Research is everything in Marketing. If you aren’t tuned into the latest industry trends, you’re leaving a ton of potential on the table.
Carve out 15 minutes each morning to scroll through the industry news, build the habit, reap the rewards.
For example, I found some BREAKING news that applies to all of us B2B Marketers out there.
I was doing some digging on the good ‘ol world wide web and stumbled upon a gem of an article on MarketingWeek. It touched on a topic that us Marketers are having a tough time with right now. Every $ of Marketing spend is being scrutinized, budgets are tight, so performance Marketing has become the focus for many brands.
The top of the funnel is getting less attention, it’s way harder to attribute, brands are focusing on spending at the bottom of the funnel, where insights are directly measurable. Throw on top of that the fact that we’re in B2B, brand is already a difficult sell. Or so we thought .
LinkedIn’s B2B Institute, along with the help of Warc conducted a study on over 2,000 campaigns since 2018, and found some shocking results. Of the 2,000 campaigns, those who made a straightforward promise to the customer experienced an increase in brand health metrics by as much as 48% compared to those without one.
Okay, but what does that mean? Your brand health metrics are brand awareness, reputation in your niche, and overall brand sentiment, aka your TOP OF FUNNEL. This is huge. Data you can show to the executive team to back up your top of funnel efforts.
Now as a B2B brand what is a straightforward promise you can make to your customers? There are 3 distinct promises your brand can make to a consumer.
1. A better value and quality product or service
2. Ease of use as compared to competitors
3. Your product or service will make a customer feel [insert feeling]
Implementing a clear brand promise won’t only impact your brand’s top of funnel awareness. But by having a clear statement or promise to consumers, you’re in turn simplifying the purpose of your top of funnel efforts, making it clearer for your executive to understand. At a time when executive teams are leaning into attributable efforts, a clear brand promise now seems to be one of the biggest potential ROI’s for your brand.
Does this inclusion of a brand promise only work for certain sized budgets? NOPE. According to the study, you’re “84% more likely to increase market share if your campaign has a promise to the customer at the heart of it, when you have a low budget.” I don’t often quote in emails, but this message was too important not to quote.
If your budget seems to be shrinking quicker than your favorite shirt in the dryer, implement a CLEAR brand promise in your top of funnel efforts ASAP. Oh, and show your boss the data to back it up.
