B2B Branding
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The Latest Posts on B2B Branding From Modern B2B Marketing Blog
Because emotions impact economic decision-making, branding is a vital component in the overall marketing strategies of B2B companies. B2B branding may not take the same form as B2C branding, but it’s just as important. By helping prospects research their options early in the sales cycle and demonstrating that they are a knowledgeable source, B2B marketers build awareness and ensure those prospects will come to them when it’s time to purchase.
Modern B2B Marketing Blog posts focused on B2B branding can help marketing professionals by offering tips and best practices for creating branding campaigns and determining ROI. Content is presented in the form of industry thought leader interviews, conference and event coverage, and webinars, among others.
Discover our latest posts on B2B branding below.
Improving B2B Marketing ROI: Thought Leadership With Merry Elrick
It's time for B2B marketing professionals to think beyond justifying their existence and start thinking about how they can create long-term return on marketing investment (marketing ROI) for their organizations. Helping arm marketers for this challenge is The Truth About Marketing ROI author Merry Elrick, the subject of the next post in the B2B Marketing Thought Leader Interview Series.
Beyond the B2B Buying Funnel: Exciting New Research About How Companies Make Complex Purchases
There are entire industries devoted to researching consumer buying behavior, but until now there has been relatively little research into B2B buying behaviors. Marketo recently worked with Enquiro Research (as well as Google, Business.com, Covario, and Demandbase) to perform new qualitative and quantitative research into the (often irrational) ways that businesses make complex purchases.
The initial findings of the research are a must-see for anyone involved in marketing or selling to other businesses. Some of the highlights and my thoughts are below. Also, I highly recommend you watch the on-demand archive if the sneak preview webinar, Beyond The B2B Buying Funnel. Finally, you can sign up for the upcoming webinar (Tuesday April 28 at 11:00am Pacific) Mapping the BuyerSphere to learn even more.
B2B Branding Marketing
Strewn around my house are pens, coffee cups, calculators, USB memory sticks, and assorted swag from various companies I’ve met over the years. What is the purpose of all this stuff? Does having a leather portfolio with a vendor’s logo on it make me more likely to buy their products?
Proponents of swag will argue that it builds brand by getting the business’s name in the office of potential influencers and purchasers, where it will stay top of mind. Is this really effective? Put more broadly, does branding even matter at B2B companies? Or is branding a waste of time and budget compared to “hard ROI” activities that can be proven to drive revenue?
How to Use Thought Leadership to Build Brands and Nurture Leads
RainToday.com’s recent report “What’s Working In Lead Generation” got me thinking about the relationship of thought leadership to branding and lead nurturing. In B2B marketing, all three serve the same purpose: to establish your company as a trusted adviser, so when a prospect is ready to buy, he or she will think of you and will want to speak with your sales reps.
Help Buyers Research Early in the Sales Cycle
Before the Internet, buyers got most of their information by talking directly with sales reps. As a result, it made sense for sales to engage with the customer early in the buying cycle.
Today, however, buyers use the Internet to research and get smart before they ever want to speak with a representative of your company. By the time they engage with sales, the buyer is more educated than ever before – perhaps even more educated than the sales rep.
Banner Impact on Search Click-Thru
Seth Godin recently had a post called The 249% Solution, in which he referred to a Yahoo! study on how brand ads and search ads interact. The study found that for one Yahoo! client, (Harris Direct, an on-line brokerage), a “reasonable buy of banner ads” grew unaided brand awareness by 7% but increased clicks on text paid search ads by 249%.
Highlights From 2006 CMO Council Summit
I had the opportunity to attend this year’s CMO Council Summit in San Francisco, titled “The Power of Engagement: Gaining Customer Intimacy, Influence & Inspiration”. The sessions were heavily focused on consumer marketing and brand building, so this summary will be a little off my normal topic of best practices in B2B marketing. If consumer marketing and brand building don’t interest you, feel free to skip this post.
More from Modern B2B Marketing blog.
