When it comes to B2B marketing, the lights must stay on, and closing deals is key to that. But here’s the catch: You can’t close a deal with someone who doesn’t even know your business exists. That’s why brand awareness is such a critical—but often overlooked—part of the B2B funnel.
According to the 2020 B2B Marketing Research Report by the marketing agency Marketing, “growing and measuring brand awareness and brand health” was the number one challenge that marketers faced. It’s not easy, but it’s very doable with the proper approach.
In fact, we’ve seen it firsthand. One B2B company we worked with increased its social media following by more than 500,000. Another saw website traffic from the top funnel increase by 950% in just a few months. These wins weren’t due to luck—they were due to intentional brand awareness strategies.
In this guide, we’ll break down why brand awareness is essential, the unique challenges B2B marketers face, and three of the most effective channels to build brand awareness: content marketing, social media, and SEO.
Why Brand Awareness Is Important in B2B
The very first thing in any B2B relationship is straightforward—awareness. If a potential buyer is unaware of your company’s existence, you’ll never be on their shortlist—no matter how good your offering is.
Unlike B2C, B2B buying decisions are not usually impulsive. A consumer may wake up and want to purchase an Apple Watch. But no procurement director wakes up and thinks, “Let’s replace our entire ERP system today.”
Instead, the B2B buyer’s journey usually begins with a problem for the business. From there, buyers research solutions, evaluate vendors, and make a decision. The key question marketers need to ask themselves is, how do you ensure your company is part of that research—and hopefully, the final decision?
There are three ways to put yourself in the process:
Be visible during research. When they Google their problem, you should come up with some good answers.
Develop a familiarity before research starts. Recognition breeds trust. If buyers already know your brand, you’re off to a strong start, ahead of the pack.
Create demand by making sure that problems are surfaced. Sometimes buyers don’t even know they have a problem until you point a spotlight on it.
Unique Challenges of Raising Brand Awareness in B2B
While awareness is key, it comes with distinct difficulties in the B2B world:
- Measuring brand perception is tricky.
- Follower counts, website traffic, and email signups provide some information—but they don’t tell you how many of those people fit your buyer personas or whether they like your brand.
- ROI isn’t immediate.
- Executives love ROI, but brand awareness doesn’t usually bring quick wins. It’s a long game. A LinkedIn follower today could be a paying customer years later. That renders direct attribution nearly impossible.
Competing priorities, Channels such as targeted ads, ABM, or email campaigns provide more concrete metrics and feel more “urgent.” But without awareness at the top of the funnel, you’ll struggle to fuel those mid- and bottom-funnel activities.
The 3 Best Channels for B2B Brand Awareness
After years of assisting B2B companies with growth, we’ve witnessed three digital channels consistently yield the best awareness results:
- Content Marketing
- Social Media
- SEO
Let’s look at each in detail.
Build Thought Leadership With Content Marketing
Content marketing isn’t limited to writing blog posts. It’s about developing educational resources that solve problems and demonstrate expertise. This can include:
- Blog articles
- White papers
- Webinars
- Podcasts
- Infographics
- Videos
Why is it effective? Because buyers don’t want ads—they want answers. In fact, 70% of people report that they’d rather learn about a company via an article or blog than they would through a traditional advertisement.
Example: Let’s say your company is experiencing IT inefficiencies. You start searching for solutions and keep returning to the same provider’s blog posts. Over time, the content they publish builds trust. Once the budget is approved, they’re the first vendor you go to.
How to get started:
- Define your buyer personas (roles, pain points, goals).
- Map content to each stage of the buyer’s journey—not just the top of the funnel.
- Create a long-term strategy instead of random blog posts.
- Grow Awareness with Social Media
Social media isn’t only for consumer brands. In fact, 75% of buyers in the B2B industry and 84% of C-suite executives use social media to make purchase decisions.
The challenge? B2B topics often are very niche and less “exciting” than B2C products. But with the right strategy, you can be out of the pack.
Key tactics:
- Introduce yourself clearly. Make sure people know what you do, who you serve, and what about you is different.
- Educate your audience. Share insights, not fluff. Add value with original, timely, and business-aligned content.
- Make use of visuals and storytelling. Even technical industries can simplify complex ideas with infographics, videos, or case studies.
Example: SUSE Asia has short and well-designed explainer videos to break down enterprise software concepts. It’s not flashy, but it’s memorable and effective.
Get Top-of-Funnel Traffic with SEO
Since 71% of B2B researchers begin their search with Google, SEO is your ticket to being discovered. It’s the ideal way to introduce your content to buyers right from the outset of their research.
Awareness of SEO best practices:
- Write for people and then write for search engines.
- Follow on-page SEO basics (titles, headers, meta descriptions).
- In-depth coverage of related topics to fully meet search intent.
- Don’t overlook low-volume keywords. In niche industries, these buyers are highly qualified.
Example: Gong.io gets almost 20,000 visitors a month with well-optimized and captivating content. They don’t stuff keywords—they write good, helpful articles that rank on their own.
Putting It All Together
At the end of the day, closing deals is what generates revenue. But without consistent brand awareness campaigns, you’ll never have an ample number of qualified leads to nurture and convert.
Here’s what to focus on:
- Valuable content, targeted to your buyer personas.
- A social media strategy that informs and builds trust.
- An SEO foundation that guarantees your expertise is discovered.
B2B brand awareness is not about some flashy campaigns or instant viral moments. It’s about establishing long-term visibility, credibility, and trust with the right people. Do this well, and when buyers are ready to make a decision, your brand will be top of mind.
