B2B marketing teams create messaging for brand and product — often separately — that attempts to articulate differentiated value to buyers, customers, employees, and other stakeholders. What is abundantly clear from our research is that there is a significant challenge to ensure that all this messaging is connected and consistent.

The Messaging Disconnect

In Forrester’s 2023 B2B Brand And Communications Survey, 44% of marketing leaders acknowledged that their messaging fails to address the needs of all audiences, and 37% said different messages from across the organization confuse buyers. A further 40% of survey respondents said they struggle to make brand messages relevant to buyers.

These findings shine a light on why a lot of B2B messaging is disconnected and discordant. For example, buyers might experience multiple, overlapping product-centric messages that fail to connect to overall portfolio messaging or to the brand. Investors may have little or no exposure to messaging that targets buyers and typically only see high-level brand messaging, providing them with an incomplete picture of the company. Employees may lack an understanding of the company vision and values and how that connects to thought leadership messaging as well as buyer and customer messaging — especially for employees outside of sales and marketing roles. The result is that all audiences have only a partial understanding of the value that the business provides and the various messages that the company is putting into market.

Building Coherent Messages

Connected messaging is powerful. Great brands are instantly recognizable because they are coherent and intentionally consistent. They present a comprehensive picture that threads different messaging elements together, building a complete story that is sustained for all stakeholders.

In our upcoming B2B Summit presentation, “The Missing Link: Developing Connected Messaging From Corporate To Buyer,” we explore how to weave together connected messaging by using related ideas, themes, motifs, and language. The process makes message development more powerful, more efficient, and ensures that all your stakeholders get the full story. Register for B2B Summit North America here. We hope to see you there!