When you get excited to launch your product or company, it can be easy to get weighed down by the amount of planning it takes to put a launch together. At the same time, there is a lot of pressure riding on the launch to make it successful. With so much on the line, you must get marketing right. But where do you start? How deep do you dive? Focusing on four essential marketing fundamentals will go a long way toward building a solid foundation for the success of your B2B business. With these in place, you and your team can achieve a successful launch and kickstart lead generation.
Marketing Fundamental #1: Establish a Brand Identity
Your brand signifies who you are. It is particularly important to establish a strong brand identity as this is how your customers, prospects and general audiences will come to recognize your business. Articulating your mission and value-add signals to customers what you will bring to the engagement and what they can expect when working with your organization. A cohesive brand also fosters a stronger sense of identity and alignment for your internal team. When putting together the many components of your brand identity, it is important to establish the visual brand and elements, such as the logo, colors and styling. These choices will guide key marketing fundamentals. From content assets, collateral pieces, website pages and more, the visual brand identity elements decided upon will need to be consistent across everything moving forward. Plus, consistent brand presentation across all platforms can increase revenue by up to 23%. Below, we dive into each key visual brand identity element.
Brand Identity – Logo
Your logo is present in everything you put out into the world. While it is not something that will necessarily make or break your launch, it is a crucial element to get right. Logos should be well thought out and embody your business’ overall mission, personality and position. In general, aim for simplicity and focus on your value proposition. It is also important to assess the visual direction of others in your market space. What do their logos look like? How can you approach your logo to be different and stand out? Consider these additional logo design tips so your logo makes a true impact. And if you do not have an internal creative team to design a logo, marketing agencies or design firms can work with your team to create something unique for you.
Establish and evaluate your brand identity to form a cohesive, standout brand. Download our free eBook to learn all about all things brand identity.
Brand Identity – Color
Color selection plays a huge role in the logo design process. There is a great deal of psychology involved with how colors are perceived by an audience and how they make them feel, so choosing your primary and secondary brand colors wisely is critical. Colors can evoke different feelings in your audience, even if they are not consciously aware of it. Colors and color combinations can elicit positive feelings like happiness, warmth and love, or they can stir more negative feelings, like stress, coldness or boredom. Conduct basic color psychology research to understand what you are working with before moving forward with color selection. Certain colors are also more prevalent in specific industries, so it is important to research similar companies to yours, to see if there are any color consistencies. This can also help you decide how closely your brand should align or misalign to stand out.
While performing a psychological introspection into your brand color choice is not a necessity, it is an important element to consider if you want to take your new business and lead generation efforts to the next level.
Key Brand Identity Takeaways
- Your logo and brand colors are essential for your new B2B business
- Create a logo that is original to your brand
- Choose a color scheme that aligns with your business and appeals to your target audience, both consciously and subconsciously
Marketing Fundamental #2: Develop Effective Messaging
The words and language that accompany your B2B business communicate your overall tone, sincerity and value as a business. While colors and branding can be less conscious and more subversive, words directly resonate with your audience and leave an impression. Below, we discuss a few components of the brand messaging framework that you and your team should put in place. If you are launching a product or service within your established business, be sure the product messaging you create is unique to the product but aligned with the rest of your business’s communication materials.
Unique Value Proposition
A great place for your team to start is the unique value proposition. As the name implies, this statement emphasizes what is so unique about your product or brand. It also showcases why your audience should choose your business over alternatives. This statement should provide specific language and reasons as to why your company or product is a top choice.
Points of Differentiation
During the unveiling of your B2B business, you should continue to return to the idea of “why you, not them.” What makes your business different? What can you offer that the businesses in your industry cannot? What makes your company or product unique?
If you are not sure why your business stands apart from the rest, try to evaluate some of these core components: experience, quality, service, pricing and reputation. If you offer excellent service, highlight it. If your pricing is fair or less expensive, let people know. If your clients can see that you take pride in what you offer, then they will naturally be drawn to your launch.
About Your Company
Often, your audience’s first exposure to your business will be your website. Whether they land there organically, through paid advertising or just by word of mouth, one of the first places they will want to navigate to learn more about your company is the “About Us” section. This section is an opportunity for you to speak to your audience in a way that is authentic to your business and meaningful to your clients. You want to share some of your company’s history or give more insight into your facts and figures. This is your opportunity to showcase the personality of your company.
Key Messaging Takeaways
- Create a unique value proposition that is succinct and deliberate
- Discover and highlight what makes your company or product unique
- Show your business’s personality and human side when creating your “About Us”
Learn more about how to develop effective B2B messaging and branding in this blog.
Marketing Fundamental #3: Produce Supportive Business and Marketing Materials
Certain content marketing assets work best for a new business or product launch. When organizing a launch or the promotion of your new business, you want materials that are going to convey what you are launching and why it matters.
Rather than using content pieces that highlight general information, like a blog post or article, you want materials that let clients know exactly what your product or services will provide. A general overview brochure or one-pager that accurately and genuinely speaks to your audience is an almost universally needed asset. Developing a brochure or one pager will leverage work from the brand identity and messaging fundamentals noted earlier, giving your team a practical way to put these words and visuals into action and an asset that can be used in a wide variety of ways.
Creating a Strong One Pager
To create a strong one-pager ensure it is limited to one page, front and back if needed. This makes it easy to distribute and easy for clients to read and consume. Limiting yourself to this space also helps you focus on only the most important information. You also want the audience to be able to answer the question “Why should I choose this product or company?” Prospects are being constantly bombarded with marketing, so you get to the point of why your company deserves their time and attention. If a prospect decides they want to learn more about your company, make sure they have the appropriate contact information on the one-pager to take the next steps so you can attribute lead generation efforts to this asset.
Key Marketing Asset Takeaways
- Use an overview brochure as a tool for both your external audiences and your internal team
- A one-pager should include clear paths for learning more
- Effectively communicate your company or product’s value proposition in your one-pager
Marketing Fundamental #4: Outreach Plan
With your brand identity defined, effective messaging established and supportive assets created, it’s now time to develop a solid plan for getting these elements in the path of your desired audiences.
Selecting the Right Marketing Channels
Much like the rest of marketing, there are a lot of options when it comes to which marketing channels to use to reach your audience. You can use paid advertising, social media, emails—the list goes on. When you are starting your B2B business or launching a new product, it is important to first make sure you have a good understanding of your buyer personas. Once you know who you are trying to reach, this will help you research where you can best find them and how to best target them. You will also want to test and try different activities, giving yourself a mix of channels to see what works and what does not. Corralling yourself into one channel can potentially mean missing a whole segment of potential customers you did not necessarily expect. Exploring a mix of channels helps diversify lead generation efforts.
The Power of Influencers
Just like you want to research your potential customers, you’ll also want to think about the influential people already in your market. Influencers are highly visible people or companies that can help you leverage your reach on certain channels. Finding influencers is not a necessary step for your new business, but it can help take your lead generation and brand awareness to the next level. LinkedIn can be a great place for B2B businesses to start their influencer marketing journey. Plus, utilizing influencers is a great way to reach new audiences and potential prospects that become valuable leads.
Key Lead Generation Plan Takeaways
- Communicate your new business or product launch through channels that will reach your audience
- Leverage influencers to build awareness and establish credibility
- Create an integrated plan that details the full array of how you will engage with your desired audiences
Knowing what elements of your new business or product launch to focus on can help make the process feel more streamlined and organized. Addressing these four marketing fundamentals will ensure your launch has a strong foundation and help you kickstart lead generation efforts for your B2B business. Once you have these basics checked off, consider what else you can add. This can help give your launch a lift above the rest of the market and build momentum for the rest of your business’s future.
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