With B2B marketing, says Industrial Marketer, “you need to convey the value of your brand to multiple stakeholders, all of whom have slightly different perspectives.” And because the sales cycle “can be a long and nuanced one, making consistency across B2B brand awareness activities and communications all the more important.”  

Here at Baillie Lumber, we take brand awareness very seriously. Our goal is to differentiate ourselves from the competition, starting with our company mission, “To Help Others Succeed.” As we have noted previously, successful brand differentiation includes the following:  

·       Know your customer base inside and out. 

·       Focus on building long-term customer relationships. 

·       Always pay attention to your brand image and reputation. 

·       Answer the key customer question, “What’s in it for me?”  

Of course, differentiation is just part of the larger challenge of boosting awareness of your brand throughout the industry and among prospective customers. If building awareness is a key strategic goal in your organization, keep these tips in mind:  

Offer valuable content. Brand awareness often emerges organically when companies share content that benefits prospective customers.   

Whether it’s blog posts, feature articles, how-to videos or other content, helping others become better at what they do establishes your credibility as a thought leader and builds trust in your brand—the ideal starting point for exploring new sales opportunities.  

Stay active on social media. Customers spend a fair amount of time conducting online searches and connecting via social media. Maintaining an active social media presence can significantly enhance your SEO ranking—often the first place people will find your business.   

Your Twitter, Facebook, and even LinkedIn pages should always include key essentials (company name, a profile photo, location, description and link to your website). You can do more to increase your following and influence by offering value-added content, as noted above.  

Pay close attention to the quality of your website. Prospects will make initial judgments about your brand based on their experience with your company website. Is the site easy to navigate or do users get confused about where they are? Can information about your value proposition be found throughout the site, regardless of where users go? Is a call-to-action prominently displayed on all pages, so prospects can take the next crucial step in the buying journey?  

If your answers to these questions isn’t a resounding “Yes!”, it’s likely time to evaluate the need for a website redesign. Otherwise, you risk losing valuable business opportunities.  

Explore offline brand awareness activities. Not every brand-building effort needs to focus on the digital realm. Plenty of offline activities can pay off in big ways. These include the following:  

•  Create high-quality marketing collateral materials, such as business cards, brochures, customer manuals, etc. While use of such materials isn’t as pervasive as in the old days, nonetheless prospects often make judgments about a company based on the look, feel and design of these materials. 
•  Attend industry events. Appearing as both attendees and participants in industry conferences and tradeshows also boosts brand awareness and credibility. Look for opportunities to make presentations at these events and be prepared to freely share your industry expertise. People remember efforts like these.

Don’t leave brand-building to your competitors. Always strive to ensure existing and prospective customers know who you are!

Brett Del Prince
Baillie Lumber
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