Branding On The Web Is Like Mining For Fools Gold

I am sick and tired of marketing geeks touting the beauty of branding, brand building and just spouting branding in any context, especially when the term is used with "internet" or "web" or "digital!" You can't have a conversation today for more than five minutes without some marketing type throwing in a line about brand building!

Branding doesn't work with the net's warp speed - look at some of the leading online brand builders, including a certain big three TV network here in the states and a book seller in Seattle trying to do classic brand extension, from books to barbecues.

We tell our B2B clients to build a revenue-producing online brand by developing a campaign that sells the value of their goods or services! Forget the esoteric, very expensive brand building campaigns that have no measurable impact! Here are my ten "cliff notes" to building an effective B2B Brand Online, B2C coming next article.

1. Do a careful Competitive Web Analysis of your competitors - you can't build a unique brand without knowing the lay of the digital and real-world land! The beauty of the web is that it is a 247/365 resource for analysis and you can find out quite a lot from your competitor's web sites. We've created a comprehensive matrix of 75-200 items to assess when preparing a competitive analysis report for a client.

2. Identify your target audience early on as everything flows from this. You can't conceptualize your creative, graphical imagery, content or what type of online media you want to deploy until you know the size and characteristics of your target audience.

3. Think revenue producing branding - this translates to marketing campaigns that deliver sales (the goal of all good marketing campaigns) by customer acquisition. Meaning, develop messages that speak to your audience. B2B customers typically want referenceable data that addresses their needs. "Our xyz services help you leverage your IT resources by?." Think providing tactical information to enhance their decision-making!

4. If your early to market or just plain old early stage then you may want to develop some branding with other complementary partners who have established names (brands) in your market segment. This can include joint announcements, co-branded pages; direct marketing or opt-in e-mail pieces, etc. Here's an example of a co-branded page we did for an existing client, PolyServe, Inc. http://www.polyserve.com/partners.html

5 .Make sure you PR agency and Interactive or Traditional Agency are all in concert when it comes to building a branding campaign. Your various messages and processes should be mutually reinforcing.

6. Select an Interactive or Traditional Agency that understands your unique B2B needs. Consumer branding is much different than B2B Customer Acquisition Branding. By "understand" I mean ask them about the types of campaigns they've set up for previous clients, what types of media they've used, do they know how to develop creative that speaks to a potential B2B client - I love the "do the Dew" campaign, but this isn't the type of branding you would want to deploy for an IT Manager who is contemplating a purchase of your software.

7. How do you measure effective branding on the web? I am not sure if I have any answer or if I have unlimited answers - this is such a difficult marketing characteristic to measure. But, again, be "customer-centric" - ask people who purchase your software or services what they think. Why did you purchase (or why not if you can), did our marketing address your needs, was it meaningful and informative?

8. Think digital shelf life when branding on the web - you have to build messages and content that will only last for a finite amount of time. You have to continually refresh your branding and positioning by developing new content for a web site, opt-in e-mail or banner advertising campaign.

9. Incorporate your offline branding (creative, content, graphics, etc.) into your online branding when/where you can. So your customer has a sense of continuity when they review all of your marketing and communications processes. This also sends a signal to them that you have carefully thought through your overall campaign.

10. Last but not least - build net speed into your overall campaign. I've said it before in many articles, but always essential to underscore; better to be quick to market with something that may need slight calibration later on that to delay a facet of a campaign of the entire campaign to get everything perfect! Revenue is the engine that makes a B2B Branding campaign work and you can't drive sales unless you are putting your branding message out there in front of your potential customers!

About The Author

Lee Traupel has 20 plus years of business development and marketing experience - he is the founder of Intelective Communications, Inc., http://www.intelective.com, a results-driven marketing services company providing proprietary services to clients encompassing startups to public companies. Lee@intelective.com

Lee@intelective.com

More Resources

Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting

More Branding Information:

Related Articles

Personal Branding: Characteristics of a Strong Personal Brand
How many times have you been at a networking function and been lost for words when asked "what do you do"?We all have. But do you see this as a threat or an opportunity?Developing a Personal Branding Statement or PBS can be a powerful way to help market yourself to prospects, clients or potential employers.
Profitable Partnering
Become your customers top-of-mind choice.Some of these snapshots of real life SmartPartnership success stories can be adapted to help your kind of business (or non-profit or government agency) thrive?1.
Self-Marketing: The I Focus
Ever had one of those conversations where you wondered what the topic was and the only word you could identify was "I"?As a marketer, I often recommend marketing yourself. However, there comes a point, rather quickly in any conversation when the other person tires of hearing "I".
I Hate My Logo! What You Should Get For Your Money and Why
This is not a how-to design a logo. This is a guide to educate you on how an experienced designer can help you through a project whose outcome you will need to live with for years.
Do What Works
"Can you hear me now?"You'd be hard pressed to find someone in the US who doesn't know the company behind that question.So why do big companies, like Verizon, hammer us with the same message over and over? Because it works.
Your Small Business Name -- Important?
You bet a name is important. Many small business owners try to come up with a clever name for their business rather than one that explains what they do.
Strategy and Tips for a Successful Logo Design
Visual processing is the most important way for gathering information for all human beings. A good design or graphics work is remembered for ages and that is what drives the multinational companies to spend millions of dollars on developing their logo and other branding material.
Branding Your Business To Make More Money
Branding your comapny should be the first thing a company does. You have to convince potential customers to buy from you.
Hawaiian Heirloom Jewelry
Back to the era of the Hawaiian monarchy, the origin of Hawaiian heirloom jewelry can be found. The Hawaiian kingdom had long enjoyed a favorable relationship with England.
Brand and Market Your Business
In business exposure is everything and creating a unique image for your company is very important. Even with the anonymity of the web it is still an excellent idea to do as much face to face promotion and interaction as possible.

Experiential Marketing — Build Your Brand Memorable
The main goal of experiential marketing is to build closer ties with consumers by offering them the opportunity to interact with brands in a sensory way.Not only it excites consumers to feel attached to a brand, but the firsthand experience with your brand can also help them in making a decision to buy your products and services.

Getting New Business For a Low Price
Starting a new business is a tough task that thousands attempt to do each year. Marketing and gaining new customers is even tougher. However, in the digital age, one can keep up with fans, get new ones, and spend very little money in the process. Below are a few effective methods that do not require one to go broke, or even spend any money at all.

Custom Ink Pens One of a Few Ways to Show School Spirit
Every school has its proud students and alumni who represent every chance they get, both in and outside the classroom. Some may attend every pep rally, while others wear custom T-shirts, complete with the school colors.

All About Documentary And Television Production
Documentary and television productions are fast latching on to the viewer's imagination. As a viewer we ruminate on certain videos for long whether it be a documentary movie or a big bang theory. Documentaries are also becoming the tool of choice when it comes to creating awareness on an issue or propagating a current agenda.

Best Quality Event Staffing
Event staff operations are service oriented and it is their duty to provide best function to their guests. They attend personal guests and provide good hospitality to the guests attending a function or a party.

What Makes 'As Seen on TV' Products So Popular?
As seen on TV products are growing in popularity because they are being widely accepted by the audiences. But, what if you missed out on an important part of the ad?