Your brand impact is the degree to which you can leverage your branding to influence the decisions of your target audience. Maximizing it empowers your company to:
- Attract the right customers
- Lower customer acquisition costs
- Build trust and authority
- Increase perception of value to charge a premium
- Increase your profit margins
- Drive revenues and growth
- Pivot in the face of trends, downturns, and challenges to come out on top
Discover how to get the most out of the powerful brand identity you’re creating for your B2B company.
1. Narrow Your Focus
As we say here at S.O. CREATIVE, “Define your market. Focus your message”. That’s what brand strategy is all about.
To amplify brand impact, first identify the audience you want to attract.
These are the customers we love! They convert faster, spend more, return more often, and always want to try your latest products and services. Because your product perfectly meets their needs, they write you great reviews and share their experiences with other potential B2B decision-makers—generating valuable word-of-mouth.
When you target this ideal customer, you get better results with less work—and marketing costs. Leverage this delighted customer base to branch out and grow.
Pro Tip: Don’t guess who your ideal customer is. Invest in market research to discover who you should target and how best to reach them.
2. Find Your Brand Voice
Voice isn’t just about being heard. It’s how you speak to and interact with your audience. Your brand has a specific personality; the more you lean into it, the better your brand identity will stand out in a sea of competition.
To some extent, your ideal audience helps you find your voice. Consider what they’ll respond to and what it says about how they’ll interact with you.
If you’re struggling to find your voice, discover the 12 brand archetypes.
3. Invest in Online Presence…Not Just Online Advertising
Digital advertising is a vital part of any online marketing strategy. But just like a radio spot or T.V. commercial, when people see an Internet ad, they may only become aware of your company for a split second—if they even notice it.
However, when you build an online presence, you increase their opportunities to see you online–and remember the encounter. As they see you in more places, they become aware that you exist. They realize you’re not some fly-by-night company that invests heavily in an ad campaign but is otherwise nowhere to be seen.
A digital presence also lets customers see how you interact with real customers. Even to strangers, this becomes proof you keep your brand promise.
A digital presence can include several channels. So, let’s look at some of the most important ones.
- An Optimized Website. Most digital channels will lead here. So, it must be fast, responsive and easy to navigate. It communicates your unique value proposition and makes doing business with you easy.
- Mobile. Nearly 60% of Internet traffic now happens on mobile devices.
- Organic Search Visibility. 35% of people in the U.S. use search engines like Google multiple times a week to find local businesses. Over 68% of website visits start with a search engine.
- Social Media. 87% of people who shop online regularly say that social media helps them make buying decisions.
- Review Profiles. 87% of consumers check online reviews before selecting a local company, and 55% always check reviews when buying anything online.
- Email. The average ROI on email marketing is $36 for every $1 spent.
- Online Publications.
- YouTube.
As you know, digital marketing is critical for all businesses—large and small, local, regional, and national. Ecommerce or in-person. B2B and B2C.
Even if you don’t “sell” a product online, today’s consumer still judges you by your online identity. So, even if you already invest in print, local events, and T.V./Radio as many of our clients do, you need a digital presence to have a 360° brand experience around your customers to drive growth.
4. Build a Consistent Brand Experience Across Channels
Simply having a brand presence is not enough. Maximize it to get the most out of your brand. You must unify your brand identity across your online presence to accomplish this.
Consistency reinforces your message across channels, strengthening your identity and generating a brand experience that customers begin to rely on.
Fortunately, a lot of overlap makes building a consistent experience easier.
5. Leverage How Algorithms Make Suggestions
Algorithms are working behind the scenes on social media, search engines, YouTube, Ad platforms like Google Ads, and eCommerce websites to deliver the best suggestions to their audience. These platforms meet their business goals when people click and engage with content.
When you understand how these algorithms choose paid or organic content to show people, you can take control of who, where, when, and how often people see your brand and recognize it around the Internet.
This ties back to consistency. The more consistent your branding is, the more likely your audience is to recognize your company’s ads and content when they see them.
This maximizes the impact of every impression.
6. Communicate Your Brand Promise And Keep It
The children in our lives are right. Promises are meant to be kept. When people break promises, trust is lost. It’s nearly impossible to get it back.
As a brand, you make a promise to your customers. It may be for a quality product, service, or the brand experience you’ve built around what you sell.
Your promise becomes your unique value proposition, setting you apart from the competition.
Communicating a compelling promise in words, actions, and product is vital.
See how this B2B energy company found its competitive advantage and drastically increased leads by communicating its brand promise more effectively.
7. Build an Attractive Employer Brand
You know the value of your people and what having the best employees in roles can do for your company. The top talents you want work for companies that have built a strong employee brand that engages and activates employees to amplify their message.
Ready to Maximize Your Brand Impact?
At S.O. CREATIVE, we specialize in brand development and integrated marketing communications for B2B industries. Let’s talk ideas that drive business! Connect with us today.
At S.O. CREATIVE, we focus on helping you develop and manage a dynamic, magnetic brand that attracts your ideal customers and drives growth.
