marketing + Brand Identity

October 26, 2015 • 4 min read

As I mentioned in part one of this series on B2B branding, your brand is more than just a logo design. It is the expectation created in your customer’s mind from every encounter with your company, product, or service. Now we will look at how to share your b2b brand message.

Successful branding requires a consistent message across all communication. A favorable brand image can raise awareness in the marketplace, shorten sales cycles, and improve customer satisfaction. Consistency is key. Without it your messages can seem contradicting and will dilute your brand image.

All of your marketing should be consistent in tone and in visual style. Use the same logos, colors, fonts and voice across all of your messaging.

Marketing materials include:

• Websites
• Marketing Brochures
• Letterhead and Business Cards

And your branding goes even farther, including:

• Email Signatures
• Invoices
• Case Studies
• Corporate Vehicles
• Uniforms

Branding Goes Beyond Tangible Assets

Any point of contact, direct or indirect, with your audience is another opportunity to support, or erode, your brand.

Beyond tangible assets, brand consistency should extend to every experience a prospect or customer has with your company. You lose an opportunity to strengthen your competitive position every time you or an employee fail to reflect your brand.

If you’ve followed the advice from part two of this series on B2B branding you have invested some time developing your mission, vision, and value statements. Make sure that everyone in your company understands and practices them. Everyone in your company is a brand manager—accountable fro upholding the branding of your business. Be sure to share, train, and enforce your branding guidelines.

B2B Branding on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn

Facebook

Arguably the best platform for increasing your brand awareness, Facebook’s sheer reach makes it a must-use channel. Facebook is the social media platform you need to be on no matter what your field of business. Get started by checking out Facebook Business.

Things to keep in mind:

• Posts with video or photos generate more engagement
• Shorter posts (less than 250 words) perform better than long ones
• Friday posts perform better
• Asking questions can double your engagement, who knew?

Twitter

Users on Twitter tend to follow brands more than on any other platform. That makes it a great platform for relationship building and communicating with your customers.

Because Twitter is more in the moment, users follow brands to stay up-to-date with the latest product developments. It’s a great way to tease upcoming releases and build buzz around your product or service.

Learn about how you can add to the more than 500 million tweets sent each day by visiting Twitter For Business.

Things to keep in mind:

• Again, photos generate more interest and increase favorites and retweets
• Post during morning commute hours to reach those on public transit who are likely glued to their phones
• Contests and limited time discounts perform better than standard promotion of your product or service

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is geared toward individual professionals so you should be on it as an individual. That said, it is a good idea to have a business page there as well. With its focus on networking, business research, and job hunting users aren’t logging in hourly or even daily. So while that means it will take less of your time, LinkedIn is still a good place to strengthen your brand image. Learn more at LinkedIn Business Solutions. They even have a special section geared toward small businesses.

Keep in mind before you join any LinkedIn group, make sure to read its “About” section to be sure it is a good fit for you and that it is still an active group.

Know Your Audience

Building brands and influencing customers is a never-ending job. While the social media landscape is an invaluable resource, the players are constantly changing making it difficult to know where to focus your efforts.

Maintaining social media sites is time consuming. That’s why it’s important to do your research and determine which ones will help you reach your audience best. For instance, more visual businesses will find Instagram and Pinterest
of interest. ?

Part One | Part Two

A version of this article originally appeared on the Dexter + Chaney corporate blog, Oct. 26, 2015

Reading List

B2B A to Z: Marketing Tools and Strategies That Generate Leads for Business-to-Business Companies (Bill Blaney, Denham Publishing, 2012

Social Media: Dominating Strategies for Social Media Marketing with Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn, and Instagram (Michael Richards, CreateSpace, 2015)