Positioning, Messaging, and Branding for B2B tech companies. Keep it simple. Keep it real.
Startups don’t have a problem starting. They hit a plateau when they try to scale. Typically that’s when spray-and-pray tactics occur. But before diving into random acts of marketing, let’s take a step back and evaluate who our solution is for and why anyone should care.
I often get asked by founders of tech startups how to take their company to the next level once they have built their solution and created their website.
Typically these companies know more about the stuff they make than who it’s for.
It usually goes something like this:
There are too many amazing products and services with little to no marketing muscle backing them up.
When we’re getting going, it’s very common to get caught up in our tech and leave marketing to the 11th hour. It usually ends up being very tactical—lots of pretty pictures but zero substance.
Before you jump on the tactics bandwagon like everyone else, take a breath and walk through this preliminary discovery checklist. It will help you figure out if your solution actually solves a problem, if there’s a viable market niche, and whether customers will pay for it.
At the end, I’ll throw in a few quick wins to improve your website experience while you’re at it.
Yup, I’m beating this drum again.
The first thing to remember is that marketing is all about people. Living, breathing human beings buy our stuff, not machines.
If you have amazing tech that people should know about, you need to be able to tell them you have it… in their language… from their perspective. Yeah, it’s harder than it sounds.
NOTE: If you don’t have any customers yet, don’t panic. Make a list of the characteristics that would make up your ideal customer. Then reach out to anyone in your network who fits the bill. Then do the work mentioned above.
As you work through your validation homework, you will unearth insights that can potentially clarify your positioning and messaging. Keep things loose in the early going. When you have clarity, you can make adjustments to your website and get feedback relatively fast.
Here are some things to evaluate:
Before you burn through your marketing budget, make sure you have something people need.
Use this checklist to help you validate your solution, sharpen your positioning, and avoid costly mistakes.
And while you’re working through the process, don’t forget to keep things loose, making adjustments to your website content along the way. Don’t worry about the design at this stage, focus on the messaging.
After you have completed the checklist, dive deeper into these topics:
Need help with your validation process? Let’s talk!
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Many B2B tech startups and scaleups get caught chasing leads and peddling products to anyone who will listen.
It’s natural. But it’s also a means to an end—including burnout.
Chasing leads might provide a quick hit, but it doesn’t build brand reputation and it doesn’t scale.
Here’s how to escape the Lead-Gen hamster wheel and build something that lasts.
Lead Generation and Demand Generation? They’re the same thing. Sorry (yep, I’m Canadian).
Here’s why:
“Demand-Gen and Lead-Gen are the same… even if Demand-Gen marketers want to pretend otherwise. How are they both actually measured? MQLs and Pipeline!”
Dale W. Harrison
Demand-Gen used to mean creating demand for our products and services; now it means generating leads, which Lead-Gen already does. However, the demand we think we are generating for leads rarely equates to buyers who buy our stuff in the timeframe we expect.
When they do eventually buy (usually not our stuff), it’s because they already have 2-3 credible and trusted solutions on their list on Day 1. They’re not interested in our stuff no matter how many unsolicited emails we send or Google Ads we buy.
The 2024 B2B Buying Disconnect Report from TrustPilot and Pavillion is a good wakeup call:
Here’s the brutal truth: Lead-Gen doesn’t create demand. It captures what’s already out there. So when the demand isn’t there (hello, slow quarter), we double down on more aggressive—and let’s be honest—desperate “stalker” tactics.
“The reality is that Demand-Gen motions NEED to be supported by an intentional brand effort to be in the consideration set.”
Liam Moroney
In their seminal report, The Long and the Short of It, Les Binet and Peter Field identify two types of marketing:
Sales Activation is a sugar rush.
It’s short-term and difficult to maintain and scale.
Just add water. In our case, water is Brand Building. Water is life.
And just like how water grows a seed into a forest, brand building kind of works the same way.
Think of any brand you’re loyal to. They aren’t big because they “got lucky” and it certainly didn’t happen for them overnight. And I bet you didn’t love them the day they were born.
Of course, short-term activation is necessary, especially for startups. But if that’s all we do, we’re going to keep coming off that sugar high and crashing.
Why? Because unlike sales, marketing is a non-linear multiplier of business performance.
And non-linear multipliers are not ROI-friendly.
“The marketing budgets you’re about to spend in Q4 will not have any measurable impact on Sales for at least two quarters. That gap is both innate to how the function works and is significantly influenced by external marketplace forces, i.e. headwinds and tailwinds.”
Mark Stouse
So no, don’t stop generating demand and leads. But augment that effort by investing in your brand reputation at the same time.
Brand Building is long-term growth. It doesn’t decay over time like Sales Activation does.
It’s a steady, reliable increase in awareness, confidence, and trust in the stuff we make.
It will also give the sales team the aircover they need when future buyers start knocking on our door.
In 2017, Drift removed all content gates from their site—a bold step in B2B marketing at the time. It was a significant pivot away from traditional lead generation tactics to a focus on brand building and conversational marketing.
The changes paid off as Drift became widely recognized for pioneering a new approach to customer engagement. By 2023 they were valued at $1B, and by February 2024, they were acquired by Salesloft.
No, Brand is not that symbol burnt into the side of a cow (that’s different—although it does have its roots there).
Warren Buffet sums it up perfectly:
Think about that for a second.
Your brand is your economic moat.
When you are consistent, authentic, and honest, you build awareness, confidence, and trust in everything you do.
That applies to your employees as much as it does to your customers.
When you consistently show up, people notice and remember you when the time comes to upgrade, renew, or switch.
And unlike Sales Activation, Brand Building gives your business the best shot regardless of the mood of the market. It sticks.
Even better, reputable brands reduce price sensitivity. When people know and trust your brand, they’ll pay more for your stuff.
You think Apple competes on price? Hell no.
People pay more because they trust the brand (amazing considering Apple was near bankruptcy 25 years ago).
Trust isn’t built by spamming people with Lead Gen campaigns; it’s built by investing in a brand that stands for something.
Tech companies have a ton of advantages. You’re innovators. You create products that solve real problems, and you move industries forward.
But—and this is a big but (no pun intended)—too many tech firms are obsessed with product-led and sales-led tactics.
Too many treat marketing like an afterthought or an arts and crafts shop. Most don’t have a marketing leader on their exec team.
That’s where they screw up.
Products aren’t the problem. It’s the mindset.
And those who continue down this path are doomed to be stuck on the innovation hamster wheel.
The ones who make marketing a real business function and become customer-obsessed will win every time.
They build trust and relevance. And most importantly, they build a brand that makes customers think of them first when they’re ready to buy.
For startups and scaleups, it’s even more important.
You might think you need to hit a certain revenue milestone before investing in brand building, but that’s BS. Start now. The sooner you start investing in your brand, the faster you’ll stand out from your competition—remember most are stuck on their hamster wheel.
Watch the masses and do the opposite.
Notion launched in 2016 when Evernote, Google Docs, and Microsoft OneNote dominated the productivity and collaboration space. Instead of competing purely on product features, Notion focused on brand storytelling and building a loyal community from day one.
By 2020, Notion was values at $2B and became a favorite among startups, designers, and creatives. Its brand identity attracted a loyal user base that continued to grow through word of mouth and community advocacy. By the time they started scaling up, they had already built a solid reputation that differentiated them from competitors.
Yes, you still need leads. No one’s saying you should ditch sales activation and just meditate on branding. This isn’t all-or-nothing.
You want to do very well in the short-term AND the long-term.
Keep generating leads and demand while building a brand that lasts:
So, what’s stopping you?
You don’t need a massive budget to start. Start small, be consistent, and focus on building relationships.
Folks, the product-led growth trap is just a paper wall. You can jump off the hamster wheel anytime.
Sales activation is like junk food—it fills you up fast, but it won’t keep you going. And it’s not healthy (pun intended).
Brand building, on the other hand, gives you sustainable growth, demand that sticks, and customers who come back.
Don’t be that company that’s left scratching its head because they only invest in innovation and sales activation.
Invest in your brand too.
Ready to make the shift? Reallocate your marketing budget and start building a brand that lasts. Your future self will thank you.
If you like this content, here are some more ways I can help:
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This article is AC-A and also published and discussed on LinkedIn. Join the conversation!
Hero image source: Amonrat Rungreangfangsai
A brand playbook is a must-have for B2B tech companies. It documents your positioning, messaging, and identity, getting everyone on the same page. And when you clearly and consistently align the stuff you make with the people you make it for, you generate awareness, confidence, and trust all around.
A B2B brand playbook is your company’s DNA on paper. For B2B tech firms, nailing your mission, positioning, messaging, and identity is what separates you from the masses. This guide walks you through the 5 steps to build a brand playbook that will set your organization up for success.
Each year, thousands of B2B tech companies struggle to stand out and get noticed. It’s not their tech that sucks, it’s their brand. Too often it’s an afterthought (or in some cases a no-thought), all over the place—messy, inconsistent, and missing out on creating awareness, confidence, and trust.
A brand playbook tells everyone why we exist—employees, customers, partners, and investors. It helps us document how to position, message, and visually communicate why our company and solutions are the right fit. It also helps us maintain our brand reputation as we grow the business.
TIP: Brand and culture are tied at the hip. Make your brand playbook part of your HR onboarding process, and start your company all-hands or town halls with a brand recap. It gets new employees off on the right foot and keeps your brand top of mind.
In this step-by-step guide to a B2B tech brand playbook, I’ll show you how to keep everyone on the same page and speaking the same language. We’ll follow a process inspired by years of helping tech firms get their brand together, plus lean on April Dunford’s excellent book, Obviously Awesome.
Ready? Let’s go.
Before we start talking, we need to know who we are, what we’re in, and why we exist.
Get these right, and you’ll have a solid foundation to build your brand playbook. Skip them, and you’re building a house of cards.
Need help nailing down your mission, vision, and values? Let’s talk!
By now, you should have completed a positioning exercise with your key stakeholders. If not, stop right here and head over to this guide before moving forward: How to Position B2B Tech Solutions: A Step-by-Step Guide.
Once you’ve nailed down your positioning, you’ll have everything you need to define how your solution fits in the market. A Positioning Canvas helps you map out your competitive landscape, unique strengths, and how you differentiate.
Now that your positioning is locked down, it’s time to put it into words that your audience will notice. Your messaging should translate your positioning into something meaningful for them and back up your sales and marketing.
Boilerplates:
Brand Pyramid:
This is where you show why your solution actually matters. The themes, capabilities, and benefits from your positioning exercise will feed into a Value Point Table. This will help you break down the value you deliver.
This is where the visual and physical representation of your brand comes into play.
Almost every tech solution starts here—at Step 5—instead of Step 1. That’s OK when you’re getting going, but if left unchecked it will bite you in the ass. Trust me. Do the work in the first four steps. Your future self will be grateful.
To make it easy for you to put all of this into action, I’ve created a free, customizable Brand Playbook Template based on the exact process we’ve just covered. It’s in Google Docs but easily downloadable as Word, PDF, RTF, or other formats.
Whether you’re just starting to build your brand or refining an existing one, this brand playbook template for tech startups gives you everything you need to ensure everyone is on the same page, speaking the same language, and pulling in the same direction.
However, if this feels too daunting, I’m happy to help. Reach out anytime.
Brand playbooks document how our organization and our solutions are perceived in the minds of the people we’re trying to help. Without it, we’re flying blind, hoping our solutions will be enough (spoiler: they aren’t).
A clearly defined and communicated brand makes everything easier. Our entire team knows the story we’re telling, our customers know why they should care, and the stuff we make becomes more than just another tech solution taking up space.
Start building your brand playbook today, and create a brand that sticks with people long after the first touchpoint.
Need help with your Brand Playbook?
Let’s chat—because you’ve got better things to do than fly blind.
If you like this content, here are some more ways I can help:
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This article is AC-A and also published and discussed on LinkedIn. Join the conversation!
Trying to be everything to everyone in B2B tech means we’re already losing. Positioning is the critical first step—it’s our survival tactic in a market flooded with noise. With Martech growing at 28% YOY, standing out isn’t just hard; it’s friggin’ brutal. Focusing on customers and clearly differentiating our unique value is how we shift from being just another widget to being a solution that’s hard to ignore.
Getting on the buyer’s shortlist in B2B tech is very difficult when no one knows who we are, what we do, or what we stand for. With over 100,000 tech solutions out there, it’s easy to become just another face in the crowd. Many companies—especially startups—struggle to stand out. Without unique positioning, they risk blending in, forgotten and ignored.
And when 80%–90% of buyers already have a set of vendors in mind before they do a stitch of research, and 90% of them choose a vendor on day one, the chances of getting their attention is like winning the lottery.
As a founder or leader of a B2B tech firm, no doubt you’ve felt the heat. Launching a product in a saturated market feels like pushing a boulder up a mountain. The pressure to get noticed, attract leads, and generate sales is overwhelming. But here’s the thing: positioning is your lever. It’s how you turn the impossible into the inevitable. This is how B2B tech solutions like Monday.com was able to chip away at industry giants like Asana over 6 years. That’s 6 YEARS, by the way, not 6 months.
In this article, I’m going to show you how to shift from being solely product- or sales-led to becoming customer-focused and business-led. I’ll walk you through a step-by-step process, drawing on inspiration from April Dunford’s book, Obviously Awesome, to help you position your B2B tech solution for your best-fit customers.
NOTE: If you’re ready to do positioning on your own, go grab April’s book, and dive in. But if you’re looking for a little guidance, stick around and read on.
We’ve all been there—trapped in a product-focused mindset, cranking out salsey marketing because we’re excited about what we’ve built. The problem? Everyone else is doing the same thing. According to Clay Ostrom at Map&Fire, only 33% of B2B solutions have strong differentiation. That’s not just a stat; that’s a red flag.
Understanding our customers—their pains, needs, and motivations—is our best shot at positioning our solution as the perfect answer to their problems.
“A good doctor treats the patient, not the illness.”
Reiko Scott, FANOCRACY
Forget flashy marketing. It’s like a shiny new fishing lure that only gets nibbles. When buyers know exactly why they should care about our B2B tech solution, they don’t just nibble—they bite. And they keep biting. Just ask Monday.com or Slack or Canva.
Clarity comes from deep customer and market insight, not from guessing or copying trends. Our job isn’t to invent a message out of thin air—it’s to discover what our customers already value most about our product and make it impossible to ignore.
Just starting out? You’re probably tempted to dive straight into sales tactics. Be careful. Do you want to build a house on stilts or a house on solid footing? Get this right early, and everything—your messaging, marketing, sales, brand reputation, internal culture—will fall into place more naturally as you scale.
Effective B2B tech positioning is an outcome of digging deep into understanding who our solution is for, what it’s for, and why buyers should give a damn. It has nothing to do with these things:
What Happens After Positioning:
What does NOT Happen After Positioning:
Clear positioning strips away the crap and gets down to what truly matters to the people we’re trying to help. Anyone can cast a shiny new lure into a pond. It’s much harder to get the fish to bite. The right positioning is like the right bait—if it’s tasty, the fish will bite.
Step 1: Who Is It For?
FYI Startups: No customers yet? No problem. Interview potential candidates or colleagues who fit your target profile. You’ll learn more than you think.
Step 2: What Are You Up Against?
Step 3: What Makes You Unique?
“Be distinct or be extinct.”
Tom Peters
Step 4: What Value Do You Deliver?
Step 5: Who Cares a Lot About Your Value?
Step 6: Pick the Market That Will Give You the Best Chance at Success TODAY
Refer to April’s Positioning Styles to weigh your options:
Once you have completed these steps, you can create a positioning and messaging playbook. That document is super helpful and can serve as the opening for your brand guidelines. I’ve created these documents for a few clients and they literally become the “bible” for the sales, marketing, product and CX teams.
If you want to see this method in action, here are two stories worth checking out:
B2B tech positioning isn’t a checkbox on our to-do list—it’s the foundation of everything we do in marketing and sales. It needs regular review and validation, especially when you’re starting out and when markets shift. Get it right, and our product doesn’t just survive—it thrives. Fail at it, and we’re just another thing taking up space.
Effective positioning is a process of discovery, not invention, uncovering the value that already exists in our solution and making it crystal clear to the people who need it most. When we succeed at positioning, we can move from being just another look-alike to being the obvious choice.
So, are you ready to get it right? Book a 1-Day Positioning Workshop with me.
Need specific advice for your B2B tech firm? Reach out. I’m always happy to chat.
If you like this content, here are some more ways I can help:
Cheers!
PS: This article is also published and discussed on LinkedIn. Join the conversation!
In B2B tech marketing, lack of customer insights creates a product-focused vacuum that leads to ineffective tactics, wasted resources, and missed opportunities. Avoid this by making research the priority, revisiting insights, and ensuring marketing strategies are customer-driven and aligned with long-term growth. When insight stays rooted to the core of our marketing, we give our solutions the best chance to succeed.
In nature, vacuums are rare. Wherever a gap exists, something rushes in to fill it. The vacuum we’re dealing with in B2B tech marketing is a lack of insight.
When marketing operates without insight, it creates a void that gets filled with guesswork, mixed messages, and ineffective approaches. This vacuum doesn’t just cause small hiccups; it creates a chain reaction of issues that continuously waste time, money, and opportunities. Teams get caught in a spin cycle of short-term tactics that look good on the surface but fail to deliver real results.
Many tech firms don’t realize they’re creating this vacuum because during startup phase, it’s very common to be heads-down in tactics. With constant pressure to generate leads and keep up with the competition, it’s easier to stay in “Tactics Land” than come up for air and do the necessary research to scale the business. You don’t know what you don’t know.
In this article, I’ll show you how this vacuum forms, the problems it creates, and how to fill it with the insights needed to produce effective marketing.
Lack of insight stems from a failure to do our research and due diligence. Skipping this important first step means we do not have the context we need to make informed decisions. To compensate, we end up going to market blindfolded and guessing what to do and who to do it for.
When we don’t invest in understanding our best-fit customers, the specific market niche we serve, or the competitive alternatives we’re up against, we create fragmented views of the market. This leaves us guessing about who we’re speaking to, what they care about, and how our solution fits into their world.
Without this context, marketing becomes a game of darts played in the dark. We might hit the target occasionally, but more often than not, we miss it entirely. Worse, we don’t even know how far off we are because we lack the data and metrics to measure accurately.
This vacuum of context doesn’t just make marketing less effective; it makes it almost impossible to plan strategically. And when we don’t understand our audience, we fall into the trap of talking to ourselves, focusing on what we think is important rather than what our customers actually care about.
The first step in filling this vacuum is to commit to doing the hard work of research. And because it is hard, it is avoided. But understanding our best-fit customers, their needs, and our competitive alternatives gives us the best chance to confidently build a solid foundation to go to market. When we take the blinders off, we create positioning and messaging that hits the target every time.
Before we can think about scaling, we need to understand the playing field we compete in. Don’t skip the foundational research. The longer we put it off the longer it takes to scale.
It’s easy to get lost in the day-to-day grind while we’re in growth mode. Make it a habit to step back and reassess periodically. Annually is the minimum, quarterly is ideal.
Every marketing decision, from messaging to channel selection, should be rooted in Insight. It impacts the effectiveness of our GTM strategy (Go-To-Market) and our creative execution. Skipping this step is almost always the root cause of failed marketing campaigns.
Marketing is rife with creative wannabes and experts. Without insight, it’s tempting to jump straight into creative design, invent a strategy based on what “we like,” and make up a bunch of nonsense to justify it. It’s why so much “good-looking marketing” fails to deliver.
Marketing is one of only two business functions that produce results. The other is innovation. B2B tech rarely invests in marketing as it does innovation. If you’re running a tech firm with stable marketing leadership at the table, you’re light years ahead of any competitor who is simply “product-led.”
Lack of insight creates a vacuum that wastes time, money, and effort. It’s avoidable if we prioritize research. Clarity is essential for any business. It drives better results, both in the short-term and the long-term.
As the famous Dilbert comic strip illustrates, marketing without insight is just liquor and guessing. But with the right data, we can steer the business in the right direction. Marketing becomes more effective because it’s not just eye candy. Everyone, especially Sales, become increasingly confident because everything works in unison.
Invest in research, build strategies rooted in insight, and avoid the costly mistakes that come from operating in a vacuum. Your future self—and your bottom line—will thank you for it.
If you need specific advice for your B2B tech firm, reach out. I’m always happy to chat.
If you like this content, here are some more ways I can help:
Cheers!
PS: This article is also published and discussed on LinkedIn. Join the conversation!
Building a reputable B2B tech brand is essential for creating the awareness, confidence, and trust that generates quality leads. Deep customer insights produce well-executed strategies that set the tone for communicating our unique value. And by showcasing our success with real-world customer stories, we gain the credibility we need to grow our brand reputation and win future business.
A reputable brand reputation is the key to generating quality leads. It give sales, marketing, customer service, and product teams the “air cover” they need to succeed today and tomorrow.
Brand reputation is earned, not bought. It can take 3-5 years to build it up, but too often, impatience kills momentum before it has a chance to stick.
Building a trusted reputation requires a commitment to the customer experience. Proof points—case studies, client testimonials, online reviews, and peer recommendations—establish credibility. For start-ups, it’s best to keep things loose and rely on existing relationships to generate early wins that can start building these proof points.
Start-ups also face the immediate challenge of needing leads ASAP. This creates a “chicken and egg” dilemma where brand reputation takes a back seat to quick wins. The problem with this approach is that we forget about brand and rarely fix it (out of sight, out of mind). It’s best to drive awareness through word-of-mouth early on while staying focused on building brand reputation.
In this article, I’ll break down how to create a “lead machine” by focusing on four key areas: Insight, Strategy, Creative, and Metrics. I wrote about these pillars in 2010 and they still form the foundation of a successful B2B marketing campaign. Get them right, and you’ll drive more leads—today and in the future.
Everything starts with insight. Better insight always produces better outcomes. And if you’re a subscriber, you’ve already heard me “beat the drum” about customer research. What customers think and see drives the positioning and messaging that resonates with them. Without insight, we’re just guessing (cue the Dilbert cartoons).
NOTE: You can also use surveys and focus groups but don’t go overboard or think they are good enough. Direct conversations are always better.
A Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy that’s rooted in solid customer insight is essential for generating quality leads. It ensures our brand message is consistent, clear, and relevant across all channels, making it more likely to attract and convert high-quality leads. Remember, brand reputation builds over time through a sequence of Awareness > Confidence > Trust and can take 3-5 years. Without insight, the business continues to struggle with each year feeling like Groundhog Day.
Creativity in B2B isn’t about flashy designs—it’s about delivering value. Content should differentiate our brand by addressing our audience's needs, not by how it looks. Yes, it should be well-designed and “on brand,” but that doesn’t mean going overboard with “artsy decoration.” Good design communicates. Bad design decorates. Too often, marketing creative becomes a committee project that ends in silly taste debates. Focus on showcasing value and credibility via proof points like case studies, client testimonials, testimonial videos, social proof, and online reviews. Leave the art to the galleries.
“If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.”
David Ogilvy
We can’t build and maintain brand equity without knowing what’s working. Tracking our marketing performance helps us refine our strategy and ensure our brand continues to grow. Causal analysis plays an important role by helping us measure and forecast brand reputation and understand marketing time lag, which directly impacts lead quality.
“What you see determines what you understand, and that, in turn, drives your decisions.”
Mark Stouse, CEO, Proof Analytics
Trusted brands get put on the shortlist. We don’t buy reputation, we earn it. The process of triggering awareness, confidence, and trust in our brand can take years, but it’s the foundation for winning new business now and in the future.
Remember: No one ever got fired for buying IBM for a reason.
To emulate IBM’s legacy, always put the customer first, deliver value, and build up case studies, testimonials, and online reviews. Update or replace success stories as you continue to build up your reputation.
Whatever you do, don’t wait or set your brand reputation aside. Every moment your brand lies dormant is like taking years off the life of your business. Start taking these steps now to build a brand reputation that will drive your company’s success today and tomorrow. Invest in brand equity as you would financial equity.
If you need specific advice for your B2B tech firm, reach out. I’m always happy to chat.
If you like this content, here are some more ways I can help:
Cheers!
PS: This article is also published and discussed on LinkedIn. Join the conversation!
