8 Branding & Marketing Challenges Facing B2B Companies
There are a number of challenges facing B2B brands in the modern-day business world. From the complex nature of most B2B buying journeys to simply knowing where to invest funds, navigating the ups and downs of the B2B world can definitely be a challenge for any business leader.
In this guide, we’ll look at 8 branding and marketing challenges facing B2B companies in 2024 and beyond, with some actionable insights along the way to help you navigate these challenges in the real world.
8 Branding & Marketing Challenges Facing B2B Companies
1: Developing a clear roadmap
A big challenge for B2B leaders today is gaining, and maintaining, a clear sense of direction. Where are you going, and how do you plan on getting there? These are two of the most important questions you can ask yourself if you want to succeed in the B2B sector.
Creating a detailed overarching brand strategy might seem like a daunting task, especially in a landscape that often features numerous stakeholders with varied levels of control, but it plays a pivotal role in your success as a B2B organisation.
A well-defined brand roadmap not only helps in setting long-term goals but also aids in aligning the efforts and interests of various teams within the organisation, a challenge in itself that we’ll come back to later. The point is that strategic clarity can streamline decision-making processes and ensure that every action taken contributes to the overall vision.
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2: Managing complex buying journeys
If you’re a service-based B2B organisation, managing the buying process can be a major challenge. B2B buying journeys are often complex, and one small hiccup in that journey can be enough to lose valuable potential customers.
With service-based offerings, it’s often not as simple as a basket checkout, which highlights a new challenge of requiring an inquiry from each potential customer. The way in which you go about this can be the difference between a well-oiled sales pipeline—and a growing pool of disgruntled and confused users.
Gartner research outlines how CMOs and CSOs must work together to create low-effort buying experiences that build customer confidence, reflect changing buying preferences and simplify the B2B buying journey.
From first interaction, through to booking your service, users should be able to get a feel for what your brand is really about. Whether it’s your website design, the clarity of your USP, or simple UX errors, the buyer's journey can present a unique challenge for B2B leaders to get right.
3: Understanding buyer psychology
This is essential for success as a modern business. With such a saturated market for everything, understanding how your ideal customers’ minds work is one way to stay ahead of the game. But it’s also a unique challenge for most B2B marketers.
Sales, especially business-to-business sales, are not as simple as ‘You need X. We provide X.’ (Though, that definitely helps!)
B2B buyer psychology runs much deeper than that. Decision-makers don’t choose your brand just because they need something you offer, especially if your service offerings are more costly.
Throughout every interaction, there should be consistent brand storytelling designed for your target audience. You need to create a form of emotional connection with B2B leaders. As we know that they will often be heavily focused on ROI, prioritise evidence that you are the best choice for them specifically.
It can be challenging to communicate this through B2B branding and marketing efforts, but putting yourself in the shoes of your buyer is a great first step—and one that larger corporations sometimes miss.
4: Meeting your buyers’ needs
In the same breath, having a deep understanding of your customers' needs, and actually being able to meet those needs, is also crucial. It’s the bread and butter of your tasty brand sandwich. While the wider psychology of your brand is important, a challenge for some B2B brands can simply be clarity.
Is your brand name clear? Do your brand imagery, website design and marketing materials all represent what you offer clearly? Do they directly highlight how you meet client needs?
The Gartner report we referenced earlier has some more insights for us here, telling us that the most valuable B2B customer interactions often include:
- Copy that is grounded in buyer needs, not product capabilities
- Peer benchmarking and other data that piques buyers’ interest in third-party perspectives
- Opportunities to dig deeper into educational content
- Simple, intuitive digital experiences native to the channel
If your brand is not including these things, and your clarity isn’t great, it may be time to consider a brand refresh.
5: Building authority in your niche
Another challenge for B2B organisations is understanding how to build real authority in your niche. Every business-facing organisation wants to position itself as an industry leader, but achieving this requires a strategic approach.
First, creating and consistently sharing high-quality, informative content that addresses the pain points and interests of your target audience is essential for positioning yourself as a reliable source of information. This can include whitepapers, interviews, case studies, blog posts, and even webinars.
On top of this, leveraging social proof through testimonials, client success stories, and endorsements from industry experts is crucial for enhancing your credibility.
Participating in industry events, speaking engagements, and networking with key influencers can also help elevate your brand's profile.
6: Knowing where to invest funds
Growing demand for new powerful tools and pressure to stay on top of current trends can leave business leaders with a challenging technology overload internally, and confused messaging externally.
We get it, it can be a challenge to know where to invest company funds. But, just like your target market, you have to have an evaluation system. You should consider the ROI of branding and marketing investments and the potential for impact on future conversion rates and sales.
Start with the basics. Ensure your brand is consistently represented across all touchpoints, including your website, social media, and marketing materials. Prioritise investments in branding elements that enhance visibility and credibility, such as professional design and brand identity services.
Without a solid foundation, B2B marketing efforts can be a waste of time—and money. Once the basics are covered, you should focus on marketing channels that directly engage your target audience. LinkedIn for B2B networking, industry-specific forums, and even email campaigns tailored to specific buyer personas can support this.
By aligning additional investments with your brand’s core values and audience preferences, you can better optimise your budget for maximum impact.
7: Brand alignment & consistency across touchpoints
B2B brand consistency is challenging primarily due to the complexity and length of the B2B buying journey, which often involves multiple stakeholders and decision-makers. Each touchpoint, from initial awareness to post-sale support, requires a consistent brand message and experience.
Coordinating this across various teams, platforms, and channels can be daunting, as it necessitates a deep alignment between sales, marketing, and customer service departments.
Maintaining consistency also becomes difficult as businesses scale and expand into new markets, or introduce new products and services. With growth, the risk of message dilution and brand misalignment increases, especially when different teams, regions or product lines start to develop their own localised strategies.
To achieve this, you can start by developing comprehensive brand guidelines that outline your brand’s mission, values, voice, and visual identity. These guidelines should be accessible to everyone in your organisation and used as a reference for all branding efforts and customer interactions.
Next, align your sales and marketing teams to work towards common goals by ensuring regular communication, shared KPIs, and collaborative content creation.
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8: B2B ecommerce challenges
If you’re in the world of B2B eCommerce, you’ll know it can be a challenge, primarily due to the complexity of transactions and overall higher expectations for security and customisation.
Unlike B2C transactions, B2B eCommerce often involves bulk orders, multiple stakeholders, and longer sales cycles, which complicates the payment process. To navigate these challenges, B2B companies should invest in robust ecommerce platforms that offer secure, flexible payment solutions and can handle complex transactions seamlessly.
From a branding perspective, ecommerce gives you a few new channels to play with, but also a few new channels that can fall short of the right branding, such as digital platforms or apps, payment portals and customer service interactions.
Ensuring a seamless, connective and recognisable brand experience from start to finish is the real key here. Remember: it all comes back to the basics.
What Next?
So, we’ve covered 8 of the main branding and marketing challenges facing the B2B industry, with some tips on how to navigate your way through them. But, what next?
If you’re looking to transition from an ambitious business into a leading B2B brand, there are numerous branding services that might aid in your success. At Huddle, we specialise in creating tailored B2B branding strategies and designs that align with your unique business goals.
Our team offers comprehensive services, including brand strategy, brand identity, brand storytelling and more, all designed to elevate your brand’s presence and drive growth.
Partner with us to unlock the true power of your B2B brand. Brief us today.