B2B Brand Building: 2023’s Top Marketing Trend
B2B Brand Building was 2023’s top marketing trend according to Marketing Week. Find out what’s driving this trend and some ideas on how to plan and execute a brand building exercise at your B2B company.
Back in January, Bloomberg’s Stephanie Flanders wrote that The Global Economy of 2023 is Going to Be a Wild Ride. She was absolutely right, although even she couldn’t have anticipated everything we’ve been through in this volatile year.
We’ve had higher inflation than most people in the work force have ever experienced before. That drove up interest rates and labour costs.
Artificial intelligence (AI) burst out of nowhere and into the mainstream, leaving everyone impressed but not sure how to use it. Elon Musk rocked the social media space by buying Twitter, turning it into “Brand X” and giving his top advertisers some vulgar and anatomically difficult advice.
2023 Has Been a Good Year
At least this paradoxical year did generate one clear B2B content marketing trend. According to Marketing Week, 2023 has been a good year for B2B brand building.
Even companies like the stodgy law firm Addleshaw Goddard, who hadn’t bothered with any marketing activities for almost 250 years are now embracing strategies to establish a distinctive brand identity for the firm.
The numbers bear this out. In LinkedIn’s latest B2B Marketing Benchmark Report, 63% of B2B marketing leaders said their companies had increased spending on brand awareness in the past year.
Quality Information Readily Available Online
There are several economic factors driving this trend. Probably the primary reason so many companies are embracing B2B brand building has been the ready availability of quality information through online channels.
According to the Gartner Group, B2B buyers now spend just 17% of their purchasing time meeting with potential suppliers. So, they may be spending as little as 5% of that time with your sales rep on their account.
Communicating your product’s value proposition to decision makers and influencers in an online marketplace requires B2B brand building. Your company’s brand now embodies your company values and customer commitment at least as much as your sales force.
“Marketing Was Able to Do All That”
Apex Group CMO Rosie Guest put it this way to Marketing Week. “They couldn’t get in front of their clients, nobody could get in front of their employees, and it was suddenly [understood] that marketing was able to do all of that,”
After all, potential customers are likely to review as many as twelve online B2B content marketing items before contacting anybody who works at your company. So, the first impression your business makes on decision makers and influencers at potential client companies comes from your content’s branding.
B2B companies have always been fond of the old adage that “word of mouth is the best advertising.” That old saw is as sharp as ever, but today’s online marketplace gives it a twist.
Social Proof is the New Word of Mouth
Social proof is the new word of mouth. Potential clients now seek out reviews, testimonials and endorsements from similar companies on social media, especially LinkedIn and other online platforms.
These market drivers make online presence and credibility crucial for B2B companies to succeed in competitive markets.The only way to differentiate your online content from the pack is through successful B2B brand building.
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Making the shift toward B2B brand building involves several activities. For established businesses, the starting point is usually a brand audit.
Structure Brand Audit Around SWOT Analysis
Typically, B2B brands structure their audits around the familiar SWOT analysis. Your team should gather feedback from employees, customers and business partners on your current brand image’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
The goals of your brand building plan needs to align with your companies overall business objectives. B2B brand building activities should support and reinforce strategic goals, with measurable key performance indicators (KPIs) to track success.
The reason so many CMOs reported spending more on brand awareness in 2023 is that effective brand building entails a meaningful investment. Your team needs resources to refresh your company website, upgrade and maintain relevant social media profiles and promote your revised brand image through paid online advertising.
B2B Content Marketing Strategy Vital to Brand Building
A B2B content marketing strategy will play a vital part in this brand building exercise. To build online credibility, your team will need to establish thought leadership through refreshed blog posts, white papers, case studies, videos and infographics.
Early in 2023, we looked at a couple of major B2B brands who decided to fork out Fox’s reported $7 million dollar fee to air 30-second spots on the Super Bowl. The brands were SquareSpace and Workday, and their goal was to use mass exposure for B2B brand building.
Marketing Week mentioned some other companies who made similar B2B brand building decisions in 2023. For example, Xero sponsored the Women’s World Cup while Adobe sponsored the Women’s FA Cup.
Most Notable B2B Content Marketing Trend in 2023
Zendesk, Infosys, RS Group and Hiscox also made major investments in B2B brand building. The shift toward branding from conventional product promotion has been the most notable B2B content marketing trend in 2023.
That pattern is likely to continue into 2024. In our next edition we’ll turn our attention to the year ahead.
We’ll be reviewing some of the key trends B2B marketing thought leaders are forecasting for the year ahead. So be sure to watch for next week’s B2B Billboard.
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