B2B Monday Myth: Customer Service Isn’t Important for Brand Identity
by MGB2B
The Myth: Customer Service Has Nothing to Do with My B2B Brand Identity
The Truth: Building Brand Loyalty Requires Robust Support and Engagement
A brand is more than just a logo or a message on a company website. A brand is a combination of several different things, including the way a business interacts with its clients and how the clients feel about the product or service. If it’s been taking a back seat in your marketing strategy, it’s time to consider how customer service for B2B brand identity can help.
Customer service is not a just a department.
Many companies make the mistake of thinking that once a transaction is made, their job is done. But brand building doesn’t stop when the sale is complete. Following up with customers and maintaining a relationship with them is just as important. It ensures that your customers feel positively about your business, encourages them to come back, and even creates raving fans that will market your product for you. Positive brand perception requires authentic interactions that engage. Your marketing strategy should rely on customer service for B2B brand identity to accomplish it.
There are several different strategies for continuing to interact with your client base to earn their trust and build brand loyalty:
- Define yourself through action.Ultimately, the quality of your business is determined by your actions. Clearly identify your company’s purpose and customer support standards. This culture code should be carried out through every level of your company, from top to bottom. In today’s world, it’s not just about what your brand says — it’s about what you do.
Be transparent and available. This is your opportunity to show customers they can rely on you. Be reachable by phone, email, or social media when other companies aren’t. Contact information should be easily available, especially a call center number. This lets customers know there are real people behind your brand — an online FAQ page just isn’t sufficient. Further more, these interactions display what your company is about, and determines what customers say about your business. Own up to any mistakes, and make sure that every support call ends successfully. - Engage on social media. Most business are active online, so use this to your advantage. Engage in genuine conversation with your customers on social media. Personal messages and replies are most likely to increase brand loyalty and awareness. Online communities aren’t just for consumers — businesses also turn to the internet to ask questions, provide answers, and share knowledge about a product or service.
- Encourage feedback. Finally, every brand needs a system to track customer feedback. The most successful companies are often marked by their willingness to let customers speak out about their experiences — positive or negative. Making a customer feel acknowledged will build their trust and help you understand where you might not have met a their expectations.
Customer service is often looked at as something specific only to consumer brands. It’s also the task that many B2B companies dread handling. However, it’s just as important for B2B. Use it to your advantage and elevate the perception of your brand. Start to amp up your customer service for B2B brand identity, and companies will continue to bring their business to you time after time.
Continue ReadingB2B Monday Myth: Business Value Plays The Biggest Role In Influencing B2B Buyers
by MGB2B
The Myth: B2C companies need to worry about conveying personal value, while B2B customers only care about business value.
The Reality: Emotions play a bigger role in B2B buying decisions than you may think.
There is a major misconception about the influences on B2B buying. Google teamed up with CEB’s Marketing Leadership Council and marketing research firm Motista to survey 3,000 purchasers of B2B brands across various industries, and the results were surprising. They discovered that “B2B customers are significantly more emotionally connected to their vendors and service providers than consumers.”
Why is this? There is usually much more risk in B2B buying decisions than in B2C ones. Think about it: the buyer is spending a lot of money to make a major purchase, and needs to justify the decision to many people. More than 5 people are involved in the average B2B purchasing decision today. Not only is there a financial risk, but interpersonal and emotional forces are also prevalent in the workplace. Compare this to when a consumer goes to make a purchase; products that don’t meet expectations can be simply returned, and a disappointed spouse is more easily convinced than an unhappy supervisor.
The stakes are high for the B2B buyer, as their credibility is on the line. So, how do you successfully market your product or service? While logic and reason are an important key, you must also communicate personal value. Whether you are emphasizing opportunity for career advancement, respect in your workplace, or confidence in the product, follow these tips for success:
Homepage
It turns out that buyers don’t act in a linear fashion like we often assume. The decision-making process is actually very complex. We can be rather certain, however, that almost every buyer will at one point view the homepage on your website. This is the place to pull them in. Your homepage should have content that discusses both the business value and personal value of your product. Try using a call to action with some type of emotional appeal.
Make Personal Value Your Competitive Advantage
In above-mentioned study, Google also surveyed purchasers on their perceptions of different brands. It turns out, when it comes to business value, buyers don’t really see a difference between one brand to the next. What really differentiates a company is personal value. Emphasize the emotional outcomes of working with your company, and you’ll stand out amongst a sea of product characteristics.
Remember, You’re Talking to People
While it is easy to think of a corporation as a single entity, there are real human beings behind it. And that’s who makes the decisions. To keep this in mind, try creating B2B personas when investigating what type of content is relevant to your different segments. Remember, you are trying to gain attention from another person, just like you.
Utilize LinkedIn
While it may not be at the forefront of your mind when considering the buying process, 50% of B2B buyers use LinkedIn when making purchasing decisions. LinkedIn is the absolute preferred platform for creating a professional and authoritative brand. With LinkedIn, you can connect with your prospects and maintain current relationships. You’ve also got access to tools like Sales Navigator, to help target different audiences and generate leads. And by joining LinkedIn groups, you can monitor different preferences or issues with B2B buyers, and share relevant content to provide solutions.
B2C companies aren’t the only ones who need to convey personal value to their markets. While logic and reason are important, buyers emotions count just as much when trying to make sales. It’s time to get personal.
Continue ReadingA Lesson on Creative B2B Campaigns from MailChimp
by MGB2B
UPDATE: We know an awesome campaign when we see it, congratulations to MailChimp for scoring a Cyber Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2017. This campaign was recognized for being the best example of a full-blown campaign with digital at the center.
Mail Shrimp? Fail Chips? Snail Primp? What could all of these wacky phrases have in common? They’re all part of MailChimp’s new advertising campaign “Did You Mean MailChimp?” The campaign flies in the face of any preconceived notion that you need to play it straight with B2B ads.
Founded in 2001, MailChimp quickly made a name for itself in the email marketing software industry. Known for their easy-to-use email templates and quirky monkey mascot, Freddie, MailChimp is a top competitor in the B2B email marketing sphere. However, they’ve never made an advertising splash on a national scale, until this campaign.
It All Started With A Meme
The “Did You Mean MailChimp?” campaign was inspired by an ad that ran during the popular podcast, Serial, where the announcer famously mispronounced the word MailChimp. Hundreds of memes like the one shown above popped up online. MailChimp wondered: what other weird things sound like MailChimp? From there, the entire campaign blossomed.
Random Products and Trends… Not So Random After All
MailChimp launched the campaign with three quirky, but mesmerizing short films: JailBlimp, MailShrimp, and KaleLimp. After the kickoff, the brand began to set other components in motion. Taken individually, they seemed like random trends or disconnected products at the time, but for those in the know, everything was cleverly connected.
One seemingly random execution was MaleCrimp: a fake fashion trend of men with crimped hair. The brand teamed up with Paper Magazine and published a photo story online called “Cool Kids Crimp” right before New York Fashion Week. It also linked to the Tumblr MaleCrimp page, with some sly MailChimp branding at the bottom.
Another example of an over-the-top execution is FailChips. This new chip brand popped up throughout New York, offering a new brand of chips that consisted of the crunched pieces at the bottom of a bag of chips. Upon closer inspection, the packaging had the MailChimp monkey printed on the outside of the bag.
These are just a few examples of seemingly random executions, that were not so random after all. Overall, MailChimp put out eight executions of the campaign.
Why Did This Work?
There’s nothing traditional about this campaign whatsoever, but it worked. Why?
From their inception, MailChimp has established themselves as unique; among the many email software companies vying for the attention of businesses, MailChimp has firmly planted their brand flag, saying “this is who we are.” Yes, this may scare away some potential clients, but that’s okay.
MailChimp didn’t need a direct marketing campaign; they’re already known to be a top player within their industry. What they needed was an out-of-the-box brand awareness campaign that elevated MailChimp to a larger stage and let consumers know who MailChimp is, on a personal level.
Quirky, creative, funny, modern, original – these words describe both the campaign and MailChimp’s company values and brand personality. And it makes them unforgettable, even in the B2B world.
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