Your brand is how consumers identify your company.  The importance of strong brand recognition and a positive reputation has increased dramatically as technology has given everyone a voice.  With so many competitors in nearly every niche, finding differentiators can be difficult.  Here we outline 3 ways to build a strong B2B brand foundation.

Customer Experience

“Investing time and resources into customer experience can lead to huge rewards for B2B companies by driving growth and creating lifelong, loyal customers.” – Blake Morgan

“Between 30-40% of B2B customers offer referrals IF their customer experience was a pleasant one. With the impact that word-of-mouth can have on B2B companies, these referrals can be worth their weight in gold when it comes to locating new customers.” – Yahoo

Improving the customer experience is of the utmost importance when trying to build your brand.  Incorporating digital technology to make things easier and more efficient for your customers is a great way to improve their experience.  Personalization is also key.  Your customers should never feel like they are just a number.  Get to know your customers and tailor their experience specifically for them.  This can include personalized offers, gifts, or simply communicating with them by their preferred means.  A great customer experience builds loyalty and can bring in new customers, thereby building your brand.

Company Culture

“You can’t be special, distinctive, and compelling in the marketplace unless you create something special, distinctive, and compelling in the workplace. How does your brand shape your culture? How does your culture bring your brand to life?” – Harvard Business Review

“Culture is an important differentiator to set your company apart from the competition. It's also what attracts the right talent and brings in the right customers.” – Inc.

Company culture encompasses many different areas including your values, the employee experience, your facilities, management and social awareness.  Building a great culture starts at the top and needs to be cultivated in order to blossom.  Fair employment practices, community involvement and employee empowerment are all keys to a great company culture.  What happens internally will eventually show through to your customers.  In today’s world, company culture plays a major role in the identity of your brand.

Marketing Strategy

“In short, for B2B companies, nothing is more important than your website, email, videos, webinars, proprietary research reports, expert commentary and other assets that your marketing department fully controls. You can count social media platforms on that list provided that you understand that to have an effective social media campaign there needs to be a supporting paid strategy.” - Forbes

“Good branding improves conversions. One of the most important areas of marketing that good brand work can impact is conversions. Good brand work contributes significantly to how a company can persuade potential consumers into purchasing their products or services.” – Bench/Mark

If done properly, marketing and branding will work hand-in-hand.  As your marketing efforts increase, so does the exposure to your brand.  If you’ve done the work internally to create a positive brand identity, that will make your marketing campaigns more successful.  A strong online presence is essential in order to establish a strong brand identity.  Digital marketing strategies such as blogging, social media marketing and SEO help to personalize your brand and communicate its purpose.  Having a great product helps, but in order to be truly successful, customers need to relate to your brand.