Marketing Briefs

Building Your B2B Experience Brand

The key premise of positioning your B2B company as an experiential brand is ensuring your brand values are incorporated into every way you interact with your stakeholders – employees, customers, prospects and shareholders.

 

Many people believe experience brands are consumer brands like Apple and their ability to connect via many different channels including their website and store or BMW that connects on a passionate level with their cars and the ultimate driving experience. However, B2B companies that embed their brand essence into every marketing and communication touch point can become experience brands with greater customer loyalty and more profitable business results.

 

What are four attributes of B2B experience brands? Experience brands:

 

• Enlist employees as brand ambassadors to ensure they understand the B2B brand promise and how that is realized in the company’s vision, culture and day-to-day behavior
• Enable customers and prospects to learn about a company’s products, services and capabilities via the channels they like to use. How customers learn about what you have to offer can’t be a passive experience on your part. B2B marketers need to be vigilant about how the “experience” is for your customers when they interact with your brand.
• Engage customers and prospects before, during and after the sale. Even though technical or customer support may not report into marketing, B2B marketers need to act as though it does and interact with these groups who embody critical customer interaction points on a regular basis. On-going customer satisfaction with the “experience” of interacting with your company is a key driver of not only on-going loyalty, but in delivering referrals of new customers.
• Empower all stakeholders to interact with your company and brand via today’s “water coolers” – social media and mobile platforms – via a digital experience that’s intuitive, easy and that promotes an on-going dialogue between your company and other customers and prospects.

As you think about your on-going marketing activities, don’t miss out on leveraging what you’re already doing to extend your central marketing and brand ideas into compelling conversations at every touch point with your customers, prospects, employees and investors resulting in being a B2B experience brand.

Marketing 2010: Drive Efficiencies By Thinking Global

Marketing leaders at larger enterprises doing business globally can drive further efficiencies in their 2010 marketing budgets by putting in place the right frameworks to foster global planning and concepting. This isn't easy since there exists territorial attitudes related to budgets and staff that "sit" outside the corporate office in regions around the world. This happens even if there is a "solid line" reporting relationship from the regional marketing leaders and teams to the corporate CMO because the allegiance to the local market leader is usually strong.

However, that shouldn't stop global CMOs on insisting on driving global concepting and planning for as many initiatives as appropriate. One way to do this is to work closely with your financial officer counterpart to demonstrate how this will save the corporation money, while delivering a more consistent global approach to customers, prospects and partners. The power of the purse will help make this an imperative for 2010 but ensuring budget dollars for concepting key global programs are removed from regional budgets.

Now I'm not suggesting that there are not specific differences region-by-region that can all be captured by a one size fits all approach. There are, however, many programs that can be concepted and planned centrally and then simply localized. Most companies consider this with basic collateral, business communications and global events, but do not look at how this concept can be driven (with some extra work and pre-planning) through most of the marketing programs a company executes.

I've found the key to success is to institute central planning and execution with a dose of local programs and execution that happens in each region. I've established global strategy teams made up of the senior leaders of the corporate marketing functions, regional marketing heads and a representative from each major external agency partner. I've typically branded these internally, "TeamGevity" or "TeamIomega" for example, and have created a sense of mission and purpose. This way it hasn't turned out to be "corporate" trying to execute one program for every market but a global team planning the major initiatives to eliminate waste and local market re-work. This idea isn't that much different than Ford trying to create several global car platforms versus having every car in every region using all different components.

This "embrace and extend" approach has served me and my teams well at multiple companies. We've planned and strategized on all programs that could be used across regions. The regions would then "embrace" these corporate programs, "extending" them as appropriate into their local markets. Additionally, these would be supplemented with region-specific programs and lead generation programs where a global, corporate program wouldn't make sense.

While the real reason to aim for this approach is to deliver better marketing, a side benefit will be reduced cost to your company. And in this economic environment, that's a real win for marketing.

Marketing 2010: Lead Your Customer and Prospect "Conversations"

My upcoming blog posts will focus on upcoming marketing concepts you should consider as you formulate your marketing strategies and plans for 2010.

Clearly, the advance of social media sites has increased the ability for your existing communities of users to interact with your potential pool of new buyers. This goes for any size company, in any industry, B2B or consumer.

Instead of "direct marketing" for 2010, think about your marketing program in terms of creating programs that create and nurture "conversations" with your current and prospective customers. Focus on what you want at the center of your "conversation" platform -- is it a social media site like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and others? Is this where your current customers "hang out?" Or will you focus on creating opportunities for on-going conversations and interactions through deploying a virtual event hub?

Seth Godin's recent book, "Tribes," explores this concept as it relates to tribes being any group of people who are connected to one another, in big groups or small, by a leader and an idea. While there is much more in the book, which I recommend, one core concept is that while the web and social media and virtual events platforms can do phenomenal things in terms of connecting you with your customers and prospects, the web doesn't provide leadership. That still has to come from you. From your company. From your marketing.

Don't miss the opportunity as your finalize your 2010 marketing initiatives to plan, budget and create opportunities to provide leadership in the conversations your customers and prospects are already having about your company and its products and services. Start with this concept and then focus on building the tactics to support it.

Getting the Best Results Out of Your Agency Partners

If you use the services of an external marketing agency, to get the best thinking, ideas and execution ensure you treat them like a true marketing partner and not just a vendor supplier.

 

Listen to Them: You value your co-workers because they bring knowledge and expertise from previous experiences. You get shortchanged when you call on your agency merely to execute. Get more value by allowing them to offer opinions on how to achieve your objectives. Ask them how they have helped other companies with similar challenges, and leverage what has been proven to work for others.

 

Compensate Them: If a retainer agreement is not appropriate or realistic, consider structuring their fees to include bonuses when program objectives are met, to give them an added investment in the success of your campaigns.

 

Limit The Number: There is an argument for utilizing specific agencies for each area of expertise, but there has been massive consolidation in the industry so, in many cases, the PR firm, web programmer and social media agency are all one company now. Limiting the number of agencies you work with allows you to centralize your budget, thereby being a “bigger fish in their ocean” and receiving improved service and dedicated support. It also reduces the amount of time you spend training and cross-training agency teams on who you are and what you do.

 

Involve Them: They should be on every mailing list, e-message distribution, customer announcement, etc. The more information they have, the greater insight they have into your organization and the more able they are to act as an extension of your team.

 

Structure Them: Establish measurement objectives and reviews. They are expected to perform as a part of your team, and should be treated as such by being held accountable for clearly outlined objectives.

 

Trust Them: They are expert at standing outside the forest that you are in and seeing the trees. Remember that you are not your target audience, and work to provide direction to accomplish objectives that will address creating awareness and demand with your target audience.

Market With Every Box You Ship

Don’t stop marketing and selling once you take an order and ship out the package. Take the opportunity to market and sell with every box you ship!

Market Outside the Box for Free Brand Awareness

On the outside of the box, you have the opportunity to use your packaging as a traveling billboard that anyone who touches your package in shipping will see. Include your company name, logo and web address on the outside of every package. If you ship many packages, have your box supplier imprint this messaging for you. If you ship in smaller quantities, use stock boxes shipping boxes and affix preprinted stickers with your branding information.

Market Inside the Box for Add-On Sales

Marketing on the outside of the packages you ship is only the beginning. Move inside the box to market additional products and services to your customers. Include brochures or fliers that advertise complementary products and services to what you are shipping to the customer. Include ordering information to make it easy for your customers to re-order consumables like ink cartridges or complementary products like a color printer to go with a camera. Another way to continue the marketing “conversation” with your customers is to include fliers inside your packaging that educates them on the various uses of your products or care instructions for your products. You can both sell inside your package as well as educate your customers. This also gives you the opportunity to follow-up each shipment with a phone call to see how they liked their order, to ask them if there is anything else you can do for them and to specifically ask if they would like to take advantage of a special offer you have included in their package.

Pump Up Your Brand Volume!

Business of all sizes must contend with a myriad of messages encountered by their customers. It’s not only messages from competitors you must overcome. You have to contend with the broader market in general. Whether you are marketing to business buyers or end-user consumers, they are being hit with mass media, e-mails, voicemails, interactive ads and content on websites they visit just to name a few.

This onslaught of content that is competing for the attention of your business customers and prospects is tough for any business to deal with but even more tricky for a small business.

Use Sharper Nails, Not Bigger Hammers. I don’t know who originally coined the term “use sharper nails, not bigger hammers” but it is an appropriate mantra to use in shaping your go-to-market programs to allow your message to be heard above the noise. Better creativity and execution, not big budgets and staff, will allow you to succeed in breaking through. Focus on a limited number of programs and don’t spread your budget too thin trying to emulate your competitors. Do what you can afford to do and do it well.

Define Your Brand Essence. It’s not just about the features and functions of your product or the specifics of the services you offer. Have you ever evaluated several competing products or services only to forget which one offered the feature you wanted since they were both similar? Instead, you need to evaluate the brand essence of your business. What is the underlying difference you offer over your competitors? It could be a verbal identity like your business stands for superior

customer service (the “we answer on one ring or the service is free” company) or a visual identity (like a specific color that is out of the ordinary).

Deliver Brand Relevance To Customer Interests. Of course your website, for example, must look good, fit your brand and be consistent in how you present your company. However, it’s not about more features or even more content. It’s about having the right content. It’s usually more difficult to say what you need to say in one paragraph instead of one page. The same is true for your website. Streamline your navigation. Put your most important content within two clicks of your customers’ and prospects’ mouse. How do you know what content is most important to your customers? All you need to do is ask them!

Focus, brand essence and delivering relevance will all help you pump up your brand volume to breakthrough to your customers and prospects.

 

Keep Your B2B Company Conversation Going with Twitter

As B2B marketing teams crank up the socialmedia mix in their outreach to the key community groups for their company (clients, prospects, partners, industry, analysts, employees, suppliers, etc.), here are five ways to use Twitter in your B2B marketing:

Start the Conversation and Keep It Going: This is a great medium to carry on an interactive and real-time dialogue with the best sources of your company’s revenue, profits, knowledge of real-world ways to improve your service and product, etc. Your clients, prospects, partners and other key constituencies are a tremendous resource to tap for insights and ideas. You’ll need to develop a company policy that fits your culture related to who in your company can post and reply on behalf of the company. Small companies should consider diving in with each employee having a role on Twitter (perhaps segmented by type of audience group to determine who interacts with each audience). Larger companies, if you haven’t already, should dedicate a resource as at least part of their job to be the “social media czar.” If your marketing team has more than a few people, you could appoint multiple people, having a person assigned to each of your social media channels. The key point here is not to post on Twitter and then not keep it up – start the conversation and keep it going!

Real-Time Pulse of Your Community: As you have on-going conversations with members of your community, use the opportunity to ask questions. Think of this as your best way to conduct real-time surveys. Don’t have a list of a dozen questions and ask them in a row. Ask a question and let the dialogue and exchanges between users play out. When it starts to slow down, ask your next question. With the responses to your questions will come new ideas, some complaints (always, always, always follow-up!), and insights you’d never get from a traditional survey.

Nuture Your Community: Twitter gives you a golden opportunity to keep in touch with your community on a regular basis. How many companies large and small still send out quarterly newsletters or monthly e-mail updates? That would be like calling Mom and Dad once a month or a few times a year. Most of us would like to hear from our friends and family on a more frequent basis, even if it’s just to touch base. Think of your community of users, prospects, partners and others in the same way and have a meaningful piece of information to share with them via Twitter on at least a daily basis. (See #1 – Keep the conversation going!)

Grow Your Community: Twitter is a terrific way for B2B marketing teams to grow the community of a company’s users, prospects, partners and industry contacts. Twitter is the most real-time and interactive way for you to do this today. Check out this helpful article on building a community of Twitter followers for your company. http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/4277/How-to-Build-a-Community-of-Twitter-Followers-for-Your-Company.aspx

Content Matters: Last but not least for today’s blog entry, don’t forget that content matters. Just because Twitter posts are a short 140 characters, it doesn’t make what you’re saying any less important. The need to maintain relevancy and interest for your audience remains the same regardless of the short format.