The value of a strong B2B brand is real.
Nine times out of ten, the winning vendor is on the buyer's
day one list. And eight times out of ten,
they're
the first vendor contacted.
Content can be a highly effective tool for building B2B brands, and don't just take my word for it.
When B2B marketers were asked to rate the top ten most effective brand building tactics, more than
half were
content related, including the entire top five.
But how exactly does
content marketing build B2B brands?
There are a lot of vague notions of "building trust and authority" out there, but I'm here to talk
specifics.
The Rules Are Different for Leaders and Non Leaders
Brands can be built in many ways (which largely boil down to doing things well).
But leader and non-leader brands occupy different market positions, have different needs (in terms
of what is and isn't useful), and face different expectations.
Therefore, the brand building rules are
somewhat different regarding what really matters
and what's nice to have.
Leader Brand Content Should Show Market Leadership
Brands are built first and foremost by selling stuff at a profit.
But many leader brands don't really need much
content focused on selling their stuff (i.e.,
MOFU &
BOFU),
because customers will keep buying without it.
And we can see this in how leaders spend a larger chunk of their budget on
sales enablement than
content marketing.
But a king's brand is built by demonstrating their kingliness.
In B2B content, this is usually done in three ways.
1. Discuss Your Exploits
This means talking about yourself. Through your impressive sales figures. Your CSR activities.
Behind-the-scenes content from your events.
Treat your brand like what you do is news. Because when you have a leader's size and admiration, it is news.
2. Expand the Body of Knowledge
Kings use their resources to create a legacy.
In B2B content, this means carrying out original research and publishing reports, whitepapers, e-books,
and even courses, addressing your own industry or your customer's.
3. Lead the Conversation
Some leader brands get along just fine without
thought leadership, but this creates risk. Because
what an industry's leaders think isn't just opinion, it's narrative.
It's the story your industry tells.
It's what your industry
talks about, what it thinks about itself and where it's going.
If you're a leader not contributing to this, you're letting your competitors do it for you.
This gives them power over you, while better positioning them to benefit should their predictions prove
correct.
It doesn't look very good either.
After all, what defines a leader but steering the ship?
Failure to contribute makes you look like a passenger.
And it doesn't matter if what you say merely repeats other leaders.
A good leader mostly says what leaders are expected to say.
Non-Leader Brands Should Show Leadership Potential
One of the biggest mistakes I see B2B non leaders make is trying to look and sound just like leaders,
including in
their content.
"Fake it till you make it" is the primary reason for this, as is the desire to win fat enterprise clients.
But dull corporatese is not what wins enterprise clients.
It's your scale, your assurances, your track record.
Which is why "fake it till you make it" rarely works in B2B.
Individuals can fake it because successful or unsuccessful, you're still just one person.
But a successful business is an empire.
It's hard to fake being one of those, but that's okay.
No leader brand starts out as a leader. They start as something else.
Apple started as a challenger brand. A challenger takes the fight to the leaders. Thumbs their nose in their
faces. Talks about what the leaders are doing wrong.
Tesla started as an innovator brand. An innovator goes their own way. Talks about new discoveries or
advancements.
Sometimes such companies end up winning the market and become leaders, sometimes they don't.
But one thing is for sure. You don't become a leader by being a copycat (or fast follower).
To build your brand through content, a brand must decide their market position and identity and talk
like that.
Talk like an innovator. Talk like a challenger. Even talk like a value alternative (by talking about
how to save money or how you're saving money).
Just lean into that identity.
People instinctually know these are the brands with the potential to become market leaders.
And potential leaders are who B2B clients want to do business with when not dealing with leaders.
They want to deal with someone they think has a future.
Show You're Not Alone
Potential leaders sometimes go it alone, but usually not for long.
They usually have a pack, so let people see yours.
Whether it's coverage of employees and behind-the-scenes stuff or coverage of your engagement with the
broader community (peers and especially customers).
It's too easy for a monkey in a trenchcoat and a couple of AI subscriptions to launch a website and
social media presence and create the impression of a business.
It's tougher to fake a business's real-world components.
Show Your Name on Your Content
Many non-leader businesses focus on standard SEO/GEO content. This can get people on your website, though
not as many
as before, but such content tends to be so dull and generic that people don't remember
the source.
In addition to thought leadership that reflects your market position, non leaders should also create
branded content assets.
Whitepapers, e-books, reports, templates, how-to guides, and infographics, laid out in your brand's colors
and with your brand's logo on each page.
And
videos with branded intros and outros and your logo visible at least some of the time in between.
Such content doesn't do as much for leader brands (since it's table stakes for them), but for non leaders
it can do wonders, especially when you do it differently or more distinctively than the leaders.
Because you don't have attention by default like they do, you must attract it.
Unfortunately, non leaders often neglect such content in favor of founder or subject matter expert (
SME)
content.
This is fine if you're
very small (since the person in focus
is likely to have a bigger reach and following
than your business), but this mostly builds their personal brand, less so your company's brand.
And what if that person leaves the company or gets very busy and suddenly isn't available to help with content
for a few months?
Your brand's
content strategy might shift to armwaving (which only creates the illusion of
accomplishing something).
And don't dismiss branded content assets as mere "
brand marketing" and therefore outside your core marketing
or content marketing responsibilities. Such content does useful work in the marketing funnel as well.
A strong brand doesn't merely get prospects into your funnel, it's also a funnel lubricant.
When your content is well branded, it more effectively moves prospects down or keeps them in your funnel.
Show You're Special
I've already alluded to this in other parts of the article, but now I'm going to hit it on the head.
Brand building content for B2B leaders is relatively easy, because the world already knows your name, and other
things about you.
And it can largely be done by a team of ex-journos with no marketing knowledge or skills whatsoever.
But building a non-leader brand with content is much harder.
Because you don't have name recognition or attention by default, you must earn it.
So fuck trying to match the leader brands in terms of content.
Because even when you do match them in terms of quality, style, and substance, you'll lose.
Leaders win all tiebreakers.
The world doesn't care what non leaders think unless you make them care.
And the world won't pay attention unless you make them pay attention.
Non leaders don't have the luxury of being boring or ordinary.
To get people to remember your name through content, it must be special.
And it's not enough to be special just once (think about all the blogs and whitepapers you've read where you
don't remember who wrote them), your content must be special repeatedly and with some consistency.
And it must be special in a way the target audience
will appreciate.
There are many ways to be special
through content.
It can be creative or entertaining.
It can have a mascot or enemy (both underused tactics in B2B).
It can have a point of view (that preferably reflects your brand positioning).
But if your content isn't special, the odds of anyone consuming it are low, and the odds of anyone
remembering it (or who created it) are lower.
There's just too much other content and stuff fighting for space, on their screens and in their memories.
One Last Thing
Brand building (aka brand marketing) is often treated as the opposite of certain marketing tactics, notably
lead generation (BOFU) and performance marketing (usually MOFU or BOFU).
This is not true, but unfortunately it's half right.
Anytime a brand asks a prospect to do something, like
click an ad or fill
contact fields to download a
whitepaper, it expends brand equity (because strong brands attract without asking).
But if the prospect likes and appreciates that whitepaper, that brand equity is won back and then some.
And it's the same with the ad. If it promises a revolutionary solution that'll make the prospect's
productivity and business better, and the product page it links to successfully expands on that promise,
the prospect will appreciate you leading them there (even if they don't
end up buying it).
Brand touches every part of your business. And any part of your business can build your brand when done right
(or exceptionally).
In short, lead gen and performance marketing aren't always the opposite of brand building.
Only when they're done wrong.
