Introduction
Brand awareness is considered an important marketing goal for businesses. Typically, it is thought that brand awareness is only for B2C companies. However, brand awareness and branding are just as important for B2B businesses.
Improving branding and visibility for your B2B company will work towards lead generation, ROI and business growth.
Branding is at the top of the marketing funnel, where your users recognize your brand and get to know about your services. This marketing strategy attracts potential leads to be guided down the marketing funnel. However, the role of brand awareness is much more expansive and helps the lead towards the end of the marketing funnel to make an informed decision before purchase.
So far, we have established that brand awareness is part of your marketing strategy, that would ultimately give you more clients and overall growth. When brand awareness campaigns are run in synergy with lead generation campaigns, they can give you much better results as compared to lead generation campaigns alone.
Brand awareness simply implies a user’s perception about your company or business. It includes brand recognition, logo, type of business, products and unique selling points. Brand awareness can help your business stand out from the competition and can also bring in more leads. In a B2B scenario your buyers need to be able to associate your brand name with trust and the products or services that you provide. For example when I write the name IBM, you immediately think of computer chips and reliable software. Similarly, when I write the name Boeing, you immediately associate it with aviation and airplanes. This is what strong B2B branding can do for your business.
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In this article we will talk about all the important aspects of brand awareness, how to run brand awareness campaigns online and key challenges for building awareness.
Importance of Branding in B2B Marketing for B2B Companies
Brand awareness can play an important role when it comes to building customer trust and standing apart from your competition. In a B2B setting it can also mean more leads that are willing to turn into customers if nurtured properly.
Awareness campaigns can introduce your followers to your existing as well as new products or services. These campaigns allow you to effectively showcase your product or service and effectively tell them the unique selling points. This helps your prospects in making an informed decision at the time of purchase.
Brand awareness campaigns, if executed properly can build trust in the longer run. This means that your potential customers would trust your authority even before they decide on a purchase. Over time your content and awareness campaigns can make you stand out as an industry leader and expert. This means that people recognize your brand and associate it with trustfulness and authority.
In order to make your brand awareness campaigns more effective, incorporate them into your overall marketing strategy. Your marketing strategy should have an ideal balance between awareness and lead generation campaigns for the best results. In a way brand awareness and lead generation go hand in hand with each other. You need brand awareness to generate high quality leads. A brand awareness strategy can build trust and authority in your relevant industry.
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Best Marketing Channels for B2B Awareness Campaigns
Brand awareness for B2B starts with knowing where your customers are and then targeting those platforms to build awareness. Here are a few digital platforms that are great for B2B awareness campaigns:
LinkedIn can be used to create brand awareness for your B2B business in multiple ways. The first strategy is for organic growth via LinkedIn pages. You can create consistent content targeted towards your ideal customer. Video, polls, events and infographics can be used as part of your content strategy on LinkedIn to increase brand awareness. Use of industry specific hashtags can also increase your brand reach. It is also a good idea to share your blog posts from your website to increase your website traffic and build authority.
LinkedIn also offers customizable B2B awareness campaigns, where you can select your audience for a more targeted approach. The LinkedIn awareness campaigns aim to increase visibility and are usually best for targeting prospects that are completely new to your business. Metrics used to measure campaign outcomes include impressions and reach. Through paid campaigns you can virtually reach thousands of people in a short amount of time. These campaigns can also increase the number of followers on your page.
Similar to LinkedIn, you can also use Facebook for awareness campaigns, but this will be less targeted as compared to LinkedIn because not many professionals are active on Facebook. Facebook allows you to publish content such as pictures, video, infographics and polls on your Facebook page and group. You can use Facebook groups to create a close community of your loyal prospects and offer exclusive access to content as an incentive.
Facebook also offers awareness campaigns, with metrics like impressions and reach to measure success. Use the awareness campaigns to target a wider audience to improve your branding, as Facebook has a large number of active users than any platform.
Email Marketing
Email marketing and weekly newsletters can greatly improve your branding and awareness. A cold emailing strategy can work towards brand awareness and lead generation. Cold emailing campaigns work by introducing your brand to your prospective customers. They process usually begins by drafting a compelling cold email and having a list of prospects that may be interested in your B2B company.
Newsletters can keep your subscribers up to date about your company’s news, services, and packages. Newsletters are also an effective method to deliver your blogs, videos and podcasts to your subscribers.
Podcasts
Over the past few years there has been an increased interest in podcasts, whose topics can vary from one industry to another. Creating your own podcast show enables you to reach a large audience and helps build brand trust. Inviting industry experts to your podcast can build authority when it comes to podcasts. You can also develop a strategy to gradually improve brand awareness through podcasts.
PPC Campaigns
Pay Per Click Campaigns can be used to improve brand awareness and visibility. These campaigns mostly run on search engines (like Google) and can provide a means for reaching your target audience. The idea is that your prospect will come across your ad while searching a relevant keyword. PPC’s can work to improve website traffic and in the process improve awareness.
Marketing Strategies to Build better B2B Brand Awareness
In this section we will talk about how you can combine brand awareness campaigns with digital channels to design custom strategies for your business.
Develop a Content Strategy Based on Business Type
It is essential to design a content strategy based on the type of your business (B2B, B2C or B2E). For a B2B business, content should be made to create brand awareness at each step of the marketing funnel.
If you want to know more about designing an effective B2B campaign strategy read our blog on developing a digital marketing strategy.
Work on Your Branding and Marketing Message
The first step to the B2B branding ladder is to draft a strong brand message. This simply means what the company values are and what it stands for. The second step is to develop strong value proposition and messaging. Design elements, logo and slogans are also developed at this step.
After creating a unique selling point (USP) and value proposition, you can create content to educate and inform your audience.
We at AGT Marketing, like to design your branding around the buyer’s problems and offer your products or services as the solution. If you would like to know more about our services, book a meeting with us here.
Focus on Content Marketing
The content that you create for your audience should serve two purposes. The first purpose is to educate and inform your audience. The second goal should be to include your brand in the content and build trust. Interacting with followers and audience on social media platforms also works towards brand awareness.
Utilizing Paid Advertising
The content that you generate for organic reach can be repurposed for your marketing campaigns as well. Alternatively you can design ad graphics and ad copy separately, if you have the time and resources. In B2B awareness campaigns, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google Ads bring in the best results. Before marketing your content, ensure that the digital platforms you choose are effective. Finally, be sure to track analytics data to refine targeting and reach.
Measure Awareness Campaign Success through Metrics
Measuring the success of awareness campaigns can tell you whether your strategy was successful or needs revising. Metrics that are usually tracked for awareness campaigns include reach and impressions.
Setting clear and measurable goals for your awareness campaigns for optimum results.
Conclusion
Brand awareness is regarded as an important marketing objective for businesses. Improving your B2B enterprise’s branding and visibility will help with lead generation, ROI, and business growth. Simply put, brand awareness refers to a user’s perception of your company or business. When it comes to establishing customer trust and distinguishing yourself from the competition, brand awareness can be extremely beneficial. In a B2B setting, it can also mean more leads who are willing to convert into customers if properly nurtured.
Define your marketing and awareness goals with us to reach your ideal customer. We will be happy to assist you, click here.
Key Words
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