stories are what connect people. A business becomes relatable when it has a memorable story that your target audience and other businesses can latch on to.

B2B storytelling has the power to make people believe in the brand. It is a proven marketing strategy that attracts human emotions and makes the brand memorable. But there is an art to B2B brand storytelling. There needs to be a beginning, conflict, and resolution. Getting it right means getting people to pay attention and understand the “why” of your brand.

In this article, we discuss the elements that make a brand story fantastic and memorable. We’ll also tackle some great B2B storytelling examples.

Keep reading to get tips on how to make a compelling brand narrative.

Why Is B2B Storytelling Important for Your Brand?

Storytelling is universal and has two important goals: communication and understanding. The storyteller wants to communicate a point. When a story is properly and thoroughly shared, readers or listeners will have a better appreciation for the overall message and the events that led to the current situation.

It’s the same for business. When a brand tells a story in the right way, the target audience will get it. Even better, the audience will respond to the story.

But there is a certain nuance in B2B or business-to-business storytelling. B2C or business-to-consumer storytelling is much easier because you are basically communicating to an individual or a niche. Storytelling to another business is a little bit different.

However, the elements remain the same. It’s about touching people at an emotional level. Even when you are in the business of construction or heavy equipment, you can still move other businesses with a good story.

A brand story must be more emotional than rational. To be clear, rationality is still there but you want to have a more emotional impact on the audience by veering away from technical discussions and focusing on more practical ones.

How To Prepare for B2B Brand Storytelling

Every storyteller must prepare an outline for their narrative. B2B marketers are the same. They have to create a blueprint that represents the overall “personalities” of B2B brands.

Here are important steps in brand storytelling:

Establish Your Values

Building a brand means you have to do more than just sell your product or service. You need to sell and advocate values that are in sync with your target clientele. It is through your shared values that you develop a relationship.

How do you build your brand? You will need a lot of introspection to help you get to the heart of your company. Your brand values will shape the company’s culture and its future in the industry. You have to be sincere about it too. When you pick brand values out of thin air and you don’t actually believe in them, you will not convince your target audience and it could even hurt your brand’s image.

The audience has an important part to play in your branding.

Deeply Analyze Your Audience

Part of the marketing strategy of every business is finding your audience and analyzing their likes and dislikes for creating your brand values. Your target audience is a specific group of individuals who are organically attracted to your brand. For example, Nike’s target audiences are athletes and fitness enthusiasts while Starbucks has a wider audience that focuses on those who study or work in urban centers.

By identifying your target audience, you can determine common characteristics, behaviors, and specific demographics. For example, luxury brands will target the affluent market. But you can go deeper with identification by zeroing in on particular aspects like their age: millennials buy more luxury items than any other generation.

Of course, a brand’s goal is to sell to anyone. However, when you identify a target audience, you can have more cohesive and meaningful B2B storytelling. Recognize the emotions of your target audience so you can tap into them with storytelling. What are their dream and their fears? What makes them happy?

Tailor Your Communication to Your Brand Values

It’s easy to create overall branding elements: brand name, logo, typography, color theme, slogan, and image. While coming up with these, it helps to add your company culture and personality. These elements will humanize your brand. When your audience sees your brand as something they can relate to, building relationships will be much easier.

After developing these essential elements, you can start communicating your brand values to your audience. When you engage with clients or potential clients, ensure that you are equipped with your brand identity. For example, if you have to send written communication or an email marketing campaign, you should do so with the company logo, color, and slogan. The header and footer must also include company details such as office address, office number, website, social media pages, and slogan.

When communicating verbally, you should adopt a tone that best embodies your brand.

Maintain Coherence in Your Communication Whether Online or Offline

Many businesses have an omnichannel approach to maximize the market. But while different teams manage their brick-and-mortar as well as their online business presence, both channels must have the same branding elements. The logo in the physical store must be the same as the one used in social media channels. Clients must be able to identify your brand whether they are looking at your corner shop or browsing online on their desktops or mobile phones.

Focus on Your Uniqueness

Nobody wants to hear stories that have been repeated multiple times. When it comes to B2B brand storytelling, you must focus on your uniqueness. You may get inspiration from competitors but don’t copy them. One of the best pieces of advice in brand marketing is to define what makes your company unique and special.

Understand the Strengths of Your Product or Service

Storytelling is a marketing strategy. It is a way to establish loyalty among clients and woo potential customers by engaging them emotionally. It is also a means to gain trust, but to do that, you have to be truthful. Gauge the strengths of your products or services and make them the cornerstone of your story.

People don’t want to be sold to which is another reason why a brand story is very important. You are not telling them to buy your product or service. You are trying to connect with them through B2B storytelling.

Build Your Storytelling in 6 Steps

Every story has a beginning, character, plot, problem, and resolution. Those are also necessary elements in B2B brand storytelling.

1. Share the Beginning of Your Story

Every website has an About Us page and every business must take its time in crafting a beautiful and authentic story of how the company began. The page should also be peppered with the brand’s unique selling proposition and values. The best About Us pages share what the company is about and why it is doing business.

2. Talk About an Important Starting Problem

Here is a case study of a known all-in-one marketing service. It started as a company targeting big corporate clients. But on the side, the company was offering an affordable marketing option for small businesses. It eventually became a separate company that’s now known as Mailchimp. Part of its About Us page reads: “It gave small business owners who lacked the high-end tools and resources of their larger competitors access to technology that empowered them and helped them grow.”

The starting problem was that software was too expensive so Mailchimp offered something for small businesses. And it worked because today, Mailchimp is one of the more popular marketing services around. You can get inspiration from how it took a problem and solved it.

3. Share the Challenges You Face in Solving a Problem

Stories have problems and conflicts and it is always satisfying when there is a resolution at the end. Sharing your journey in solving a problem is touching and a great way to reach customers on an emotional level. Showcase your difficulties in your storytelling because that’s how you become relatable. Amazing storytelling will build the brand, foster loyalty, connect with your audience, and eventually increase sales.

4. Happy Resolutions: Tell People How You Ultimately Succeeded

Brand storytelling must be more than just a marketing and digital strategy. The best B2B brand storytelling examples are those that inspire. What could be more inspiring about your company than its eventual success?

So, after sharing your beginnings and challenges, give people a satisfying resolution by sharing how you ultimately succeeded.

5. Collect Testimonials

Great storytelling may not matter if you don’t have credibility. One should not underestimate the power of testimonials. They may seem old-school but the reason they are still employed as part of content marketing strategies today is they work. It’s easy to dismiss your successful narrative as tooting your own horn. But it has a bigger impact when someone credible in the industry says it.

6. Leave Positive Thoughts

Everybody loves a happy ending so give them one in B2B storytelling. Allow your stakeholders to share in your happy ending’s positive vibes by allowing your products or services to be symbols of your company’s triumph.

It’s called storyselling, the combination of wonderful storytelling and sales. When you’ve captured the essence of storyselling, then you become better positioned to boost your sales. Note that storyselling must have the following elements (take note of the last one):

• Showing authenticity
• Being engaging
• Showing value
• Evoking emotion
• Having a great ending

B2B Storytelling Examples – 3 Case Studies

Some of the biggest brands in the world have the best stories. And each story brings to life every element of great B2B brand storytelling.

General Electric

When it comes to storytelling, General Electric has one of the best. It started with the great American inventor Thomas Edison who invented electric lights. One of the problems of the 1800s was lights wouldn’t stay lit for a long time so Edison created the incandescent light bulb to solve the problem.

General Electric was founded in 1892. Some 130 years later, it is still going strong with constant innovation. The multinational company now has stakes in healthcare and aviation.

Microsoft

Childhood friends Bill Gates and Paul G. Allen developed Microsoft, an amalgamation of microcomputer and software, to simplify the function and use of personal computers. The invention of an operating system made Microsoft the largest software company in the world. It enjoys continued success by solving more problems and coming up with products that are exceptionally functional and practical.

Google

Google has become so successful that it has become a verb with people casually saying, “Google this” and “Google that.” A big part of its success is due to the fact that it has made people’s lives better through its services. There is now information on almost everything and it can all be found through Google.

The company didn’t stop at allowing people to search for information. It went as far as ranking results so that the most credible and well-researched sources of information would come out on top. Now, companies have to elevate search visibility for their success which also helps the people who need the information.

Hire a B2B Storytelling Agency To Help Tell Your Story

Why hire a digital marketing agency to tell your story? Sometimes, even if you have the best stories, you need an expert’s help to ensure that it is told in the most compelling way possible.

Hiring a branding agency to help you with storytelling is advantageous in many ways. Check out these benefits:

Expertise

Branding and marketing agencies, especially those with experience and solid reputations, know what they are doing. These companies are also updated with the trends that can make storytelling more viral and impactful.

Professional Perspective

Agencies will look at your business and brand story from the outside. They don’t have a personal attachment to the business and the products or services. As such, a brand agency can provide a more impartial perspective. An agency can help you analyze, identify, and share your story so that you can get the most benefits from your B2B storytelling efforts.

Advice and Support

A branding agency will help you every step of the way. The support and advice an agency provides will help you feel comfortable with your business. If a strategy doesn’t seem to be working, the B2B agency will help you understand where the weakness lies and how to work around it. Plus, many B2B marketers rely on data-driven strategies so you can be sure that your tactics and strategies are based on measurable and actual performance.

Cost Reduction

Hiring a branding agency is cheaper than having your own branding team. You either get billed by the hour or through project-based arrangements. Either way, it’s more cost-effective than putting a whole team on payroll.

Mediaboom – Compelling, Unforgettable, and Impactful Storytelling

Storytelling is powerful. However, when it comes to B2B storytelling, power comes from content, presentation, and how these provide an emotional connection with the target audience. The right branding agency can help you get you there!

For help with B2B storytelling, contact Mediaboom, a full-service agency that provides end-to-end assistance. We cover everything from conception, production, and analysis to branding and identity. With over 20 years of experience, we are veterans when it comes to working with websites, digital marketing, design, and content creation.