The B2B Brand Activation Guide for 2022 - Industrial Ideas

B2B Brand Activation

In the interest of helping you perfect an industrial B2B brand activation strategy, here’s a brief summary of how Industrial Ideas gets there:

1 – Discovery Phase

We conduct a deep dive into your business via in-depth interviews with employees, customers, and industry stakeholders. This is also when we conduct our employee engagement research study. At the end of this, we design a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) document examining all the information gathered down to a few key insights.

2 – Strategy Phase

We define in the simplest terms: “what your brand does” , “how your brand does it” and “why your brand does it”. We’ll go then work through your positioning and identify your brand purpose. The objective is to identify and examine key elements of the brand strategy to support your “brand purpose story”.

3 – Brand Activation Phase

We help develop your story built from your brand purpose and promise. The story must be crafted in your customers’ language and make them the “hero”. Here are a few ways to help you employ storytelling for your brand:

Structure – With every story, there’s always a beginning, when an idea is formed and gains support; a middle, when a team must persevere to make their vision come alive; and an end, when the idea either fails or succeeds. Structuring your story is critical to ensure the key message resonates and the connection is made with your audience. Explore your uniqueness as an industrial brand and create a story that will be remembered.

Know your audience – they are human. They have their own set of challenges, ambitions, and feelings. Take a close look at your audience and listen to understand where they are coming from. Ask questions and learn more about them to better connect with your storytelling. Linking your story to theirs will make for a super-powerful connection.

Use Powerful Visuals – great visual design, photography, and videography, coupled with a compelling message will definitely appeal to your audience. This will accelerate the relevance of your key message in the hearts and minds of your people, customers, and key stakeholders.

Make It Personal – make it about them, not you. Similar to any form of marketing, the more you involve your audience the deeper your connection will be. So take a step back and assess where you are in your own story and marketing efforts. Listen to your audience to better understand their experiences and craft stories (and marketing content) that will be meaningful to them.

Measure and Improve

Measure what matters and needs to be improved. This is your opportunity to grow brand authenticity and optimise for customer experience, building relationships, and accelerating the sales process.

The Final Word

These 3 phases will help you differentiate your industrial brand with a real purpose. Always remember with your marketing efforts – your audience is the “hero” – that way, your brand will resonate and become their story, not yours.

Related: Communicate your Brand Promise

Download: Brand Activation Guide

INDUSTRIAL BRAND ACTIVATION GUIDE

Learn how to activate your brand, increase brand awareness and engagement levels. You’ll need to consider 5 key questions to be customer driven, enhance customer experience and set your brand up to win for the long-term. It’s the brands that challenge, create change and have the ability to inspire the people around them who will win with their Brand Activation Strategy.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peter Zafiris is an industrial marketer and founder of Industrial Ideas. Having built his experience in B2B marketing from the ground up, Peter understands what it takes to succeed with your marketing strategy. All client projects are personally managed by Peter to help industrials like you get the return on investment you deserve. Peter and team, work hard to become an extension of your business, to help you get the most out of your marketing efforts. Get your free 30 minute marketing consultation to learn more.