Building a B2B branding follows many of the same principles as building a brand for a B2C company. Consistency, clarity and uniqueness are all essential. However, there are also some differences between the two.
First of all, you’re targeting a much smaller audience. It will impact how you go about messaging, your choice of brand elements and more. You’ll also need to paint your brand marketing strategy in a more serious, professional light than if you were selling to the general market.
If you work at or own a B2B company and are wondering how to go about brand building, this article will be extremely helpful to you. We’ll go over some tips on how to build a powerful brand that attracts new clients and keeps existing ones coming back for more.
#1 Finetune Your Sales Discovery Process & Materials
The first thing to keep in mind when developing a sales pitch process for a B2B enterprise is that you’re selling to business owners. Business owners are no strangers to promotional language and marketing collateral. As such, they’re less likely to be won over by flash. In other words, all your discovery documentation will need substance instead.
This means doing your due diligence and making sure that all the information provided to prospective clients in your discovery documentation is accurate and relevant.
Try to secure expert insights from all relevant departments and other sources when collating this information into a sales script or even client resources as well.
If you’re working with documents from multiple sources, we also strongly recommend that you use an online PDF converter to turn these .docx files into a uniform and easily navigable PDF document.
It’s all about making sure that your discovery information is well-presented and leaves no pressing questions unanswered!
#2 Build Your Digital Presence
As a B2B business, the primary goal of your online activities is not necessarily to make the final sale. It is to be a resource potential clients can refer to when deciding who to work with. This is why websites are so important.
You want to have a great-looking, informative, search engine-optimised site. Remember, your primary goal is to be found and increase your brand awareness. Then, you want to sell potential customers on why you’re best placed to help them.
Running ads on Google and other platforms can also be effective for building a B2B brand as long as you get audience targeting right.
As a B2B company, you’ll be looking to sell to a smaller number of clients, so you need to be extra careful not to waste money showing your ads to people who have nothing to do with your business.
#3 Don’t Neglect Your Business Branding
Both business and personal branding are valuable for all businesses and entrepreneurs alike, but it’s particularly important if you’re a B2B brand. Because you’re dealing with a smaller number of high-value clients, you’ll be building personal relationships to a greater extent than you would in a B2C.
In business, your reputation is everything. How you conduct yourself when dealing with your clients says everything about you and your B2B brand, and all the branding techniques in the world won’t change this.
If you’re looking to build a positive reputation, stick to the basics: respect everyone you work with, keep your promises and be a pleasant person to work with.
It also helps you and your team to be active on social media platforms like X and LinkedIn. By building your B2B brand as thought leaders in whatever industry you’re in, you’ll make it more likely that clients trust you to know what you’re doing.
It’s especially important to align your B2B brand values with your (and your salespeople’s) personal values. Your clients’ primary touch point with your brand will be the people on your side they interact with, so make sure to leave a good impression.
#4 Spread Your B2B Brand
Brand awareness is absolutely crucial no matter what industry you’re in. And every face-to-face interaction that you have with business owners at industry conventions and other events is an opportunity to make your B2B brand stick.
So don’t neglect physical branding opportunities: create merchandise like pens, notebooks, calendars and more you can share with your clients. For one thing, they’ll appreciate it and have a more positive view of your B2B brand. Second, owning branded merchandise will remind them of you.
Alongside physical merchandise, you’ll also want to ensure that your brand is well-represented in digital spaces. Make sure that your brand is consistent across all your social media accounts.
This involves more than using the same logo as a profile picture. Everything, from your brand colors to the voice in which your content is written to the values you espouse, should remain the same no matter what platforms you use.
#5 Know Your Audience
The first step of any marketing campaign, including B2B brand building, is knowing your audience. There’s nothing worse than a poor brand-to-market fit. So how do you ensure that your marketing efforts are optimized?
The same way you put together a well-researched and well-informed business development plan: it’s all about data. In the context of marketing strategy development, we recommend conducting market research using tools like surveys and focus group discussions and making branding decisions based on what you learn from these tactics.
In many cases, B2B businesses will brand themselves more professionally and with greater authority than B2C companies. Fellow businesses want to see that you know what you’re talking about, so ditch the cute language for something more formal.
This also impacts other brand elements like brand colors and symbols, as well as the influencer marketing and affiliate marketing opportunities you incorporate into your overall digital marketing strategy.
As a B2B business, you want your customers to know that you’re knowledgeable and reliable about your product, and this needs to shine through your branding.
Final Words
While many of us think of branding in B2C terms, it’s equally important when selling to other businesses. It’s crucial that a B2B company builds an aura of expertise around itself.
Strategies like market research and personal branding are absolutely essential to succeeding as a B2B. Building that image from the ground up will always start with a robust digital presence with plenty of high-authority content and advocates.
If you’ve found this article helpful, don’t wait to start applying these tips to your everyday business activities. Branding is an essential part of any B2B business, so if this is an area you’ve been neglecting, now’s the time to rectify that.
FAQs
The primary difference lies in the audience. B2B branding targets a smaller, more specific audience of business owners and decision-makers, requiring a more serious and professional tone.
In contrast, B2C branding targets a broader consumer market and can be more playful and varied in its approach.
A strong digital presence helps establish your B2B brand as a reliable resource for potential clients. It enhances brand awareness and allows you to showcase your expertise and value proposition effectively, making it easier for businesses to choose you over competitors.
