3 Keys to Crafting B2B Product Messaging in an AI World

This article was originally published by Dragonfly Editorial.

ARTICLE  |  2-MIN READ

Imagine this: A B2B organization is excited about a new technology product they’ve spent many hours building and tinkering with to prepare for public release. All the technical parts and pieces are running smoothly, legal has signed off, and the sales team is geared up to start pitching the solution to customers.

Okay. So, what’s the pitch?

At a certain point, marketing specialists get pulled in to answer this question. Outside of meetings with the product team, they may need to wade through pages of material:

• Technical specs

• Competitor intel

• Pricing research

• Strategy decks

Essentially, they might gather a whole lot of “what” the product is — and very little of “why” it matters. And then, a messaging strategist is under pressure to expertly mold a dry product strategy into a meaningful story for customers.

For effective product messaging that pays off all the enterprise investment and development time, there are a few guiding principles to keep in mind. Here are three of the big ones.

1. In messaging, product features are important, but they can’t lead the story.

These days, you don’t need to look very far to find a product that is “AI-powered” and wants you to know it. It makes sense: There is virtually no industry right now that can compete without AI, so products across sectors are moving quickly to differentiate through machine learning and generative AI capabilities.

But whether it’s AI or another underlying technology, product features should not be the hero or the headline of any story. The first thing potential customers should see when they encounter product messaging is why they should care and what problem it might help them solve.

To illustrate this idea, let’s say there’s a B2B product that helps companies and HR teams automate payroll. Here’s the difference between messaging that starts with features and messaging that prioritizes customer challenges.

VERSION ONE

“Streamline payroll with AI and process automation.”

VERSION TWO

“Your HR managers were hired to focus on strategy, but instead they’re stuck in a never-ending payroll loop. Let’s change that.”

At first glance, Version 1 above is a mouthful of jargon. But the bigger issue? It’s distracting. A customer who is looking for a payroll solution may get sidetracked by the features and think, “I don’t need AI or automation. That’s not my goal.”

Version 2 positions the product as an accessible solution to a relatable challenge. When marketed to the right audience, the goal is for a prospect to think, “I’ve experienced that. Tell me more.

So, if you’re not leading with product features, when does it make sense to talk about them?

2. Features enter the product story after “why” and “what.”

Often, the first experience prospects have with B2B products is through a sales or overview page on a company website. There are different schools of thought around how to build an effective and high-performing landing page for products, but in many cases, the best practice is to structure the page with the following sections:

• 1. HERO

  Purpose: Make a first impression

• 2. CHALLENGE

  Purpose: Relate to a customer pain point

• 3. PRODUCT INTRO

  Purpose: Connect the pain point to your solution

• 4. HOW IT WORKS

  Purpose: Explain how it could work for the customer

• 5. FEATURES + BENEFITS

  Purpose: Showcase the most important features and why they matter

• 6. DIFFERENTIATORS

  Purpose: Set the product apart with reasons to believe

• 7. CALL TO ACTION

  Purpose: Make it easy and appealing to take the next step

Sure, every product is different, and not all landing pages need to follow this formula. But a landing page can be a helpful example to illustrate where features should ideally sit in the messaging hierarchy: after the first impression, after the pain points, and after explaining what the product is and how it makes life easier for customers.

Ultimately, it’s best to let features shine when prospects are further along in their buying journey. The technical capabilities and components that matter can get meaningful airtime in middle- and bottom-of-funnel content, including pitch decks, sales enablement content, FAQs, and product demos.

3. The best product messaging should show, not just tell.

A strategy to promote B2B products can’t just involve “trust me” messaging, where a company tells the world about its product and expects customers to follow the breadcrumbs.

Especially in the sea of AI products, messaging needs to work hard to demonstrate the power and value of a solution, with data or proof points, and a clear showcase of why the company is skilled at providing that given service.

Here are a few tactics that can be incorporated into a messaging strategy to help show the customer how a B2B product offers value:

• Case studies that illustrate how customers tackled a relatable challenge with the product, and the results of the implementation over a measurable period

• Customer testimonials in the form of quotes or reviews when the product is too new for a meaningful case study

• External recognition such as industry market research and rankings or industry awards

• Product demos that are meant to be engaging through concrete examples and real-world use cases (not just a how-to tour of the various modules, dashboards, and functions)

Your customers have a challenge they need to solve.

To be clear, the way a B2B product is built and powered by technology is important from a messaging standpoint. For example, cutting-edge AI features can make the difference between a product that works just fine with one that is game changing.

But here’s the thing: Product messaging has multiple layers to it, and the key is to integrate the right story at the right point of the conversation. At the very beginning, customers need to clearly see themselves in that story. When an organization skips ahead a few chapters to get into technical specifics before hitting on the business challenge, they risk losing attention too early.

Whether a product is AI-driven or powered by another technology, the purpose of a B2B product is simply to solve a business challenge. And when a team can truly pinpoint that “why” and lead with it, ears will perk up and the right customers will then want to learn more about what the product is (and how it works).

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