TL;DR

To build compelling B2B marketing brand stories, always consider:

• Adding a relevant main character
• Making brand audience part of the storyline
• Incorporating key brand elements
• Exploring new content formats
• Incorporating the narrative into the strategic marketing pipeline

Why Emotion-driven Storytelling Matters in B2B Marketing

People are 22 times more likely to remember facts if they are embedded in a story. No matter the product, service, or industry complexity, in B2B, decision-makers, too, are human. They forget pitch decks and value proposition presentations but remember how a message made them feel, especially when it reflects their own goals.

The most effective stories in B2B are not about the brand at all. Showcasing how impressive the brand is and how functional the offering it describes is only part of the story. To build truly strong, long-lasting brand relationships, prospects need to see how their businesses will succeed despite the obstacles. The best role a brand can take is not that of the hero, but of the guide—someone who understands the journey ahead, and knows how to help them win.

The Problem With “We Did This”

It’s tempting to lead with proof: features, figures, portfolio, or a proud case study or two. But in B2B marketing, that’s exactly what everyone else is doing. More often than not, products are complex. Procurement is messy. And most audiences are dealing with an overload of information, not a shortage. In that context, complexity rarely reassures. If anything, it adds to the noise. One study found that nearly two-thirds of managers admit to relying on gut feeling when faced with too much data. It’s not because they don’t care about product or service quality, but because, at a certain point, intuition is faster.

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Seven Emotions in B2B Storytelling

A 2021 literature review by Ribas and De Almeida distilled seven emotions that consistently shape key decisions in B2B: joy, empathy, pride, anger, fear, anxiety, and sadness. Their findings cut against the grain of conventional wisdom, which tends to depict the B2B buying process as something logical and centred on ROI. 

In effect, then, building a strong brand story is an exercise of emotional management. Ignore that, and the brand risks coming across as credible but forgettable. Get it right, and you can build something more durable: a sense of shared achievement, a degree of trust, or just less doubt about what's coming next. Pride and empathy come from clarity and progress. Fear and frustration creep in when things are vague or off-track. The best brand stories reflect the balance between all these. 

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How to Tell a Story Without Overselling

A compelling brand narrative is an interplay between emotion, strategy, and context. The emotional drivers outlined earlier—joy, empathy, pride, anxiety and the rest—do not exist in isolation. They interact with how a story is told, through relevance, consistency, and content diversification. Below are five action points to make that interplay happen:

Create the main character with whom the audience can identify.

Use a character who embodies the shared pain points, aspirations and qualifications of your audience segments. This figure need not be directly mapped onto a buyer persona, but should reflect concerns common across decision-makers. In a workplace safety solution campaign for a large-scale industry client, for example, we depicted a seasoned worker—technically fluent, approachable, and familiar with operational realities—to resonate with the audiences.

Build conflict into the story and make the audience the hero.

A narrative without tension is quickly forgotten. Anchor the story in a real problem the main figure must overcome, and position the brand as the enabler, not the protagonist. Incorporate cultural, industrial and geographic context, so that when the audience encounters similar challenges, they instinctively associate the brand with a path forward. Think of it as building a shorthand that people would recognise and recall even when they are not being sold to.

Connect with the brand.

Creativity is essential, but it must serve a purpose. Each story should trace back to the company’s vision, mission and values without stating them outright. Gamified elements, lightness or humour can support this, but only if they reinforce the brand vision and mission consistently and memorably. A good story should make people talk about the message, not just the flow. We’ve talked about this more at a dedicated webinar on the role of engagement in B2B. 

Engage in new content formats.

The story reach depends on where and how it is shared. Brand narratives should appear not just on the website and value proposition decks, but also across formats built for everyday attention—YouTube Shorts, LinkedIn Reels, TikTok. These spaces allow brands to be present organically and stick with the audiences even outside the working hours. 

Treat the story as a strategic asset, not a one-off campaign tool.

A brand story is not a campaign line. It should guide marketing strategies over time, shaping smaller initiatives. The more often it changes, the less trust it builds. A coherent narrative does not require repetition, but it does demand consistency. Audiences notice when stories shift. They also remember when they stay true.

Moving Forward

A brand story that reflects the audience goals, frustrations and instincts will travel further than any short-term campaign. Prioritising relevance, engagement, and strategic foresight is key to successful storytelling in B2B marketing. If you are looking for a reference point, see how we approached it in our work for VELUX.