As a specialist B2B marketing agency, we're on a mission to make sure that brand propositions and messaging resonate with audiences. The world is changing at an alarming rate. Over the last five years ago B2B buyers have become more judgmental than ever about the products and services they’re sourcing. It's because of this, we’re keen to share our thoughts on how to check if your brand needs a refresh, how to carry one out successfully, and why it’s so important to invest in your brand for long term gain.
The reality of repositioning
We often talk about B2B brands needing to focus less on the ‘what’ and more on the ‘why’, but ‘who’ you are has never been more important. The world of business has changed over the last few years. Industries have changed, companies have changed and people have changed, so it’s completely understandable that brands feel the need to change too. To B2B marketing agencies like us, this is nothing new.Industries, people and businesses change all the time. This is exactly why we advise our clients to check how their message is connecting with customers on a regular basis. It’s simply not enough to change it up every four years with a new website or a new visual identity — really successful businesses constantly review their position in the market to ensure they’re always balancing what they want to say with what the audience wants to hear. But how do you find out what your audience wants from your brand?
Stop assuming, start asking
A lot of organisations are guilty of looking at brand work as some sort of theoretical exercise. But this simply isn’t the case, it’s a very practical process with very tangible results. It might seem simplistic, but the best way to truly understand your customers is to speak to them. Engaging a B2B marketing agency, like ourselves, to speak to customers in confidence can provide a richness of insight that you just can’t get any other way. Time and time again we see that, after conducting interviews and workshops, customers often have completely different opinions to what the business assumed. So, what you might believe to be a key selling point may actually have become more of an afterthought. And if that’s the case, you just can’t afford to wait years until your next rebrand to start putting things right.95% of your customers aren’t ready to buy yet
Speaking of assumptions, one of the biggest assumptions that brands make is that short-term lead-generation results in more sales that long-term brand building. Of course, we all like seeing an instant increase in revenue but there’s a ceiling to how effective this can be. According to a study from the LinkedIn B2B Institute, only 5% of your audience are ever in the market at any given moment. So, it doesn’t matter how much time and money you throw at short-term marketing, you’ll only ever reach 5% of your audience with it. Doesn’t it make much more sense to spend more of your budget on building front of mind awareness with the other 95% of your audience? After all, they’ll enter a buying mindset sooner or later, and when they do, they’ll go straight to the brands they know and feel familiar with. Building this relationship with passive audiences is scientifically proven to improve sales later down the line but investing in brand awareness building is often considered a ‘luxury’ marketing spend line item.. So, the question isn’t whether you can afford to invest in long-term brand building, it’s can you afford not to?
How to connect with future buyers
Your brand needs to be distinct, and it needs to memorable, but achieving this is easier said than done. After all, the brand that’s remembered is the brand that’s bought. With a little time, focus and audience insight, it’s possible to build a brand that really resonates with your target audience in an authentic way. Once you’ve listened to the reasons customers choose your business, you can use this insight to build a brand story about what makes you special. This could be anything from a unique process or a bold vision to how you treat your staff or your commitment to the planet. Whatever it is, bringing this message to life with a solid strategy and intelligent creative will generate cut through that will impact sales figures for years rather than weeks or months.Great B2B brand stories come from within
The most effective brands are built on truth. Audiences are smart and they see right through unfounded or dishonest claims. The good news is that if you look hard enough, every business has the ingredients for a compelling brand story. You just need to know where to look. Here are our top ten questions to ask yourself (or your B2B marketing agency) before you build or reposition your B2B brand:1. What’s the one thing your business does better than any other business in your space?
2. What’s unique about the way you operate and your approach to working with customers?
3. What’s your vision for the future? How are you improving products and services in the market?
4. Can you really claim to be an innovator? Can you evidence how this benefits your customers?
5. Is there anything special about your team and the way they work? What really matters to them?
6. Who is your ideal customer? What size and profile of business can you help the most?
7. What is your ideal customer’s number one issue and how do you help them overcome it?
8. What are the biggest strengths of your business? Can you evidence these?
9. Is there anyone similar to you in the market? What makes you different/better?
10. What’s the one thing you will promise to deliver to customers?
Chris Banner
Creative Director
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If you’d like to know more about the dangers of short-sightedness in B2B marketing and the benefits of taking a long-term view, please download our whitepaper. It’s full of great advice and peer-reviewed statistics from the brightest minds in B2B marketing. Or if you’d like to chat with us to see how we can help you build your unique brand story, drop us a line: hello@uppb2b.co.uk
