Why is a having a strong business brand important?
It represents who you are, it’s your shop window. It’s what people see as a first impression if they haven’t come across you before. Your icon, colours, fonts, name, strapline- all elude to if your businesses are likeminded and trusted to fulfil their needs. And your brand ‘tone of voice’ represents your brand personality and values. Financially speaking, your brand is how your business will be valued, separately of your client billing so the importance of getting it right, has never been more important.
I wonder if even all business leaders see themselves as needing to do B2B marketing? The fact is, we all need to, we all need to speak to other businesses on some level.
We are producing brand audits, refreshed branding and producing brand guidelines for our B2B clients to steer them right in this new age of B2B marketing. Businesses know they are being judged on their websites- that’s been happening for decades- but also everything else such as google business pages, reviews, LinkedIn Company page information and activity, sustainability policies, hiring policies, directory listings, referral traffic sites, etc – the whole picture of your business is there for everyone to see – have you double-checked yours?
Salesforce, a pioneer in B2B marketing, is now using emotional selling – their Trailblazer videos – to get your ‘buy in’ to use their software, to improve your life. The first video indicates that using their CRM system means you’ll be able to spend more time with your children. They are also using a character – Einstein – too. A classic B2C approach in the B2B world and one tactic for sure, not necessarily right for everyone! (this is leading my thinking into the tangent of ‘Isn’t everyone really doing B2B marketing, wouldn’t all businesses rather win clients on a large scale via a business than on a one-to-one basis but let’s save that thought for my next blog article).
And… back on the topic of BRANDING for your business…
Have you thought about all the touch-points your customers and contacts have with your brand? How do potential clients sign up to news? What’s on your news page, has it been updated in the past year? When did you last tweet? Do you need twitter?
Ever asked your family and friends and employees what they think of your external marketing? Their experience with your company’s brand forms part of your influencer marketing plan. This plan, hopefully part of your 2021 Marketing Strategy, is specifically about your business and the key messages you want to say about your business to key people, aka influencers. And as I wrote in a previous article, your influencers are clients, customers and employees.
So have a think about this. Think about what your brand is saying about your business and what are the touch-points delivering in terms of messaging.
If you think you need some help thinking this though or planning what to do next, we’re well versed in discussing ‘pain points’ and making things better.
Zara // External Marketing Agency // Founder & Director