Generate More Leads and Revenue with These Four B2B Messaging and Branding Tactics

B2B messaging and branding are foundational for effective marketing. Messaging drives prospects to understand what your organization’s offering is and how your product or service is valuable to them. Streamlined branding ensures all B2B brand identity elements, including your colors, logo and images, are consistently displayed across various marketing mediums, which can yield up to a 23% increase in revenue. As messaging and branding work together to showcase your organization, there are a few components that can set you apart from the competition, driving more leads and ultimately revenue. The following are four tactics you need to know to level up your B2B messaging and branding.

Tactic #1: Conduct Detailed Competitor Research

The importance of competitor research is recognized by marketers and is a tactic widely used to gain a better understanding of what competitors are doing to make their offerings stand out. Conducting a competitor analysis can uncover key differentiators that can be used to boost your marketing success. Without conducting this analysis, it is difficult to know what it takes to set your company apart in the industry and generate interest. Research can be completed in a variety of ways, including classic approaches like the SWOT Analysis, but one way to simplify the process is to focus on a few target areas. Here is what to take note of when researching your competitors:

• 2-3 key messaging points
• Tagline
• Product and/or service offerings
• Location, including headquarters and other locations
• Number of employees
• Website resources, including blogs, guides, articles, etc.

Through your research, you can get a sense of what messaging points competitors are utilizing, their offerings and how they are using messaging throughout content that prospects are consuming. Why go through the analysis process? The goal is for your messaging to stand out against competitors. This happens through key differentiators and a strong unique value proposition in your messaging. When you stand out, prospects are more likely to convert with your brand versus a competitor.

Looking for more in-depth insights into forming B2B branding and messaging? Download our Messaging that Matters eBook filled with best practices and actionable tips for successful messaging and check out our B2B Brand Identity Building Blocks eBook to obtain details on memorable branding tactics.

Tactic #2: Conduct External and Internal Interviews

Something else that goes hand in hand with competitor research is conducting external and internal interviews. Through these interviews, your organization can gain insight into what messaging is and is not resonating. These interviews are valuable, so ensure you are making the most of your time with internal team members such as sales, product development and customer success and external individuals, such as prospects, current customers and lost deals. Interviewing people from each of these groups allows you to obtain unique perspectives as each of them have had a different experience with your brand.

With external interviews, asking questions such as the ones noted below can give you the information your organization needs to formalize powerful B2B messaging that connects with audiences and generates more leads.

• How would you describe our brand?
• How do you perceive our brand compared to competitors?
• What message do you think our brand is trying to convey?
• Do you feel a connection to our brand? If not, what can we improve to spark a connection?
• What channels have you interacted with our brand on? Do you think our branding and messaging are consistently displayed across these channels?
• What recommendations do you have for us to improve our branding and messaging?

Tactic #3: Obtain Alignment on Visual Brand Identity Elements

B2B messaging and branding would not be complete without brand identity elements. Below, we highlight the components of visual branding to focus on when establishing or reestablishing your branding.

• Logo: Keep it simple but make sure it is scalable for a variety of marketing and business purposes. Your logo should also be memorable, and something your audience will associate with your brand and offerings.
• Color: Consider color psychology when choosing your color palette. Different colors evoke and portray different things and meanings, so choose wisely. You should also have secondary and tertiary colors that complement your primary color. You can always conduct a focus group to gauge response on the colors before implementing.
• Icons and Imagery: Each image or icon should serve a purpose. Whether the icon depicts a service on the website, or the image accompanies an email send, any visual element should be used for a specific purpose. It is also important to be consistent in icon and imagery usage. For example, use the same family of icons and choose between real-life images or illustrations.

Tactic #4: Outline the Brand Experience

Outlining the brand experience ensures you have detailed insight into key touchpoints throughout the buyer’s journey. This also helps you with your B2B marketing planning efforts when creating a marketing plan as it highlights what areas or channels to focus on. Here are a few brand touchpoints that someone might experience.

• Awareness: This can include press releases, online ads and word of mouth.
• Consideration: This is where a big portion of movement happens and includes search ads, email marketing, website, social media, direct mail and more.
• Decision: This stage includes touchpoints with specific content assets such as case studies, training videos, free demos and more.

While these aren’t the only marketing tactics that take place at each point in the journey, this gives you an idea of what B2B marketing content prospects are interacting with and how important it is to stay consistent in the messaging and branding across these assets and channels. It is also instrumental to understand how to improve the brand experience and reduce conversion barriers. Are certain marketing channels working more than others? Leverage those channels more. Are certain assets performing better than others? Generate similar content. Are leads coming in more from your website or outbound marketing efforts? Focus on generating more leads from these avenues while revisiting the other approaches to improve performance. Answering questions like these gives insight on how to enhance and adjust the brand experience for improved performance, more leads and more revenue.

Looking for support to define your B2B messaging and branding? Contact us today or request a free marketing consultation! We’ve helped hundreds of clients with their B2B lead generation by forming a cohesive brand and powerful messaging.