Marketing professionals are often known for their creativity and unique perspectives on ordinary situations. They thrive when they have an interesting product or service to sell, taking it to hitherto unexplored frontiers. But what happens when they must market a B2B offering, typically far less out-there than its B2C counterpart?
This is what usually happens with marketing. We offer “innovative solutions that can transform your business.” How many times have you seen this type of copy used in almost every category, from CRM software to painting services, fintech, and manufacturing? Most of the time, only the brand logo and colors change.
The marketing teams’ goal was likely to sound clever and polished, but they end up sounding generic, replaceable, and uninteresting.
Specificity is emerging as a much more powerful approach for building and marketing B2B brands.
Talking to Customers, Not At Them
The biggest problem with “clever” B2B marketing is that it often compromises on speaking to customers. When you are too focused on big-picture, sweeping transformation, it doesn’t sound appealing to talk about the nitty-gritty like airflow, bottlenecks, or state compliance laws.
This builds a one-way channel between the organization and its target customers. The latter can’t see themselves as the subject because the issues that matter to them are ignored in the communication.
Eventually, recipients forget the communication or don’t act because the material/execution wasn’t memorable or meaningful enough. This applies to any material a brand may use, from an email to a billboard or a TVC.
A 2024 Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing study had an interesting take on this. It found that B2B marketing managers tend to base their decisions on achieving congruity between their positioning and regulatory focus.
While alignment is critical, particularly in B2B, impactful communication cannot rely on one broad segmentation, such as demographics. Gauging the audience’s motivational frames and psychological framing is also vital.
Case Study
Consider a B2B business that offers paint booth installation and maintenance services to the automotive and manufacturing sectors. Here are two marketing copies to explore:
Option 1:
Our firm provides high-quality paint booth solutions that will help your business shine.
Option 2:
Partner with us to make your paint booths compliant with state codes and protect your employees from hazardous fumes.
No prizes for guessing which option feels more relatable to a business exploring options in this category. Especially for a business seeking paint booth installation in Florida or other high-humidity regions, avoiding code violations is paramount.
Based on this insight, a firm can continue the conversation. For example, this service also relies heavily on specialized technicians. As GSB Industries puts it, the key requirements are precision, speed, and affordability. These traits can extrapolate to many B2B brands, which is why building a specific connection is crucial.
Testing Specificity
A useful test for checking whether your communication is powerful enough is to remove your branding details and review what you see.
When you take away the brand name and visual recognition components, does the content stand out? Or can a competitor swoop in, take your place, and no one will be the wiser?
If your marketing materials can be replaced and fit into a competitor’s messaging, it is likely not specific enough. It can also signal that your positioning is too broad.
Take, for instance, the electronics manufacturing industry. At the outset, the individual products may not seem differentiated enough. Some B2B marketers may focus on novelty to address this challenge: a standard product making innovative claims. But how effective is this approach?
According to a 2025 study published in Industrial Marketing Management, the relevance of communication matters more than novelty in enhancing customer acquisition in electronics manufacturing. The B2B customers in the study considered perceived risk as a mediating factor, which made relevance important.
This table can help you tackle the key questions for acing the specificity test.
| Test | Ask yourself |
| Audience | Is it obvious who this is for? |
| Problem | Does it name a real problem? |
| Situation | Does it describe when the buyer needs you? |
| Outcome | Can the buyer picture the result? |
| Proof | Is there something concrete to believe? |
| Differentiation | Could a competitor say the very same thing? |
| Recognition | Will the right customer think, “That’s me”? |
| Uncertainty | Does the message answer obvious questions? |
Knowing When to Broaden the Marketing Scope
Another consideration for B2B marketers is understanding when to speak to a larger audience. This will require tailoring the communication accordingly so that:
- It retains specificity but isn’t overly narrow.
- It reaches audiences on platforms they actually spend time on.
The second one can be particularly tricky for B2B marketers who aren’t used to turning to social media channels. For instance, Reddit has emerged as highly relevant and impactful, and it needs more than just the marketing team to make a point here. As a feature on The Drum notes:
“Reddit runs a ruthless authenticity test, and marketing-speak fails it in seconds. In heavily technical categories the uncomfortable conclusion is that the only people who can credibly answer are the engineers who built the thing, not the marketers briefed to defend it.” – Reuben Webb, B2B Editor, The Drum.
Consider corporate advertising films and mailers from the C-suite. These materials usually discuss long-term goals as well as short-term achievements. They illuminate company-wide changes and what makes the firm unique.
Consequently, communication for these materials cannot target only established organizational buyers. B2B brands should also include diverse channels in their marketing strategy, without overlooking ones like Reddit or even TikTok if they don’t want to be left behind.
FAQs
What’s the difference between specificity and precision?
Precision uses exact details or numbers. Specificity makes the message relevant and easy to understand. This means a claim can sound precise without actually being useful.
Is specificity more important than creativity in marketing?
Not necessarily. Creativity can attract attention, but specificity helps transform that attention into understanding and action.
Can being too specific hurt a brand?
Yes. Overly narrow messaging can exclude relevant audiences. The goal is to be specific about the problem and value without unnecessarily limiting the market.
Specific and Clever Aren’t Mutually Exclusive
A B2B marketing and brand-building strategy can benefit from balancing specificity and cleverness. The latter can be anything from novelty to sophistication, contradiction, or showmanship.
For any marketing material you create, ask: Is what I am saying about my brand also what my competitors claim? Can I make my claims more memorable and relatable while remaining credible?
Communication that directly addresses these questions will feel interactive rather than like noise. It is a safer, more considered approach to building a powerful B2B brand.