In this episode of the B2B Brand180 podcast, Linda interviews Nick Loise from the Sales Performance Team. They discuss  branding and marketing strategies that businesses can apply for a complete 180-degree shift in their marketing efforts. Nick discusses the importance of strong brand positioning and trust.

Key topics include mapping ideal customer profiles (ICP), crafting targeted messaging, and overcoming common industry challenges, B2B lead generation, optimal sales processes, and effective use of marketing channels.

01:10 The Importance of Branding in Sales
03:20 Understanding Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs)
05:40 Crafting Effective Messaging for ICPs
12:17 Successful Campaigns and Lessons Learned
15:19 Effective Channels for B2B Marketing
17:29 Rapid Fire Questions and Final Advice

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholasloise/

https://salesperformanceteam.com

 

Linda’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindafanaras/

Millennium Agency: Brand Strategy | Marketing | Web Design: https://mill.agency

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@mill.agency/

Linda’s Books:
Claim Your White Space
https://www.amazon.com/CLAIM-YOUR-WHITE-SPACE-CRITICAL-ebook/dp/B0CLK8VLYV

Passion + Profits: Fueling Business And Brand Success
https://www.amazon.com/Passion-Profits-Fueling-Business-Success-ebook/dp/B0CLLDDSNX/

Linda Fanaras: 0:00
Welcome to the B2B Brand 180 podcast where we’ll discuss branding and marketing tools for business. My goal today is to provide you with transformative and innovative approaches that can help you make 180 degree shift in your marketing efforts or complete reversals in brand strategies. Hi, I’m Linda Fanaras. The owner of Millennium Agency, a branding and growth strategy firm, and the host of the B2B Brand 180 podcast. Today I’m excited to bring in Nick Louise from the Sales Performance Team. Nick is a seasoned sales and marketing expert with a rich background as a salesperson, entrepreneur, executive, and educator. He has a passion for and always has been enjoying helping entrepreneurs, businesses, and professionals. market and sell products better, faster, and more efficiently. He has revamped the sales process and marketing processes, created playbooks, and introduced new business development plans focused on putting the right strategies and people in place to drive revenue. So welcome, Nick. It’s great to have you here today. I’d love for you to take a couple minutes and introduce yourself, and I’ll tell the audience what we’ll cover today.

Nick Loise: 1:10
Yeah, Linda, first off, thank you so much for doing this. I don’t think in today’s day and age we talk about branding enough and creating a brand and a brand promise and how important it is, especially on my aspect where I’m on the sales side, right? Kind of the top, the bottom of the funnel, if you will. Or the deal side, the stronger the brand, the higher the trust. And I do think right now we’re in a vacuum of trust. So I always appreciate marketers when they talk about brand, and I know the. Pressure, create leads, create deal flow, all that MQLs, Marketing Qualified Leads and all that. The pressure is great, but really it starts with great brand positioning, great brand promising, positioning and differentiation in the marketplace and what you do and what you teach for your clients. Is so critical. So thank you for that. As a salesperson, the stronger the brand, the easier it is to sell. That’s true. And therefore, the easier my job is. And thank you for that. As you said, you were gracious in my introduction. I’ve been on the marketing side. I had a marketing firm for a number of years. I was a VP of Marketing for large healthcare organization. Branched off on my own. Then went into a marketing and sales education company, and then we were doing a lot of work on the sales side. But really my passion is, the marriage of sales and marketing. The marriage of branding and differentiation. Yes. And then closing the deal because of that. And, I talked to a lot of marketers all day long and it sometimes on certain generations positioning is lost and branding is lost. So everything you’re doing is great.

Linda Fanaras: 2:39
Great. That’s awesome. So I just want the audience to make sure they stay to listen in, because we will hear from Nick and you will learn how to map your ideal customer day so precisely that the message feels very personal. I’ve written to your prospect, you’ll learn how to craft messaging that actually mirrors the buyer’s internal dialogue and that can help. Drive immediate action. You’ll also learn why most lead gen fails and how to rebuild it around prevalence, not reach, and you’ll learn practical strategies to show up where your buyers are actually paying attention and convert. So now for our discussion with Nick. So Nick, let’s get started. What do you think the biggest mistakes companies are making when defining their ICP? And maybe just explain what an ICP is first, and then tell us how you think you could fix it.

Nick Loise: 3:30
Yeah. great question. So I think, ICP in the short form is ideal customer profile, right? Sometimes we call it an avatar id, it’s all the same. Who are we selling to? What’s the buyer persona that we’re selling to? Who are they, what keeps them up at night. And your question is very good, because I think we don’t go deep enough, right? So whenever I do any work with companies, and we are creating sales playbooks, we’re taking a lot of the work that the marketing team is doing, or if they have a marketing team, and really focusing on the ideal customer, right? And what is their buyer journey look like? What are all the different things that they go through if you’re selling on the B2B side, deals are taking longer. There’s more people around the table on buyer decisions. So what I think many companies don’t do is that they maybe have their primary ICP, but they don’t map out their secondary, tertiary decision maker ICPs. So you have to have, the financial buyer, ICP, you have to have the internal rabbi, if you will, or Sherpa ICP.

Nick Loise: 4:33
You need all these different buyer personas because more and more people are around the table and deals are taking longer. And we talked a little bit about in the intro, we do have a lack of trust in today’s marketplace. People are scared, right? They’re scared of making the wrong decisions. And so really having good conversations about the ICP who they are. What their motivations are. What’s their big motivation? What’s their minor motivation? What are their fears? What are the talking points that resonate with them? What’s the communication style and language that they like? And you really have to go deep on that. And I think that it helps break through the clutter. Yeah. If you will. And helps get your messaging in.

Linda Fanaras: 5:13
Yeah. And I think if you look at, if you are looking at individuals around the table, you might have a CEO. And you might have a VP of Marketing and you may even have a COO, and they’re all looking at it from their perspective. So to your point, making sure that you’re able to position. Whatever that messaging is, or your ICP or whatever the case may be, when you know the ideal customer profile that you’re talking to, you can actually build out that messaging. So that’s a great point. And I know a lot of times demographics, I think marketers will look at general demographics, but how do you go beyond demographics and get into the daily pressures of your buyers’ actual faces and really what their needs and wants are?

Nick Loise: 5:54
I think that isn’t done enough for a couple different reasons. One is we don’t have time, right? And so we want to go fast and furious, and I’m gonna use this story. I was at a dinner of all business owners, talking about marketing and sales, right? You know, wasn’t anything fun about what’s the latest Netflix show that we’re watching, or what are we streaming? It was all about marketing. And one gentleman owned a large agency and was in the consumer packaged goods, and he was saying, he was brought in by the Director of Marketing and but around the table was the CEO was the COO was the VP of Marketing, the VP of Sales. There was all these people around the table, and so you really have to kind of go deep on the language that they speak. Think about what KPIs, Key Performance Indicators they’re responsible for. And he said something really pivotal that I believe, right? So he said the director of marketing, her number one concern is that she doesn’t wanna get fired. She doesn’t wanna hire the wrong marketing firm, the wrong marketing agency. And use 12 months, six months, anything like that. If you think about maybe Bud Light is a story that comes to mind, right? I don’t wanna go into that, but that was just the wrong strategy and probably look good on paper, probably look good when they’re ideating it, but just in the execution of it. And what And the ramifications. It was the wrong strategy. So think about what that person’s number one driver is. Think about the CEO he owns, right? The entire P and L, but then there’s probably a product line manager that you’re dealing with that owns the minutia of that. Then there’s a VP of sales, probably a VP of marketing. They all own different KPIs. They all own different things, and they’re all thinking of it from their own sphere. exactly. Everybody thinks about, and especially if you’re dealing with corporate America, they’re dealing with it from their corporate sphere. So you gotta talk strategically, you gotta talk tactically, you gotta talk messaging and there’s so many vehicles for messaging in this day and age that my hat goes off to, marketers because how do you just evaluate all the different channels just on social alone, right? You know, from TikTok to Facebook to all these different things. So you really need to be focused. And when he distilled it, one his, the number one, the director of marketing fear was, I’m gonna get fired, right? I don’t wanna hire the wrong agency.’Cause she had stumbled on the first agency’cause she had hired a much larger agency and they were too slow. So now you have tactical, how fast can you get things done for me? How fast do you get things turned around for me? And it’s not just how do I gain market share? How do I increase sales? How do I increase awareness, but how do you help me do my job better? How do you take pain away from me? Yeah. How do you accelerate the way we’re gonna get things done internally? So you gotta think about it in a 360 of the person. And far too often we’re just thinking in tactics, right? Or end results. We’re gonna increase market share. Oh, it’s like motherhood and apple pie. Everybody wants to increase mother share, but you gotta really think about the person in their seat and what they’re dealing with, along with the 50,000 other things that they’re dealing with. A full inbox, family pressures, all that good stuff. So that’s how you have to do it. I know I laid a lot on the table. We can unpack a lot of that, but that’s really what you need to think about from a holistic standpoint of how do you really deal with ICPs and different levels of ICPs.

Linda Fanaras: 9:26
So what do you recommend for the audience when they’re looking at different ICPs, like the CEO versus A CMO versus a C? How should they determine what their biggest pain points are?

Nick Loise: 9:37
one is ask, right?

Linda Fanaras: 9:39
Ask. Ask.

Nick Loise: 9:40
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, walk me through, right? Yeah, you could. Yeah.

Linda Fanaras: 9:42
I mean, yeah. Yeah.

Nick Loise: 9:44
I realize that you probably have a strategic plan as an organization, right? You’re probably have quarterly results that either you have to bring to investors or the board. So what does that look like? What are the pain points? Where have you stumbled in the past? You don’t wanna be as trite as what’s keeping you up at night, because that, yeah. but you just, I think asking, but just. Understand the language of business, right? Yeah. And marketers sometimes don’t understand the language of business. And what I mean simply by that is the language of business historically sits on the accounting side, on the CFO side, right? So what is EBITDA, right? Earnings Before Interest Taxes and amortization. What is net profit, right? What’s your goals? Usually the goals are sitting on a dashboard, sitting on the P and L and sitting on the balance sheet, right? So how do we talk through those in different languages? Because everybody owns different KPIs, right? Everybody owns different P and Ls.

Linda Fanaras: 10:39
Yep. So what process do you use for crafting messaging that actually cuts through and gets to that ideal customer in a way that converts. So we talked about pain points, but when once you figure out, okay, this is the CMO, they don’t wanna get fired, they’re looking for lead generation, they’re trying to prove themselves. How do you come up with that messaging that cuts through and actually converts to leads?

Nick Loise: 11:04
Great question. If we have the benefit of data. We’re gonna pour through the data, And AI makes it faster, right? You could just ream through a lot of different, you know, data sets right now to look for key messaging. Key scripting. Micro scripts, if they have phone calls, if they have maybe inbound customer service calls or different types of calls, we’re gonna listen to those or we’re gonna comb through the transcripts of those to see what are people saying along the way. We’re gonna spend time on the socials, So if you’re a consumer facing brand. There’s a lot of chatter, right? Some of this, But there’s a lot of chatter that’s happening in the comment section. So we’re gonna go through all of that as much as we possibly can. We’re gonna do competitive analysis, right? What are your competitions saying? What are their messaging? Where’s their gap in the marketplace? And then we just kind, you know, ideate, right? And just saying, okay, here’s what it is. There’s six human desires or behaviors. We have fear, right? We wanna gain, we want different things in life. So you have to make sure your messaging hits on all of those six different human behaviors.

Linda Fanaras: 12:15
Right. Can you kind of walk us through maybe a campaign that just just nailed it, drove results, why you think it worked, how you went about it. Maybe a little bit more insight on that.

Nick Loise: 12:27
Yeah, so there’s a couple different campaigns and I think right now I’m gonna talk about one that we launched at our agency for a new product line that we were part taking to the marketplace, and we dealt with a lot of the home improvement, home services. So this is geared towards the home improvement, home services. And if you look at that in a total aggregate, that’s a very aggressive demographic. They know they need a lot of lead generation. They know they’re fighting, they’re tired of paying for leads, the same leads that everybody else gets, or you know that they’ve been called 52,000 times, but they know that they need to spend so they know what has to happen. And so we really focused on a very distinct demographic.

Nick Loise: 13:12
That demographic was new home movers. Okay. They all knew that they needed to get to new home movers. So this is a B2B sale going to B2C, business to consumer. Consumer being the new homeowner. And so we launched a couple different products that got them in front of the new movers, as fast and furious as possible.’cause they knew that the average new home buyer usually spent everything that they were gonna spend and invest in the house within the first seven months. So you need to be there on early stages. But you also needed to be there before. So we had to kind of get to pre-move And get their messaging in front of that. And then when they moved in, we needed to get in front of that. So we launched a couple different products. Digital as well as in-home advertising to get people to that, very successful in the marketplace because one is it spoke to a need right. Desirable demographic, how to get to a desirable demographic. Key messaging. I’m gonna get your message in front of them before everybody else. Yeah. Gain market share. Gain jobs, gain sales, and yeah. You know, marketing really, I had a mentor tell me this. It’s really nothing more than human behavior and math. So we gotta get you in front of enough people at the right time that they’re ready to make forward with the right messaging. So they say yes. And so that was one that was really successful for us. So we really, that’s great. You know, kind of always hold that up. Now listen for your audience. I’ve got five others that didn’t work right. And I keep memories of those, so I don’t make those same mistakes. I still have some phone numbers that we’re waiting for at least that first phone call for that campaign to happen. I always hate when people tell you, here’s all my wins in life and never have any losers. And I’ve had my fair share of marketing spends that didn’t get a good return on investment, and many times it was outta my own pocket. So that’s always as painful as your consumer pockets.

Linda Fanaras: 15:03
Yep. Even more painful. Yeah. But as a marketer, frankly, that’s what we do. We are constantly testing. We’re constantly piloting strategies, finding out what works, tweaking, what’s working, making it better, optimizing it. So it’s just part of. What we do as marketers. So I would are there any channels that you feel are working great right now? Now let’s see. If we could just stay on in front of the B2B audience. We’re talking businesses who would sell to other businesses.

Nick Loise: 15:31
Yeah. it’s messy. It’s messy in that space. So I’m gonna say something that everybody’s gonna moan and cry and roll their eyes. The phone is working the best, right? So the phone is working substantially better than other vehicles right now. Correctly done. LinkedIn messaging is outperforming. Cold email. Cold email is messy, right? It is just a battlefield right there. And they’re getting stronger about filtering through old school, but you’re gonna, you’re a marketer, so you’re gonna appreciate that direct mail. Now, direct mail is difficult because of the fact that where are people sitting nowadays? The only thing that are easy to get to them now are they may sit from home. Are they sitting in satellite offices? Where are they at? But direct mail, if you could get to that, works very well in conjunction with the phone. Now, here’s the deal. Everybody wants the one channel. There isn’t one channel, right? So I like a, like We call it Billet Crick, right? So how many different channels can I possibly use so that I am breaking through all the different clutter, right? Events are working really well, Really, well in the B2B space. I so if I’m doubling down, if I’m a CMO right? Or if I’m a VP of Sales, which we consult with all the time, here’s what I’m trying telling them to take a look at. You know, everybody wants the easy button. Everybody wants the magic bullet. There isn’t one. Sorry guys. I’m, you know, just giving you the truth. Focus on the phone. Focus on where are your events? How can you get to those events? Either you’re at them or you’re suit casing them. Talking to people and looking at direct mail in conjunction with direct mail, phone, email. But, not really junky direct mail. Do it Yeah. Impactful direct mail, figure out what you’re gonna be able to spend for a lead for a meeting and spend that in there. So in hierarchy, the ones that I would go to right now.

Linda Fanaras: 17:29
I’m gonna ask you two rapid fire questions if you can answer those and one or two. That would be great. And then we’ll bring it to a close. So how do you test and refine messaging to stay relevant as buyers’ behaviors continually shift?

Nick Loise: 17:44
You test fast and furious, right? So you gotta go through all the different channels. Social makes it easier. You could also test, it used to be test really an expensive on bing, right? So you can see kind of what messaging is going through. But socials is the easiest way to test messaging.

Linda Fanaras: 17:57
And then what advice would you give to CEOs who wanna scale lead gen without scaling noise?

Nick Loise: 18:03
Ah, good luck. yeah, there is noise. sorry. You said that I think what you said was very critical. A lot of people move past that really fast. You gotta really think of yourself as a venture capitalist in the marketing department. And so you’re gonna have some dogs, you’re gonna have some superstars, you’re gonna have some win, and you’re gonna have some, kind of people that are just, workhorses that are producing. And so you gotta spend, but you also gotta be able to pull the plug fast. So think of yourself as a venture capitalist. You’re gonna have some channels and some campaigns that fall, or just like you talked about, you gotta test, you gotta modify, but don’t get married to them. Pull the plug as fast as you can.

Linda Fanaras: 18:40
Perfect. All right, so Nick, you have a book called The Ultimate Guide to Managing Your Sales Team, and you have two companies, Sales Performance Team, and YourSalesRecruiter.com. I’d love for you to just speak quickly about your book.

Nick Loise: 18:54
Yeah. Yeah. So it’s a quick book, right? So you could read it on the airplane is what I like to say, right? Okay. So it’s been enough to put in your briefcase and it’s a book that you could read on the airplane, when you’re flying. I gotta fly to Dallas today, so I would be able to finish it on the flight, and it’s really how to manage your sales department, how to create a process and a system, but also a platform to manage people. Because I think one of the hard, you know, everybody’s gonna say they have the hardest job in baseball, right? But the hardest job in business really is that sales leader’cause of the fact that he’s got pressure. He’s gotta manage a really diverse demographic of salespeople. We’re all a little twisted in our own way. And I say that with love and admiration. So really thinking about leadership, thinking about motivation, thinking about creating the right playbook and the right environment to have a sales team that moves through sometimes. And we deal with small to midsize businesses. They can’t really afford the A player. So you gotta create an environment that the B player can move to an A environment and performance, or that C player. Which maybe all you could afford can perform as a B player. Yeah. And so it’s really kind of setting that up and really hiring the right people and putting them on the right bus and moving that bus as fast and furious as possible.

Linda Fanaras: 20:04
That’s great. Alright. Awesome. Thanks Nick. Thanks for sharing all the valuable sales information and how it ties into marketing with our audience today. I’d love for you to tell everyone how they can get in touch with you.

Nick Loise: 20:13
I’m on the socials, right? So hit me up in LinkedIn, and Nicholas Loise, I think is the way it is. L-O-I-S-E. You could go to SalesPerformanceTeam.com, go to Sales Pack, S-A-L-E-S Pack, P-A-C-K,.SalesPerformanceTeam. And then we’ve got a bunch of goodies that we’ll give to all your listeners. We’re available. You could find us. And we love talking business and we totally love talking sales.

Linda Fanaras: 20:37
All right, thanks Nick. I appreciate you coming in again. And I just wanna take a moment and thank our audience for listening in today. And if you like what you heard, hit share or subscribe. Feel free to connect with me on Mill.Agency or LindaFanaras.com or just reach out via LinkedIn. Thank you.

In this episode of the B2B Brand180 Podcast, Linda interviews Jimi Gibson, VP of Brand Communications at Thrive Agency. Jimi, who is also a TEDx speaker and Forbes Agency Council member, shares his journey from a professional magician to a marketing expert. He introduces the concept of the ‘Magic Script,’ a framework that helps brands connect with audiences in a meaningful way by creating parallels to the stages of a magic trick.

This episode covers effective messaging, the importance of curiosity in marketing, and offers practical examples for businesses to engage their audience. Jimi also discusses his book, ‘Chasing Carrots,’ which encourages individuals to embrace their unique qualities for success.

01:00 The Magic Script: A Framework for Effective Messaging
01:38 Experiential Exercise: Building a Message
08:14 Breaking Down the Marketing Message
13:35 Creating Curiosity and the Big Reveal
16:10 The Magic Script and Its Applications
17:53 Common Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
18:56 The Power of Magic in Marketing

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimi-gibson/

https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Carrots-wont-purpose-bananas/dp/1736052624

 

Linda’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindafanaras/

Millennium Agency: Brand Strategy | Marketing | Web Design: https://mill.agency

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@mill.agency/

Linda’s Books:
Claim Your White Space
https://www.amazon.com/CLAIM-YOUR-WHITE-SPACE-CRITICAL-ebook/dp/B0CLK8VLYV
Passion + Profits: Fueling Business And Brand Success
https://www.amazon.com/Passion-Profits-Fueling-Business-Success-ebook/dp/B0CLLDDSNX/

 

In this episode of the B2B Brand180 podcast, Linda interviews Mark Dingman,  Creative Director at Millennium Agency. They discuss the common misconception that a brand is just a logo, highlighting the importance of a deeper discovery process to understand a company’s identity, personality, and target market. Mark emphasizes the pivotal role of market research, competitive analysis, and courageous, authentic messaging in setting a brand apart in the B2B landscape. Mark and Linda offer valuable insights for companies  rebranding or launching a new brand, encouraging them to adopt genuine, meaningful and creative differentiation strategies.

01:07 The Essence of Branding Beyond the Logo

01:26 Unpacking the Brand Discovery Process

05:38 The Power of Market Research in Branding

06:50 Competitive Analysis: Standing Out in the Market

09:40 Creative Direction: Merging Business Goals with Brand Identity

11:53 Stylescapes and Mood Boards: Visualizing the Brand

15:48 Unique Branding Strategies: Pushing the Envelope

For more on Mark, visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrdingman/ or  https://mill.agency

Linda’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindafanaras/

Millennium Agency: Brand Strategy | Marketing | Web Design: https://mill.agency

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@mill.agency/

Linda’s Books:
Claim Your White Space
https://www.amazon.com/CLAIM-YOUR-WHITE-SPACE-CRITICAL-ebook/dp/B0CLK8VLYV
Passion + Profits: Fueling Business And Brand Success
https://www.amazon.com/Passion-Profits-Fueling-Business-Success-ebook/dp/B0CLLDDSNX/

 

Linda Fanaras: 0:00

I’m Linda Fanaras, host of the B2B Brand CEO of Millennium Agency. We’re here today to talk about branding and growth strategies that are designed to help your business grow. But before I start, I just want to thank our listeners. And if you like what you hear today, please hit like, share, or subscribe. So today I’m very excited to bring in our own Mark Dingman, the creative director here at Millennium Agency. Welcome Mark to the B2B Brand 180 podcast. Thanks for joining me today.

Mark Dingman: 0:33

Well, it’s great to be here. I hear about this podcast all the time, listening to the episodes. Finally get to be a part of one. Looking forward to it.

Linda Fanaras: 0:41

Fantastic. So let’s start out with a quick introduction, Mark. How about you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Mark Dingman: 0:46

Ooh, there’s a lot to tell. So, hi. I am the Creative Director at Millennium Agency. I have been for, I don’t even know how long good

Linda Fanaras: 0:57

decade. Anyway,

Mark Dingman: 0:58

at least a decade. I enjoy doing a lot of the, the branding work, the creative work. Everything’s a little bit different. It’s the. The short bio on the millennium.

Linda Fanaras: 1:07

So today we’re going to talk a lot about logo, logo design, and how that ties into the branding process. So basically your brand is not a logo and some companies do think that the branding is a logo and that’s all it is, but it entails so much more than that. So. I would love to get it from a creative perspective of, you know, what does that look like for a company who wants to go through a branding process? Mark? Like, how does that discovery process work? What can a company expect to experience during that process? How long might it take? I know I tied in three questions to the one question, but maybe you can speak a little bit about that whole discovery process.

Mark Dingman: 1:50

the discovery process for us is really interesting because it’s where we get to really understand our clients and Really like dive deep into who they are, what makes them tick their different personality and just really learn all aspects of their company. And then what we’ll do is go and we’ll go back and figure out now, what, what did we learn from them that will appeal to a broader audience or their, their market, the target they’re trying to hit? So I guess not like you said, it’s not just the logo. It’s. all aspects of their business. It’s the personality and how they talk, how they respond to things, all of the aspects of it. So it’s really interesting to pull out the personalities of the people behind the company and bring that to the forefront and how making that emotional connection so that when you’re looking at a brand and there’s no one there to talk about it other than the website that’s directly in front of you. And just to have that, that tone and that, the way they talk on a website or a piece of branding materials and have it Match what it’s like to talk to that same company on the phone or in person. That’s when a brand is super successful is when what, what you see and read outside of talking to them directly match. And that’s really the goal of what we do is to bring all of that together so that the logo matches the logo, the color scheme, photography, videos, everything is unified matches and has the common purpose.

Linda Fanaras: 3:37

And I love to look at, I mean, even if you look at some of the larger brands that, you know, we’ve worked with over the years, whether it’s a edX or triple a or TJ Maxx. They all have a very specific brand identity that people can connect to on an emotional level. So, Amazon’s like a great example because anybody who buys from Amazon knows that they can have a variety of options to choose from. It’s a relatively good, you can find great pricing and they can get it within a day or two. And that in itself is a feeling that you get when you’re working, when you’re you, you want to kind of create that. Feeling that you’re talking about when somebody sees a brand or talks about a brand, and it’s not even it’s not just the logo, but it’s like, what does it stand for? So do you have any additional insight? Thoughts on that? I

Mark Dingman: 4:29

mean, when you think about Amazon, just in general, like, if you go back and look at the history of their website, Their head, their website is not, was not the best website. It wasn’t the most designed website, but it was very direct in the information that it provided. And that’s how it just kind of built itself up. And while visuals are super important. The, the user experience, especially in web is just as important. And when Amazon started putting reviews, I don’t have the data on it, but being able to have that social proof is another thing that helped that site grow more and more. it’s, it’s really interesting to see that it wasn’t, it wasn’t design led, it was very like UX led and styled in a way that drove people to their destination and gave them an easy way to buy things and cut out all the steps of having to go to the store. Look for your book, find it on the shelves, go to the cash register, pay for it. It’s just a limited so many steps and that’s how they’ve been able to do what they’ve done.

Linda Fanaras: 5:35

Yeah. And they’ve done some amazing things. How important do you think the market research process is for a company who engages in developing a brand for another company? Do you think research is important?

Mark Dingman: 5:51

Research is really important because as much as we want to learn about the company and get all their details and understand why they’re doing what they’re doing and bringing in their voice, their tone, their personalities into the brand. We also need to make sure that we’ve done the research for the person they’re trying to speak to, make sure we understand as much as we can about them, who they are, what they do. What they like to do outside of their job, all of those aspects of a person. And the more of a profile that we can build or a use case or understanding of that person, we can then craft our language, our color schemes, our visuals to resonate with that person and also get them to interact with the brand. we want the personality of the brand. We want the personality of the. Potential client. And we want them to become best friends, really. And that’s, that’s what we do.

Linda Fanaras: 6:50

I agree. Market research is so important, especially when it comes to looking at competitors to see, you know, a lot of times we’ll, we’ll hear from a client that says, Oh, here’s my competitor. I like, what their look and feel is, but we make it real big effort to not look like a competitor. And there’s reasons for that. I think it’s important. I’m sure you could speak more about this is that we’re looking for that unique identifier, especially in the brand identity and in the messaging and how we’re positioning the company based on what you said. Mark who are they as a company? What is their personality? How do we tie all this together to really make it resonate with the market? So as far as competitor data, is there specific aspects Information that you like to look at when it comes to taking a look at competitor data website versus logo versus naming. Is there anything you could share around that

Mark Dingman: 7:43

as far as talking competitors? you want to make sure that 1, the logo doesn’t look like the logo of a competitor. The color schemes there. There are the industries. Well, there’ll be similarities. Tech is always blues, healthcare is a lot of blues, purples, cooler, inviting colors. So you want to find, but even then you can still do different variations of those primary colors to be unique. And a lot of the uniqueness when you’re looking at companies is a lot, especially in B2B, a lot of them say very similar things. And it’s the companies that are willing to say things. a little bit differently or something that’s not where you were like, Oh, should I really say that you probably should, they should be things that grab your attention. And the companies that hold the line do the standard spiel they might have a really great visual, but if the accompanying content, the text, what they’re saying doesn’t stand out as much as the visual there, it just kind of blends in. So really having a unique personality and a way of talking about what you’re trying to do and getting people excited to work with you is, is a big thing that we find when we’re doing competitive research where it’s not that excitement doesn’t necessarily stand out a lot of the time.

Linda Fanaras: 9:06

And

Mark Dingman: 9:06

being being able to show the excitement and passion for what you do Is a large differentiator whenever we’re looking at competitor research,

Linda Fanaras: 9:14

right? Right and make helping them stand stand alone stand separately So let’s say you’re working with a client and you’ve gone through that discovery process you’ve done some market research and then you’ve determined their personality and The tonality that they like and how they like to speak and what their culture is and all the things that help put together the brand identity and what their goal is as a company, where they’re headed to go and what direction they’re headed how do you, as a creative director, determine the direction, the creative direction of that brand? I mean, you have so many different things to look at, you know, it’s could be their personalities, one thing, and then their business goals are another thing. And then their culture is another thing. How do you tie all those things together to make it? Work to their advantage.

Mark Dingman: 9:59

That’s the challenge. It’s it’s a lot of different things to tie together and Every projects a little bit different sometimes We’ll start with the visuals. We’ll start with stylescapes and those stylescapes will give the visual tone of where we’re going with some something but it may not necessarily cover all of the Content personality and that’s where the Visual will set the tone for the content moving forward and then there’s other times where we’ll talk with Clients through discovery and they have extremely strong personalities,

Linda Fanaras: 10:34

right?

Mark Dingman: 10:35

And if we were to do Dull content that personality doesn’t shine through and it’s a missed opportunity. Most of the time the visuals will lead into the content and the personality, but there’s always the times where you can just sense the passion talking with a client or during discovery and taking their cues and just. Spinning it into larger messaging language and branding language and the visuals. that’s what Brings it all together. It’s just that authenticity of having the brand become the people that they’re talking to when they start to talk to the company.

Linda Fanaras: 11:13

we work with companies that actually may want to change the direction of the company, which can also add another element of complexity to it. So, I mean, we have sort of what did we call our white space process where we’re able to identify. The white space in the market that maybe they haven’t taken advantage of or that they may find there’s a bigger opportunity there, which helps with the branding process too. So before I go to my next question, I just want to take a moment and thank the audience for listening in today. So if you like what you are hearing today from Mark, please take a moment to like, share, or subscribe, or feel free to provide a review on the B2B Brand 180 Podcast. So this is my favorite topic because I love design. So when we talk about stylescapes and mood boards, we’ve got some creative direction going. Maybe you can explain to the audience what is a stylescape slash mood board and like what, why do they need one?

Mark Dingman: 12:10

So the mood board or stylescape, it’s a really, it’s a really efficient way to pull a lot of visual assets together without going into the full design process for business cards, letterhead, website, styles, animations, video, all of the components. And it’s a, it’s a, cultivation of various color schemes or photography patterns or visual elements, whether they’re lines, bars, like really shapes. And what it does is it kind of tells a story of where the visuals can go for a potential brand and also gives the client an idea of like, here’s what things can start to look like. And it’s rare where we actually will use any particular asset from a style scape, but it’s a, it’s a really good jumping off point. And also what it allows us to do is we can do three mood boards for, and each one can be done by a different designer and they can have a very specific. Thing called out from that discovery process that we talked about earlier, where one might focused focus on a specific personality trait, and then we’ll do two others that are other personality traits. And it gives our clients a wide gamut of ideas. And it helps narrow our focus as we go through that process. As we start to eliminate stylescapes where we get to the one that we’re like, yeah, this is exactly what we want to be. This is exactly how we want to talk. And then when we go into building all of the assets that go into a brand websites, ID pack materials, print ads, digital ads, all of the things, we have this really solid foundation that we have a lot of buy in from the client already so that we’re not iteratively doing multiple versions of these IDs because we’ve already established this is where we’re going. And it makes the process much smoother. After we’ve gotten past the initial stylescaping. So it’s, if you think about it, like as video production or television production, it’s all, it’s all that like pre production work that makes the shooting so much smoother. We’re doing that in a, in design and visuals, just doing all of that pre production so that when we’re ready to roll, build on everything else, we have a narrowed focus on the style and it helps us create even more. More engaging design because we’re not having to cover a large gamut to try to narrow down as we’ve already started to build out lots of different things

Linda Fanaras: 14:57

And the move boards, I think, help the client get a visualization as to the direction that to your point. It’s sort of a launching pad. So it gives them a direction as to. Where we may head to that brand. It might not be the exact exact, but at least it gives them some insight on colors and fonts and maybe how we might use photography or how we might not use photography. So I think that that’s a great, a great point. It’s

Mark Dingman: 15:22

rare that we ever really use anything, like I said, like it’s, it’s a really good jumping off point, but usually that jumping off point spurs two or three more ideas that are in the essence of the stylescape, but are not necessarily, might not even be a direction that we thought we’d go, but it ends up working well because we already narrowed our focus in a style by using the stylescape process or

Linda Fanaras: 15:47

the input

Mark Dingman: 15:47

process.

Linda Fanaras: 15:48

How do you make the client’s creative strategy different? Is there a process to, that you use to make sure that what you’re creating for them or your team is creating for them is unique and just maybe pushes the envelope a little bit?

Mark Dingman: 16:03

My brain, Linda, it’s all in my brain. It’s in your

Linda Fanaras: 16:07

brain.

Mark Dingman: 16:08

No, and it’s. And honestly, it’s pushing past what we think is the safe option. There’s different brands out there. I’m trying to think of ones that stick out of my head right away. Like, when you look at, like, Harry’s, there’s a lot of, or Harry’s, like the shaving company. Yeah.

Linda Fanaras: 16:26

Yeah.

Mark Dingman: 16:27

A lot of those direct to consumer companies that would traditionally be going into Stores, Targets, Walmarts, and then you would go to the store and buy it. When you look at, their packaging and their websites, The way that they speak and the, like, the wit Every aspect of it. It’s not just a brown box. It’s a fully printed, inside outside, double sided box. There’s stuff on all of it. And it all uniformly works together. those are the things when we look at brands, we want to be building things that are unique to the industry and in, in B2B, there’s a lot of opportunity to build unique things because a lot of the time B2B is just there and they think, well, this use word of mouth. It’s okay. We don’t need to market. We don’t need to do, come up with cool packaging. But those are the things that make you unique and make people want to come back to you. And it’s, it may not necessarily be a large investment. It might be just something super subtle that something does no one in that industry ever thought of doing before. When we look at it, it might have been. It’s coming from that different perspective. It might be something obvious to us, but not obvious to them because they’ve been in it for so long

Linda Fanaras: 17:40

so that

Mark Dingman: 17:41

we can we find those things that are just like, well, what if we did this? I’ve seen it done this way in a consumer thing, but we can tweak that idea slightly. And turn it into an idea that works really well in B2B that that’s not something anyone’s doing. And that’s really what we strive to do is find those little niche things that are not necessarily what you would expect from B2B in industry and make them unique. And that’s what helps our create clients that help them stand out.

Linda Fanaras: 18:13

That’s great. Thank you, Mark. So do you have a last final tip that you would give to our audience on If they go through the branding process any top tips you could give.

Mark Dingman: 18:24

Give us everything. Give us your, your real personality and give us what you really see the company becoming that you, where you want, not just where you are, not just where you’ve been, where you want to be in five years, 10 years, just getting the authentic people that we’re talking to is like, be authentic, don’t hold back things because this isn’t like a business setting. We don’t hold back a lot. So you shouldn’t either. That’s, that’s huge. The other thing is be open to things that scare you. there are times we’ll have some really far out there ideas. Not all of them work, but there are, there are the few that if we don’t push past, like I said earlier, if we don’t push past what we think we should end up at, we never end up making anything great. And we don’t want to stop before we’ve gotten to the point where it’s different. We want to take large swings to be very different and then push it back a little bit. If we need to, I would, we would much rather. And that’s why we have to say, just be open to things because we’ll swing for the fence and then we’ll pair it back to a triple, but it’s still going to be much more unique and farther than where you were six months ago.

Linda Fanaras: 19:46

Right. pushing the limit I mean, I think what we find is we, a lot of clients will say they want to push the limit, but when it comes down to it, they do get nervous. And if they can just maintain that existence of pushing the limit, it can help them really stand out.

Mark Dingman: 20:02

That’s for sure. I’ve always said that if what we’re presenting scares you. We’re onto something and it’s okay.

Linda Fanaras: 20:11

Cause you don’t want to be just like everyone else. So awesome. Mark, thank you so much for joining me today on the podcast. I finally get to do

Mark Dingman: 20:20

it.

Linda Fanaras: 20:21

I know I’ll have to do another one. But I think all the insights that you provided was great, especially during that whole branding process and what companies should be looking out for when they actually go through this and what’s important and what, what it. What the actual whole process is like and how to get from A to B. And it’s not just a logo, but it’s way more than a logo. So, so thank you again, Mark. Appreciate that. Of course. So I just want to take a moment and thank our audience today for tuning into the B2B Brand 180 podcast. We hope that you found the insights and strategies shared by Mark valuable to your business. And again, if you like what you heard, please hit like, share, or subscribe. Subscribe. Again. I am Linda Fanaras, host of the B2B Brand 180 Podcast and CEO of Millennium Agency. And you can visit us at mil, MILL, do agency or linda fanaras.com or simply connect with us on LinkedIn. Thanks again for listening to the B2B Brand 180 podcast.

In this episode of the B2B Brand180 podcast, Linda interviews Hannah Moore from Ascendco Health about enhancing brand presence through community engagement and storytelling. Hannah offers insights into the rebranding process and the strategic importance of community-focused positioning. She discusses the necessity of being people-oriented, beyond mere product features, and the power of crafting authentic brand narratives. The conversation explores understanding customer needs, gradually implementing changes that resonate with core brand values, and leveraging social media platforms like LinkedIn to nurture community interaction. Hannah highlights storytelling’s pivotal role in marketing, creating memorable ‘Disney magic moments,’ and provides guidance for young professionals on building credibility and advancing their careers.

03:22 The Art of Rebranding: Insights from Ascendco Health’s Experience
05:08 Cultivating Community Engagement and Creating ‘Disney Magic Moments’
08:19 Storytelling and Personal Branding in B2B Marketing
11:51 Advice for Emerging Marketers: Building Skills and Network

Connect with Hannah: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannahgmoore/

Linda’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindafanaras/
Linda’s book, Claim Your White Space
https://www.amazon.com/CLAIM-YOUR-WHITE-SPACE-CRITICAL-ebook/dp/B0CLK8VLYV
Millennium Agency: Brand Strategy | Marketing | Web Design: https://mill.agency
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@mill.agency/

 

0:00

Hi, I’m Linda Fanara, host of B2B Brand 180 podcast and CEO of Millennium Agency, where we talk all about branding and growth strategies that are designed to help your business grow. But before I start, I just want to thank our listeners. And if you like what you are listening to today, please hit like share or subscribe. So today I am excited to bring in a young professional, Hannah Moore from Ascendo Health. She has managed pivotal rebranding process, repositioning the brand to better address the challenges and needs of industry partners through community engagement. So we’re actually going to be talking about industry partners through community engagement and how we can elevate that process with our actual markets that are out there. So welcome Hannah to the B2B Brand 180 podcast and thanks for joining me today.

Hannah Moore: 0:52

Thank you, Linda. I am happy to be here.

Linda Fanaras: 0:54

Yeah. So let’s let’s start out with a quick introduction Can you tell the audience a little bit about yourself?

Hannah Moore: 0:59

Absolutely. So I am a serial extrovert. I thrive on being around people learning from them, and really understanding how to connect with them, which has obviously been very pivotal in my success as a marketer so far. the background of Four years in healthcare marketing recently pivoting towards software. I’ve specialized in creating brand narratives that truly resonate with consumers. Even early on in my career, my approach is really rooted in the belief that people buy from people. I’ve really found my greatest success in moving. Beyond technical specifications of products and being more people oriented and telling genuine stories from within our organization and through that successfully navigated a cultural rebrand to be more people centric in the SAS space telling stories is, is more than just selling. And I really think it creates a community that feels deeply connected and invested in our brand. So I’m really passionate about. that and driving that in the marketing field.

Linda Fanaras: 1:56

No, that’s a great way. That’s a different way of looking at marketing. I think a tech brand. So I think building a community around that and really, I think a lot of the tech brands tend to focus on features and benefits. But really, how do you cultivate a community that actually drives engagement is is what we’ll chat a little bit about today. So as a young professional in the industry, are there strategies that you found most effective Let’s just talk about you for a minute about setting yourself apart and try to build some credibility.

Hannah Moore: 2:23

Absolutely. I think obviously in marketing right now, it is a really tough deal to get into, especially around brand management. I would say that I did get my master’s in marketing specifically, which really allowed me to Be a lot more hands on, I think, in your undergraduate degree and kind of starting out, you build, you build a lot of theoretical side of marketing. You kind of understand the why, but I think being able to apply that is really most important when you’re getting into marketing, I would say, obviously getting lots of certifications and doing as much as you can to get experience. So building out a portfolio early on, being able to I think a lot of. People young specialized really. Starting off and they get really into social media or they really go down a path which can be painful when you’re trying to find a job and not being able to Have that perspective of how does everything work from a full scale marketing approach?

Linda Fanaras: 3:20

So rebranding is a huge task and I think for those who don’t really understand the process, it sounds easy and it sounds like quick, Oh, let’s just throw together a quick logo. But that’s not the case at all. So can you walk us through maybe at least the key high level steps that’s necessary to navigate that, what you did to navigate a successful rebrand at a Senko Health. And I guess one of the, some of the top lessons that you learned that you can share with the audience.

Hannah Moore: 3:49

Absolutely. I think that Of course, rebranding is obviously extremely risky, and sometimes it is a mistake to even rebrand in the first place. So how I look at it is you have to first determine the why, and of course that comes from a lot of different places. It comes quantitatively from understanding your customer data and also from Really just getting to know your customer experience. So for us personally, we had kind of seen a historical stigma in the marketplace where we’re in a sterile processing space where historically they hadn’t been in power to solve their own problems. And a lot of our marketing tactics have been. centered around the, all of the software features rather than the people. So I would say first, obviously doing lots of research and understanding the why. Second is don’t make abrupt changes. I think you kind of have to keep those. core values in place and being able to communicate that comes from doing, making changes really slowly. So you have to understand how you’re aligning your brand to be better in line with your brand’s values. And how do you communicate that with stakeholders in a way without, I don’t want to just really making sure that your brand stays in line with the core values and being able to communicate that to your stakeholders is most important.

Linda Fanaras: 5:07

So when you’re built talking about building a community around a brand, it’s obviously crucial if you want to have engagement and lead generation, you know, you need those cheerleaders around you. So are there certain tactics that you could recommend to our audience that actually helps cultivate that community engagement? You know, you know, feel and how have you leveraged that to actually drive new leads? Because I think sometimes when we talk about social media, you know, a lot of companies can’t necessarily put their finger on, Oh yeah, our social media posts are driving new lead opportunities or new sales opportunities, but it’s such an important aspect of the marketing. So if you could speak to that, I think it’d be great.

Hannah Moore: 5:47

I think community and the narrative that you’re telling goes hand in hand, which most people don’t generally think about. So how I’ve really leveraged it is I told you I’m a people person. Relationship building is really my bread and butter. So we started a LinkedIn group where essentially the shift in the marketplace is really people want to hear from people. And so we’ll have our software team sharing We’re thinking about implementing this new feature. What do you think? And that’s the way that people are automatically invested in what we’re doing. They feel like they’re a part of the team and they’re giving us concept feedback, which obviously helps drive strategy from a marketing standpoint. Also though, from a perspective shift of your customer base, it really aligns them with your values and makes. The organic, the word of mouth marketing, which really drives the most leads much easier to develop.

Linda Fanaras: 6:37

I think everybody likes talking about disney and they’re always creating sort of these magical moments that resonate deeply with their audience Especially Children. So if we were to talk about that, how have you incorporated this concept? You know, the sort of Disney magic moments into your brand’s engagement strategy to create sort of that memorable customer experience.

Hannah Moore: 6:59

Absolutely. I think, especially in the SAS space, we have a lot of those Disney magic moments where you hear a story of someone needing your project to do this, and this is how it’s going to change their day to day. And you really quickly can operationalize that. And I think that speaks to a Disney magic moment as we would like to call it on. How do you hear a customer need really quickly operationalize that? And how do you utilize that from a marketing standpoint? So how I like to put it is we are a platform for the people that we serve. So framing it as an opinion leadership in their perspective, we did, you know, something that really helped their day to day and then letting them tell their story organically and being able to utilize that as a content strategy. So hearing why that worked for them, how they partner with us and being able to talk about that in your LinkedIn group, having that in the newsletter, having a tick talk about it. Yeah. Where it’s much more just organic content rather than trying to push this narrative or push this testimonial. Just having them speak in their own words and share the why.

Linda Fanaras: 8:02

That’s great. Awesome. I just want to take a moment today to thank our audience for listening in. And if you like what you’re listening to regarding building community engagements with your brand strategy, please hit like, share or subscribe. So let’s talk about storytelling a little bit, because that’s always a hot topic, especially when it comes to B2B marketing. Are there examples that you can share with our audience that maybe include some successful storytelling strategies that resonated with audiences? That you’ve either used or could recommend.

Hannah Moore: 8:35

Absolutely. So I think we’ve really seen a shift in how media consumption is talked about in the marketplace right now, where people don’t necessarily want to hear the sales pitch every single day there they want to, when they’re on Tik TOK, when they’re on Instagram, they’re not there to necessarily learn about your product. And so I think, as I said before, people buy from people. So I have seen much more engagement. From us, just I will say, Hey, we’re going to a conference. Walk with me through my day. This is what we did. This is our why you can see into our office. Just really having that organic employer content, I think has been instrumental and really building out a community, but also just really increasing engagement with our content.

Linda Fanaras: 9:19

When you’re talking about, especially on the SaaS side, I think you’re dealing with sort of tech, all those technical aspects of products. And then there’s technical aspects of marketing, like SEO and data analytics. And then there’s the creative and the personal branding side. How do you tie all these things together to make sure that everything is cohesive and you have an effective brands and marketing strategy?

Hannah Moore: 9:43

Yeah, I think it really comes down to understanding what your core values are. So of course, we want to be really people centric. We want to be tied to what the day to day problem is of our user and empowering them. So from an SEO standpoint, you have to think, obviously you’ll do your keyword research, but what are the problems that people in the marketplace are seeing? We would have, you know, blog posts about that. That’ll really drive our SEO strategy. Secondly, from a thought leadership standpoint, of course, we have, we’ve been really focusing on employee generated content and we have those topic areas, so kind of how we do it is we build out a content calendar. If these are all the problems that we’ve seen in the marketplace, we have that driver blog strategy. We have employees talking about that, and it really just ties it all in to focus back on the values and the problems that you’re trying to solve without, you know, being so sales focused,

Linda Fanaras: 10:34

right? Are you able to successfully engage employees in the social media aspect of what you do?

Hannah Moore: 10:40

I would say it’s, it’s always a work in progress. I think it’s all about building from the ground up. So like I said, we started the LinkedIn group. They can start there and share their experiences of using the software, building the software. And I think that builds. The from people outside of the marketing space really builds their confidence in talking on social media, and then they can see how that’s helping people and then really use that to expand out into the real world of social media,

Linda Fanaras: 11:08

right? Do you think the linked in the groups have really been effective?

Hannah Moore: 11:12

I do think so. I think it’s again, a way of building relationships. It’s also. Something that we’ve seen spawning, which has been really interesting is peer to peer mentorship. So we have a lot of key stakeholders or users of a long time, and a hospital will have an issue, someone will be talking about it, and then we see that someone in their area who has been successful in implementing a new functionality will kind of book on a partner together and help each other. Which I think has been really interesting and just building that community and having. Ownership of that platform really sets us apart in the marketplace and claiming the white space there.

Linda Fanaras: 11:48

Yeah, that’s awesome. So there’s plenty of young marketers up and coming, emerging marketers that are, you know, coming up the ranks, learning marketing. It takes a long time to really understand the ins and outs. Are there, do you have some advice for developing their skills, maybe building their network and just creating opportunities for growth? Yeah, absolutely.

Hannah Moore: 12:08

Absolutely. I think one thing it’s, it’s easy to have is imposter syndrome when you’re going into the market. However, my advice to, to anyone would be, I think young marketers have a unique perspective. We’ve, we’ve grown up with all of this technology. We understand generative AI. We’ve kind of gone through all of this and I think being able to a show that you have those skills. So, Really taking the courses in, in digital marketing, making sure that you’ve done all of those certifications to have the proof behind it. And then networking wise, I would say, I, I call it the college kid cuteness or whatever you’re kind of in college, kind of coming out of college, people want to help you and they are very invested in. Seeing people succeed. So I would say, don’t be afraid to reach out to people who are in your industry, who you’re interested in. I think that’s where I’ve seen the most success is just having a blind confidence that you can do it and definitely leveraging people within your network to succeed.

Linda Fanaras: 13:10

That’s great. Do you think there’s any other insights and strategies and ideas that you could share with the audience today that you think would be important?

Hannah Moore: 13:20

Absolutely. I would say we’ve, we’ve talked a little bit about technology. I would say my, my biggest takeaways are, you know, AI is, it’s great for efficiency. It’s great for automation. However, like I said, I’ve, I’ve seen the best and the most successful campaigns. Come from people talking about their day to day struggles. And I don’t think that’s something that, that AI can, can really do. It’s a, it’s a probability machine and we are logical reasoning machines. And I think it’s important to drive strategy from your brain and then use AI to really leverage that successfully and personalize it at a scale. And then my next, Recommendation to marketers would be, I think it’s really easy for us to, to be. In our own little bubble and kind of far away from the end user. I think that’s something that we do really well at a SYNCO is I’m constantly talking with our end users. Obviously the LinkedIn group and other avenues are helpful for just hearing feedback constantly. But I also build those relationships with people. I’m constantly in contact with our account managers and our account managers actually give us social media ideas. They help work on social media. So I think. Really building a community and within your own company around marketing and making sure that everyone is aligned. It goes really far in building those relationships.

Linda Fanaras: 14:37

That’s a good point. Are there other points that you can provide? As far as sort of expediting an individual’s professional journey. I know we talked a lot about, you know, being a young professional. I just, I know you’re saying like networking, get to know people. Are there other things that you think might be important? Having a good mentor maybe, or?

Hannah Moore: 14:58

Definitely. I think having a good mentor comes from your network. I would say something that I saw a lot of success with, especially early on in interviewing young in my career, was definitely around. You know, you know what you’re passionate about. Everyone has a brand that they really resonate with. Even if that’s not the job that you’re going for. I think being able to build out a portfolio and show I ran a mock social media campaign and showing that these are what I would do. This is why I think. In the marketing field, a lot of what they’re, what companies are looking for are your reasoning and your why. And I think having those creative ideas is hard when you’re starting out your, your career and being able to show that you have these creative ideas. So I would definitely recommend doing some mock projects and whatever you’re passionate about and being able to put that on a portfolio can really drive your success early on in your career.

Linda Fanaras: 15:51

So just as far as like the last tip or point, would you, do you have any sort of final words you’d like to share with the audience?

Hannah Moore: 16:00

Yeah, I would say again, very young in my career and I think just being able to have a personality in marketing, that sounds really odd to say, but I think Leveraging again, it all goes back to relationship building, but I think I’ve seen so many successes in my job because I have been able to leverage those relationships. So I think yes, professionalism is good, but being genuine and being able to make those personal connections is something that you should really prioritize.

Linda Fanaras: 16:28

No, that’s great. Awesome. Thank you, Hannah. So, I just wanted to take a moment and thank our audience for tuning in today to the B2B Brand 180 podcast. We hope that you found the insights and strategy shared today from Hannah valuable and actionable to your business. Again, thank you for coming in today. We appreciate having you. And I’d love for you to share how businesses can get in touch with you.

Hannah Moore: 16:50

Yeah, of course. I am on LinkedIn as Hannah Moore and it’s just linkedin. com slash n slash Hannah G Moore.

Linda Fanaras: 16:57

Right. Awesome. So, again, I’m Linda Fanaras, host of the B2B Brand 180 Podcast and CEO of Millennium Agency. And you can visit us at mill, M I L L dot agency, or lindafanaras. com, or feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. And thanks again for listening to the B2B Brand 180 Podcast.

In this episode of B2B Brand180, Linda interviews Robert Weiss, President of Sales & Marketing at MultiVision Digital, on the critical role of video in B2B branding and growth strategies. This episode covers strategies for beginning with video marketing, maximizing production value on a limited budget, and highlights video’s increasing importance in digital marketing. Robert also stresses the significance of message clarity, preparing but not scripting conversations, and viewing video as a long-term investment.

Robert’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertweissnyc
MultiVision: https://www.multivisiondigital.com/ and https://videoformanufacturing.com/

Linda’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindafanaras/
Linda’s book, Claim Your White Space:
https://www.amazon.com/CLAIM-YOUR-WHITE-SPACE-CRITICAL-ebook/dp/B0CLK8VLYV
Millennium Agency: Brand Strategy | Marketing | Web Design: https://mill.agency
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@mill.agency/

 

Linda Fanaras: 0:00

Hi, I’m Linda Fanaras, host of the B2B Brand CEO of Millennium Agency. And we’re here today to talk about branding and growth strategies. But before I start, I just want to take a moment and thank our audience for tuning in. And if you like what you hear, just hit like, share or subscribe. So today I am very excited to bring in Robert Wise, president of Multi Vision Digital. They’re a New York video production and marketing company. They offer video strategy, production and marketing services, and with over 1400 videos under their belt, they understand everything video. Their clients range from single entrepreneurs to global 500 companies. So welcome Robert to the B2B Brand 180 podcast and thanks for joining me today.

Robert Weiss: 0:48

Thank you for asking me to be on and hello, everybody who is listening.

Linda Fanaras: 0:52

I would love for you to start and take a moment, tell everybody about yourself, give them a little bit of information on you and your background.

Robert Weiss: 0:59

Thank you. I’ll make this quick because who cares about me, but first time entrepreneur, I started a video production company without any background in video. And over the last 13 years, we’ve done about 1500 videos. Across every single business objective. So that’s what I think we’re, I’m really proud of is that as video is adopting still adopting after all these years, right? All the digital marketing technology from websites to email marketing, to social, to video has all been, you know, something people never did and now they do it. So all those technologies have been adopted, and one of the things I’m really proud of is helping our clients to see video, not as this big video production, but as a communication vehicle for sales, for marketing, for thought leadership, for social credibility like we’re doing here for all these different business objectives that happen to be video. So I’m really proud of that. And you know, we’ll continue doing what we do.

Linda Fanaras: 2:03

So I would love to start with this question because I think a lot of companies struggle when they think about. Doing a video, it just seems and feels like such a huge undertaking. So if you were to talk to a company or even a sole entrepreneur, where should they get started when they start to think about

Robert Weiss: 2:21

video? Okay. So you just gave me like a softball to one of my favorite phrases here. So the first thing to do when you start thinking about video is to forget about video. It’s about what you’re doing from a business standpoint. So is it a new product that you’re launching or an innovation of the product that you already, you know, have? Did you just get HubSpot and you’re developing an email nurturing campaign or a new website? Now you have to do content marketing. These are all business objectives. Or if it’s a bigger company, they probably care about sustainability, right? And they’re putting money into their sustainability report. So lead with that first. And once you decide what your business objectives are, what types of messaging Or content would you create if video never existed, Oh, we need to explain the product and we need to answer questions about the product. We need to talk about the numbers of our sustainability. Here’s 10 topics that we want to become a thought leader in. And then once you have those, that becomes your, roadmap for long term video strategy. But now you need to accomplish that in short term projects and your current business objectives are going to check off your first projects. And once you do that. Then you go back to the drawing board and you, what are your next projects from a business standpoint and check that off. And one of the great things about video is that it lasts for a long time you build a library of video content, very similar to the way organizations have a library of brochures now. And that’s, that’s the longterm goal. So, you need to start doing that sooner rather than later, and that’s the answer to the question of where you get started. Yeah,

Linda Fanaras: 4:19

and what I really like about what you said, because I think this is important for anybody, especially if they’re planning on either being on video or thinking about having a video, is stop thinking about video. think about it as telling a story, whether it’s a story or a testimonial, maybe it’s a corporate brand essence video. What, what are you trying to get across? What’s the point that you’re trying to get across to start that process?

Robert Weiss: 4:43

Many times they have that in a brochure on a website page in a PowerPoint. They’ve already done that messaging, because your video content on that particular subject should not be far off from. The other mediums that you have, it should, they should align, right? So therefore when people think that way, you’re like, Oh, well, this video is really not that hard now. Right. I can understand the starting point.

Linda Fanaras: 5:10

How do you talk to, or how do you discuss, you know, there’s costs associated with video and it’s absolutely worth it, but I think some companies feel like maybe it’s not worth the cost. How do you tackle something like that?

Robert Weiss: 5:22

It, that, that’s a hard one to sell against, but here’s the, the methodology of approaching an investment with video, every company is going to have their own level. I would say the open and transparent with your video production company and let them know you have. a reasonable budget, right? That means 5, 000 to you, 15, 000, 20, 000, 30, 000, 50, 000 for another, right? Right. That’s reasonable to that company and challenge that, that video production company to give you the most value out of that. That is mostly done by not producing one video and creating, it’s called batch producing. And I use the analogy of baking cookies. Would you ever like take all the ingredients out, mix the bowl, spark the oven to make one cookie? Right? No. You would make many cookies, right? So when you make many videos, the investment. Is amortized across more pieces of content that happened to be video. And thus the, the ROI goes up now that all, that being said, a video for sustainability that needs to be shot probably at different locations, have some nice music behind it, motion graphics. Is very different than a thought leadership talking head type of video project where I can do five or 10 videos on location or even remote one day. Very different investment than that sustainability or product video or case study where I need to be on location for those things. Right. So, so again, that’s where some of the conversation comes in. Let the professionals help you make decisions. And how to leverage that budget. And you can only do that by not saying, Oh, how much is this going to cost? Cause every video is going to be like, well, do we go on location for five days or no dates? And that’s very different. But if you come to them and say, okay, here’s my objective. Here’s about what I want to invest in this. How can I get the most amount of content? From that, and that’s a great conversation we’d love to have. Yeah, I

Linda Fanaras: 7:44

like that strategy because I think companies can think about that in a longer term perspective. So just, instead of just pushing out one video, maybe if you take some time and take some additional B roll and think that through a little bit and think, okay, maybe in the future I might need another video on this product, or I might need another video that highlights this employee. How can we use that video production time? While they’re on site and take advantage of getting some B roll and maybe using that at a later time Maybe you’re not putting everything together immediately, but it’s something that you’re maintaining, you know, you’re you’re actually shooting

Robert Weiss: 8:23

I’ve got an example here on a whiteboard that I did today this morning Around kind of this this topic. So I’ll flip it up and hopefully okay people I’ll explain it So people are just listening can hear but basically this company had to two products Azure and some Pineapple product and what we planned on is doing two product promotional videos, one for each, but when somebody is going through the initial stages of understanding the product, they get it and then ultimately they have questions about that. So this, this particular project, instead of doing two promotional videos. We’re now doing two promotional videos, but then we’re doing like FAQ videos on each product to answer common questions that their sales team knows are going to come up. And yes, they will spend nominally extra investment for this because we’re doing more videos. Then just the two, but the per video cost is going to be driven down and considering that those follow up questions are germane to generating qualified leads. The return on investment is there for, for a nominal Delta on an increase in investment in the entire project.

Linda Fanaras: 9:45

I think the other thing, you know, I’d love to share with the audiences because maybe they don’t necessarily think about this all the time. If you’re looking at marketing from a. From one perspective, and you’re talking about maybe putting together a podcast or a radio spot versus writing a blog or putting together a case study. The beauty about video is that you do get that audio visual component and you’re hitting on a lot more senses than you would if you were to just write a blog or if you were to just, put together a radio spot. So being able to. See the emotional aspect of a video is really powerful for any company who’s interested in getting their message across. And that’s one of the beauties, I think, about video that, you know, companies should really consider. So what’s your thought on scripting, Robert? Do you think companies should be scripting or do you think they should wing it? Neither. Okay,

Robert Weiss: 10:41

they should not script it, but they should not be prepared and I’ll go back to, I’ll go back to my chart here with the two products. Okay. This, this particular company I do a lot of manufacturing trade shows and I met them at a manufacturing show. And I know that when people walk up to the booth. And their people talk about this, this product, they don’t have a script, they’re professional, they answer the questions, they’re personable. And that’s what we want to mimic in video, that, that personal interaction by having people on camera. So we want to be prepared. We want it, we want to do this and we want to know what the key messages are of the product and we want to know what the questions and answers are of the questions. So everybody is prepared, but this is not something that these people have not done a hundred times already. Right. They’ve done it. They just need a little bit of professional services. around the planning and the coaching and the editing to make them come across Like who they are on camera and that’s that’s what we do for for a living. I don’t like scripts when Every time with the exception of like a really kind of like a ceo message that has to be super on point You don’t use scripts or teleprompters Because we want people to be who they are, and if they mess up with just a little bit, that’s fine. That means you’re professional and you’re human,

Linda Fanaras: 12:12

You know, video has really taken off over the last, five plus years. Why do you think that’s the case? Especially on the digital side.

Robert Weiss: 12:21

I think there’s a lot of reasons for that, and I’ll say there’s, you know, soft reasons and hard reasons, and I’ll start with some of the soft ones where you mentioned, two minutes ago about it conveys emotion and really shows. When you’re selling a product or a facility, people will be able to see that and they’ll be able to make their own decisions. Video is quick. It’s easy. It doesn’t allow the buyer to have a lot of effort to figure things out. You’re telling them video lasts for a long time. It showcases people. When people can’t be there, you know, literally if I send you a link, you can watch three or four videos of me in a, in a, you know, black shirt right now. But then I’m in a suit, I’m at a show, I’m in a studio, I’ve got long hair, man, I might be scruffy at one point and over those little pieces. You’re going to kind of see the different looks of, of Robert and get the information that you need to either enter into or go through a buying cycle. And that’s what video does for both the buyer and seller, right? And then it lasts for a long time. Most videos last for four or five, six years. My client’s using videos that are created seven years ago, right?

Linda Fanaras: 13:40

Those are great reasons.

Robert Weiss: 13:42

We are becoming a nation of watchers first. That’s a fact. Yeah. I should have led

Linda Fanaras: 13:51

with that. Oh, it’s okay. We got it in. So before I go on to my next question, I just want to take a moment and thank our audience. And if they like what they hear today, just hit like, share, or subscribe and I’ll provide a review to the B2B brand one 80 podcast. So since this is a B2B. You know, channel, Robert, I’d love to hear from you. What do you think the most important part of B2B video is if you were to pick out maybe one or two critical components of B2B video,

Robert Weiss: 14:20

The message, the message, the message, the message. I say this all the time. What would you say to somebody standing in front of you? Cause people are like, Oh, I need to write a script. I need to do this. I’m not sure what to say. That’s the message. You know, what, what, what do buyers want to know? And that’s where it starts. And my job is to put visuals to that. So don’t start with what you want to see. You know, that’s not initially important. And then the second thing is videos a marathon. It’s not a sprint. Mm hmm. So just because you’ve done one video or five videos, you should be getting into a flow and a cadence of doing X amount of videos per year, whether that’s two projects, four projects. You know, you’re going to figure that out. You should be having a cadence of working with professionals, like my company, doing videos on your own, because you will learn how to do it better and get into your own flow and develop a culture of, of video. Okay. And that’s, those are two key points that I would say to anybody listening.

Linda Fanaras: 15:29

There are so many important factors of being effective, I think on the B2B video piece. And one of the things that, you know, we found over the years is sometimes companies have a lot of things to say. And when it comes to video, it seems if you can be as clear and concise and. Point when it comes to a key message, not too many messages, it can be much more effective because that peer, unless you know, unless you have a law, unless it’s a long video, it seems to me that a very succinct message and maybe one or two key messages versus like three or five or six messages could be much more effective. Can you speak to that a little bit? Yeah.

Robert Weiss: 16:10

I mean, never make a video longer than it has to be. That’s Thanks. That’s the golden rule. I wouldn’t stay focused on the length so much because that’s for television advertising, right? So get in and get out with the key messages that you want. And you’re right. Don’t shove five messages into a video, right? We did, we did a a video project for a steel company and they did it. They have an inspection line of this, of the steel coils. And this inspection line had. Eight different parts to the, to the line. So we did one like high level overview video of the line that really kind of highlighted the line, the technical parameters and going into all the different parts, that video is like eight minutes long. Right. Right. But think about the alternatives of somebody evaluating this 2, 000, 000 plus purchase. Mm hmm. They need to get PowerPointed to death multiple times. They need to maybe go visit the location, go through the sales process, versus watching an eight minute video. So who cares about length at that moment in time? Mm hmm. You’re getting all the information you need piece by piece. For this huge purchase. We did also five other videos that pulled apart, like key differentiators of this line that were kind of new innovations to this line that people didn’t understand. So we, again, we highlighted them in that eight minute overview, but then we did kind of like follow up videos that drilled into the, those five key aspects. And in totality that gave buyers everything that they wanted to know. Yeah. Those follow up videos, they weren’t, weren’t eight minutes. They were two minutes, or one and a half minutes, or three and a half minutes, whatever they ended up being to really explain that one particular piece of technology.

Linda Fanaras: 18:08

Do you have an opinion on, when you’re putting together video and you have plenty of B roll and then also incorporating stock of video and also voiceover versus, you know, maybe an individual talking, do you have any thoughts, preferences, mixing that up? Good idea. Not a good idea.

Robert Weiss: 18:29

I guess no, because we’ve done all of that. Okay. You know, we’ve done strictly voiceover with Okay. Live footage. We’ve done strict voiceover with all stock footage. We’ve mixed stock footage with live footage. We’ve mixed voiceover with person talking. We’ve done all of that. But that’s where I would say the secret sauce comes in with working with a video production company and not making those decisions up front. don’t come to us and say, I want to see this. I want to see this. I don’t want my video to see that. And I want a drone. Right. Right. Why do we need a drone? explain to me why we need a drone to show this, this product. Right, right, right. Different. We need a drone. Exactly. So again, going back to the messaging, the messaging, messaging, meshing is going to drive the visuals. And sometimes. We’ve applied either somebody talking or the voiceover talks about the industries that that particular product or application has, and as they’re talking about the different industries, you know, automotive, metallurgy, pharmaceuticals will pop stock footage or visuals of those industries up. Right to be able to relate to the customer. But again, that’s driven by what the message is, not by what we’ve decided we’re gonna show.

Linda Fanaras: 19:56

So do you have two, three tips that you think, I know, even if it’s a recap of what you could share with the audience before we jump off?

Robert Weiss: 20:05

just from a recap standpoint, it’s probably nothing that we haven’t said. Messaging, messaging, messaging, yeah. And be transparent with your video production company. There’s a lot of good ones out there. They’re not trying to screw you. The more budget you give them, I’m not going to say the better video, right? Because you can do a really good video for 5, 000 and, but you can do an amazing video for 50, 000. It’s just the amount of the resources that you will allow them to be able to execute your, your project. And there’s a lot of variables. So they’re experts. They want repeat business from you, right? So if they don’t do a good job the first time and use your budget wisely, you will not go back to them. And that’s not what they want.

Linda Fanaras: 20:52

That’s awesome. Thank you so much, Robert. That was fantastic. I’d love for you to absolutely, I’d love for you to share how businesses can get in touch with you. I know also we’re planning on putting a link in the comments. I don’t know if you want to speak about that as well, but I would love for you to share that. To get started here. Yeah,

Robert Weiss: 21:10

this is just a, it’s a video about building qualified leads, you know, with, with video and some examples there. So it’s a minute and 55 second video. If you’re a manufacturing company, go to video for manufacturing video, F O R manufacturing. com. If you’re just a regular B2B company, you can go to multivision digital. If you’re a manufacturing company, you can also go to multivision digital, but we’ve got a manufacturing portfolio there, but we have manufacturing video for manufacturing. com set up specific. For the different types of manufacturing companies, because we love that we love that area. It’s a lot of fun. That’s awesome.

Linda Fanaras: 21:51

Great. Thank you. No, absolutely. Absolutely. So thank you again for tuning into the B2B Brand 180 podcast. We hope that you found all the insights and strategies shared today helpful and valuable to your business. And again, I’m Linda Fanaras, host of the B2B Brand 180 podcast and CEO of Millennium Agency. Feel free to visit us at mill, M I L L dot agency, or just connect directly with me on LinkedIn. And just to help our channel grow, love for you to hit like, share, or subscribe. Thank you. And have a great day.

In this episode of B2B Brand180,  Linda  is joined by Joelly Goodson, a  branding expert and podcaster.  They explore the critical role of sustainability in driving B2B brand growth, offering practical strategies for integrating eco-conscious practices into branding and marketing efforts. Joelly shares her journey and experiences, highlighting how brands can leverage sustainability not only as a corporate responsibility but as a powerful tool for differentiation and engagement in the competitive B2B landscape.

Tune in to gain valuable insights into building a brand that stands out by standing up for the planet.

More about Joelly: https://www.brandingmatters.ca/
You can follow Linda at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindafanaras/
and visit Millennium Agency at https://www.linkedin.com/company/millagency/

 

Linda Fanaras: 0:00

Hi, I’m Linda Fanaras, host of the B2B Brand 180 podcast and CEO of Millennium Agency, where today we’re going to talk about branding strategy and lead generation plans. But before I start, I just want to take a moment and thank the audience for listening in. And if you like what you heard today, please. Like share or subscribe to help our channel grow Today i’m super excited to bring in Joelly Goodson from badass You can probably see from her shirt because she is a badass for sure She has more than 20 years of experience and she’s been helping companies build their brand and grow with what i’ll call badass Merchandise. So, she launched also Branding Matters, which is a podcast that’s fantastic and continues to grow rapidly, which is something I’m sure she’ll chat about a little bit more, but I would love for you to tell the audience a little bit about yourself and what we’re going to cover today.

Joelly Goodson: 0:56

A little bit about myself. Well, how much time do we have?

Linda Fanaras: 1:00

You can

Joelly Goodson: 1:01

talk as long as you want. I know it’s funny whenever anyone asks that question, I’m always curious. Like, well, I can really go anywhere, but I’ll stick to the topic at hand, which is obviously something we’re both passionate about, which is branding. So just as far as my career goes, I have been in the marketing and advertising industry for. Gosh, almost 25 years started when I was 10 and I come from an agency background. You know, I used to work at a bunch of different agencies. The last one being Ogilvy where I was a copywriter. And then after doing that for several years, I decided that I wanted to be more. Facing front with the client. So I got into sales, but still doing marketing. So the merch industry was a natural progression for me because I was able to still use my creativity and strategy and all my branding and marketing background, but working more with clients one on one and coming up with great campaigns and ideas to help them build a brand. So that’s my sort of background and then my podcast I launched, that’s my new baby that I launched January 1st, 2021. And I really started that because basically COVID was the inspiration. A lot of people were laid off from their jobs, forced entrepreneurship was a global thing. And I just noticed that there was a lot of people on social media specifically. So, Basically going out there and saying, buy my product, buy my service, starting their own businesses and not really taking the time to figure out who they are, what their brand is, what their brand voice was. And so I thought, okay, well, I’ll start this podcast and bring on people from all over the world, from all different industries to share their stories and badass branding tips to help entrepreneurs and business owners build really strong brands that people care about.

Linda Fanaras: 2:46

That’s awesome. And I think I should just mention too, that you were listed as one of the top five best branding podcast. So that’s pretty exciting as well. So, go

Joelly Goodson: 2:56

ahead for one second, cause this is just very recent. I was just, you know, I get these emails all the time with these lists and it’s, it’s really exciting. So the most recent one was on CMO club the top 17. Branding podcast to follow in 2024, which is globally. And then for Canada, I was on Feedspots top branding podcast and I’m actually number one. So those are two, thank you. Those are two of the most recent lists that I came on and I was pretty excited

Linda Fanaras: 3:25

about that. So that’s great. Yeah. Congratulations on that. But before we get started, you know what I’d love. for you to just chat a little bit about Gems4Gems. It’s Gems4Gems. It’s a special nonprofit. It seems like it’s special to you. So I would love to hear a little bit about that and, you know, why. Yeah,

Joelly Goodson: 3:42

absolutely. Well, I’m very, I’m very, very proud of Gems4Gems. to be a part of it. It was started by an incredible woman. Her name is Jordan Guilford, and she’s actually from Calgary, where I live right now, and it’s a nonprofit to help victims of domestic abuse get back on their feet. And if you can imagine COVID, domestic abuse went through the roof, and it really was more. Prevalent than ever. And so I’ve been doing their branding for a couple of years. To be honest, I had to step back recently just because I’ve had some personal things happen in my life and I need to take some time off. But I’m still an ambassador for them. So I help them when they have events. We have a jewelry drive every year. It’s an amazing actually, this is really great. They have this jewelry drive where they bring, they get people to donate from all over the world and mostly, I guess, all over North America, use jewelry. It doesn’t have to be, you know, precious stones. It could be anything that’s gently used. And we, and we just did this this past Christmas and we put together these little bags of jewelry. It’s usually like a necklace earrings and a bracelet with a little note. of encouragement and we go around to all the shelters across Canada and we donate to the women there just to make their holidays a little brighter. That’s awesome. So yeah, and they have all these initiatives and things really just to help women empower themselves and get back on their feet after they’ve left this horrible situation, you know,

Linda Fanaras: 5:01

so yeah. That’s a nice gesture. I think it’s a nice way to I got goosebumps I know, I did too. It’s important, right? I could see how it could make a woman feel really good. I mean, jewelry, there’s not much they’d like other than flowers, so that’s great. Just a little something, right? A little something. That’s awesome. Well, Okay, so we’ll get started. We’re going to be talking about social impact and Really how social responsibility is so important for companies today. And it’s nothing that we’ve actually covered quite yet. So I would love to chat a little bit about this. It’s an important topic. It continues to grow. It comes into the forefront and I think it’s really important for brands to really understand the value of it. So I would love to hear from your perspective, I think where marketers really struggle is, okay, how do we sell our brand? And how do we also cover this sustainability component that we need to be talking about? That is so important to consumers. And how do we balance all that to make sure that number one, it’s credible, it’s coming across as a credible, real, real, you know, important part of their business. And also being able to market and drive leads and drive sales.

Joelly Goodson: 6:13

For sure. Well, I mean, I come from the merch world, right? So coming from the merch perspective, I just came back. I was at a conference in Vegas and sustainability was all the rage and everybody was talking about it. And I’m very proud to say, so the company that I’ve been with for the last 22 years, if you can believe it, it’s called GenuMark and we’re in Canada and the U S and we actually recently got B Corp certified, which is a huge thing. I mean, we’re one of the only companies in our industry that. has that. So the reason it’s so important is because everything is scrutinized and everything we do, we put our money where our mouth is. As far as you know, there’s a lot of greenwashing going out there right now, virtual signaling and people are talking about sustainability, but they’re not really, they’re not really walking the walk. They’re just talking the talk. So I think you have to back that up with things like getting certified. And so people know that when they’re doing business with you, be core certified when they’re doing business with you, that every aspect of your organization has really. Come up against these standards were also ISO certified, which is just another certification. And then so from a business perspective, you want to do everything you can to get these certifications because it just shows that you are actually standing behind what you say. And then as far as merch goes, where I come in is when I work with my clients, you know, and I have more and more. It’s. sort of funny because I, I live in an oil town, right? I live in Calgary. It’s oil and gas town and there’s lots of critics out there, but I tell you some of these oil companies have some of the strictest HSE departments and we do so much as far as sustainability goes and eco friendly and, and recycled materials. And gone are the days of wastefulness, people buying trinkets and trash as they used to call it. Now, when I work with my corporate clients and I work with some pretty. Big corporate clients, it’s they use their merch as a way to tell their brand story and build connections with their communities and people that they give them out to and employees, so when they bring on new employees, merch is a great way to help these employees feel a part of the community. And then if they have these values, we’ll put the values onto the merch that’s been recycled. And then a lot of companies are now giving back to, you know, these things where you, every, every item that you buy a certain percentage is going to build water wells or different things like that. So I hope that answers your question. No, that’s

Linda Fanaras: 8:31

great. No, that’s, that’s fantastic. And I don’t know if our market has also struggled with this as well, but sometimes I feel like. The biggest disconnect with social responsibility is the education. People don’t really get it. So from a marketer’s perspective, like, okay, what does that mean? What do we, how do, how do we go about all of this? What are the steps that we should take? Can you speak a little bit about. Maybe how to educate and then also how to build some awareness around it. Either it could be also internally within the organization and externally with that, whoever their prospects and customers

Joelly Goodson: 9:04

are. Oh, I think education is huge because there’s so much information. We’re bombarded with information right now. And the internet every, you just go and you Google something. So I absolutely think. that you have to bring experts. If you’re starting internally, I mean, again, if we’re talking about branding, branding is starts internally with your employees, right? And so they need to buy into whatever it is that you’re selling. And I mean that not just physically, but also what are your standards? What do you believe in? And if you’re a B Corp company, you make sure all your employees understand what that actually means. Right. And you have. Different courses that you do. You can do them online. And then, you know, there’s I have some clients that do these courses for their employees. And then every time I’m an employee finishes a module, they get a gift and they get a prize. So you incentivize them. People like to be incentivized, right? So they’ll just be incentivized. You finish this, or you finish these five modules where you’re now learning and then you’re going to get incentivized with some kind of gift. So education is huge. And then I think, you know, Oh, I don’t think I really am a strong believer in, what you learn, you teach. And so I, you know, it’s funny. I go around and I do these presentations about branding, and I have this acronym and it’s I L T E E. And I learned it from this gentleman, Ray Higdon, and now I’m using it and it stands for invest, learn, Teach, execute and edify. And so invest your time or invest your money, get your employees, learn as much as you can, and then go out there and teach other people what you’ve just learned because you’re spreading the word. And it’s great for another reason, because then you’ve become the expert. People look to you because now you’ve learned, you’ve taught them something that’s going to help them with their business by saying, you know, who you got it from and what they brought to the table.

Linda Fanaras: 10:47

I love that. That’s a great, that’s a great way. That’s just a great way to. Yeah. Yeah. So I do want to ask you a question about ROI, like really getting the return on investment. And I think how do, how do businesses build out metrics to prove the ROI? Not just saying that they do it, but really. What would be some good examples of, of that?

Joelly Goodson: 11:09

Are you talking, again, are we talking about merch specifically or?

Linda Fanaras: 11:13

Yeah, we’re talking on sustainability initiatives. So if we were referring to certain sustainability initiatives, how does a company determine what the ROI is? Let’s say they’re doing something that improves wastefulness or they’re doing others. They’re, they’re coming up with other ways to improve. sustainability. How can they measure? Okay, that has helped us as a company from a holistic

Joelly Goodson: 11:37

perspective. Okay, well, I mean, full disclosure, I’m not necessarily an expert when it comes to that. But I will say again, from the branding perspective, if you’re trying to build your brand and building a big part of building your brand is building trust with the people you’re trying to serve is that if you are being consistent in what you’re saying and what you’re doing and all your branding is consistent with this message that we we care about the planet we are sustainable then it’s only going to strengthen your relationships and you’re going to build your you’re not going to You’re not going to, you’re not only going to solidify your current relationships with your current clients, but you’re also going to attract new clients, people who have the same values as you, right? Because branding is about doing business with people that have the same values as you. And now more than ever, because the consumer is so savvy, they want to know, what you think, and how you do your work, and where you put your money. So, maybe it’s not, you know, as far as metrics go and KPIs, I can’t answer to that. Right. Branding is more of the general value system, I guess, and how you Yeah.

Linda Fanaras: 12:40

Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. that’s great. And I think what we find too is from a when we do brand strategy work with our clients, what we find is when they’re developing their core values, as an example, sustainability might be a piece of that. So ensuring that that component is integrated within their core values and how they live or work is also also becomes an important part of their business, which means they can use that as part of their messaging and part of their positioning to your point, which I think also can help

Joelly Goodson: 13:10

them. Yeah, I agree with that. But I just want to say to that point, I talked earlier about virtual signaling and greenwashing, and I think everybody’s jumping on that bandwagon, right? Everybody is talking about eco friendly and sustainability. But how many people are really doing it? Like I said, we are B Corp certified and we’re one of the leading companies in our industry. So how many people are actually doing what they say they’re doing and not just saying what the cause de jure and move on to the next one. And so I think if you’re going to incorporate sustainability, for example, into your values, which I think is amazing, then you need to back that up, and you need to back that up with your actions, not just your words and show people by different things that you’re doing within the community, within your organization, externally with your clients. So I’m really passionate about that because I, I, I’m a straight shooter and I just see, like I said, a lot of people that are just saying stuff, but then they’re not actually following through with what they’re saying.

Linda Fanaras: 14:04

Yeah. Can you give for the audience? some examples of maybe different initiatives and sustainability initiatives that you think have been valuable that you’ve been able to really back up and to your point, it’s not greenwashing. It’s real, it’s the real stuff. So I would love for you to maybe share some good examples on. Yeah, they’ve, what the initiatives and then how you speak about it. Yeah.

Joelly Goodson: 14:25

Yeah. Well, again, I mean, I can just, I’ll speak to my industry as far as when we are talking to clients. So I was just in Vegas, like I said, I was at a conference Mm-Hmm. where I got to see a bunch of our suppliers. And the companies that really stood out to me were the ones that not only were sustainable, but there’s one in part a company. I can think of particular work. their package. So, you know, packaging is so wasteful, right? We write things, everything in packages and we throw it out all the time. Well, this company was brilliant and they’re brand new and they’re disrupting our industry because not only is the product that you’re getting made of recycled material, but the packaging can be reused. For example, one of their products was this really cool. water bottle that was made out of, sustainable material, but then the packaging turned into a bird feeder that you could actually use. Right. And it was super cool. And so it’s just taking things a little bit further to put your money where and being transparent is another letting you see everything. Where’s everything made because What is the point of buying something that is made from recycled material then, but it has to fly in from China or India and your private footprint is being completely, you know, it’s, so it’s contradicting. So locally made, we have suppliers that, made in Canada or made in the U S you know, treating their employees fairly and all those things fall under that umbrella. So all those things are important.

Linda Fanaras: 15:44

That’s fantastic. So before we go to our next question I just want to thank the audience for listening in and don’t forget to listen to Jolie’s podcast branding matters. Definitely. Take a listen to that. It’s fantastic. But, and if you like what you hear today, also like share or subscribe, or definitely provide a review. let’s go to our next question. Cause I’m, I’m really interested in that is. That we have a multitude of generations that are out there today. We’ve got the baby boomers, the Z, we’ve got, we’ve got everything. So right. And everybody has a different perspective on sustainability and whether that’s important or not. You got some people that don’t care. And then you have some groups that think it’s like the most important. How do you deal with that when it comes to marketing the, to these different audiences and their different perspectives?

Joelly Goodson: 16:28

Well, I think you know this as well as I do that the Gen Z’s are the most passionate about it right now, They’re the ones that are pushing this and they’re the ones that are saying we’re not going to do business with your business or with your brand unless you are, eco friendly, unless you’re sustainable, unless you have diversity. And, they are the ones that are really pushing this forward and demanding that from businesses. So that’s the first thing. The other thing is. Whoever you are as a business, whatever industry you’re in, you, who is your market? Who are you trying to serve? Because you have to talk to them in their language and solve their problems. Ultimately, we’re all problem solvers, right? So whoever it is you’re serving, if you’re serving, it’s the Gen Z is that generation. Cause they’re, you know, like, think about it. Well, they generation sorry, now I’ve, I got, there’s so many generations the millennials. are turning 40. So the millenials are not those young 30 year olds right now. The Gen Z’s are coming into the workplace and those are the largest growing consumers are them. So if that’s your market, then you’ve got to make sure you’re going to appeal to them or you’re not going to, survive. If your market is an older generation, baby boomers or whoever, not that they don’t care, but you have to figure out what their value system is all about. And what problems can you solve for them? And then you lean into that.

Linda Fanaras: 17:45

That’s, that’s, that’s fantastic. And I also wanted to ask you about brand loyalty and customer retention, because I’m wondering how marketers can really add those the sustainability initiatives into that.

Joelly Goodson: 17:58

Yeah. You know, it’s interesting. Brand loyalty is. Tough, right? It’s one of the hardest things to we all we all strive for. We all want it. People are so fickle. They’ll buy one brand the other day. But when you look at a brand that has really well, not a brand, when you look at a few brands, which have really, really strong loyalty the one that just comes to mind off the top of my head is Apple because I have two teenagers. I don’t know if you do And they won’t even, don’t even show them anything else, right? They will snuff their nose. If you know my son, it’s so funny. The other day he was telling me, he’s like, I need a new iPad, a new iPhone, and a new watch. not, not a need, a new watch or a new computer or new, right? New, new cell phone. They are just that. They are loyal to a T. So that’s a brand. Business and a brand that is super strong for all the reasons that we’ve talked about and right, we can talk about, but I think for most businesses, it’s not as easy to get that loyalty. And so again, really, I think the more you niche down to the people that you’re trying to serve and really connect with them. Branding is about connections. I talk about that all the time on my presentations, when you can connect with your audience and the people you’re serving on a really intimate level and being completely transparent. All right. The stronger that relationship is I think the harder it is to break that loyalty and the stronger the loyalty is going to be What do you think about that?

Linda Fanaras: 19:18

That’s great. And there’s you know, there’s so many companies out there that have hung their hat on certain things Like you have like starbucks. You have patagonia, you know, they have some very specific initiatives and I And I think it’s helped them grow their brand and build that brand loyalty. And, and if they can just continue to share that story and not keep changing the story, then people can really connect with that. And it builds sort of what I’ll call a unique selling proposition. So end of consumers know, okay, Patagonia is focused on X, Y, Z, or Starbucks is focused on X, Y, Z. And those are the types of things that can make people, you know, emotionally byproducts of services. Go ahead. Yeah, a

Joelly Goodson: 19:58

hundred percent. And can I just touch on that? Go ahead. Because, you talked about Starbucks. A thing also about brand consistency and brand loyalty is you need to follow through on your brand promise, right? Because A strong brand develops really strong trust. Like my kids know they, whatever time, any Apple product they get, they trust that it’s going to do everything it says it’s going to do and beyond. Right. So you have to follow through in your brand promise, be consistent, and that’s how you build trust. And then, you said Starbucks and it reminded me of a really funny story. Recently, again, I was in Vegas and in the mornings, we have to go to the conference and the Starbucks, you know, there’s a million coffee places. The lineup was, Like around down the street or down the hallway and everything, but people were still in line because they were not going to go and get the coffee next door where there was no lineup. We will do whatever it takes to get what we want. That’s brand loyalty,

Linda Fanaras: 20:50

right? Exactly. Starbucks is a great example because every time I go in, I’m like, okay, I’m spending 10 for a coffee. I know. Okay. Yeah. Quick math. I’m like, okay, that’s like almost 4, 000 a year.

Joelly Goodson: 21:09

But that’s the ultimate, you know, that I love that you said that because that is the ultimate branding. Success story. When you, if you want to build a strong brand, and I talk about this in my podcast, as far as I help businesses build brand equity, if you can have such a strong brand that you can take pricing out of the equation, right? People are going to have that coffee. Maybe it started off at 2. Now it’s probably, I don’t even know, it’s probably 10 for a double cappuccino. But I still need my double cappuccino, right? And so, that is the ultimate branding success story. Pricing is taken out of the equation. And that’s what I’m trying to help businesses do and understand is that you don’t want to compete on price because if you compete on price, you’re not going to win the game.

Linda Fanaras: 21:50

Absolutely. And that’s, that’s what I like about some of these initiatives that we’ve talked about today, because they can use it as part of their positioning and messaging that can really help differentiate them. And especially when it comes to branding, that’s a big component. And and if it becomes more and more meaningful in the market, why not? You know, why not take advantage of, why not leverage that? Well, you have to. Because

Joelly Goodson: 22:11

more people are in competition now than ever. You know, you’re not just competing, you’re not just competing with your, the guy down the street who sells what you sell. You’re competing with the world. Everybody’s online. I’m looking to buy a new car right now. I just go online and there’s a million options. It’s not like I have to go to the dealers, right? So there’s a lot of things to consider whenever you’re, when someone’s looking to make a decision on, you know, giving you their money, there has to be a lot more that they’re going to get than just the

Linda Fanaras: 22:36

best price. So I’m going to ask you one final question and then we’ll wrap up, but I would love to hear from your perspective as far as building. Partnerships around sustainability initiatives. How can marketers better collaborate with NGOs and suppliers and maybe other stakeholders to create that sustainable value chain and how would it help them with their brand strategy?

Joelly Goodson: 23:00

Well, again, from my industry, we have partners, we partner with like minded businesses, So I think it’s being choosy who you partner with you know, I had a guest on a while ago and she said, you need to know who you’re getting into bed with and you need to make sure that, you’re aligned with certain things that are, what’s important to you is important to them and you work as a team. Right. You work as a team to solve your customers problems. And so the supply chain, whoever your, your suppliers are. I know for me, when I’m working with a client, I use suppliers when I know that client demands sustainability and locally made and, or woman don’t, you know, we have a lot of now that are women, everything else. Those are the suppliers that I will partner with to come up with the suggestions for my client because I know their value it and I know that my supplier can I keep pointing back but you know so you have so that’s really important is you have to make sure that whoever you’re partnering with has the same values not just as you but as Your clients and as your clients you’re only as good as your supply chain and your team, The best compliment I ever get from a client wasn’t when they say to me, thank you for making me look so good to my boss. And then I say, well, I couldn’t do it without my people that I work with. Right.

Linda Fanaras: 24:17

Right. Does that answer your question? Yeah. No, that’s great. No, that does answer the question. No, I think that’s awesome. I think that’s awesome. Excellent. So thank you so much, Jolie. It was great to have you here today. Yeah, I know it’s quick. I would love for you to share how people can get in touch with you, maybe touch on the the podcast again. So I’ll turn it over to

Joelly Goodson: 24:36

you. Oh, well, thank you so much on that. Well, first of all, I want to say thank you so much for having me on here. It’s been so nice to talk to you. We’re obviously both very passionate about this and if people want to learn more about my podcast and they want to hear I have like I bring on guests from all over the world, like I said, and I have some really exciting ones coming up for 2024. It’s called Branding Matters and you can find it wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you want to find me, I’m the branding badass. I’m the only one out there. So just google branding badass and I’ll come up. And then if you’re looking for any sort of merch to help build your own brand, I’m at Genu. Mark is the name of the company. You can Google that. G-E-N-U-M-A-R-K and you can email me at Jaylee [email protected]. So Awesome.

Linda Fanaras: 25:18

Thank you so much. I’m everywhere. You’re everywhere. It’s just type in badass and your first name and they’ll find you. Okay. Awesome. Alright,

Joelly Goodson: 25:26

well, oh, and if you want one of my T-shirts, you can get it on my website too. Oh

Linda Fanaras: 25:29

good. Okay. So there you go. Okay. What’s the,

Joelly Goodson: 25:32

what’s the website URL? It’s brandingmatters. ca.

Linda Fanaras: 25:34

Okay. Fantastic. All right. So I just want to take a moment, thank our audience today for listening into the B2B Brand 180 podcast. We hope you found the insights and strategies shared today by Joelly valuable. I’m sure you did. I thought there was some great insights on sustainability and ways to tie that into marketing that will really help companies grow. So again, I’m Linda Fanaras and I am the host of the B2B Brand, 180 podcast and CEO of Millennium Agency. You can visit us at Mill, MILL dot agency or just connect with me on LinkedIn and again, to help our channel grow, just hit like, share or subscribe. Thanks again for listening and until next time, happy marketing

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In this episode, Linda Fanaras speaks with Jillian Derby, Senior Marketing Director at AIM HR Solutions, to discuss the often-overlooked synergy between HR and marketing departments in the B2B space. They explore how a unified approach can lead to better employee engagement, improved brand messaging and, ultimately, increased sales.

Thanks for listening to the B2B BRAND180 Strategy podcast with Linda Fanaras, CEO/Strategist at Millennium Agency.

You can follow Linda on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindafanaras/ and Millennium agency at https://www.linkedin.com/company/millagency/.

 

Linda Fanaras: 0:00

Hi, I am Linda Fanaras, host of B2B Brand 180 and CEO of Millennium Agency. If you want to transform your B2B marketing into a powerhouse brand, then you may want to listen in. And if you like what you heard today, click like, share or subscribe. Well, there is no doubt that corporations are finding it more challenging to deal with today’s HR issues, whether employees are faced with aging parents and young children, maybe they live in a stressed-out environment at home, or they’re just considering that silent. Resignation that we keep hearing about, it seeps right into the workplace and there’s no chance to actually avoid this. So this, along with the corporate culture and internal support system, can make an employee just dissatisfied with their job. How do you deal with that as a corporate leader? And what does all that have to do with branding and messaging? Well, that’s why I’ve brought in Jillian Derby today, senior Marketing Director from AIM HR Solutions. AIM HR Solutions is a subsidiary of Associated Industries of Massachusetts called AIM as We Know It, which is an employer network of trusted advisors, advocates, and thought leaders from talent management, training and compliance to compensation and analysis and online services. AIM HR Solutions is dedicated to helping organizations thrive through customized tools, training and support. And today we’re gonna talk about strategies to. Gauge your employees, make them feel supported in their work environment, and bring them a sense of peace in mind through strategies that you may not even consider. So welcome Jillian Derby, senior Marketing Director from AIM HR Solutions to the B2B Brand 180 podcast. So thanks for joining me today. Jillian, thanks for having me. Absolutely. So why don’t we start out with a quick introduction about yourself. Do you mind taking a couple minutes and tell us a little bit about yourself and AIM HR

Jillian Derby: 2:02

Sure. So I’m a B2B marketing professional here at AMR Solutions. I have a little bit less than 20 years experience in marketing and all of that has been in the B2B space. So I’m excited to be joining you here today talking about that very subject. And so I’ve been at AMR Solutions for about. Seven years now. And what I really love about the position and the company is that there is this overlap between marketing and hr. They’re both concerned about making sure you’re. Message is out there, but one is an internal message and one is an external message. And so I like to think of marketing and HR as two peas in a par pod, but with different audiences. Marketing is all about making your company look good to your customers while HR is making sure the company looks good to its own employees and potential new hires. But either way, they’re both working to make sure the company’s seen the best possible light. So I love what I do. I love AM h r and I love marketing. So, I feel like I’ve found my niche. I found my spot. Yeah,

Linda Fanaras: 3:02

That’s a great point that you make about HR and marketing because I think a lot of professionals in either one of those industries looks at them as separate entities and because they do have separate purposes but when you really do look at that a little bit deeper, you realize how interconnected they really are and marketing can positively impact hr, and HR can positively impact marketing. So there’s a great synergy there. So we’re always talking about coaching and mentoring and just being a solid leader, but what I’d love to talk about today are some key strategies to strengthen the connection with employees and how that benefits customers.

Jillian Derby: 3:38

Yeah, so it’s really important that companies have values and missions and that they’re clearly communicated both internally and externally, and that will help make sure that everybody’s on the same page and speaking the same language when they’re talking to. Prospects and clients alike. And by doing this, you’re really helping create a sense of purpose and direction for your employees and inspiring them to become, your own corp internal cheerleaders. And it’s also important that companies and I think am h r and Aim do a great job of this, is create a culture of recognition and reward People will just feel appreciated and in turn they’re gonna become mutual leaders, but really having that set of core values and missions and. Having that live throughout your organization and the way that you message to your clients and the way that you talk internally and really all aspects, of your, branding is really important. And, I would say to create a culture of cheerleaders, just lead by example, be positive, be a team player. They say that positivity spreads, right? And so by having that, Attitude in putting that out there, you’re really gonna create a buzz. You’re gonna create an environment where people wanna be. And so if you don’t have your missions and values already, Embedded in your, workplace. It’s really, that’s the first step. And I think that then kind of trickles down

Linda Fanaras: 5:04

from there. I think being a positive cheerleader within the company and actually being a good leader can make a huge difference. Leaders get burnt out and sometimes it’s hard to be positive all the time. I mean, what are some of the recommendations that you have to our audience today about. How do you overcome some of the things that get you down during the course of the day that, that you need to make sure you stay positive for your staff?

Jillian Derby: 5:31

Well, I think before, anything else, I think it’s okay to not always be positive and I think it’s about being transparent and being authentic. If. You don’t show that there, you have struggles. Your employees are not gonna feel like they relate to you. Right? So I think that’s my first, piece of advice is be transparent, be honest about the challenges you have as an organization. But you don’t wanna be a Debbie Downer, right? So you gotta balance it. But I think it’s really about creating a culture where people feel valued. And I think that goes back to having your company’s core missions and values, outlined as a marketing professional, I know how important it is to have a clear brand identity that resonates with customers. But you gotta do the same for your employees. one way to do this maybe by involving your mm-hmm. Employees in the messaging, making them feel like they’re part of it. Uh, we do a, I think we do a good job here at am h r of talking to our own internal employees to say, what are you hearing from customers? What are their pain points and how do you feel about that? And really I think them being part of that message and being part of. Putting that together really helps them feel like their voices are being heard. And then also communicate those values mm-hmm. Admissions and do it regularly. It’s one thing to have, uh, corporate mission and values in your handbook and have it on your website, but if you’re not communicating that regularly and showing ways to live up to those corporate. Mission and values, then, people are gonna forget. They’re not gonna know. I, I mean, how many companies do you think are out there that people just, what are values are because it’s not lived, it’s not, they’re, they’re not feeling that. And so, you can think of ways to infuse those values and bring it back to that. Uh, I think that’s impactful. one way that we do that too is in our performance reviews. Mm-hmm. We have to align it with how we demonstrate some of the aim values. I, I think that’s a nice way to always bring it back home, but there’s other ways that you can do that as well. Yeah, and I

Linda Fanaras: 7:31

find it so interesting because when we do meet with companies when it comes to branding and building out the brand story and, and strategy and messaging around that, that how many companies actually do not have a set of core values, and they’re unsure about what their real mission and vision is, and. Maybe they have a culture, but not really, it’s not a, it’s not a core culture that they live by. So when they start to go through that exercise of determining, okay, what is our mission? What is our vision? What are our core values? And how does that benefit, us as an organization and how does that benefit our employees? It’s really impressive how that can take shape. And then obviously get implemented into the corporate culture in a way that gets people really excited about it and makes them feel like they’re part of something bigger and something way more important. So taking something as simple as your core values, your mission, your vision. And, and bundle that up into something that gets pushed into the company culture in a positive way can make a huge, huge difference. for any organization. We see it time and time again. Yeah. And I’m sure you

Jillian Derby: 8:41

have too. Yes. And it’s one thing if your website says, a bunch of stuff externally, and then internally you have a totally different vibe that’s gonna. Throw things off as well. Right. So it’s, it’s really about just making sure that all the dots are connected. Everybody feels on board, everybody feels like they’re aware of what those values are and living it.

Linda Fanaras: 9:05

Yeah. They have to live it every day. They do. The question I did wanna ask you though, because our clients always ask, how can we just persuade more people to buy what we sell? and what does that have to do with hr? how does that all tie in? Because I don’t understand how HR and, marketing tie together. And I know we talked about it briefly on the front end, but I’d love to get your sort of deep dive into that question

Jillian Derby: 9:27

so many companies are focused on what you just said, right? How do I sell to people? But they’re not thinking about how they sell to their internal. Constituents, they’re internal folks. Your first customer is your employees. And if they’re happy and they understand what they’re trying to do, and they’re part of this brand, and like we were saying, living it, right, they’re gonna become your cheerleaders and they’re gonna help you sell. And so how does this tie into hr? It’s really about. Thinking about your employees as advocates for your brand and making sure they’re part of the marketing message, that they help to create that message and keeping them engaged. Because if they’re not engaged with you, they’re not gonna feel like they know what’s happening and they’re not gonna. Go to bat for you, so to speak. But if you think about everyone from your, highest level executives, all the way down to the people who, interact with your customers in the day-to-day, so clerks at your shop or whatever they all have friends and family and they all have networks. They go to cookouts. when you meet someone for the first time, Hey, what do you do? Mm-hmm. And if they can’t articulate that and they can’t. Speak to what your business does, it’s a missed opportunity. And that’s how you get people to sell, right? Is you make them aware. You make them part of the company, you make them part of the culture, and you do that through things. Training and development, having conversations with them, recognizing and rewarding them. But a in HR can do all that. So that’s kind of how HR fits into that. And I think marketing and hr, are in sync when it comes to those and they really need to. Mm-hmm. Work together and chat together. Yeah,

Linda Fanaras: 11:07

and the other thing that we find too is building out that messaging and corporate strategy can’t necessarily start from the marketing or the HR department. It has to start with leadership because it’s that leadership. Mentality that will help push it through the company and make sure, because if you don’t have buy-in on the top level, you’re surely not gonna get buy-in on the middle and the bottom levels of the company. So it’s important to make sure that that leadership team is part of that process as well. To your point, also getting key employees tied into that to make sure they feel like they’re participating in that process. So as far as getting your employees to become brand advocates, how do you do that? How do you get them to be excited about the corporate brand and making it real for them and making it real for the employees that, that are part of that company?

Jillian Derby: 12:01

Honestly, I think it’s about just building a place that people wanna be at if people feel good about showing up to work every day they’re, it, that’s how, they’re, no one’s gonna wanna be a brand advocate for a company that they don’t feel passionate about, that they don’t feel invigorate some and gets them excited, every day. And of course, it’s work for some people, right? You show up and it is what it is, but. By getting people on board. You host team building events. You help build that relationship between the company and the individual and the individuals at the company together. Just say, Hey, these we’re, we’re working towards the same goals. And so training is a big piece of that. We do training here at am h r for things like mindful leaders and we do a lot of unconscious bias training, things like that. Things that help. Make us all aware of how we come off and making us feel like we’re all trying our best. So I think training is a big piece mm-hmm. Of building that strategy and building that culture that makes people, brand advocates. And then again, going back to the mission and the values and infusing that and any way you can,

Linda Fanaras: 13:07

Yeah, I like the training piece because I think there are a lot of things that companies can do to build a strong culture, and that’s one, a, a lot of companies will do sponsorships where there’s team building or they’re running together or doing a 5K together. And, and then, I think the training thing’s fantastic because I think anything that allows an employee or a staff member to improve their skillset, It’s something that they appreciate.

Jillian Derby: 13:32

Yeah. And I think it’s also, when we talk about having that open door policy and people feeling like, being transparent and honest leaders it means that people can come to you with feedback. And they can share what they’re feeling and what they’re hearing from customers but then also acting on that feedback. Right? I mean, there’s nothing more annoying than filling out a safer company and giving honest feedback, and then nothing ever changes, right? Right. So if you’re gonna open that door, if you’re gonna say we care about what you think and we wanna hear from you, and we wanna have this back and forth relationship too, you have to be willing to act on certain things and communicate and just be aware that that, if you ask them, be willing to. Move forward as well.

Linda Fanaras: 14:14

If you were to give a company some tips on building out a brand ambassador program and, and I think some people don’t exactly even know what that means, what would be your recommendations?

Jillian Derby: 14:25

Sure. So I think it’s building an internal committee of, everyone that would be part of being a, what a brand ambassador is. And it’s every employee is a brand ambassador, so how can they talk to people? Sharing, training again on a regular basis, making sure people know about the mission and values. Creating internal communication tools as well that help people. So we at Aim have something not just a newsletter, but we do this video called Three Things in Three Minutes. Mm-hmm. And so we really try to connect with people cuz people tired of reading emails in this virtual world in a different medium. And so it’s something that all of our team members look forward to getting. But engaging as many of your employees as possible and helping that internal will help build brand ambassadors. And you can call that a program, but it’s really just about being strategic about it, communicating with them. Providing the training where they feel like they need it, making sure they’re aware of mission and values, and then communication overload is really how you, yeah.

Linda Fanaras: 15:27

Are you, are you asking them to be an ambassador or are you just hoping that? You’re building a set of advocates within the company that would in turn become ambassadors.

Jillian Derby: 15:38

I, I think it’s a little bit of the latter, right? And, but being forward with them that we’re all brand ambassadors. We all wear this hat. Because any experience somebody outside of the company has, with someone in your company represent your brand. Right? So. Even though Joe in accounting talks to a vendor and he may not feel like he’s a brand ambassador, if he has a bad relationship with his vendors or something like that that reflects on the brand. Your brand is everything. Right? It’s not just your logo, it’s not just your website. It’s not just marketing, it’s everyone and everything associated with that brand, so, right. I think it’s, again, it’s just being strategic about. What your brand is, who your employees are, and getting them all on board. You might have people who are not gonna be these big cheerleaders and always say wonderful things about your right company, but at least knowing that they’re part of your story and keeping them up dated

Linda Fanaras: 16:37

know? So, if you were to talk about some key points for our audience today relating to, HR and how important it is in tying that all into marketing, what would be your summary to the audience today?

Jillian Derby: 16:50

Marketing, talk to your HR people and HR people. Talk to your marketing people. There’s a lot of synergy and there’s a lot of ways that they can work together to reap the benefits of, just chatting with each other. But I, especially in today’s market, when we have five generations, In the workplace, you gotta be creative in how you reach out to your, prospects, customers, and employees. It’s different mediums. It’s different, everything’s different. So talk to each other. Don’t be afraid to have these conversations and, utilize each other as a tool in the toolbox to really. Driving employee advocacy in making your employees your big cheerleaders.

Linda Fanaras: 17:32

Yeah, and I think that’s a great point because I think tying those two divisions and departments together and building out a strategy for employees and customers, Can really elevate you as a company. And I think that that is one area that maybe companies don’t take as seriously as they should. So, yeah. that’s a great help. Well, well that was, that was fantastic. So thank you for listening in today and on behalf of B2B Brand 180 again. Thank you, Jillian. She’s a senior marketing director at a HR solutions. She provided some great insight on HR leadership, building those communities and advocacy programs and making sure you have that brand and messaging strategy that’s built from the inside out and to visit aim. It’s Aim HR solutions.com. And again, I’m Linda Fanaras, host of B2B Brand 180 and c e o of Millennium Agency. And just to help our channel grow and educate more B2B leaders on brand strategies. Feel free to click, like share or subscribe or visit m I L l.agency. Thank you.

In this episode of the B2B Brand180 podcast, host Linda Fanaras is joined by Jeremy Miller, founder of Sticky Branding and a leading strategy consultant. Together, they dive into the world of branding and discuss what it takes to create a truly remarkable brand in today’s competitive market. Miller shares his insights into how businesses can differentiate themselves, the importance of defining brand values and communicating through the lens of your customers.

To learn more about Jeremy Miller and Sticky Branding, visit stickybranding.com.

Thanks for listening to the B2B BRAND180 Strategy podcast with Linda Fanaras, CEO/Strategist at Millennium Agency.

Linda Fanaras: 0:00

Hi, I’m Linda Fanaras, host of B2B Brand 180 and CEO of Millennium Agency. If you want to transform your B2B marketing into a powerhouse brand, then you may wanna listen in today. And if you like what you heard, click like, share or subscribe. Today we’re gonna talk about branding and there isn’t a better person on earth to invite on the show today other than Jeremy Miller, a brand strategist and bestselling author. Jeremy’s first book, sticky Branding is a branding playbook for how small to mid-size companies challenge the giants of their industry to grow their brands. It was a number one Globe and Male bestseller. His other book called Brand New Name is now available, so check that out too. And that book provides a great step-by-step process to create an unforgettable. So let’s welcome Jeremy to the B2B Brand 180 podcast, and thanks for joining me today. How you doing,

Jeremy Miller: 0:57

Jeremy? I’m doing amazing. Thanks for inviting me, Linda. I’m excited for today’s interview. Yeah,

Linda Fanaras: 1:02

today will be great. We’re really I’m gonna ask you some really tough questions today about branding since we’re both branding experts. Welcome. So what Yep. So let’s get to it. So why don’t you tell me a little bit about yourself. Tell the audience a little bit about yourself, and we’ll start

Jeremy Miller: 1:16

with that. Sure. I, uh, you mentioning the intro, I, I founded a a branding agency, or actually it’s a strategy consulting firm that’s called Sticky Branding, and this was born out of just my frustration of how does a. A smaller mid-size business owner and a team grow that remarkable brand. So for me, a sticky brand is when your customers know your brand, they like it and they trust it, and they choose it first. It doesn’t matter what the technology is, whether it’s Google or Chat, G P T, and all the bandwagons that are going on. You build those bonds and connections with your customers. So, you’re able to continue to grow with them. And so this was born out of my own entrepreneurial experiences of how do you challenge the giants of your own industry and grow your business and your brand. And, and we’ve taken that out over the last decade. Now we were founded in 2011 and we’ve been sharing these ideas and these messages with companies from around the world. So it’s just. A, a beautiful evolving industry and career to be able to affect sales through brands.

Linda Fanaras: 2:20

Yeah, You’ve done an amazing job with your sticky branding brand in itself, so I’m really impressed with the work that you’ve already done. Alright, so that’s awesome. So what I thought I’d do is ask, you know, I’m gonna ask you some tough questions today, like I mentioned a little earlier, but one thing we know, Jeremy, is that if you really want to command a premium. you can’t just have a great idea, but you have to have a real amazing brand and brand positioning and strategy. So I guess in today’s highly competitive market, what are some effective strategies for creating a distinctive brand identity that actually stands out from the crowd

Jeremy Miller: 2:54

having a remarkable business? Actually, let me take a contrarian answer to this question cuz. For me, branding isn’t about logos and taglines and colors. It’s really structural. One of the things that, that we’ve advocated for a very long time is that great businesses create great brands and never the other way around. So it’s in your products, your services, your customer relationships, your team, your operations, and it’s building that from the inside out. And all marketing is doing is amplifying what you do. and what makes you remarkable. And so to have a great brand is really to serve your customers brilliantly and better than what they can get from the competition. And so this is why I really think branding is strategy. It’s choosing where you play. How you win and what’s the infrastructure that you’re gonna need in order to serve that market. And then all your marketing is doing is amplifying those stories, creating that impression that validates all the great work that you already do.

Linda Fanaras: 3:57

I think that’s where a lot of companies do get a little stumped up is like, okay, they’ve, they’ve established a brand. But, but then the question is, how can an actual brand manager or brand maintain a consistency across all the different channels that are available today? I mean, we have social media, we have traditional advertising, we have packaging. They’re dealing with all of the consistencies amongst the multiple channels, but they also have to adapt to some of the unique characteristics of each one of these platforms. So do you have some ideas or strategies for our audience today on maybe how they could do that in the most effective way?

Jeremy Miller: 4:33

so I think the, the question on this, Linda, is even more complex than channels. It’s also the evolving business, especially if we’re talking about fast growing B2B companies that are evolving quickly. The, first thing to recognize is that your brand is living and changing. It’s, it’s actually not static. I think one of the ideas of brand consistency that gets really confused is we wanna behave. Nike or Apple or Starbucks and have the same look and feel in every single channel. But you think about it, those businesses, if you go back to their early days when they were say less than a hundred million in revenue, they were changing and evolving dramatically as the business grew. this becomes the, the issue is that there’s two key concepts. Here’s your brand, and you can take Jeff Bezos example or definition of it, which is your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. Mm-hmm. the problem is, is if you’re innovating rapidly, then what they experience from you may have changed even in six to 12 months. So branding is really strategy. It’s looking forward to, to define what is. The market. So who and where are the customers that will drive your next stage of growth? What’s the brand messaging and story that you wanna share that will provoke people to buy? And then how do you deliver that across the channels, to your point, consistently? And so the way we do that is by actually being deliberate. The first thing is having that clarity of where you play and how you win in the story that you wanna share. And then as you look at your channels, making sure that you are. Reaching the right audience. And chances are if you have inconsistency, there’s two symptoms that are going in play. The first one is you need to go do an audit of what are some of the messages out there and either update them, delete them, or change them depending on what you’ve done historically. And then the other is to to just constantly be asking and, and looking. Who are the customers that we really need to look at which is the second big mistake. We assume we have to be in every channel and be doing all the marketing everywhere, always. And that’s actually not true. If you’re a B2B business and your customers are not on TikTok and Instagram, it probably makes sense not to have channels there. So rather than having inconsistent experiences, Just turn those off, delete them, and focus where your customers are and do those fewer things brilliantly will create better experiences long term. So it’s, it’s like tending your garden. It’s choosing what areas that you’re gonna plant and then weeding and removing legacy pieces as you grow. But it is an ongoing work in process. I always think of. A brand is that work in progress. You just keep getting better and keep working to create that consistent customer experience that moves the sales

Linda Fanaras: 7:28

needle. Yeah, that’s a great point. Actually, you made two really great points there because I think what happens a lot of times is when marketers or leaders are creating, their advertising copy, for example, they may start out with social media strategy, and then they have to figure out how to get that into a display ad. And maybe they’re saying, okay, let’s, let’s run some video, or let’s do some TV advertising. And then the ne the next thing you know, it’s kind of a jumbled mess. And I always like to look at. Developing that strategy from the top down. So what is the medium obviously we need to know who the target audience is. That’s a, that’s an absolute definite, but what is the unique selling proposition, and then what is that supporting statement that backs up that unique selling proposition? And then what is the medium around that, and how much content can we write to support what those two points, the unique selling proposition, and then the, this sort of the sub-headline around that. And in that way you’re staying focused. You know who your target audience is, you know what your unique selling proposition is, and you know how you’re planning to support that, but you can keep that consistency across the multiple channels. I always think that that simplifies the process as well. Yeah. The other piece that I, that you’ve mentioned is the multiple channels. And, and to your point, we see this a lot and I’m sure you do as well. there are so many choices out there, and, and every day there’s new ones popping up. You’re absolutely right. Pick the channels, you know, work not everything works for everybody. So, in that, in that instance, just. Figure out which ones are giving you an ROI and focus on those and then maybe double down on some of the ones that are most effective. So, yeah, I love those two points that you just made.

Jeremy Miller: 9:09

So there’s one word to layer onto there. So there was a study by MOZ, the social media platform, or social media analysis company, going back probably three, four years ago. And they found at that time that 50% of all. articles written by companies, they said about a million blog posts. They found 50% of articles published had no likes, views, and shares, so most people weren’t even seeing them. And Google’s got to the point now where it’s d indexing a a lot of content. Mm-hmm. And so the playbook that we look at for social media and digital marketing is largely run from. Perception that was created by HubSpot and Inbound Marketing going back circa 2007 through say 2012. And most organizations still think, well, we need to be active on all these channels. We need to be creating content. We need to be doing all this. S E O. but the rules are changing underneath our feet. Constantly just take what’s going on with AI and chat, G P T, that, that people are now just stuffing content into all these channels. I advise anyone who’s listening to do is really. Look at the acquisition lanes. What are those key areas that engage your buyers? the people that are involved in the purchasing process and focus on that. Like if you can get down and create a machine that drives the sales needle. Mm-hmm. build your brand in those swim lanes, those acquisition lanes, versus trying to think how do we grow this brand awareness that everyone in our industry knows. Who cares, right? Gets the people who buy you and buy your services and give you money and build reputation and recognition there because they will do the word of mouth and the other activities that you want. I really do believe we’ve got through a transition and a tipping point related to most digital marketing, where most small businesses are not doing advertising on the Super Bowl or, or television. Mm-hmm. So why do you look at LinkedIn and go, I gotta be there cuz everybody’s there. That, that’s not the way to think of your, your brand and your communication strategies. And when you do, you have those consistency problems constantly.

Linda Fanaras: 11:18

And that’s where the data analytics really comes into, into play is, is analyzing that and to your point, making sure you’re picking the right medium for whatever you’re trying to market in the industry. The, the other question I did wanna ask you is, how can a brand actually navigate what I consider the delicate balance between appealing to your existing customers and then also attracting new ones by als, but at the same time try to stay true to your core values a nd mission. What are your thoughts

Jeremy Miller: 11:46

around that? I wanna reverse the question and get your opinion on this. Why is it a delicate balance? Because when I hear that question, I. they should all fit together. So what’s the delicate balance from your perspective?

Linda Fanaras: 11:56

Well, I think with existing customers, it is about building loyalty, making sure that you can retain and maintain your existing customers and keeping them happy. So, you’re looking a little bit more on the service side. You’re looking a little bit more on the engagement side. What kind of insight and ideas can you come up with from that perspective? But when you’re looking to attract new ones, you’re actually looking to try to figure out, okay, what do they need? Do they have a fragmented brand? Are they looking at a merger and acquisition? You know, maybe they need to reposition themselves in the market because they’re, the competitors are coming up. So there could be a lot going on between the two markets. But what you’re trying to do with all of that is you wanna stay true to your core values. So whatever that is, how do you, balance all that? And I think there’s just a lot going on that could compete with

Jeremy Miller: 12:43

one another for sure. I think this is where. True brand exists is, is within the, the conversation of that strategy and values, I believe are really one of the, foundational pins by which you grow your business and your brand. Because if you look at any significant brand crisis over the last 20 years, it always stems from a breach of values. So one of my beliefs is if you ignore your values, you risk crashing a brand one of. Dramatic and recent examples was what Volkswagen did, going back several years now, but they put a deception switch in their diesel vehicles to make it look like their emissions were lower than they were today. There’s no diesel Volkswagens of North America and Tesla has filled that void. So, that mistake, we probably would be in a very different market. I’m not saying E Diesel was going to stop the growth of EVs, but it was a true, viable alternative to what we have today. But because they ignored their core values, that brand and those products no longer exist or at least in the North America. so when I think of your values, they are static. They don’t change. If you think of your brand as, say, a boat on the ocean while the shore is the is your values and you want to navigate around that and always stay true to them, and that gives you that. That, that directional compass to deal with choices. Anytime you’ve got a difficult decision to make for your business, for your employees, for your customers, it’s worth pulling those values out to help you navigate and give you those decisions or allow you to make choices when everything is being disrupted around you. But then as you start to extend outward, you get to the meat of your question, which is, how do you market to existing customers versus new customers? And ideally, it is to try and tie that value proposition and that strategy together, but looking it at as, as a continuum, yes, the reason someone buys your services may be different from the reason they stay, but there’s still a truth that holds those two things together. So, If you find that you have to do a Jedi mind trick to sell a customer and then they stay, that’s probably a brand problem going on there. But if you can create a consistent message or story that really pull back to what makes you unique and different, then that’s gonna be your strength. So lemme give you a very quick example. Take Zappos now owned by Amazon. Zappos created an unfair competitive advantage by clearly understanding the issue that customers had when buying shoes online. Mm-hmm. And so they created a system or a, a brand value, proposition around customer service and customer support. But it was more specific than that they offered. lots of choice. They offered by as many pairs as you’d like with free shipping on all of those products. You could return any product unworn for up to a year. You could have free shipping on those returns and you could always speak to a human being, whether by text, phone, email, anything in between. So those five things really set out their differentiation. And so people would go, come, would buy shoes once and just to get what they needed, but they would come back because. Brand pillars. Those differentiators really c serve their needs. And if you look at what your brand pillars are, those key things that differentiate yourself, that you do brilliantly to either solve a problem or to help your customers or to, to separate yourself from the competition, chances are it’ll be a continuum from what the reason someone buys to the reason they stay. And you won’t have to do that Jedi mind trick of convincing ’em to stay on a relationship cuz that’s not sustainable

Linda Fanaras: 16:29

s strategically. Right, right. That’s a great point. And, and you know, it’s so interesting about the core values too because I think especially new companies or emerging companies are quickly growing companies. core values. If it’s not defined and it’s not clear to the staff and you know what you stand for and, and why you stand for those things, it’s like a free for all because everybody has their own opinion. They have their own thought process and if they’re not set in stone, then there really isn’t that foundation that’s being used to build up that company. So that is one area that I feel is so vital to the success and growth. Of many large organizations. So let me ask, what, what do you think some of the key pitfalls are of rebranding and, and how can companies actually minimize the risk to ensure that they actually do a successful transition? There’s so many moving parts.

Jeremy Miller: 17:19

I think rebranding is actually very powerful because if you are creating dissonance for whatever reason that, that you’re, say Company was named isis. And then the, the, we have the, the, the problems with a terrorist organization using that type of term. So there was many rebrands that came out of out of, of names getting co-opted. There could be product fit issues. So rebranding is a good strategic choice to help make your business more marketable, but the problem in the pitfall is not in the rebrand, it’s in the strategy. Geena, I always keep coming back to the strategy questions. So there’s two key issues here. The first one is, why are you rebranding? Being really clear on that. If you’ve just hired a new VP of marketing or a new director of marketing, and the first thing they say is you need to rebrand. that’s called marketing addiction. And that’s what every marketing manager hire always wants to do. They look at whatever the previous administration did and they wanna do it better. And it’s just our, our, our projects. So that’s not a good enough why, but if it’s, if you have dissonance or you have a clear strategic reason to change, that’s a good start. The second part to this then is you gotta look at your brand, like a vessel, like it, it holds all the experiences, knowledge, and everything else. So the, the mistake is you just rebrand and you don’t pour the contents of the old brand into the new brand. The transition is the most important part of the rebranding process, not the rebrand. And so it’s the communication strategies of how are you introducing it. How are you reiterating it and, and communicating it effectively and looking at essentially the marketing plant of the rebrand. is actually the real power there. And what most companies will see if done well is a lift in sales that can be quite dramatic because now you’re going to market answering the question, clarifying the message, and tying it to the old, mm-hmm. And so if you look at this as a a process to pour the contents of the old brand into the new brand and then communicate the. Mm-hmm. you’re setting yourself up for not only a sales lift, but a, a smooth transition. Yeah. If you don’t have that project plan, it’s gonna go off the rails and you’re gonna regret every choice you made to do it to do that. Rebrand.

Linda Fanaras: 19:40

Yeah. Branding provides such a great refresh and I think it’s underestimated because years will go by and, and the brand gets dated and the messaging is wrong. And, and the next thing you know, it’s just the brand just feels old compared to some of the other brands that are out there and they, and they lose market share and they don’t realize the impact of the value of branding and how it can really provide that. Uplift that you’re, that you’re talking about. So, appreciate that.

Jeremy Miller: 20:07

There’s two signals here to just on your point. The first one is every brand has a shelf life, so it can range. If you’re in, say, consumer electronics, consumer goods, that brand might only have a shelf life of 18 months. If it’s industrial, it might be upwards of seven years. But the, the simple canary in the coal mine, that indicator to know your brand needs a refresh, is when you go look at your website and. Ooh, that’s rough. And you mm-hmm. you kind of have that moment and your website’s probably three to four years is about as far as you can take that that, that, so every time you look at your website or every time you need to do a website refresh, that is a good moment in time to actually go. Back through all of your social channels, all your messaging, all your brand identity. It might not be a dramatic rebrand, but you’re refreshing the brand and bringing it back to consistency. That’s that weeding the guard in moment to to do that. And if you go in there and that website’s a hot mess and it’s time for a total rebrand, maybe new name, new positioning. Beautiful. Now you’re doing the work, you know, you should have been doing several years ago, but you’ve finally got the chance to do it right.

Linda Fanaras: 21:14

Exactly. So my last question is, is how do you think a brand can effectively communicate its message and values to a diverse audience that have a variety of, cultural backgrounds and perspectives? What’s your recommendation around that?

Jeremy Miller: 21:31

We have to all do that now. Yeah. And we have to be sensitive and we have to listen, and we have to accept that we’re not gonna get it perfect. But I do believe it really starts with curiosity and, and openness because, Most brands are, are communicated through the lens of themselves. So we, we create what we like, generally speaking. So we’re gonna tell the story in the way that we understand it. We’re gonna tell the story in we’re gonna choose the graphics that we like, the identity that we like. Like if you think of, of. Compare the brand development process to like picking out a Hallmark card. So you go and you choose a card. You think you’re picking it out for the individual, but it usually, it’s a reflection of what you actually think is interesting and using cute, it’s more of a, a representation of yourself in the choices you make than the actual individual. It takes a great deal of empathy, awareness, and curiosity to truly. Build the brand for somebody else. And so to do that, I think to your point, it’s absolutely critical. We have to be doing this. And the, I think the way we start is by getting to our customers and understanding them and then adapting with it. Data helps li listening helps surveys help. What is the language of the customer and potentially having different entry points to your website or your marketing, depending on who you’re serving. Mm-hmm. the most, the easiest example that most company, large companies have done this for years is multilingual multi-country marketing. So if we know we’re going into South America or Europe, you’ve got multilingual versions of your website, senior Change of Value Propositions according to that, the issue now, It’s so much more complex, and this is where loyalty programs actually kick in. If you look at most neighborhoods you can’t identify what the culture of that neighborhood looks like. So I live in Toronto Canada, and so we’ve got a population here of roughly 7 million people and the way that grocery chains used to market as they. That’s the Italian neighborhood. That’s the retiree neighborhood. That’s the young couple neighborhood. Mm-hmm. young families, whatever it is on my street. We’ve got people from Ethiopia, Pakistan Europe, you name it. I, I’m Canadian, born and raised. So we’ve got everything here. So you wouldn’t be able to just take a zip code or a postal code and say, this is the demographic. And I think the same thing is happening in B2B companies is that. You don’t necessarily, your buyer personas are lying to you most of the time, cuz if you assume this is what your customers look. Chances are they don’t. Cuz when I walk inside most organizations, it’s very multicultural. It is very diverse. And so you’re better off assuming personalization over personas in a lot of our marketing.

Linda Fanaras: 24:29

Yeah, no, that’s a great point. Yeah, absolutely. I love what you just said. Well that was fantastic. Thank you Jeremy. I appreciate you being here. And I also wanna thank the audience for listening in today and. Behalf of our B2B brand 180 podcast. Thank you Jeremy for all your branding insights. If you’d like to get in touch with Jeremy, just visit sticky branding.com or to buy’s book. Go to Amazon. It’s called, one is Sticky Branding and the other one is called brand New Name. So that’s in. Bye. So definitely check that out. Again, I’m Linda Fanaras, host of B2B Brand 180 podcast and CEO of Millennium Agency. If you’d like to visit us, go to mill.agency or connect with me directly on LinkedIn, Linda Fanaras, and just to help our channel grow and educate more B2B leaders on brand strategy. Feel free to like, share, or subscribe. Thanks.

This special edition of the B2B Brand180 podcast is a must-listen for biotech and pharmaceutical companies looking to stand out from the competition.

Linda dives into the power of web design and how to use personalized photography, vibrant visuals, and creative design elements to capture your audience’s attention. She also highlights the importance of having a mobile-friendly website, colors that match the brand, and avoiding stock imagery. Plus, she explains how professional branding firms can help you create a high-value biotech website that will help convert. Don’t miss this essential episode!

 

Linda Fanaras: 0:00

If you want to transform your B2B marketing into a powerhouse brand, then you may want to listen in. And if you like what you heard today, click like, share, or subscribe. Hi, I’m Linda Fanaras, CEO of Millennium Agency, and I’m your host today. I’m excited to talk to you about how to build a strong website designed for your biotech brand. So, let’s get to it. So, your biotech website should feature unique elements and vibrant visuals that represent your mission, vision, and product successfully to your target audience. Establishing a strong biotech website requires research, data analytics, trial and error, and a lot of patience. And as a leader, you are no stranger to trusting the research and trial process, but you may not know how to approach that. Whether you are establishing a new biotech firm or branding your existing website and content, having strong web design elements in your biotech website will make significant differences in how your brand is perceived. Number one, use personalized photography. A strong biotech website will feature unique content and imagery. One of the best ways to show your biotech brand’s personality on your website is the use of original photography taken directly on your work site and in your offices. Showing the actual people that make up your biotech firm will give your patients, healthcare professionals, hospitals, pharmacies, and wholesalers the impression of an authentic, transparent biotech firm they can trust. And using original photos and videos throughout your biotech website will make your company stand out and give potential patients and customers a positive impression. Take a look at BioMarin Pharmaceuticals’ website, for example. Their website features a wide variety of unique personalized photography on all the pages. Their homepage features a diverse range of patients and showcases their headquarters, giving website visitors an immediate impression of what they have to offer. Instead of using standard stock imagery that can be found on a variety of websites, BioMarin uses unique photo elements on their website to boost the overall look and experience for patients and HCPs. Number two, consider vibrant visuals. Your biotech brand’s logo and color theme are incredibly important visuals that are the first thing website visitors see. Visitors spend 15 seconds deciding whether they’re going to move forward browsing on the site they clicked on. This means that your biotech website has 15 seconds to win them over. An eye-catching relevant logo and appropriate color scheme can attract their attention and more and more biotech firms are beginning to use more vibrant colors. But that does not mean including a neon orange or a bright green will help get the job. Using vibrant visuals can engage website visitors, but not overusing too many bold colors as it could definitely overwhelm people. Different colors are associated with different emotions and moods, so for example, red is a bold color. It can invoke passion, power, and warmth. Yellow is seen as friendly, cheerful, and youthful, whereas purple is associated with luxury, authenticity, and high quality. Different colors have different meanings, and different industries will favor different colors on how they resonate with their target audiences. Vertex’s website is a prime example of a powerful color scheme with a relevant logo. The triangle shape pays homage to the literal definition of Vertex. The top of the apex implies that the Vertex is the top biotech firm, and as their key color scheme, their main purple color is successful at positioning the company as authentic, powerful, and truthful. But their secondary colors of orange, red, and teal all pair seamlessly with their primary color, giving a sleek and clean result, which is exactly what biotech branding should be. Number three, easy mobile navigation. Today with 85% of Americans owning a smartphone, your biotech website must be mobile-friendly. A mobile-friendly website will give users the exact experience on their phone, tablet, or other device that they would have on a computer. As an example, Ionis Pharmaceuticals does this successfully with easy navigation, a complete user experience and access to all the pages on their original website. The search bar is easily located and works smoothly for quick navigation on the go, and the bottom of their website features a scrolling news reel that features the newest headlines, and this component carries over to the mobile version. The overall design of the website is user-friendly and relevant with everything easily accessible. So, a strong biotech website should be mobile-friendly without losing key components or offering that is less of an experience. There’s no doubt that creativity is key, but content is also vital, and pharma and biotech work is highly technical and medical. But your branding should be creative and engaging. And when designing your biotech website, you must be prepared to get creative. It can be hard to make the shift toward the creative branding process, which is why so many biotech leaders choose to outsource their website design to an experienced creative agency such as Millennium. A niche branding and web design firm will have the background and experience building strong, relevant biotech websites that perform well. If you’re unsure of the first step in a successful website design, contact the professionals at Millennium Agency or visit www.mill.agency. So thank you for listening in on today’s podcast, strong website design elements for your biotech brand. If you like what you heard today, press like, share, or subscribe. Thank you.

In this special edition of B2B Brand180, Linda Fanaras, CEO of Millennium Agency, discusses how to establish a successful biotech brand that engages.

Linda starts by emphasizing the importance of connecting with your audience and understanding their needs, which can be achieved through market research and data analysis. She then highlights the importance of having a strong online presence, with a website that is easy to navigate, visually appealing, and mobile-friendly. Linda also mentions the importance of understanding market demands and being transparent about compliance standards to build trust with your customers. Finally, she stresses the importance of being open to seeking help in branding, as it can have a significant impact on business profits.

Tune in to learn more about creating a successful biotech brand that engages.

 

Linda Fanaras: 0:00

If you want to transform your B2B marketing into a powerhouse brand, then you may want to listen in. And if you like what you heard today, click like, share or subscribe. Hi, I’m Linda Fanaras, CEO of Millennium Agency, and I’m your host today and excited to talk to you about establishing a successful biotech brand that actually engages. So, let’s get to it. So, there’s no doubt that creating a successful brand strategy for your brand requires research, data collection, analysis, and testing, all processes anyone in this industry is familiar with. But do you know how to use them in biotech branding? Building a successful brand strategy is a task that’s truly never finished. You should be constantly adapting and evolving your brand alongside your products for the patients, healthcare professionals, wholesalers, hospitals, and pharmacies you serve. And laying the foundation of a solid biotech brand from the start will help you ensure that the branding and marketing success will be a home run. Number one, make sure you connect with your audience because creating connections with your audience is one of the first things you should do for your brand. You serve patients, HCPs, hospitals, pharmacies, and more, and each one is looking for a different solution or has a different viewpoint, and your biotech brand must create a meaningful connection with your customers and patients ensuring that they trust you and that they know that you’re looking out for their best interests. We all know that the biotech industry is growing at a rapid rate already at $152.4 billion and continuing to escalate. This means that the competition is high, and the industry is doing well. As we see more of a push from patients and stakeholders for more affordability in pharmaceutical products, there will also be an increasing demand for transparency and authentic connections. So, connecting with your audience will help set your biotech brand up for success, positioning you as a company they can trust to provide the best solutions for the condition or need that they have. Gathering information and data and analyzing it to uncover what your audience likes or dislikes and what they’re looking for will enable you to better meet their needs. Patients want to feel seen and understood and heard, like they are the only patient in the world, and that their condition is of the utmost importance. That’s because that’s the way it should be and conducting market research and using data analytics can help you devise a messaging strategy that allows you to better connect with your biotech brand in a successful way. That allows you to lay the foundation for positive relationships and patient and customer trust. Number two, establish a strong online presence. There’s no doubt that everything is digital now, and the biotech industry is one of the more advanced markets, meaning your audience relies heavily on a device to connect with you. So having a relevant, easy to navigate, cohesive online presence will help you generate traffic, leads and business. For starters, create a website that can serve as a home for everything patients, healthcare professionals, hospitals, and pharmacies may be looking for. A strong biotech website will successfully make complex concepts and information easy to understand for all levels of familiarity. Elements that you might want to consider in your website may be comprehensive, relevant content, industry news, compliance standards, strong imagery, mobile-friendly pages, a cohesive design and clear and concise communication. Having a website allows you to create a base point to drive your current and potential customers and patients, giving you the platform to further educate and explain your brand. Creating and publishing content will drive patients and HCPs to your website, demonstrating your knowledge and authority on the topic while educating them. Similarly, publishing industry news positions you as a biotech brand that is involved in the market and passionate about educating those around you. Biotech websites should cover compliance standards and how your firm meets the requirements of the industry and market. This not only is required by many, but also demonstrates exactly why patients, healthcare providers, hospitals, and pharmacies can trust you. Transparency, when it comes to processes and compliance, reassures your audience that you know what you’re doing, and you have the knowledge and medical scientific data and products to support them. Number three, understand the market demands. Creating a visually appealing website and digital footprint across social media, email marketing, and PR opportunities will draw in your audience making you easily recognizable anywhere. Original imagery gives a level of authenticity that encourages patients and healthcare providers, hospitals, and pharmacies to form more personal connections with your brand. Instead of just being numbers, you’re showing them the faces and original imagery and materials also show these customers real examples and the products that you offer, creating an overall impression of professionalism and authenticity with real life people, product and materials, and to yield the most online success in 2023 you must cater to mobile browsing, making your website and content mobile-friendly. In fact, nearly 90% of hospitals, pharmacies, and HCPs use some form of mobile app in their work. From check-in forms, payment transactions, scheduling, and more, your biotech brand must be able to accommodate the demand for mobile-friendly browsing and data. Your biotech website must be able to support a user experience that is smooth, cohesive, and exactly what they are looking for. And lastly, knowing when to ask for help. Branding is a fuel that drives business profits, and without a strong branding and biotech firm behind you, it’ll be tough to get far. You’re familiar with medical research, data collection, analysis and testing, but do you know how to apply it to your brand strategy? Incorrectly branding your firm could do more harm than good, which is why it’s always beneficial to ask for help. Knowing when to ask for help can make the difference between a good brand and a great brand. And biotech branding is complex, technical and requires a certain amount of creativity to ensure you are engaging patients, healthcare professionals, HCPs, hospitals, and pharmacies, all at the same. It’s always important to be at the right place at the right time to ensure your biotech brand is a big success. So, we’re going to wrap it up today, and thank you for listening in to establishing a successful biotech brand that engages. And if you like what you heard, press like, share, or subscribe today. Thank you.