B2B brand strategy: why it needs to be taken more seriously

B2B brand strategy: why it needs to be taken more seriously

Let’s be honest, when I say ‘brand’ what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Logo, colour palette, brand guidelines? And what’s the first area of a marketing budget to be cut? Historically, brand and comms. But if we think of brand more strategically, as the written brand, your unique voice in the market and competitive edge, we instantly think a little differently about ‘brand marketing’.

“Strong brands influence what companies we buy from, partner with, invest in or decide to work for.”

(Source: The B2B Institute)

That’s exactly why businesses need to take brand marketing more seriously.

What do we mean by brand in B2B marketing?

Before we get into this too much, I wanted to clarify what I mean by brand in the context of B2B marketing.

For me branding is your core value proposition, your personality and company values, how we then go about raising awareness of that brand, and how we ensure consistency in how you present that brand to the outside world (and yes, part of this is about the logo, colours and fonts).

Where should you start in building a strong brand?

Start by making sure you have a clear brand proposition, clear company values and personality. What’s your reason for being? What sets you apart? How do you work with employees, partners and clients? What do they think about you? Does it match what you think they think?

A clear brand proposition is the number one differentiator amongst top brand marketers, according to The Boston Consulting Group.

This should all come together into a solid brand proposition framework, which you can then use to assess if your visual identity stacks up – if it doesn’t, now’s a good time to revamp.

Once you have this in place, now is the time to make sure your message is consistent – use your elevator pitch consistently, use it across channels, and make sure your tone of voice is aligned.

Understand your personas and make sure your message aligns and resonates with each – this is where content marketing really builds on, and supports, your brand message and reason for being.

You should now be in a pretty good place to amplify your brand across marketing – combining owned social with paid social, inbound with outbound – sales and your employees.

Why invest in brand as part of your marketing strategy?

It should now be much clearer why more and more businesses are investing in brand as part of their marketing strategy and allocation of budget. In fact, according to some research recently shared by Inbox Insights, 57% of B2B marketers are allocating more than 50% of their budget to brand awareness. Why might that be?

# 1 – It builds credibility, trust and sets you apart from the competition

Visibility creates familiarity, familiarity builds trust, and trust builds credibility and influences that all important purchasing decision.

According to the Boston Consulting Group,

“97% say that brand marketing plays an important role in creating awareness and consideration, and 95% say that brand marketing can help a company differentiate itself from competitors.”

Remember that not everyone is ready to buy now, so you need to stay front of mind and memorable for when they’re in-market and ready to buy. It’s right to point out here that trust also comes from the people who make up your brand – your leaders and your employees – people trust people, and people are your brand as much as any corporate message or visual identity.

# 2 – It creates an emotional connection between you and your audience

A great brand (and remember we’re talking of the written brand, as well as the visual brand) should help you to present your people and your business as more accessible, human and helpful.

“Mission-centric brands allow enterprises to create human connections with employees, customers, and the community, while simultaneously guiding the, sometimes, dramatic changes necessary for growth in today’s fast-paced, highly saturated markets.” (Source: Marketing Profs)

# 3 – It helps you win new clients when they’re ready to buy, and helps you keep existing ones

In B2B, most customers are out of market most of the time Vs in-market – that means only a minority are actively seeking your product or service. You therefore need to be memorable so that when the out of market majority are ready to buy, they seek you out.

“Most aren’t actively shopping: the goal with this out-of-market majority is to be memorable enough that when these buyers have a need, they seek out your brand. Emotional messages are more likely to create these memorable bonds.” (Source: Marketing Profs)

The trust and credibility we talked of above also creates more loyal and supportive customers, and that’s only ever a positive for profitability, long-term relationship building and business growth.

# 4 – It improves the return on your marketing investment

According to the Boston Consulting Group, “Companies that are more mature in terms of brand marketing capabilities see a corresponding improvement in such KPIs as brand awareness, brand perception, brand engagement, customer advocacy, and employee satisfaction—all of which translate to increased sales.”

This is backed up in research conducted by The B2B Institute which found that,

“brand building is the main driver of long-term growth and profit and to achieve this, must work hand in hand with sales activation and demand gen marketing.”

Final Thoughts

In a nutshell, a strong and authentic brand in B2B marketing helps you find, win and keep more customers and is why so many businesses now are starting to put almost as much budget towards brand as they are to marketing and sales activation.

It’s fair to say, this is also a massive topic, with so many strands to the conversation – around employee branding and advocacy, storytelling and emotion, and much more – so this is just the tip of the iceberg, and one which I hope provides a small insight into a big topic so you can start building the foundations and securing (or protecting) your brand budget.

A final quote to end with from Boston Consulting Group:

“Companies that are more mature in terms of brand marketing capabilities see a corresponding improvement in such KPIs as brand awareness, brand perception, brand engagement, customer advocacy, and employee satisfaction – all of which translate to increased sales.”

If you’d like any help reviewing an existing, or creating a new, brand proposition, or auditing your entire marketing environment, get in touch.