Blog Post

The Three Pillars of Powerful and Unified Brand Messaging

  • By Mark Baker
  • 03 Aug, 2016
The state of B2B branding has been a hot topic of conversation lately. And according to a recent Forrester Research report, many companies operating within the B2B space could serve to improve their brand messaging and branded communication. This shouldn't have you panicking about your current practices, but you should consider refocusing some of your marketing efforts on brand management in the upcoming months.
One major area of brand management that businesses should concentrate on is unified brand messaging. Improving your strategy in this area is likely to result in less wasted time, fewer wasted resources, and increased sales numbers.

B2B companies are just starting to realize how important clarity is in their branded messaging, and how easily this distinctness-as well as the general perception of their brand-can be negatively affected as brand communications are sent out across multiple digital channels. Often, when a company grows and changes its branding message, it doesn’t have the time or resources to update all of its social media channels and other digital media in order to reflect the change. This could result in the absence of a unified brand image among media outlets and across the market, ultimately confusing customers and harming brand equity.

As such, communicating a unified brand message is key. Once that clear and complete message is in place, you can hone in on specific market segments as part of a targeted approach. These prospective buyers should be able to understand your company and its products based on the brand communications and interactions they've experienced, all of which address problems they might face within their industries.

It's also important to reference product and service solutions when targeting appropriate market segments. You'll further clarify why your products are important, especially given that B2B products can easily blend together in industries that are not characterized by pronounced differentiation between companies.

DEFINING TARGET MARKETS

You probably know your current buyer demographic very well. But there may be a host of market segments that you never realized you could be targeting. One of the best ways to discover untapped markets is to analyze data from those who have bought from you before, looking for similarities in needs and buying behavior. Create buyer personas so as to better target your marketing messages based on the prospect you're selling to.

You can also make some interesting discoveries about potential markets by watching conversations on social media or on industry message boards. Joining in on those conversations is great, but simply observing them can help you learn what your business can do to solve new or current sets of problems. You may discover that your products and services can be re-purposed to solve problems you hadn't considered.

WHAT SHOULD YOUR OUTCOME MESSAGE BE?

In the Forrester study cited earlier, there was a new call to create outcome messages in B2B branding. These messages represent an even sharper method of targeting potential customers.
While you shouldn't use hard-sell tactics in online conversations, you should show how your products will bring about a positive outcome. Once you understand what specific markets need in order to solve their problems, you can directly demonstrate how your products will generate the solution. By providing relatable examples of how your products work, you will prove that your company is able to solve a concern that a broad range of market segments struggle with, all without making any type of hard-sell.
Be honest and clear about your product outcomes. Truthful and informative product information has become a common expectation in most B2B industries. Prove your expertise and your product’s utility—not just its function.

SHOWING THAT YOUR BRAND CAN DELIVER

It's not always enough to say that your products solve a problem. You should shape your B2B brand with integrated information not just about your product itself, but about how it's produced and the kind of services that accompany it.

Incorporating this type of information into your marketing efforts-along with proof of product outcomes-will give you a great deal of unified branded content that you can use to shape your brand and target a range of market segments.
Mark Baker

Mark Baker is a natural artist. Since starting his first business hand painting graphics onto vehicles in high school, Mark gained experience in the entertainment, sports, and retail industries before founding this company in 1993. Honest and pragmatic, Mark knows that anything can be accomplished with a great communication plan and creative thinking. 

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