How to Frame Your B2B Messaging

Frames are an integral part of your B2B messaging. In order to be most effective, you should frame your message to fit within the existing frames of your target audience.

Framing

Humans make sense of the world according to frames. We talk and think in frames, and frames work in relation to each other. A frame is situated within a system of other frames. So if someone brings up an idea or concept to another person, that person may not only utilize the dominant frame but also the other peripheral frames that exist within that frame system.

Frames & Cognitive Processes

Frames are an integral part of how people process information as is emotion, to which frames are often connected. So in order to motivate people to understand something the way you want them to, it must both appeal to their emotion and fit within their existing frames.

Often times people are hesitant to believe the facts if those facts contradict their existing frames. In order to understand something new, a person must have enough of a frame systems present in order to pull from those frames to conceptualize the idea.

Framing in B2B Marketing

So to make this work for you, you have to find out what frames are dominant within your target audience. Not only that, but what are the peripheral frames? How does your product or service fit into those frames?

To find this out, you have to talk to them. I would recommend using sense-making methodology to help ensure your agenda doesn’’t control the research. This is about identifying their frames, not yours.

George Lakoff writes about framing and I would highly recommend his book (and my source for this blog), Don’’t Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate. Though it is politically-orientated, I would argue that his concept of frames transcends left and right