The Creative’s Guide to Brand Strategy

April 27, 2022 - 10 min read

Yuvika Iyer

Think about the iconic red Coca-Cola calligraphy or the globally famous golden arches of McDonald’s. Both are instantly recognizable brand names. But what came to your mind when you thought about them? Was it the color, the logo design, or their brand positioning?

A color or a design alone does not define a brand. It’s the complete brand strategy that includes the core identity, messaging, communication, and overall customer engagement that attracts customers to their favorite brand.

Simply put, a brand is the reputation and visibility of a company in the minds of its audience. In this article, we’ll show you what a brand strategy is and how you can design a successful brand strategy for your company.

Brand strategy explained

A brand strategy is a formal document that presents a clear and compelling image of the company in the minds of the audience.

While your brand strategy should align with the company’s overall business and marketing objectives, it should also be able to delight the target customers.

Teams need to work on many elements to design an effective brand awareness strategy, including:

Color palette
Logo design
Consistent messaging across the brand website, social media, and all other media
Company mission statement
Company’s products and services

Why is a brand strategy important?

Retail sector research confirms that customers who emotionally connect with a brand have a 306% greater lifetime value to the company compared to emotionally disconnected customers.

These customers are also loyal to the brand for 1.6 years more than those who aren’t emotionally connected.

There are many branding benefits. With a successful brand strategy, companies can:

Increase their share of the customer wallet or total purchasing power
Drive growth in newer market territories and for new products and services
Achieve greater customer lifetime values
Boost stronger brand loyalty and advocate for the brand in the marketplace

Let’s find out the key people responsible for designing and developing brand strategies.

Who is responsible for brand strategies?

All team members have a duty to build, nurture, and grow the brand. They need to support the company and help the organization achieve its objectives.

However, the core responsibility for designing, growing, and communicating the brand strategy lies with the marketing and communications teams.

Brand strategists and managers

A brand strategist is a marketer who adapts the brand strategy and initiatives to suit a specific market or target audience. Brand strategists understand the company’s core products and design personalized customer experiences that grow its revenue and profitability.

A brand strategy manager (also known as a brand development manager) develops brand strategy activities and initiatives, including branding, online and offline promotions, market research, and marketing campaign efforts.

A brand strategist has many key responsibilities, including:

Designing brand strategy documentation, including style guides, brand guidelines, value proposition, and brand vision for the long term and short term
Planning and executing all communication initiatives on multiple channels such as social media platforms and other media
Developing new business opportunities, product development initiatives, pricing, and products
Maintaining branding consistency by creating and managing promotional collaterals and related documentation
Planning and managing the budget for promotional and advertising initiatives
Executing competitor benchmarking and customer behavior analysis
Reviewing product sales forecasts, financial reports, and related documentation

Brand strategy managers work with various stakeholders throughout the company. They serve as the leaders and gatekeepers of the company’s entire brand.

A successful brand manager will have a bachelor’s degree in digital marketing or any other marketing field of study. In addition, they will likely have professional work experience as a brand strategist, brand manager, or a similar role in marketing.

To excel in this role, a brand manager would require key skills, such as:

Fair understanding of the four P’s of marketing (price, place, product, and promotion)
Creative and innovative thinking skills
Relationship management skills
Solid focus on results
Analytical, reporting, and presentation skills

Creative agencies

Creating, growing, and maintaining a brand can be challenging. By partnering with a branding agency, teams can gain a competitive advantage, design robust brand strategies, and increase their customer base faster.

A branding agency is a specialized company that plans, creates, and measures the results of your brand strategy. It can act as your strategist, designer, or creative team. Most branding agencies offer the following services:

Brand positioning
Brand identity (website, tagline, video, podcast, motion graphics, collaterals)
Brand audits
Market segmentation
Brand roadmaps and messaging frameworks
Brand guidelines
Employer branding strategy
Competitor and brand research and analytics
Brand name
Brand visual identity, including logo design and color schemes
Brand portfolio
Brand strategy
Brand communications
Rebranding
Product and packaging design
Public relations
Brand management
Brand training
Advertising campaigns
Brand rollout and implementation

Before choosing a strategic brand management agency, you must:

Understand the core of your product, its target audience, and the brand identity to be established.
Review the branding agency’s portfolio, past client testimonials, case studies, and awards
Assess the breadth and depth of the agency’s expertise across marketing, public relations, social media, promotion, and advertising.
Look for some experience in your niche or industry.
Discover how the agency brands itself across its website, social media, and partnerships. Having a visually appealing and consistent brand identity of its own is a good indicator that an agency can do the same for your brand.

Important components of brand strategy

Whether you’re creating your brand strategy from scratch or revamping an existing one, there are some things you should know. Even though most of these elements come from your overall business strategy, other questions may need your attention.

Answer these questions before you craft a brand strategy:

Who are your ideal customers? Outline the challenges they face and how the product will help solve them. Identify where they live, their age, preferences, likes, and dislikes.
Are there any competitors already solving your audiences’ needs? Find out who they are, how they operate, their pricing, product, and promotion strategies.
How do you plan to attract, engage, and retain your customers? Identify the marketing channels your audience uses and the tone of voice required to engage them.
What are your core brand goals? What problems is your brand going to solve?

Now that the brand goals and audience pain points have been identified, it’s time to review each of the following brand strategy elements.

Brand purpose

The brand purpose is the reason why a brand exists. Apart from driving an entire organization and its people, it also differentiates your brand from a competitor.

Unilever’s Dove is a global brand that aims to make real beauty accessible to every woman. By embracing real women and not professional models in its marketing campaigns, it breaks the media-driven stereotypes of beauty. The brand’s purpose defines and propels the business forward.

Brand values

After defining the brand purpose, it is time to define the core brand values that amplify its mission. Brand values are the central beliefs and ideas that guide brand actions and initiatives.

Zappos is a perfect example of how brand values can be the glue connecting the company with its team. It defines itself as a “customer-obsessed” company. It introduced eCommerce industry-first initiatives such as a 365-day return period, no time limits on customer support calls, and free overnight shipping.

Zappos' brand values have helped it stand out amongst competing brands, boost brand loyalty, and achieve an astonishing 75% repeat client base.

Brand personality

Like humans, brands also have different personalities. A successful brand personality differentiates one brand from another and makes it likable, adventurous, fun, attractive, dull, dated, boring, or annoying.

Start by identifying brand facets defined by emotion, intelligence, behaviors, and characteristics. They help brand managers and copywriters bring the brand to life by creating a unique visual identity. This defines how a brand looks, thinks, and acts.

As one of the most globally renowned brands, Amazon portrays a sincere, hardworking, and competent personality. Its easy return policy, global product accessibility, and industry-leading, customer-focused approach reflect this.

Awareness goals

It's helpful if your teams know the audience to target or the messaging channels to use for disseminating brand content. But it’s critical to know what they wish to achieve with their brand awareness campaigns.

If you are struggling with this, take a look at some common brand awareness goals and objectives:

Increasing website traffic
Promoting a new product
Enhancing brand reputation in the marketplace
Establishing thought leadership
Boosting leads, sign-ups, or increasing product purchases

Every business needs to create brand awareness. As the world’s largest athletic shoe manufacturing company, Nike has created a memorable slogan: “Just do it.”

Nike’s brand has embedded itself deep into its customers’ lifestyles. The next time they need to purchase new sneakers, Nike is their first port of call. It has created trust, emotional connection, brand loyalty, and a deep association with its target consumers.

Consistency

Branding falls flat if the messaging, tone, or voice is not consistent across platforms. Don’t share a piece of content just because it’s funny, quirky, or in the news. Make sure the topic is relevant and meaningful for your audience.

Consistency in branding is not just an industry best practice. 90% of consumers expect this from brands too. Use a central style guide that lays out color palettes, tone of voice, and product positioning elements to ensure brand consistency every single time.

Maintaining brand consistency strengthens brand loyalty, which pushes the business forward. Apple is a great example of this, reaching $260 billion in revenue in 2020.

As the world’s most valuable brand eight times in a row, Apple’s products reinforce its central themes of cutting-edge technology and fantastic innovation.

Where to start with a brand strategy

By following the step-by-step approach outlined below, you’ll be able to set up an effective brand strategy that attracts your target audience at every touchpoint.

Investigate business goals

Branding is not done in isolation. It needs to be aligned with the core business strategy.

Whether you are planning for organic growth, social media campaigns, or growing in-store traffic, branding can help you achieve your corporate goals faster.

Conduct competitor research

Scan the marketplace to identify the other companies serving your target audience. Consider all types of competitors:

Primary competitors: Companies selling the same product or service to the same audience. For instance, Zappos and Nike both sell shoes in the US market.
Secondary competitors: Companies selling products similar to your company’s offering. For example, Red Bull and Coca-Cola are both beverage brands but their individual products are different.
Tertiary competitors: Companies who may sell to the same audience but don’t have competing products. For example, Lululemon and Dove sell to a female audience but satisfy different consumer needs.

Understand your audience

Unfortunately, many companies make the common mistake of not carefully identifying their ideal customers. By targeting everyone, they end up attracting no one.

Niching down can be a faster way to build a successful brand. If you identify a smaller market (or niche) within a larger audience, your business can:

Command a greater price for the same product
Focus on providing a delightful customer experience to a small audience
Stand out in the market compared to the other brands that cater to everyone

So, how can you identify and serve a niche audience? Find out who they are and learn everything about them. Start by researching your audience’s needs, behavior, likes, preferences, and challenges. Now customize your products and services to their needs to attract, engage, and retain them.

Photo by Balázs Kétyi on Unsplash

Review your positioning

Discover what the customer thinks and feels about your brand. Start by asking questions that will help your team find clarity on your brand positioning, such as:

Do you operate differently from other companies on the market?
Are you serving customer needs adequately compared to your competitors?
Why should the customer choose your product over the others?
What is the unique selling proposition of your company and product?

Start by creating a simple 2-3 sentence description of your brand positioning. Check out Nike’s brand statement as an example: “Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. *If you have a body, you are an athlete.”

Refine your messaging

Once your brand positioning is defined, it’s time to translate it into the company messaging. Make it visible to all your internal and external stakeholders, including customers, vendors, suppliers, investors, internal teams, prospective employees, and business partners.

While the core messaging stays the same, its strategy, frequency, and context will change based on the audience.

Design your visual identity

Make your brand stand out by creating unique imagery. The brand’s visual identity comprises distinctive visual elements such as a name, logo, and tagline.

Focus on articulating your brand’s mission and values through the visuals, messages, and colors that your audience would love to connect and engage with.

A globally recognized brand that instantly comes to mind is McDonald’s. McDonald’s brand identity is carefully crafted using a bright yellow, red, and black color palette that showcases its fun-loving and dependable nature.

Create branding guidelines

Branding guidelines, also known as a brand guide or brand bible, translate the company’s mission, values, and purpose and distill them into design elements.

A brand guide maintains the consistency of the brand across platforms, channels, and messaging. Here are the core components of a brand style guide:

Typography and fonts
Imagery and graphics
Colour palette
Brand story
Logo

Get internal and external feedback

Once all the brand guide documentation and visuals are ready, get input from internal and external stakeholders. Then, incorporate the feedback and make the necessary pivots to launch the final brand visual identity elements.

Top tips for building a digital brand strategy

A digital brand strategy is all about how you communicate and share your brand with online consumers. In the digital world, the goal centers around connecting with customers, boosting customer loyalty, and increasing conversions.

A digital brand strategy might include digital marketing tactics like SEO, content marketing, email marketing, paid advertising, and website experience, to name a few.

Why does all of this matter? An eCommerce Foundation study shows that 88% of consumers research their purchases online before buying either online or in-store, which means your digital presence is a big deal. Here are three tips for building a digital brand strategy:

1. Prioritize building a website

Your customers will likely try to find you through one key place on the internet: your website. Your website should reflect your brand identity and positioning and speak to your target audience.

A website that doesn’t align with your general offline branding efforts can discredit your message and make customers lose trust in your brand. Create a digital experience that’s attractive, informative, and speaks to what your business is and the problems you’re solving.

2. Use your buyer personas to locate your customers

If you have researched and identified your audience, you have buyer personas you can use as part of your digital brand strategy. Now that you know who your customers are, think about where you might be able to reach them on the web — through organic web searches, social media ads, email campaigns, and more.

You can use this information to target different segments of your audience through various channels where your message may resonate with them best. Your SEO strategy and paid advertising offer multiple opportunities to connect with prospects and customers, which is essential in the digital space that spoils us for choice.

3. Create a social media presence

It’s no secret that social media is an integral part of your online brand, which means it should be a significant part of your digital brand strategy. Don’t just create social media profiles — make sure you’re actively engaging with your networks and followers. Create a space for your prospects and customers to connect with you.

If you want to make your brand stand out on social media, focus on your digital personality, which includes your tone, types of messages, and whether or not you’re going to use emojis. Consistency will help you build your digital brand on these channels.

Brand strategy example

Now that you know where to start when developing your brand strategy, let’s look at brand strategy examples to see how you might organize your brand plan.

These can serve as inspiration or starting point for building your own brand strategy. Here’s a quick look at some of the key elements of three globally renowned brands in a simple and easy-to-use template format.

Starbucks

The recognition and growth of Starbucks didn’t happen overnight but as a result of constantly adapting and evolving its brand. Many beverage and coffee brands exist in the market. So why is Starbucks so famous and recognizable, even after multiple brand relaunches?

Starbucks has perfected the art of storytelling to grow its brand and, ultimately, its business. Let’s take a look at their brand philosophy:

The ‘Why’: “Our mission is to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.”
Target audience: Starbucks targets on-the-go working professionals and upper-to-middle class consumers who regularly purchase coffee. Customers can save time in their busy mornings by getting Starbucks coffee. They also get an informal location for their business meetings.
Competitors: Costa Coffee, McDonald’s McCafé, Dunkin Donuts, Café Coffee Day
Brand identity and positioning: The Starbucks brand is instantly recognizable by its iconic green logo, emblazoned with the image of a siren. Starbucks has centered its brand not around coffee but around people. By keeping its brand colors grounded in reality, it represents sustainability, optimism, and joyfulness to connect people and communities.

Coca-Cola

94% of the world’s population recognizes this brand by looking at its distinctive red-and-white logo. Coca-Cola is almost a synonym for carbonated drinks. This omnipresent brand has a 200+ brand portfolio in 200+ countries and generated annual revenue of $38 billion+ in 2021. Let’s dive into its brand philosophy:

The ‘Why’: Coca-Cola’s mission is to inspire optimism by action and brand, create value by making a difference, and refresh the world in body, spirit, and mind.
Target audience: After marketing to global audiences, Coke started niching down to a secondary market that valued well-being and health over empty calories.
Competitors: PepsiCo, Inc., Nestlé S.A., Keurig Dr. Pepper Inc., Groupe Danone, The Kraft Heinz Company
Brand identity and positioning: From selling soda, it has moved to sell 200+ beverages, such as sparkling water, sports drinks, and healthy juices. Dasani, Gatorade, Schweppes, Fanta, Minute Maid, Coke, Fuze Tea, Costa Coffee, Georgia, and Innocent are just some of the brands under the Coca-Cola umbrella. The company emphasizes togetherness and sharing in experiences rather than focusing on a specific product. Coke’s purpose summary mentions creating value for customers, supporting communities, and developing a better and sustainable business.

IKEA

IKEA wants to help create ‘your home, your way.’ With a niche and singular focus, this $40 billion Swedish home furnishings retailer invests heavily in market research to understand the evolving needs of its ever-growing customer base.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ikea introduced 2000+ new products to help people create a safer, healthier, and more functional home as part of “The Big Home Reboot” campaign.

The ‘Why’: IKEA’s mission is to offer nicely-designed home furnishings at an affordable price so that most customers can buy them.
Target audience: IKEA focuses on budget shoppers who want chic, functional, affordable products. It targets customers willing to assemble the products themselves to save on costs.
Competitors: Walmart, Amazon, Mayfair, Sears, Tesco
Brand identity and positioning: With a blue and yellow color palette, IKEA make its home décor products the center of attraction. Customers know they can find trendy products for their home, garage, or garden in one place.

As you can see from these brand strategy examples, a lot of work goes into creating a successful brand strategy.

When you’re getting started, jotting down your thoughts and plans in a simple template like the one above can help you organize your initial ideas. You can then set the tasks that you need to complete as you work your way through each stage.

How Wrike can help with your brand strategy

Brand development is a lot of work and requires organization and planning for success. Here’s the good news: Wrike can help you organize and implement your brand strategy. Here’s how:

Use the marketing campaign management template for impactful campaigns focused on your brand message
View real-time marketing campaign progress and performance
Manage all of your brand strategy tasks and seamlessly collaborate with your team
Provide visibility into tasks and assignees to make sure your brand launch stays on track

Building a brand is a big job, but it doesn’t have to be completely overwhelming. Wrike can help streamline operations so you can focus on building the world’s next best brand. Start your free trial today and see.

Yuvika Iyer

Yuvika is a freelance writer who specializes in recruitment and resume writing.

#Brand #Marketing Strategies #Marketing Teams

Marketing 10 min read

B2B vs. B2C Marketing: What is the Difference?

While B2B and B2C marketing are different, they share the same goals and objectives. There is an art to both B2B and B2C marketing, with their strategies and thinking being both separate, and in some cases, the same. This article will clear the confusion and explain the fundamental differences between B2B and B2C marketing, along with guidance and considerations for each marketing type. Keep reading to discover tools and tips to uncover the subtle yet significant differences between the two. What is the difference between B2B and B2C marketing? Business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing techniques are focused on attracting two distinct audiences. B2B refers to businesses that are focused on serving other businesses instead of themselves. Some examples include software, manufacturing equipment, and repair services for long-haul fleets. B2C refers to businesses that are focused on the needs and interests of their customers, who are often individuals. In other words, they sell to everybody but professionals. Think toothpaste, grocery stores, and mobile gaming apps. While these brands may also appeal to businesses, the bulk of their customer base comes from consumers, so their marketing reflects that. There are also cases where both B2B and B2C initiatives happen at the same time. For example, an interior design agency might design rooms for hotels as well as homeowners. On the surface level, B2B and B2C marketing campaigns share the same technical and behavioral best practices. However, there are several strategic differences that separate the B2B and B2C campaigns. Potential sales volume B2C campaigns can reach anyone interested in a product even if they aren’t the intended buyer. For example, a product intended for children might appeal to the decision-maker in the household by also targeting them to get them to purchase something. While B2C companies can cast a wide net and still expect a solid ROI on their campaigns, B2B brands don’t have that same advantage. That’s because, in B2B marketing, the products are meant for businesses, and there are typically far fewer businesses than there are people in any demographic. While specificity is key for both, B2B marketing has to niche down even further by industry, business size, approximate revenue, and much more when choosing their target audience. Average budget per customer There's a big difference in the budget that an individual has versus what a corporation has. While spending five figures on a piece of equipment might be out of reach for the Average Joe, it's likely already built into the company budget for a business. And, as you can probably guess, how you market a $5 item is quite different from how you market a $50,000 item. This distinction is important because it highlights another one of the biggest key differences between B2B vs. B2C marketing: volume. Volume of sales needed to reach goals Because B2C products are typically sold at a lower price point, they need to rely on a significant number of purchases to reach their goals. This is often reflected in the frequency and variety of their marketing. Even the B2C channels they use offer mass appeal. Podcast ads, paid social media ads, and even billboards are excellent examples of this. Conversely, B2B products are sold at a higher price point and need fewer yet more highly targeted accounts to make a profit. These types of campaigns rely more on reaching the right quality of audience rather than the right quantity of audience. In other words, more is not necessarily more in B2B marketing. Even if the B2B marketers are targeting a specific set of individual decision-makers within a company, they are still benefiting from that company's access to a greater amount of financial resources than the average individual would have. In short, B2C marketing is often aimed at individuals with smaller budgets, while B2B marketing is all about targeting corporations with larger budgets. Decision-making timeline In both B2B and B2C marketing, ads need to immediately inspire customers to take the next action. The difference here is that the next action for B2C audiences might be to make a purchase, while B2B buyers tend to have a much longer decision-making timeline. For B2C, consumers should be able to see an ad and decide whether or not they like the product enough to go in-store or online to make the purchase. While they might do additional research, the time it takes to read reviews or watch product videos on YouTube is a much quicker turnaround than in B2B buying. For B2B brands, there may be many different decision-makers from a variety of departments involved in the purchase. 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As a result, the purchase decision is often influenced by both logic and financial incentive more than emotion. Personal attention Unlike in a B2C environment, B2B customers expect their sales and marketing teams to be focused on them because of the higher ticket price. This means providing personalized service, getting to know their team members on an individual level, and tailoring solutions to fit their changing needs over time. Customer experience is an important factor for B2C audiences too. However, the average consumer doesn’t expect to get to know a sales representative at their favorite laundry detergent brand before buying their next bottle. Do B2B & B2C marketing intersect at all? Both B2B and B2C sales require extensive experience and knowledge about customer service. In fact, “on average across 20 industries, there is a 38% difference in likelihood to recommend between consumers rating a company’s [customer experience] as ‘good’ versus those rating a company’s [customer experience] as ‘poor’” according to Qualtrics XM Institute. In other words, good customer service really matters for most industries and can positively impact the decision-making process for both types of audiences. Another way the B2B and B2C marketing intersects is shared goals. The primary goal of both B2B and B2C sales models is to convert a prospect into a customer. The ways they go about it or the specifics of how many sales they make might look different. But at the end of the day, they are focused on the same big-picture vision. Another similarity between B2C and B2B sales is that their customers are (or have the ability to be) very well-versed in their products and services. In addition to viewing ads, customers will often research products on their own and ask their network for referrals. Both B2C and B2B marketers will have to consider how they’re appealing to their target audience outside of the physical and digital spaces they have control of because of this. B2B Vs B2C Marketing: Which approach is best for me? If you're trying to decide between B2B vs. B2C marketing, you need to consider who you're going to reach. Again, it all goes back to businesses versus individuals. If you are aiming for audiences in both sectors, you can use a combination of B2B and B2C marketing techniques in separate campaigns. Another thing to consider is budget. B2C marketing typically casts a wider net across platforms, channels, and ad types. If you can afford to reach the masses on a variety of mediums, then the B2C marketing approach is worth considering. There's also a chance that your B2B product might have mass appeal to individuals or vice versa. In that case, you can test a small campaign using the opposite approach to see which works best for your brand. If you have a smaller budget or a niche product, then the B2B marketing approach is ideal. It may take more planning, but you can easily reach high ROI leads using this methodology. B2B vs. B2C OKRs: What is the difference? OKRs help marketers align their efforts with the goals and objectives of their companies. They can also affect the people who work with them and offer actions steps for marketing operations and management. B2B and B2C objectives and key results are identical for the most part. That’s because B2B and B2C brands often have goals that fall under the same category. The details, such as the specifics of the objective and the steps they’ll take to achieve each goal, might look different. But for the most part, any marketer can use the OKR system for establishing goals and next steps. Here’s an example of OKRs in action: Objective: Become the go-to product for this pain point on the market Key Result: Provide one new product update every quarter to reflect industry trends Key Result: Reduce the number of steps it takes to make a purchase through the website from 10 to two Key Result: Increase average star meter review score from 3.5 to 4.5 stars on major industry review website Notice how this can apply to either a B2B or a B2C marketing campaign? While this example is a bit generic, there are instances where the OKRs will look different, especially when it comes to the approach. How do B2C and B2B marketing approaches differ? B2C and B2B marketing approaches differ and how and when they reach potential leads. While both B2C and B2B customers are more likely to purchase after seeing an ad, the latter is also more likely to take longer to make a purchase. People tend to make impulsive decisions when it comes to buying goods and services on their own. On the other hand, buying a business product or service can be more challenging to change once purchased. There's even evidence of this in the marketing tools B2C and B2B marketers use most often. For example, most ad platforms have shorter windows of attribution for B2C customers. For that reason, B2B businesses should also check these settings and ensure that they are being used correctly. B2C and B2B marketing management approaches also differ in how they motivate buyers. B2B and B2C customers both typically buy because they see a product or service that they can use in some way. However, B2C customers are looking for ways to improve their lives. Even though emotional appeal is important in both B2B and B2C, it needs to be tied back to the business and not just the sales pitch. Can I organize B2B & B2C marketing campaigns with Wrike? Wrike for Marketers is a robust and pre-packaged solution that enables marketers to easily create and manage their marketing plans. Marketing teams use it to streamline and keep track of their work for both B2B and B2C marketing. They’re able to clearly see all active projects, statuses, and tasks in one shared system, all while monitoring performance and improving ROI as they go. Some ways you can use Wrike to organize B2B & B2C marketing campaigns include: Create use requests, tasks and projects to streamline your intake process for both B2B and B2C marketing initiatives. Organize incoming work from clients, partners, and third-party collaborators. Create an actionable timeline for campaigns and individual assets. Easily compare and approve files and materials while also commenting on files directly in Wrike. Run reports on internal and external progress to see how your team is doing across all departments. To sum it up: Wrike can help both marketers and businesses plan and execute their marketing strategies and campaigns. Start your free trial.

Marketing 10 min read

The‌ ‌Complete‌ ‌Guide‌ ‌to‌ ‌Marketing‌ ‌for‌ ‌Professional‌ ‌Services‌

How do you get noticed in the professional services industry? It involves finding the right mix of content and tactics to attract and retain clients. In this guide to marketing for professional services, we’ll help you build a great team, develop a plan, and gather the right tools. Keep reading to discover trends and tips that will enhance your marketing strategy. What is marketing for professional services? Traditional marketing techniques are no longer enough to succeed in today's world. Instead, they should be designed to work seamlessly with today's clients, especially in the wake of the major changes that 2020 brought to the traditional workplace. This means finding strategies that will help you generate leads and close sales for the professional services niche. There are many ways to market a business, both offline and online. Examples include everything from social media to search engine marketing to networking events. Online and offline marketing techniques combine to allow you to reach out to clients wherever they are. For a professional services organization, you’ll need a strong roadmap for conquering both. There are two distinct and important concepts in marketing for professional services: niching down and customer-centric branding. While these aren’t unique to professional services, they should be top of mind for all marketing strategies in this sector. Niching down Instead of trying to be the best in the industry, try to hone in on a specific area. This will allow you to stand out from the crowd and ensure that your customers are happy with your work. Finding your niche market can also help you attract potential clients and partners that your competitors aren't specifically speaking to. Through niche marketing, you can expect to see more referrals and testimonials from your existing clients. Customer-centric branding Before diving into the world of selling, you should carefully consider the following: are there customers out there who you can sell to? Many professional service companies fail to develop a brand beyond simply being a service provider. Yes, it takes up a lot of resources to do. But when you shape your service around the client’s needs, you can confidently deliver it knowing that your offer is being marketed to who needs it the most. The result is a central marketing message that will be direct, clear, and memorable. It can even help further develop your offline and digital marketing strategy over time since a client-centric organization will listen to its customers and develop solutions that fit their needs as they go. Customer feedback will allow you to create new campaigns that answer specific questions, offer educational resources, and solve their problems with both free and paid solutions. This will ultimately provide a strong foundation for long-term client relationships. How to build a professional services marketing team The question of how to build the optimal marketing team comes down to a simple yet critical decision: what roles do you actually need?. Most of the time, the answer is not clear. It often comes with a series of generic titles such as social media guru, content writer, or marketing administrator. While they are useful for discussing how to accomplish each step, the following will give you the exact actions you need to take as you begin to build a professional services marketing team. Step 1: Ask questions Instead of cultivating a culture of continuous improvement, firms tend to create a hodgepodge marketing team focused on meeting the demands of fast growth. If you have any questions about the firm's strategic direction or growth priorities, start by asking your partners. Clarity is key to building or restructuring your team. It’s easier to make decisions regarding hiring when you know what you need and why you’re hiring in the first place. At a minimum, you should be able to answer the following: Where have we succeeded and failed in the past? How has marketing contributed to growth so far? Which of our services should be prioritized for marketing? What does success mean and how is it measured? Is our branding where it needs to be to reach our next set of goals? Which of our current marketing initiatives support our continued growth, and which do we need to revise, pause, or cancel? Step 2: Create a roadmap Most marketing managers don’t realize that, in order to build an effective team, they first need to create a comprehensive marketing roadmap that takes into account all their current and future needs. How do you get people to see your marketing and convert them into customers? By going beyond building a strategy that simply drives traffic to one that monetizes said traffic through a series of well-thought-out action steps and corresponding tasks. Doing so will help you map out the steps and resources needed to get it all done. This step will also provide a clear understanding of your long-term goals and how your future marketing team members will affect those goals. In fact, you may even realize that your current team has all the skills necessary to move forward with your plan. Step 3: Identify gaps There are two types of gaps in marketing teams: skill and availability. Based on the roadmap you’ve established in the next step, it should be clear where these gaps are for your current team. If you’re still unsure, look to your project management tool for help. For example, Wrike users can view individual schedules to determine where employees might have pockets of time to work on additional tasks. They can also redistribute work if the effort looks uneven. And if a particular team member has some out-of-office time coming up, managers can simply reassign tasks so that there are no bottlenecks in their absence. This feature also makes it easy to identify employee skills and where they should be putting more or less time. For example, if you have an SEO expert on social media posting but need assistance with your new website, you’ll be able to see what they’re working on and quickly follow up with a reassignment. Step 4: Make a wish list Now that you know where your marketing is, where it’s going, and what gaps you need to fill, it’s time to create your marketing team wishlist. In a fresh document, create separate sections for skills, availability, experience level, salary, and location. Fill this out based on your answer to the previous steps and use it as a hiring guide as you move forward. Now you know exactly how to build a professional services team that fits your unique needs while using critical thinking and data-backed analysis. What to include in a professional services marketing plan The fastest-growing firms are usually focused on a specific niche. Specialization is a marketing technique that helps define a certain aspect of a business or a certain industry. In fact, a firm’s competitive advantage often stems from its ability to identify and understand a specific segment of the marketplace. In professional services marketing, this means a number of different things, including: Hiring full-time and freelance team members who have experience in marketing for professional services Highlighting niche subject matter experts for your top services as part of your outbound content Narrowing down your offerings to the highest ROI ones and building a campaign around one or two Once you have your specialization strategy written down, at a minimum, you’ll need to build out each of the following to bring in more clients: 1. SEO content Creating compelling content is a great way to demonstrate your expertise and how you can solve complex problems. Blogging is useful for improving page rankings and strengthening your professional services website domain authority long-term. There are two sides to blogging: maintaining your own blog and contributing articles to other firms or industry publications. 2. Fully optimized website A lead-generating website is a key component of any marketing strategy. It serves as the central point of contact for all of your online marketing efforts. A well-designed and well-implemented website is an integral part of any marketing strategy. It can help generate leads and improve conversion rates. Make sure that any website you publish has a fast-loading speed, a back-end SEO strategy, and a plan for adding consistent weekly updates. Also, be sure to build out pages for each of the services you offer. Target keywords and publish written content that fully encompasses each specialty so that customers return to your site over and over again. 3. Event strategy Even if your professional services company operates entirely online, an event strategy will help your brand stand out. Regardless of how much time or budget you have for events, there are lots of ways to use them in your plan. Here are some examples: Sponsoring a popular event for your target industry Holding a virtual or live stream event Speaking and guest lecturing Hosting an after-party at a conference Networking with potential leads at an industry-specific event Professional services marketing trends you need to know Here are the professional service trends to look out for and how they’ll affect your marketing going forward: Virtual events In 2020, marketers had no choice but to embrace virtual events. And it turned out to be a positive change for many. Virtual events help attract new audiences and lower costs. And for professional services companies with clients and potential leads all over the world, connecting with them online in a more personal way isn’t such a bad idea. Everything from live streaming to virtual demonstrations can work. Value-based branding Consumers are increasingly demanding that their purchases align with the brands they buy from, which can be challenging for marketers. But for professional services companies, your marketing can revolve around your mission statement, ethical hiring and wage practices, and commitment to personal service. Relationship-building Professional services are focused on meeting the needs of the client. Before, many firms were able to provide these services through face-to-face client meetings. Today, clients are demanding more from their professional services firms. This means firms need to re-think their offerings and develop new ways to deliver value to their clients. This can be done through surveys, regular check-in meetings, and marketing materials focused on customer retention in addition to acquisition. Tools you need in marketing for professional services Because professional services brands focus on B2B clients, they’ll need to use B2B marketing tools to reach them. Here are the must-have tools for marketing professional services in 2021: Website traffic analytics Virtual meeting hosting service Content management and organization A/B testing tool Email sales funnel creator SEO research and reporting Keyword and search engine content analyzer Teamwide messaging tool File and media asset storage Workflow manager with status updates Automated social media posting tool CRM You can combine these tools into a marketing stack or look for solutions like Wrike that combine one or more of the above features into a single platform. How Wrike can help with your professional services marketing Most professional services firms know they need a marketing organization. But they don’t know how to build one that fits their business goals and needs. That’s where Wrike comes in. Hands-on product management and project management help marketing managers align onsite and remote teams with an organizational strategy that builds consensus across all team members. This is beneficial for all teams but is especially helpful for those working on complex projects or across different time zones. And if you offer multiple services, Wrike can help you keep track of who is working on what for which client at all times. Before any project begins, Wrike helps identify the key metrics and reporting infrastructure necessary to measure, monitor, and track marketing campaign success, even if you have more than one active project going at the same time. That way, your omnichannel marketing plan is all in one place. During projects, Wrike gives professional services companies the ability to optimize their processes. They can do so by creating and editing workflow templates for recurring projects. They can also use visual timelines and Gantt charts to eliminate potential roadblocks before they come up. And if something disrupts the plan, Wrike makes it easy to recover seamlessly with in-app communication and simplified status viewing, so managers never miss a beat. Wrike can help you align your marketing goals and processes all in one place. Wrike can also provide visibility into how those actions are impacting your success metrics through reporting and insights. Ready to master your marketing plan this year? Start your free trial.

Marketing 10 min read

The Ultimate Guide to B2B Marketing Strategies

Did you know that 64% of B2B companies surveyed across industries have a formal marketing plan? Gone are the days of crossing your fingers and hoping your product or service sells itself. To stay competitive with the rest of the market, you need to have a B2B marketing plan in place to increase and convert as many leads as possible. We know that creating a marketing strategy and mapping out your plan can be challenging and complex. There are so many tactics to use, channels to get up and running, and ways to approach your marketing strategy when speaking to various audiences. Not to mention that, in today’s world, digital marketing is paired with offline marketing efforts, which adds more layers of complexity to your overarching strategy. That’s why we’ve broken down everything you need to know about B2B marketing, including how to organize your B2B marketing plan, top strategies to consider weaving into your plan, and how Wrike can help you execute your B2B marketing strategy with more organization and less stress. First, let’s start with the basics and define what B2B marketing is. What is B2B marketing? B2B marketing, or business-to-business marketing, refers to the marketing of products and services from one business to another. In B2B marketing, the buyer is a business, or more specifically, the decision-makers who have purchasing power within that business. For example, companies who create software products like team-wide communication tools or accounting systems market their product to other companies. Wholesalers also engage in B2B sales. They purchase products from one business in bulk and sell them to their consumers, like store owners. B2B marketing targets the needs of an entire organization and not consumers at an individual level. Simply put, the organization becomes the customer, which means the marketing strategies need to be tailored to that specific audience. Businesses might be looking for ways to help their teams become more efficient, tools to make their work easier and more manageable, or industry-specific products and services their teams simply can’t live without. How to organize a B2B marketing plan You can organize a B2B marketing plan in many ways, depending on your goals and what you want to achieve. Understanding the B2B marketing funnel is one way to create a clear and solid B2B marketing plan. The B2B marketing funnel maps the buyer’s journey from prospect to customer, using various channels and messaging along the way until the prospect converts. You can organize each function of the B2B strategy within each stage of the funnel to ensure you’re hitting every step. The typical B2B marketing funnel can vary, but we’re focusing on the following six-stage model: Awareness: At the first, widest stage of the funnel, you’re trying to pull in potential customers by bringing awareness to your products, services, and solutions offered. Within this stage, you should include all activities that enable you to reach prospects. This might consist of paid advertising, social media, and search engine rankings. Interest: At this stage of the funnel, your primary focus is to increase interest among the audience that you attracted in the awareness stage. Prospects may learn more about your business and offerings through your website. This stage creates an opportunity for your business to develop a relationship with prospective leads and start building a sense of trust. Consideration: You’re now working with prospective customers who may end up purchasing your product. Activities that fall under this stage should include utilizing email marketing to provide more information about your products and offers. Targeted content is crucial, and you can nurture the relationship with free trials, resources like guides and case studies, and more. Intent: If the prospect reaches this stage, they have demonstrated that they’re interested in purchasing the product or service. This provides an opportunity to prove why your product or service is the best one on the market. Convince the prospect that they’re making the best choice to give them that extra bump to complete a purchase. Evaluation: At this stage of the funnel, your prospective buyer is making a final decision about whether or not they want to purchase from you. This is the last chance to hook the prospect, and sales and legal often jump in to help close out the experience. Purchase: The transaction is complete! You’ve signed a new customer. With these funnel stages as a framework to organize your marketing plan, you can then set clear goals you want to achieve, determine what resources you have, and identify the marketing channels you’re going to focus on. For example, awareness and interest are often cited as the key components needed for lead generation. So if you’re looking to bring in more leads, you’ll likely want to focus on these two stages of the funnel and identify which channels you’ll start with to support them. Speaking of channels to focus on, let’s take a look at the top B2B digital marketing strategies you should consider that fall within various stages of the funnel. Top B2B digital marketing strategies B2B marketing happens both offline and online. In our increasingly connected world, digital marketing strategies are crucial when it comes to supporting your overall marketing plan. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of B2B digital marketing strategies to choose from to complement your offline efforts. Here are the top B2B digital marketing strategies we see companies lean into: Develop a company website: A company website might seem like a no-brainer, but did you know that over 80% of buyers visit a company’s website before making a purchase? Your website is an entry point for prospective buyers to learn more about your business, what you have to offer, and how to get in touch with you to complete a purchase. Your digital presence is a simple and easy way for prospective clients to share your business with the key decision-makers within their organization too. Expand your digital presence through search engine optimization (SEO): According to Hubspot’s 2020 Marketing Mix Report, 36% of sales and marketing leads result from SEO efforts. Your business needs to be discoverable. The internet is filled with websites and companies offering similar services, so it’s necessary to utilize SEO tactics that will help your website rank near the top of search results. Harness the power of social media: How many times do you check social media throughout the day? How many social media channels do you engage with regularly? If your answer is “a lot” to both of those questions, you aren’t alone. Social media isn’t just a time suck — it’s a purchasing tool. Over 80% of C-level and VP-level B2B buyers use social media to influence their purchase decisions. Even though it might seem like social media is the place to target individual consumers, you should know that businesses are utilizing this channel too. And if you aren’t sure where to start with your B2B social media strategy, LinkedIn is the most used and trusted channel, reporting an 86% usage amongst B2B professionals. Give pay-per-click (PPC) advertising a go: It’s not enough to get in front of your current audience — you’ll want to get in front of new audiences too. PPC campaigns are paid campaigns where advertisers only pay when people interact with their ads through impressions or clicks. In the 2020 B2B Content Marketing report, 61% of B2B marketers used pay-per-click advertising in the previous 12 months, making it one of the top three choices for paid distribution channels. Commit to email marketing: When executed correctly, email marketing has an unbeatable return on investment (ROI). One 2019 report suggests that the ROI for email is $42 per dollar spent. And if that’s not convincing enough, Content Marketing Institute reported that email is one of the top three free content distribution channels B2B marketers use. These are just a few of the B2B digital marketing strategies you should consider building into your larger strategy. The specific choices you make will depend on the number of resources you have to allocate, your digital maturity framework, and the priorities of your business. In addition to the strategies mentioned above, let’s talk about some more specific (and popular) strategies. We’re breaking down B2B influencer marketing, B2B content marketing, and a B2B marketing mix, as well as how you could build these efforts into your strategy. What is B2B influencer marketing? Influencer marketing is all about promoting your business and products or services by collaborating with influencers. Influencers build a level of trust and connection with their audience members, which makes consumers open to the idea of making purchases based on their recommendations. Simply put, B2B influencer marketing leans on well-known people with large followings to share marketing and brand messages with a broader market. Brands generally pay influencers to promote their products to their followers and encourage them to take action and purchase the product for themselves. In a survey of 300 B2B marketers, 96% of the ones who engage influencers feel that their influencer marketing program is successful, so it’s worth considering adding some level of influencer marketing to your strategy. What is B2B content marketing? Content marketing plays a significant role in B2B marketing. In fact, 59% of marketers believe that blogs are the most valuable marketing channel. B2B content marketing isn’t merely about generating content or posting on a blog — it’s about creating content that’s valuable, relevant, consistent, and inspires action. You can use B2B content marketing to expand your audience, emphasize your brand, and drive leads to your business. Forget the days of pumping out content for the sake of publishing and focus on creating content that’s useful and actionable for readers. With B2B marketing, it’s essential to understand who your ideal audience is. You also need to know what type of information your audience needs and how you plan to promote your content and get it in front of your audience. What is a B2B marketing mix? The origin of the marketing mix dates is attributed to Jerome McCarthy’s introduction of the 4 P’s in the 1960s. We’ve seen the original 4 P’s expanded and modified in a few different ways throughout the years, but the 4 P’s still hold to be most prevalent when thinking about a marketing mix. The B2B marketing mix allows you to create a unique selling proposition (USP) and determine how best you fit into the market. B2B marketing mix is sometimes thought of synonymously with the 4 Ps: Product: Goods or services Price: The amount the consumer pays Place: Where the marketing of the product occurs Promotion: Level of advertising involved The 4Ps don’t have to be defined in any particular order but should be defined in relation to one another as part of a holistic strategy. These elements, or pillars, should be defined to help you maximize the impact you have and satisfy your customers and your business. With the 4 P’s, you’ll be able to lay out a more effective B2B marketing strategy. Why use Wrike to create business to business marketing strategies As you can see, a lot of work and information goes into building and executing effective B2B marketing strategies, and Wrike has all of the features you need to manage this process with ease. With Wrike, you’ll be able to: Take advantage of instant insights and optimize your ROI with real-time data Plan and manage your marketing campaigns in one place Use our campaign management template to manage campaigns from start to finish Adopt a marketing campaign calendar and ditch spreadsheets Create centralized, steady streams of content with our editorial calendar template Streamline your team’s collaboration and communication so they can focus on executing the strategy Are you ready to elevate your B2B strategy and start seeing a huge ROI? Sign up for a free trial of Wrike today to help you get started.

The Creative’s Guide to Brand Strategy

Brand strategy explained

Why is a brand strategy important?

Who is responsible for brand strategies?

Brand strategists and managers

Creative agencies

Important components of brand strategy

Brand purpose

Brand values

Brand personality

Awareness goals

Consistency

Where to start with a brand strategy

Investigate business goals

Conduct competitor research

Understand your audience

Review your positioning

Refine your messaging

Design your visual identity

Create branding guidelines

Get internal and external feedback

Top tips for building a digital brand strategy

1. Prioritize building a website

2. Use your buyer personas to locate your customers

3. Create a social media presence

Brand strategy example

Starbucks

Coca-Cola

IKEA

How Wrike can help with your brand strategy

Yuvika Iyer

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The Ultimate Guide to B2B Marketing Strategies

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