How To Build A B2B Brand Awareness Strategy - Step 2

Go to: Step 1, Step 3, Step 4

In my last post, 'How To Build A B2B Brand Awareness Strategy - Step 1', I walked you through getting clear on your 'why'. If you haven't read that post, I recommend back tracking and digesting it first. The 'why' behind building your strategy is extremely important.

In step 2 of building a brand awareness strategy I would like to go a step further and get clarity around who should be more aware of your brand. 

Who Should Be More Aware Of Your B2B Brand?

As a B2B business, being a household name like Coke or Apple is unlikely. Understanding this point is extremely important as you define who you want to be more aware of your brand.

Start By Defining Generic Target Markets

B2B companies often work with a handful of industries. Within each of these industries there is probably an ideal buyer profile that defines things like:

• minimum annual revenue
• geographic location
• number of employees
• minimum years in business.

These are generalized data points that tend to define a target market. Target markets are a decent starting point, but leave a lot to be desired.

By defining the target markets, you have the beginning of the answer to who needs to be more aware of your business.

Next, Get Into the Weeds With Buyer Personas

Buyer personas take target markets and give them human characteristics. You need to get in the weeds with who the different people at companies you want to target are and what makes them tick as people and buyers.

For example, let's say Solar is one of the industries you've defined as a target market. Within that industry your ideal buyer profile is companies with

• $15 million in annual revenues,
• located on the east coast of the US,
• they have 50 or more employees,
• and they have been in business for at least 5 years.

Defining the buyer persona(s) means identifying who at these solar companies should be more aware of your brand. This is a layer deeper than the target market.

While we want to know the common demographics of your buyer persona(s), we need to understand the psychographics as well. What makes them tick? What are their motivations at work and in life? What drivers help them make a buying decision? What role in the buying process do they play? Are they the final decision maker or the influencer to that person?

To Increase Brand Awareness, Define the 'Who'

Understanding and clearly identifying who you want to increase brand awareness with is vital to a successful B2B brand awareness strategy. Without this step, I guarantee you will waste a lot of time and money promoting yourself in the wrong ways.

In the next post of this 4 part series, we're going to dive into how to build awareness with your target market(s) and persona(s). 

STEP 1 →

STEP 3 →

STEP 4 →