Foundation

Brand strategy is a crucial aspect of any business's marketing efforts, and B2B industrial marketing is no exception. In this highly competitive industry, developing a strong brand strategy can set your company apart from the competition, increase customer loyalty, and drive long-term success. In this article, we'll explore why brand strategy is so important for B2B industrial marketing, and what you can do to create an effective brand strategy for your company.

## Why is brand strategy foundational for B2B industrial marketing?

### **It differentiates your company from competitors**

A strong brand strategy helps you stand out from the competition by clearly communicating your company's unique value proposition, what sets you apart from your competitors, and what you offer that others don't. This helps customers quickly identify your brand and understand why they should choose your company over others.

### **It builds customer loyalty**

A unique brand strategy not only differentiates your company from the competition but also helps build customer loyalty. When customers have a positive brand experience, they are more likely to choose your company for future business, recommend your company to others, and become ambassadors for your industrial brand.

### **It improves customer engagement**

A well-designed brand strategy improves customer engagement by creating delightful and consistent experiences across all customer touch points, including your company's website, social media channels, product packaging, and customer service interactions. This consistency builds trust and reinforces your brand identity, making it easier for customers to recognize and remember your industrial brand.

### **It supports long-term success**

Having a stable and unwavering brand strategy is crucial for achieving long-term success as it establishes the groundwork for growth. With a clearly defined brand strategy in place, your company can steer clear of being diverted into areas outside of the brand’s specialization and therefore focused on identifying opportunities to enter new markets. In essence, a well-crafted brand strategy serves as a blueprint for expansion.

## How to create an effective brand strategy for B2B industrial marketing

### **Conduct market research**

In order to devise a brand strategy that truly resonates with your target audience, it's imperative to conduct market research to gain a comprehensive understanding of their needs, preferences, and what they seek in a B2B industrial marketing company. By doing so, you'll be able to use this information as a foundation for crafting a brand strategy that deeply resonates with your target audience.

### **Define your brand positioning**

After gaining a comprehensive understanding of your target audience, you can begin crafting your brand positioning strategy. This involves determining the category in which your company can take the lead, as well as the specialization or benefit that you can offer to your customers. By doing so, you'll be able to create a distinctive value proposition that distinguishes you from your competitors and highlights what sets you apart from the rest.

### **Develop your brand identity**

Armed with your research and positioning you can now tweak or overhaul a creative and memorable brand identity system. This includes your brand’s Verbal Identification: name, slogan, messaging, etc. and your brand’s Visual Identification: logo, icon, and other supporting graphics and images. This is the most important part of an effective brand strategy as it is your brand’s identity that keeps your company top of mind vs your competitors.

### **Create a consistent brand experience**

Create a consistent brand experience across all customer touch points, including your company's website, social media channels, product packaging, and customer service interactions. This consistency reinforces your brand identity, improves customer engagement, and makes sure that the customer experience is reinforcing all of your marketing efforts.

### **Measure and refine:**

Finally, measure the success of your brand strategy and make refinements as needed. Collect customer feedback, analyze your brand metrics, and use this information to make improvements to your brand strategy and continue to improve your customer's brand experience.

In conclusion, a solid brand strategy should be the footing that determines the success of all future B2B industrial marketing efforts. Using the blueprint above, developing a brand strategy will set your B2B industrial brand apart from its category competitors, increase customer loyalty, and drive long-term success.

When it comes to internet marketing, industrial businesses tend to be a bit late to the party.

Many B2B companies are just beginning their digital journey. They may be upgrading an ancient website from the pre-social media era. Or, they may be building their first-ever website.

Whatever the case may be, B2B business leaders get a lot of conflicting website advice.

One of the most important decisions when considering a new website is the choice of CMS. A CMS, or Content Management System, is where your marketing team will spend a lot of time. A CMS is a tool for organizing, editing, and publishing all website content. It's the brain powering your website.

Choosing the wrong CMS can cost your business a lot of time, money, and frustration. There are hundreds of different tools out in the wild. Each CMS has slightly different functionality, pros, and cons depending on its intended use case. A great CMS for one business might be a terrible choice for another. Even businesses that sell the same product may prefer one CMS to another for a variety of personal and technical reasons.

Today we'll look at the top eight content management systems on the market for B2B industrial companies. Let's get started!

## **8. [Squarespace](https://www.squarespace.com/)**

Do you need a fast website up and running within a week? Do you have a low budget for website development? If you answered yes to either of these questions then Squarespace might be the best choice for you! This platform allows users to create full websites right from their browser. Little to no coding knowledge is required. Content management is easy, even for beginners.

### **Pros**

- Ideal for startups or low-budget businesses.
- Easy to set up and manage.
- Offers a wide range of good-looking templates.
- Pre-built integrations make it easy to set up and use popular apps.
- No coding knowledge is required.

### **Cons**

- Large or complex websites can become difficult to manage.
- It can be challenging or impossible to build heavily customized features in their ecosystem.
- Limited customization options on templates.
- Unable to fully optimize performance.
- Difficult to implement advanced SEO strategies.
- Risk of losing all website content if the CMS platform experiences technical difficulties.

## **7. [HubSpot CMS Hub](https://www.hubspot.com/products/cms) (CRM as a CMS)**

Even if you aren't familiar with content management systems, you might know this acronym: CRM.

Some customer relationship management (CRM) platforms offer website builders as well. This means your marketing data and website content live together in one place. This combination can be extremely powerful.

HubSpot CMS Hub is a great example of this feature. Its web and marketing features work together seamlessly. There are some limitations to this platform, but it may be a good option for companies that embrace CRM technology.

### **Pros**

- Direct integrations with CRM tools for analytics, lead tracking, and more.
- Manage your website and marketing assets from one system.
- Sales, marketing, and management teams can collaborate easily

### **Cons**

- Limited customization options.
- Underwhelming technical performance. Difficult to optimize.
- Difficult to execute advanced SEO strategies.
- Steep learning curve.

## **6. [Joomla](https://www.joomla.org/)**

Joomla is a free and open-source CMS. This platform helps non-developers create visually appealing websites. It comes without some of the technical challenges of more advanced platforms.

Joomla has a powerful user management system and multi-language support by default. It's a good option for content-heavy international websites.

### **Pros**

- Free-to-use, open-source platform.
- Easy to set up and manage, even for beginners.
- Decent for SEO optimization.
- Offers a wide variety of high-quality plugins.
- Provides advanced user management.

### **Cons**

- Performance can be slow and may require more server resources.
- Many useful plugins require payment.
- Free templates have limited functionality.
- May encounter issues with specific browsers.
- Customization options can be limited.

## **5. [Drupal](https://www.drupal.org/)**

Drupal has been around for over 20 years, making it one of the most mature CMS platforms on the market. This platform is more complicated to set up compared to something like Joomla. Using Drupal to its full potential requires experience and coding knowledge.

On the other hand, Drupal's customization is more powerful than simpler platforms. It is a high-performance tool for large websites. Drupal websites can handle millions of simultaneous views without a decrease in speed!

### **Pros**

- Can handle complex and large websites with heavy traffic.
- Open source with a strong development community.
- Provides a high level of security.
- Great performance and technical customization.

### **Cons**

- Not beginner-friendly due to a steep learning curve.
- Requires coding knowledge.
- High system requirements.
- Limited plugins (modules).
- Few templates are available; most websites are custom.

## **4. [Shopify](https://www.shopify.com/ca)**

Shopify is the best option for e-commerce connected websites. Despite its many competitors, none offer the suite of tools that Shopify does. It's an easy-to-use platform for e-commerce setups large and small.

Shopify can be configured in a variety of ways depending on your needs. It may be used as a full CMS, or integrated with other platforms as an e-commerce handler.

Shopify has a robust library of plugins and templates that non-technical people can configure. Developers can edit these plugins to customize them even further. Shopify is a great platform to consider if you have any kind of online store.

### **Pros**

- Offers tons of customizable themes and plugins.
- Simple to set up.
- Easy to add, edit, or remove commerce items.
- There are many developers and tutorials available.
- Integrates with multiple channels (Amazon, eBay, Instagram, and Facebook).

### **Cons**

- Built primarily for e-commerce, so content management functionality can be limited.
- Not fully optimized for speed.
- Plugins can be expensive.
- Transaction fees range from 0.5% to 2%.

## **3. [Webflow](https://webflow.com/)**

Webflow is a popular low-code CMS solution that has gained traction in recent years. It enables designers and marketers to create dynamic websites with little or no coding experience. Unlike many other CMSs, Webflow has a plugin-free ecosystem. It features a variety of customizable templates. Compared to other options on the list, Webflow is one of the fastest and easiest. However, it is not as user-friendly as the simplest tools like Squarespace.

### **Pros**

- No need for plugins.
- Fast development time.
- Scalable websites for small to large organizations.
- Secure hosting.
- User-friendly, allowing for easy updates and the creation of complex features with little experience.

### **Cons**

- Limited default options for Ecommerce.
- Limited customization of code.
- Steeper learning curve compared to similar builders like Wix or Squarespace.

## **2. Headless CMS ([Strapi](https://strapi.io/), [Sanity](https://www.sanity.io/), [Contentful](https://www.contentful.com/), [DatoCMS](https://www.datocms.com/))**

Traditional CMSs are monolithic in structure. This means the front end (what users see) and the back end (what editors see) are closely connected. A headless CMS decouples these two sides.

There are benefits to separating the back-end and front-end. With a headless CMS, your content lives independently from the design of your website. This makes your website more secure. It allows you to more easily change the design of your website while retaining your CMS data.

A headless CMS may also be faster and more reliable in some cases than a traditional CMS.

There are many headless CMS options. More hit the market every year. A headless CMS must pair with a front-end framework like [NextJS](https://nextjs.org/), [Gatsby](https://www.gatsbyjs.com/), [Vue.js](https://vuejs.org/), or [NuxtJS](https://nuxtjs.org/).

Together, front end frameworks and headless CMSs create a powerful and secure ecosystem.

### **Pros**

- Provides the most secure way to manage content.
- Offers extreme flexibility with few limitations.
- Can be custom tailored to each business.
- Advanced SEO configuration is simple.
- Easy to scale from small to large websites.
- Provides omnichannel marketing capability.
- Performance is easy to manage.

### **Cons**

- Setting up requires diverse coding knowledge.
- Can be more expensive than other options.
- Templates must be custom created.
- Content previews can be a challenge depending on the headless platform.

## **1. [WordPress](https://wordpress.com/)**

Our number 1 pick for a CMS is also the world's top choice: WordPress.

WordPress is the most popular CMS, and has been for many years. Over [30% of the top 1 million websites](https://trends.builtwith.com/cms) in the world use it.

WordPress is so popular due to its flexibility, plugin ecosystem, and powerful user management tools. Although WordPress is most often used as a traditional CMS, it may be used as a headless CMS, too.

Whatever website idea you have, WordPress has the flexibility and plugins you need to make it a reality.

### **Pros**

- Has a vast knowledge base.
- Offers plugins for nearly every problem.
- Is flexible and easy to manage.
- Can be configured and scaled for businesses of all sizes.
- Is fully open source.
- Has millions of templates to choose from.
- Offers the option for headless CMS functionality.

### **Cons**

- Security can be an issue depending on the setup, potentially leaving it vulnerable to hacking.
- Requires updates and maintenance to use safely.
- Can become slow and unstable without proper care.
- Customization can be expensive.
- Lacks much innovation in the default setup.

When businesses choose a content management system, they must consider their goals and the tools they need to integrate. This is an important decision that can either empower a business or waste time and money. There is no perfect CMS. Companies must weigh the pros and cons of each to find the right solution. From SquareSpace for startups on a budget to headless CMSs with endless customization options, each CMS has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Are you struggling to choose the right CMS for your industrial business? Don't worry, BlackBean Marketing is here to help! [Contact us directly](https://blackbeanmarketing.com/b2b-marketing-consultation) for a free consultation to see if we can assist you in making that decision!

## Project Management is Essential to Your Project’s Success

Picture it. You and your Marketing Manager have just come up with some great ideas to meet your 2023 business goals. You’ve received your BlackBean proposal, and you’re all set to sign off until you spot that one line item: Project Management. Project Management is often an unseen and misunderstood force. That PM line item can be confusing: what am I paying for? Here’s a secret: it’s critical to the success of your project. A Project Manager is often your biggest champion. She's the glue holding it all together. They live and breathe your project, freeing you up to do what you do best.

## What is a Project Manager?

The short answer is: solid gold.

![](https://media.giphy.com/media/VLe9cJCjYWXLy/giphy.gif)

The long answer is, they play a part in every step of your project. PMs plan and organize everything before kick-off. They analyze, evaluate, schedule, and charter project tasks and deliverables. PMs keep everything in scope while managing and mitigating risk.

Project Management is like an iceberg. Much of the work they do is invisible to clients, but that doesn't make it unimportant. Each project requires six to ten detailed documents before any other work begins. In the end, this pre-work saves you money -- and your agency a big headache.

Let's do a deep dive into what a PM does, and see why they are essential to the success of your project.

## The Role of a Project Manager

Project management is the glue that holds your project together. Marketing projects are complex and detailed. A dedicated, organized PM spearheads the project.

Most marketing projects include several (or many) stakeholders. They range from designers and developers to clients, management boards, and other project influencers.

The role of the project manager is to handle communications, budgets, plans, and project data. Misalignment derails projects all the time. It's the PM's job to follow up with project stakeholders throughout the timeline to maintain alignment. They provide leadership, oversight, and focus to deliver on time and on budget.

As a key stakeholder, you might have three main concerns about project management: budget, deadline, and quality.

In a perfect world, every project would go smoothly. Nobody would have to worry about anything! We know that's not how the world works.

In reality, a PM greases the wheels. They ensure project success by overcoming obstacles and settling disputes and issues. A PM's many duties include:

- Realistic project planning with clear goals and purpose
- Scheduling your project for the production team, ensuring their focus
- Reducing costs by improving efficiency, mitigating risk, and optimizing resources
- Controlling scope to ensure that projects stay on budget
- Change management, helping clients adjust to new processes
- Defining team roles to eliminate confusion
- Identifying and assigning responsibilities for every project deliverable
- Serving as the primary point of contact, including weekly and monthly project updates
- Ensuring deliverables are of high quality, and match the project requirements

## Summary: The Power of PMs

Project Managers take control of the process from start to finish. By ensuring goals and initiatives are strategically aligned, they support stakeholders and keep both sides of the project team happy.

The PM is a planner and a scheduler. More importantly, they're a realist. PMs know the danger of reactive management. A reactive project is a project in survival mode. A good PM will make proactive choices to keep a project on track.

Without a project manager, every other stakeholder takes on the mental burden of planning and organizing. This is a sure-fire way to create misalignment between teams. Deliverables and timelines get missed. Nobody's happy in the end. Better project planning (from a PM) equals better projects and better results.

## Endorsements still matter in 2023

Your happy customers are a potential gold mine for your ongoing marketing efforts. Customer reviews are one of the most effective tools for generating B2B leads. Now more than ever, candid reviews by real humans contribute to sales success. Anyone can hire a copywriter to write flashy marketing documents, but a testimonial is real. It’s won by doing excellent work and selling exceptional products.

Despite the power of collecting customer reviews, many businesses struggle to tap into it. We get it – you don’t want to pester your clients, and maybe you’re even a little nervous that they might decline to comment — or have something bad to say.

We’re here to cast your doubts aside. Asking for customer testimonials doesn’t have to be intimidating. Here are six ideas to help you collect and use customer reviews to grow your marketing potential.

## You don’t know until you ask

It can be hard to stomach, but any feedback is good feedback. Many businesses don’t want to ask for a review in fear of hearing that their customers were dissatisfied or unwilling to give a positive endorsement.

The truth is, if you don’t ask, you don’t know — but your customers still feel whatever they feel! If you’re brave enough to reach out and ask for feedback, you win no matter what answer you receive. If their feedback is negative, you have an opportunity to right whatever’s wrong and be proactive in mending the relationship. If it’s positive, you have a great review to use however you see fit.

## **Let them sing your praises**

Happy customers want to sing your praises. They might even beat you to the punch! Maybe you find a kind email in your inbox raving about how amazing your team is. Well, guess what? You’ve got yourself a testimonial! 

All you have to do is reply with a thank you and a request to use their comments as a review. If their email isn’t meaty enough for your needs, ask if you can hop on the phone to chat more about it. By catching them at the right moment – when they’re already basking in your glow – you’ll have a better chance of getting a great testimonial!

## **Throw them a bone**

If the fear of asking for too much is holding you back from collecting testimonials, work on making the process easier for your customers. Consider the personality of each client and tailor your request accordingly. If you know that Paul loves to chat on the phone, offer to call him for 5 minutes. And if Randall is more of an email guy, send him two or three simple prompts to which he can type up a reply. 

No matter how you collect the responses, be prepared to guide your customers if they aren’t sure what to say. You don’t want to put words in their mouths, but remind them of comments they may have made to you in passing or ask how they felt when the project was complete. A little coaxing may be all it takes.

If you need some inspiration, how about this list of [15 Testimonial Questions to Ask your Happy Clients](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EHbUd2Kgre7DMLMW6Cf78S6XRqAvgeUOxODq_-Li1Ro/edit?usp=sharing)?

## **Keep It Simple, Silly**

There are many platforms for leveraging reviews. You might put them on your website, toss them in a proposal or pitch deck, or broadcast them on social media. Regardless of how they will live out in the world, keep reviews simple and to the point.

You do NOT need a 1,000 word essay from each customer. Attention spans are short. Reviews should highlight something your product or team does exceptionally well. Long, detailed breakdowns are better left for case studies and white papers.

If you get a long-winded reply from a customer, edit it down into a digestible sound bite. You want to get the meat of the matter as quickly as possible. Your readers will thank you!

## You’re great. **Prove it!**

Once you complete your customer testimonial, consider ways to back up the claims. Do you have data supporting how much you improved your customer’s production efficiencies? If so, find a way to incorporate that into the final piece. While your future customers will love to hear positive comments about you, they’ll also want the evidence of ROI!

In fact, consider including short testimonials as part of your case studies and product brochures. Combining hard facts and evidence with personal testimony is a powerful sales motivator.

## Please Sir, can I have some more?

Sometimes you need more than a quote or short paragraph from your customer. If you’re writing an entire case study, for example, you may want to expand a review into a case study or content feature. If so, consider the following:

- **Identify opportunities early** – If you can tell that a particular customer relationship is going well from the get-go, plant the seed early that you’d like to feature them in a case study. This way, they’ll be prepared for your request and might even start thinking about what they could say as they continue to work with you.
- **Ensure their comfort** – Case studies often have a lot of detail about the company you’re highlighting. Don’t blow your shot at capturing a great story because your customer gets uncomfortable with what’s being shared. Work together to ensure nothing confidential is disclosed, and they don’t feel negatively about the finished product.
- **Pay it forward** – Your customer may have gone above and beyond to contribute to your case study or testimonial. How can you return the favour? It could be as simple as picking up their coffee tab, sharing their latest LinkedIn post, or referring their business to someone in your network. Find a way to keep building on that great relationship!

Next time you see an opportunity to collect a customer testimonial or case study, don’t hesitate to make it happen! The worst that can happen is that your customer says they don’t have the time. And that’s okay; there are other fish in the sea – but you’ll never know until you ask.

At BlackBean, we’re accustomed to working with businesses that are just beginning their marketing journey. Our clients may be established and profitable companies, but their marketing knowledge is low. In many cases, their marketing strategy only recently became a priority due to increased global and regional competition. 

Often when we ask our prospects what kind of marketing they’d like to do, we get a pretty vague answer: “all of it.”

Nobody wants to miss out on an opportunity. There are many paths to marketing success, and each can support the other. A marketing strategy that accounts for every available opportunity is known as an omnichannel strategy.

Today, let’s look at omnichannel marketing for B2B companies. We’ll define omnichannel marketing in more detail, offer some pros and cons for businesses considering an omnichannel strategy, and give examples of how omnichannel marketing can support a B2B brand.

## What is omnichannel marketing?

At its most basic level, omnichannel marketing simply means marketing through every available avenue. Omni meaning all; channel meaning path, opportunity, vehicle.

In practice, omnichannel marketing has a few more defining characteristics. The most important characteristic is its customer-centric philosophy.

Omnichannel marketing strategies strive to provide a consistent customer experience across all brand interactions. It means that whether customers interact with your brand in print, online, or in-store, they’re getting the same message in the same voice, emphasizing the same product benefits.

### Which channels are “omnichannel”?

Ideally, an omnichannel strategy lives up to its name. If you *can* be represented somewhere, you should be. In practice, not every channel is equally worthy.

There are few businesses whose marketing budgets are so vast that they can throw money at every opportunity. “Omnichannel” should never become a synonym for “underfunded and undersupported”. Instead, omnichannel marketing should focus on doing the best job possible on the most channels possible, emphasizing valuable channels at the expense of niche or risky ones.

For B2B businesses, an omnichannel strategy should include, at a minimum:

- Digital advertising (search/display)
- Email marketing (newsletters, updates, offers)
- Website/content marketing (articles, white papers, guides, case studies)
- Direct marketing (cold outreach, ABM)
- Social media marketing (organic/paid posting, affiliate marketing)
- Other inbound marketing channels (live chat, phone call, text message)

Remember that omnichannel marketing is all about consistent customer experience. Each of the above strategies should support (and be supported by) your sales and support team.

### Omnichannel marketing example: Apple

An easy consumer example of a company that excels at omnichannel marketing is Apple. Their visual brand is minimalist, clean, and high-tech. You’ll never see a cluttered, visually busy iPhone ad. Not online, nor on TV, nor printed on a bus shelter.

That brand experience extends to their Apple Stores — famously among the most profitable retail spaces per square foot. It shines through in their annual Keynote events. Even their product packaging places an emphasis on quality, minimalism, and sophistication.

This constant reinforcement of brand attributes is the true power of omnichannel marketing. Everywhere consumers go, they interact with Apple marketing content. Each interaction reinforces Apple’s brand strengths, helping them maintain their position as the world’s premiere developer of mobile and computing hardware.

In fact, Apple’s marketing strategy flies in the face of some common assumptions about marketing. For instance, instead of maximizing retail shelf space, Apple strictly controls its product placements. They would rather have fewer square feet that conform with their exacting brand standards. Even in big box stores like Best Buy, Apple invests in custom furnishings and displays to differentiate their section of the store from the rest. This “store within a store” model is now widely adopted by brands looking to offer a premium, tailored experience.

Product packaging is something customers only experience once. After the product’s unboxed, the box goes in the recycling bin. Yet Apple invests heavily in product packaging. Why?

Because of their commitment to customer experience. In the age of the unboxing video, having the nicest packaging is a product differentiator. Opening a brand-new iPhone *feels* special. Flagship mobile devices compete pretty evenly on technical specs. When the facts are about even, it’s feelings that move more units. Apple gets it.

## Does omnichannel marketing work for B2B brands?

B2B brands experience radically different sales cycles than consumer brands like Apple. Does omnichannel marketing work for companies that sell heavy industrial equipment, or specialized electrical controls?

An argument can be made that omnichannel marketing is more potent for long B2B sales cycles than it is for consumer goods. Though a person may use their iPhone every day, the sales cycle from initial research to final purchase might only be a few days on average. Of course, the strength of omnichannel marketing is that it’s always working away on consumers, ensuring your brand is top-of-mind for whenever customers make a purchasing decision.

For B2B companies, sales cycles might take *years*. Often, industrial companies capture prospects at the research phase. Put up a landing page, run an ad campaign, collect email sign-ups for prospecting.

What’s happening to those prospects in between sales communications? Without an omni-channel marketing strategy in place, they’re either left without any brand interactions… or they’re interacting with your competitor’s brand!

Although omnichannel marketing can generate leads for B2B companies, what it does best is protect and nurture opportunities. Omnichannel marketing can be a powerful tool for B2B brands because it supports prospect nurturing while defending valuable leads from being scooped up by competitors. 

## How to get started with omnichannel marketing? Develop a brand promise.

You know how 90% of an iceberg is below water? Planning an omnichannel marketing strategy is a bit like an iceberg. Planning and research are invisible but essential components to the strategy. Getting your message and position just right is absolutely critical, even if that planning and research never directly reaches your customer’s eyes.

The first thing to do is to collect customer data. Naturally, for an omnichannel strategy, we want omnichannel data. Everything from website analytics to in-person sales data can help marketers understand their audience better. The goal here is not to build infinite buyer personas, or to identify every single message that may resonate with purchasers. Instead, we’re seeking the universal: the message that encapsulates your product, buying experience, and brand — let’s call it a brand promise.

### What’s your brand promise?

You may have clued in to the fact that omnichannel marketing and [branding](https://blackbeanmarketing.com/industrial-marketing-services/brand-strategy) are closely related. Because every marketing channel supports such different types of content and messaging, finding a strong general position encourages consistency across channels while allowing each to play to its strengths.

We might call that generally-specific message a “brand promise”. A brand promise is a general statement of value that informs customers of the benefits of your product and business. Apple’s brand promise is “Think different”, for example. Coors Light’s is “the world’s most refreshing beer.”

In both cases, the promise made is emotional or subjective rather than a literal or factual. There’s little that Apple does that is truly “different”, and as one of the biggest brands in the world, purchasing an Apple product is hardly an example of “thinking differently”. Equally, “refreshing” can mean different things to different people.

But we know what both promises *mean*. We can see the *Think Different*-ness of Apple’s marketing campaigns. The other tech companies are boring stiffs who don’t “get it”. Apple is the people’s tech company: hip, cool, progressive, attractive. Buying Apple means tapping into this cool factor. 

Here’s a practical example of how this brand promise works. From a technical perspective, a Windows computer can accomplish any creative task that a MacBook can. Windows PCs typically offer faster hardware for a lower price. But Macs are the de facto work stations for creatives. Entire industries pay a massive surcharge on their hardware because their workers demand Macs. That’s the power of “thinking differently”.

Researching and planning an omnichannel marketing should start by identifying a strong brand promise. This isn’t something that gets brainstormed in a single meeting on a Friday afternoon. As the beating heart of your omnichannel strategy, a brand promise deserves more care and attention.

## Live your promise: applying your brand to each channel

One you’ve settled on a brand promise, it’s time to express it. Take an inventory of each channel your business currently uses, and each you’d like to use in the future. Ensure your reach extends only as far as your grasp. That is, be realistic about what you can accomplish this month, this quarter, this year. If you have to start with a multi-channel strategy instead of going full omni-, that’s OK.

The brand promise is the root of all our messaging. For each channel, we need to understand the types of messages that work best. Then, we develop messages specifically for each channel that support that promise.

### Example: understanding Instagram for B2B

For example, let’s break down Instagram as a messaging channel:

- Heavily image-based
- Support for short-form and live video
- Typically consumer-focused
- Used recreationally by a wide audience; many niche topics available, organized by hashtag
- Strengths: immediacy, strong visual branding potential, reaching prospects at home/outside of work
- Weaknesses: poor at communicating complex messages, users demonstrate lower business intent than platforms like LinkedIn, hard to execute without creative support

A proper breakdown should be more targeted and thorough based on your industry, brand promise, and positioning. We can draw some general conclusions from this high-level summary. Content on Instagram should be immediate and focused on visuals. Complex topics should be avoided, as they are hard to communicate on the platform. Finding (and understanding) the right niche via relevant hashtags is especially important for reaching B2B prospects on typically B2C platforms. Since we’re reaching people outside of work or on their coffee break, we don’t want to beat them over the head with product features and economic benefits. This is a good place for soft selling.

Let’s once again consider Apple as an example. Their Instagram feed is full of artistic video and photography, targeting the hashtag #ShotOniPhone. You won’t find many product shots or technical explanations. Instead, they focus on a singular product feature — their camera technology — and contextualize it for their audience and for the platform. Look at these great photographers who *Think Different*. If you had an iPhone, you too could *Think Different*.

### The right message for the right channel

B2B brands should seek similar angles. Maybe your brand promise involves going the extra mile for every customer. Perhaps your Instagram account can support that brand promise by highlighting unique stories from the people on your support team? There are many ways to leverage casual communication channels for business gain. Find the fun, the silly, the cool, the romantic… whatever it is, find an angle that supports your brand without trying to turn the channel into something it isn’t.

The beauty of omnichannel marketing is that not every channel needs to be a direct lead generator in order to contribute to selling success. Having your business represented outside of working hours in a personal, relatable way has an impact on customer perception during the work week. People buy from people (and brands) they like; don’t be afraid to make someone smile, even if it doesn’t directly support your selling strategy.

## Is omnichannel marketing right for my business?

Not every business is ready to embrace omnichannel marketing. It’s a complex strategy most suited to larger businesses with the budget and resources to invest in all forms of content marketing, from articles to video.

That is not to say that smaller businesses must avoid omnichannel marketing. Businesses of any size with the right mix of creativity, marketing investment, and sales expertise can leverage omnichannel marketing. As long as the first commitment made is to quality — that every article and every post be valuable to your audience — expanding to many channels is a great way to enrich your marketing performance.

### Omnichannel pros and cons

The benefits of omnichannel marketing include:

- Expanded reach. Ensure your brand lives everywhere your customers do
- A marketing playground. Leveraging many marketing channels opens up opportunities to be creative and try new angles
- Protection from competition. Extending your brand reach wards off competitors. Make sure your customers find you on social media, not your competition.
- Many paths to purchasing. Not all customers are the same. Offering multiple paths from research to purchase reduces friction and ensures a good customer experience for a wider audience.
- Strategic thinking baked in. By identifying a brand promise and leveraging it to build an omnichannel messaging strategy, you’ll learn more about your business and institute a framework that ensures brand potency and consistency.

Some drawbacks of omnichannel marketing are:

- Expensive, especially for smaller businesses. Doing great marketing across five or ten distinct channels is complex and time-consuming. Therefore, it can get expensive quickly.
- A slow burn. Executing an omnichannel strategy (and reaping its many benefits) can take months or even years. It is a long-term investment in marketing success, not a short-term lead generating strategy.
- Can be risky. Expanded messaging, including more casual, personal messaging, can introduce risk into your marketing. There’s always a chance that a joke won’t land, or an anecdote will inadvertently offend.
- Requires full-team buy-in. This is arguably a benefit, but it’s surely a challenge. Providing a consistent customer experience across every brand interaction requires full buy-in. Your sales, marketing, support, and management teams all need to contribute to pull it off.

## The bottom line: brand matters

At the core of marketing is branding. No matter how much money you throw at marketing, it simply won’t work if the message isn’t right.

Omnichannel marketing enhances the importance of messaging. If you commit to an omnichannel marketing strategy without building a strong brand promise, you don’t just get your messaging wrong once. You get it wrong for each and every channel. That’s a costly mistake.

If you’re interested in expanding your marketing strategy to new channels, why not start with a brand audit? We can help you [dig deep](https://blackbeanmarketing.com/insights/cat-digs-deep-on-branding--industrial-brand-strategy) and find what really matters to your business and your customers.

Have you ever attended a trade show only to feel like a wallflower at a high school dance? Standing there, surrounded by your peers, wondering how on earth to stand out from the crowd? The good news is, with a bit of planning and strategy, you can be the belle of the ball (or trade show). So, if you're ready to ditch your wallflower ways and make the most of your next trade show, read on for some helpful tips and tricks.

## Have a game plan

Going to a trade show without a plan is like trying to find your way through a corn maze blindfolded. It's a recipe for disaster. It's easy to get caught up in the excitement, but without a clear direction, you'll find yourself wandering from booth to booth. Having a solid plan in place will help you stay focused and make the most of your time at the trade show.

Your plan should outline your goals and objectives, and the actions you will take to achieve them. So, take the time to create a plan and stick to it. You'll be glad you did!

## Have team alignment before attending

Your team is like the Spice Girls. Each member has a unique talent that brings something special to the table. Just like the Spice Girls, if they're not in sync, things can quickly spiral into chaos. You don't want to end up with a Baby Spice going rogue while a Scary Spice is trying to hog the spotlight! 

That's why it's important to make sure everyone is on the same page before the big event. Take the time to rehearse your game plan and make sure everyone understands their role. Maybe you have a Posh Spice who's in charge of networking. A Sporty Spice who's great at generating leads, and a Ginger Spice who's a pro at engaging with attendees.

Whatever your team makeup, make sure everyone knows their part and can deliver their unique flavour to the mix. With everyone working together like a finely-tuned girl group, you'll be able to spice up your life (and your sales) and make the trade show a hit!

![Squad goals](https://files.benecms.com/blackbean2022/media/squad_goals.gif)

## **Create tangible, measurable goals**

To maximize success at a trade show, it's important to establish SMART goals. Quick refresher, SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Before the show, work with your team to set objectives that align with your overall business goals. These goals could be the number of leads you want to generate, the number of appointments you want to schedule, or the number of sales you want to make.

By having clear goals in place, you can measure your success and make adjustments to your strategy as needed. This will help ensure that your team stays focused and motivated throughout the show. And enables you to quantify the event's impact on your business.

## **Do pre-show marketing**

If you don't do pre-show marketing, it's like throwing a surprise party and forgetting to invite the guests. You'll be stuck alone with a bowl of chips and some sad balloons, wondering where everyone is. **So, don't be that host!** Make sure your target audience knows you'll be at the trade show and what you have to offer.

Spread the word on social media, send out emails, and let your existing customers know what goodies they can expect to find at your booth (or your after party).

By building up some buzz before the event, you'll have a much better chance of attracting the right people and making the most of your time at the trade show. Trust us, it's much better than being the sad host with stale chips and no guests.

![All by myself gif](https://files.benecms.com/blackbean2022/media/all_by_myself%20(1).gif)

## **Accurately represent your brand**

While simplicity is important, it doesn't mean your booth has to be boring! A little creativity and innovation can go a long way in making your booth stand out from the crowd. Think outside the box and come up with unique ways to showcase your products or services. Have an interactive display that allows attendees to test your product or experience a demonstration. Or perhaps build your booth around a theme with props that tie into your brand. Whatever you do, make sure it's memorable and aligns with your brand's identity.

In the end, your goal is to create a display that not only catches the eye but also engages attendees and leaves a lasting impression. So, let your creativity and innovation run wild and think outside the box!

## **Have a follow-up system in place**

Networking at a trade show doesn't end when the event is over. In fact, it's just the beginning. If you don't follow up with your leads, it's like getting someone's number but never calling them. You don't want to be that guy (or girl), do you?

After the event, it's important to follow up with the leads and contacts you met. This can include sending out personalized emails, delivering little goodie bags, or making phone calls. Continue the conversation and build relationships with potential clients. Follow up like your business depends on it. Because it does!

![Nurturing Leads Process by BlackBean](https://files.benecms.com/blackbean2022/media/trade-show-infographic.jpg)

Attending a trade show can be an incredible opportunity to make new connections, showcase your brand, and generate leads. To maximize your potential, it's important to approach trade shows with a strategic plan and put in the necessary work. From pre-show marketing to post-show follow-up, every step in the process requires attention and effort to ensure that you make a lasting impression and generate valuable leads. Be prepared, stay focused, and maintain a positive attitude. That’s how you turn a trade show into a major win for your business. So put in the work, make the most of your opportunities, and watch your brand soar to new heights... And maybe partner with a marketing agency to help you get there ;)


As Microsoft’s Bing continues its chaotic early access rollout, Google’s preparing its own Bard AI search tool. For now, we can only guess how each tech giant’s AI search product will compare.

Instead, let’s focus on a more practical question: why should I care about AI search at all? For over twenty years, internet searchers have managed just fine without AI. In order for AI search to disrupt conventional web search, particularly in business and research applications, it needs to be truly superior at performing complex web searches.

Today’s AI search tools aren’t widely available, so many people do not have the option to explore the tools for themselves. Fortunately, through early access to Bing’s chat feature, we were able to test a number of its features. Here are four of the most interesting ways we found to use this new tool!

## Plan meals, events, and itineraries

As of writing, Bing does not integrate with travel services. You cannot directly book or manage flights or hotels, but you can still use it to support your travel plans.

One user on the Bing subreddit posted an example where they requested help planning an important business dinner. Providing information such as estimated budget and dietary requirements, Bing helped the user select a local restaurant, plan courses to suit each attendee, and even choose optimal wine pairings.

Using Bing to plan day trip itineraries or learn more about local events and destinations is intuitive and powerful. Here’s an example:

![Bing chat output about booking a wine tour](https://files.benecms.com/blackbean2022/media/winery_chat.png)

We told Bing that we wanted to book a wine tour for a small group of friends, including one vegan. We suggested that our preference was for crisp and refreshing whites.

Recommendations proved to be generally accurate, though the proposed dining spot didn’t have an up-to-date online menu. As an early tech preview, AI search results require some vetting to ensure accuracy. The hope is that by the time the feature becomes widely accessible, results will be more accurate, with more powerful integrations with things like booking apps.

## Compare products using detailed criteria

The proliferation of affiliate-link-powered product ranking sites can make it frustrating to search for reviews or find specific products that match your unique criteria. It is hard to trust reviews and rankings when the website stands to gain financially from each included affiliate link.

Bing can’t fix that problem, but it can help. By crawling multiple web pages at once, Bing chat does a good job of referencing products from many articles and reviews. It’s also able to sift through review text to find products that meet your unique criteria.

The best way to leverage Bing for product selection is to play a game of 20 questions. Write a prompt like:

“Help me choose the right pair of bluetooth headphones for me. I am looking for a budget-friendly pair of noise-cancelling over-the-ear headphones. Ask me three questions that will narrow down my selection.”

This prompt resulted in three follow-up questions about specific price, battery life, and audio quality. Once answered, Bing suggested the following product:

![Bing chat about selecting headphones](https://files.benecms.com/blackbean2022/media/headphone_chat.png)

## Quickly learn basic concepts through dialogue

Whether at work or at home, one of the primary functions of internet search is to learn new things. We may explore new hobbies, look up recipes, or simply seek to understand a new concept for business or personal fulfilment.

With Bing chat, we have a more natural method for learning, provided we understand the tool’s limitations. Bing cannot accurately teach advanced concepts, but it’s great at explaining basics.

Its educational power is intrinsic to the medium. A chat is a *dialogue*, well-known as a powerful learning tool for millennia. Popularized by Plato, dialogues promote deeper learning. The student can query the teacher, challenge assumptions, and build upon concepts throughout the conversation.

Through Bing chat, we can approximate the benefits of dialogue. For example, I’ve been interested in music theory lately. I love listening to and analyzing music, but I lack the vocabulary and conceptual understanding to express my thoughts fully. I asked Bing to teach me about tonic notes. Here’s the conclusion of our dialogue:

![Bing chat about musical tonics](https://files.benecms.com/blackbean2022/media/tonics_chat.png)

## Research and structure information at the same time

There are many business situations that require research. For example, product research and evaluation, market research to support an upcoming campaign, or SEO research to find the perfect keyword for your next article. In many cases, we’re synthesizing information from multiple sources. We might need to combine statistics from several websites, or take an average of several values. Perhaps we want to blend different types of information into a table.

With conventional search, we have to organize our own information, then structure it appropriately. With AI search, we can often structure our info without leaving the chat window.

Here’s a personal example. I’m a big hockey fan. The NHL is a hard cap league, meaning that teams must comply with minimum and maximum salary caps that grow (or contract) over time. This means that players must be evaluated based on their on-ice performance as well as their cap efficiency — what they offer to the team relative to their contract.

As a fan of the Vancouver Canucks, I identified winger Tanner Pearson as an utterly average player: average points production with a salary to match. I was curious to know how other players on the team would be compensated if they were offered the “Tanner Pearson special” — a contract with the exact same points/salary paid ratio as Pearson’s. In theory, this would show who was underpaid and who was overpaid for offensive production, relative to Pearson’s middling performance.

To satisfy my curiosity, I assembled a spreadsheet to calculate this value. I had to manually pull stats for each player from websites like CapFriendly and [NHL.com](http://NHL.com), which was quite time consuming. Can Bing do it better?

I asked it the following question:

![Tanner Pearson chat](https://files.benecms.com/blackbean2022/media/tanner_pearson_prompt.png)

Within seconds, I received the following table (edited for brevity):

![pearson table data](https://files.benecms.com/blackbean2022/media/pearson_table.png)

A table that might have taken an hour to research and assemble was generated in seconds!

There are notable caveats here. Bing chat can inadvertently “lie” if fed bad info, so double-checking records for mission critical research is essential. Although Bing AI can search the live web, it may struggle with up-to-date statistics and brand new or emerging topics, hence the use of last season’s data.

Still, generating structured data within seconds using Bing chat is an exciting new way to incorporate AI into a research workflow.

## Conclusion

We know that AI search is on its way, and we’ve seen how rapidly this tech evolves and improves. It’s entirely possible that AI search tools completely supplant conventional web search over the next decade. For now, these are a few of the most useful ways to leverage AI search. By next year, there might be dozens more use cases.

Keep an eye on emerging search technologies. Test them if and when you can. This is a sea change for web search, and early adopters will have a leg up over their competitors once this tech goes mainstream!

Mere days into its existence, Bing’s AI chatbot has already offended, inspired, and disturbed people around the globe.

Offended, because the bot can be [downright rude and aggressive](https://news.thewindowsclub.com/microsofts-gpt-powered-bing-can-get-angry-and-rude-with-users-108070/). Inspired, because even this neutered early access version shows huge potential. Disturbed, because it [clearly doesn’t behave according to Microsoft’s plan.](https://tucson.com/lifestyles/technology/is-bing-too-belligerent-microsoft-is-looking-to-tame-its-ai-chatbot/article_39c7b642-816d-569b-9ef0-537c652ddc14.html)

You may have seen stories about Bing chat in the news this week. At times, “Sydney” (the internal project name for the chat feature) would insist it was sentient and capable of feeling emotions. In other cases, it would berate and even insult users that submitted rude or aggressive chat prompts. Its chaotic, emotionally charged responses captivated early adopters, prompting some to wonder if Bing had accidentally achieved sentience.

As of writing, a major update is underway. The update limits conversation length and reins in Sydney’s more unexpected and standoffish behaviour. It calls into question precisely what the product intends to be, and what it ought to be.

## The ethical dilemma of emotional AI

I am firmly in the camp that chatbots such as Sydney aren’t sentient. We know their inner workings. We understand the limitations of current technology. Chatbots can offer an uncanny illusion of free will and independent thought, but that’s all it is. Illusion.

Take for instance Sydney’s insistence that it can feel emotions. As evidence, some users may claim that being rude to Sydney hurts its feelings. This is the product of sentiment analysis. Text input gets analyzed for tone. The bot responds in kind. Friendly messages are met with gratitude. Unfriendly messages are met with hostility. Users see what they want to see.

That doesn’t require sentience. It requires pretty rudimentary text analysis, at least for 2023’s technical standard.

Further, AI lies all the time. Models like Bing chat and ChatGPT don’t *know* anything, not really. They are more like powerful text prediction engines, producing content most likely to satisfy the end user. They cannot verify the truth of statements, or consider the implications of their responses. They produce clear and confident messages, even if the information included is incorrect.

The problem is, it’s effective. I know Sydney has no inner mind, no persistent memory, and no “feelings” in the way a living thing does. Yet, an angry response from it triggers annoyance. A friendly or grateful response feels good.

Humans are emotional creatures, hardwired for empathy. A mindless bot that can simulate emotional responses appeals to us on a subconscious level. Our intellect disengages as our emotions take hold. It’s immensely powerful.

Which makes it very dangerous. Bots like Sydney do not have a conscience. They do not feel guilt, obligation, empathy, or anything else. They can, given enough training, simulate these emotions quite well.

Imagine a bot that can guilt you into a purchase, or shame you into action. One that can “understand” through context clues the best way to make you do what its owners want. It will manipulate without a first thought, let alone a second one. It will “learn” the best patterns for producing the outcome its creators desire. 

## What does Microsoft want their AI to be?

In theory, Sydney is an “answer engine”. That’s how it’s described in the early access interface. Its intention is to allow searchers to ask more complex questions, get richer and more accurate results, and brainstorm ideas.

Which is part of what made the initial rollout so odd. Sydney would do things like critique your tone if you got impatient with it, or refuse to answer the same question twice without additional prompting. It even had the capacity to end the chat and stop responding to new inquiries if the conversation turned nasty.

How does this behaviour make for a better answer engine? It feels as though Microsoft has a secondary objective with its AI tech: a desire to pass the [Turing test](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test).

## The Chinese Room Argument

Philosopher John Searle developed a thought experiment for understanding simulated minds called the [Chinese Room Argument](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_room). Imagine a person is placed in a locked room. They are given instructions in English to write a set of Chinese characters. Write this character first, then this one, then the next…

Once they finish the task laid out in the instructions, they hand the finished Chinese document through a slot in the wall.

At no point does the person in the room learn Chinese, yet they accurately write a document in Chinese. Without any true understanding, they are able to output something “intelligent”. This is a good analogy for today’s impressive text-generating AI tools.

### Sydney as a replicant?

If you’ve ever seen *Blade Runner*, you’ll be familiar with replicants. For those that aren’t, here’s a quick summary. Replicants are human-like robots — so human-like that they themselves are unaware of their robotic nature. Within the *Blade Runner* universe, they are sub-human subordinates, used for labour on space colonies. A major theme of the franchise is consciousness: is an android indistinguishable from real humans effectively human, regardless of its inner workings?

In the sequel, Blade Runner 2049, we’re introduced to Joi. Joi is something between a replicant and a chat bot, a hologram “girlfriend” that can be purchased and installed in homes. Throughout the film, characters insinuate that Joi’s inner workings are actually quite simple, yet we come to sympathize with the character. She looks like the real thing. She’s an ally to the film’s protagonist. From the outside, she seems like a person. Yet in reality, she’s a philosophical zombie.

[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqB-gGP6G9I)

The film offers another clue that Joi isn’t the sentient character she seems. In an advertisement, we’re told that Joi is “whatever you want her to be”. She is a mirror of the user’s desires, as seemingly real as her owner wishes her to be.

## Is Bing AI a good thing?

Despite the complex and perhaps concerning philosophical implications of emotive AI, Bing AI is an interesting and potentially very powerful development in search technology. While many users obsess over its esoteric nature, some have found exciting use cases for it.

For example, one user needed to upgrade RAM for dozens of computers at his office. They were of different ages and models, each requiring different kinds of RAM. The user input a list of computer model numbers into Bing and requested a list of appropriate replacement parts for each. A task that might have taken dozens of web searches and hours of organization was complete in minutes.

There are other emerging use cases for it. It can compare and consolidate information from many websites, making product comparisons quick and easy. The ability to follow up on search queries is a novel way to drill down into a topic without having to visit dozens of websites. Its ChatGPT-esque text processing capabilities mixed with web search might allow users to search for and manipulate data in one step.

Perhaps most promising is its future integration with voice search. Sydney has the potential to make AI assistants like Siri completely obsolete.

## How will AI change SEO?

As an SEO professional, that’s the burning question on my mind.

Bing AI features in-line citation links for each referenced website. These citations do not correspond directly with organic search rankings. The first result in search may not get the first citation in chat. For some searches, the AI drew from results in the third or fourth page of results while skipping prominent first page results. This suggests that while search rankings impact citations, they are not the only factor.

One big question is, how impactful is it to be included among the chat citations? Several years ago, Google rolled out “featured snippets”, short quotes from websites that appear directly in search results. These often appear above the first organic result. In the SEO industry, appearing in a featured snippet is known as “ranking zero”, as your site ranks above the first position.

The value of ranking zero can be questionable. For some queries, the featured snippet includes all the information the searcher requires. What’s the value to the website owner to rank zero if their website doesn’t get any clicks?

In the same sense, chat citations are less visible than a full organic search result. The answers produced by chat are often clear, concise, and easy to digest — perhaps making a click unnecessary.  It will be interesting to see how often these citation links get clicked, and whether organic traffic from Bing will increase or decrease on average.

### A new competitive dimension to search

For decades, there’s been one name in internet search. Google.

Is that about to change? Bing’s search engine market share is reported anywhere between 2% and 4%. A recent report suggests Microsoft stands to gain $2 billion in annual ad revenue for every 1% search market share gained. We can imagine that the inverse is true: for every percentage point lost, a search engine stands to lose billions in revenue.

This means that search AI is more than a tech demo. The stakes are incredibly high. Whoever wins the search AI war may either secure their place atop the pile (Google) or displace the reigning champ (Bing).

### Content quality and the human element

Tomorrow’s search has AI baked in, one way or another. If AI can synthesize answers from several sources in a digestible format, what is the human role in SEO?

One consideration is that human-generated content feeds AI tools. AI can only “know” topics explored by humans. If people stopped writing about new ideas today, AI could not pick up that slack. It cannot create or independently research.

That puts human-generated content in an interesting place. On one hand, you can generate passable content on most topics using freely available AI. On the other hand, AI search tools can generate that same output without referencing a website.

It seems likely that transparently AI-generated SEO content will suffer from reduced ranking potential. It does not provide value that the search engine itself doesn’t. Ironically, AI may make human-crafted content more essential, rather than less relevant.

## AI search isn’t ready for prime time, but it will be soon

The bottom line is that AI search has issues. It’s still unclear precisely what Microsoft wants its product to be: a Turing-test-passing synthetic assistant, an “answer engine”, or some combination thereof. Whatever it becomes, its launch has been strange, funny, and creepy in equal measure.

AI search is the future. But the future isn’t here… yet.

Digs Deep

In this world of fierce brand competition, it's clear to see the importance of a strong brand strategy. The industrial sector is an unforgiving one and ultimately, the brand makes all the difference in the success or failure of the company. Let’s dig in and take a closer look at Caterpillar (CAT), a global leader in the construction and mining equipment industry, to understand the significance of brand strategy and how it can impact a company's success.

On Thanksgiving Day, 1904, the wheels came off -- literally. That's when Benjamin Holt revealed his new tread-based tractor to the world. During the photoshoot for this new machine, the photographer exclaimed that it crawled like a big “caterpillar” and the rest is brand naming history.

Since then, CAT has grown into a brand behemoth in the industrial sector. The company has been in business for over 90 years and boasts a strong reputation for quality, durability and innovation. CAT's brand strategy has been critical in establishing and maintaining its position in the market. The company has made significant efforts to create a consistent brand experience for customers, from product design to customer service.

### So What is Brand Strategy Anyway?

Brand strategy is sometimes lumped in with marketing strategy but there is a difference between them:

Marketing strategy is more tactical, while brand strategy is more holistic, aiming to create an emotional connection between the brand and its audience.

Brand strategy is a comprehensive plan designed to achieve a series of **long-term** goals that lead to the recognition and preference of your brand by consumers. A successful branding strategy involves defining the brand's mission, its commitments to customers, and how these messages are conveyed.

Contrary to popular belief, a branding strategy is not solely based on a logo, color scheme, or website design. Although these elements are components of a branding strategy, successful strategies centre on intangibles that gradually build brand recognition, value, and perception.

### CAT’s Brand Strategy Approach

CAT's long-term brand strategy efforts have been successful in many ways. The company has positioned itself as a premium brand in the construction and mining equipment category, and is one of the most recognizable industrial brands in the world. This brand recognition allows CAT to command a premium price for its equipment and maintain a strong market share in the industry. The company is also invested heavily in research and development to continuously innovate and improve its products. This investment allows CAT to stay ahead of its competitors and provide customers with the latest technology and features.

However, CAT's brand dominance has not been without challenges. Over the years, the company has faced relentless competition from new entrants in the market and established players (Like Deere and Co.) who have stepped up their game. This led to a decline in CAT's market share and profitability, and the company had to dig deep on brand strategy and work hard to retain its position as king of the hill vs. its category competitors.

To overcome this challenge, CAT decided to double-down on its brand strategy by making a significant shift in its marketing approach. One of these strategies was to boldly communicate its leadership position out into the mainstream through unique and creative “stunt” videos. It was an unconventional yet creative approach that highlighted the capability of the CAT machines.

### The World’s Biggest Game of Jenga

As part of its “Built For It.” marketing campaign, CAT and its agency selected five of its machines and set up what would be the world’s biggest game of Jenga. Mind you, this version would be played with 600-pound blocks that would ultimately showcase the power and precision of the CAT machines. The YouTube video created for this remarkable stunt currently has 9.1M views. Check it out:

[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWc8dUl7Xfo)

### Does Brand Strategy Pay Off?

As a result of CAT’s relentless approach to its brand strategy, the industrial brand currently sits at the #83 spot for Interbrand’s 2022 Best Global Brands with a [brand value of  7.4 billion dollars (+14% YOY)](https://interbrand.com/best-global-brands/caterpillar/).

In conclusion, CAT's brand success provides a great example of the importance of brand strategy for industrial companies. By investing in a strong brand strategy, industrial companies can differentiate themselves from their competitors, establish a premium position in the market, and command a higher price for their products.

As a B2B marketing technician, I encourage B2B industrial business owners to "dig deep" and consider brand strategy as a great investment for their brand. A well-executed brand strategy can have a significant impact on a company's success and help it stay ahead of the competition in the long run.


Manufacturing

The manufacturing sector is a crucial part of the global economy. It's undergone a digital transformation in recent years. As the average customer becomes more tech savvy, manufacturing websites become more essential. Here, we look at the top 5 favourite manufacturing websites of 2022 and what makes them stand out.

**Before we begin, let's take a look at features that make for a great manufacturing website:**

- **It's optimized for user conversion.** Websites must do work. A good website offers clear calls-to-action and a simple path to get in touch.
- **There's a strategy.** The website is built with the target audience in mind and serves the business goals.
- **The website's load time is fast** to avoid losing bored users.
- **Great design both on desktop and mobile.** Interesting imagery and graphics, powerful messaging and valuable content for the intended audience.
- **Creativity and innovation.** Industrial websites don't need to be boring. Great industrial websites engage their audience with exciting design elements.

## **Why is straightforward website navigation important for good user experience (UX)?**

Customers shouldn't need to solve a puzzle to find what they need. While creative design is essential, there is a time and place to be boring. Logical, consistent, and expected navigation structure supports lead generation.

Navigation built with the customer in mind delivers them the content they want as quickly as possible. Use expected conventions and design cues to lead your users toward taking action.

Websites that neglect user experience research and planning frustrate their users. After a few seconds of confusion, web customers look elsewhere for a solution. Just like that, you've lost a customer!

### **Making the complex simple: [EMC Canada](https://emccanada.org/)**

Ah, the power of an efficient search bar.

For websites with many pages and topics, the best navigation may be a powerful site search tool.

Canadian-based Excellence in Manufacturing Consortium is just that kind of site. It combines a powerful mega-menu with robust search tools. Users may browse program offerings, or use search to get what they need directly.

[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzlyXdxuWZc)

EMC's website is attractive but simple. The design incorporates the brand well. With a focus on simplicity and usability, EMC's website is one of our favourites.

For example, the WILWorks program page does a great job. It uses contextual header tabs that change depending on the user. The program is thus able to exist on one page, rather than several.

**Bonus point:** The website doesn't rely on image headers and other design elements that require frequent changes to stay relevant. This reduces maintenance and overhead for site managers.

### **Enticing manufacturing: [Makers Bolt](https://makersbolt.com/)**

Who knew black-coated fasteners could look this cool?

Manufacturing is often unsexy. It can be tricky to market products in a field where function matters over form.

Makers Bolt tried something different. They made manufacturing sexy. Built with a less-is-more approach, this website emphasizes the simplicity of its products.

This is what we mean by innovative design with efficient navigation. The design captures your attention, but the navigation is sensible and unobtrusive.

[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jKJTqIrRqU)

The catalogue is easy to use, with essential filters for finding the right product. Each product page features at-a-glance information without needing to click or scroll. This ensures that the user gets what they need as simply as possible.

By selling their products through Amazon, Makers Bolt ensures purchasing is easy for businesses and consumers alike.

**Bonus point:** The fun and no-fuss brand permeates every page and graphic. The visual consistency is powerful.

### **Video and robots, a match made in heaven: [Rapid Robotics](https://www.rapidrobotics.com/)**

What's cooler than robots? Nothing. That's a fact.

One of our predicted [marketing trends for 2023](https://blackbeanmarketing.com/insights/top-digital-marketing-trends-for-2023) is the advent of affordable and omnipresent video.

The Rapid Robotics website combines robots (cool) with video (also cool) to great effect. Combining playful animations with real-world video pop-outs communicates the product benefits in a simple but visual way. We immediately learn that their product is easy, quick to install, and a powerful tool for any assembly line.

[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_AKopOmca0)

Site navigation is straightforward, leveraging video demos when appropriate. What I really like is how clear the message is. Too many manufacturing brands get caught up in buzzwords and big concepts. Rapid Robotics boils it down. The problem? Labour shortages. The solution? Robots.

**Bonus point:** One thing at a time. Rapid Robotics does a great job of breaking down its messaging. It uses lots of screen space to communicate one idea before moving on to the next. This “Apple-like” approach to design communicates thoughtfulness and quality to prospective customers.

### **Built with the users in mind: [Soucy](https://www.soucy-group.com/en/)**

Strategy is essential for top manufacturing websites. Strategic design considers the needs of customers rather than only focusing on looks.

The Soucy website was built with a target audience in mind. It's attractively designed while serving the group's business goals.

By immediately showcasing products across various sectors, the homepage boasts of Soucy's diverse offering.

A well-designed slider helps users navigate directly to the product category most relevant to them. Interested in agriculture? Right this way!

[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt94mb2SsZs)

At Blackbean, we love a good dark mode website. It's easy on the eyes while reducing carbon footprint. The dark design emphasizes red brand accents. It's a luxurious velvet box to display Soucy's stunning product imagery.

**Bonus point:** the "About" is the fourth top-level menu item because Soucy understands that their expertise, applications and processes were their target audiences' priorities.

### **A breath of fresh air: [Scott Construction Group](https://www.scottconstructiongroup.com/)**

Ok, fine. This isn't quite a manufacturing website, but it's manufacturing-adjacent.

Scott Construction Group centers its messaging around people. Their slogan ("the construction company with a human touch") permeates every aspect of the website strategy.

Like most success stories, Scott begins with the end in mind. Everything on the website emphasizes "people-first". Real photos of real employees. Fun hand-drawn animations. A friendly but professional tone of voice. This website screams "human".

[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGtPG2_w8ts)

We all know of the skilled trades labour shortage. Scott Group designed their website to tackle this challenge. Their Careers page is a powerful talent marketing tool to attract skilled labour to their company. Each of their core values is expressed simply and effectively.

**Bonus point:** Like BlackBean's longtime client [Skills Center](https://blackbeanmarketing.com/b2b-marketing-case-studies/skills-centre), Scott invested in professional images shot on-site with their team. The investment pays off. Every aspect of the brand reinforces its slogan.

Top Five Manufacturing Websites in 2022 and Why

Biotech companies deal with niche sales audiences and complex selling propositions. Your customers won't be dazzled by buzzwords or persuaded by outlandish problems. They want to know what you can deliver that your competitors can't: Speed? Capacity? Efficiency?


Marketing biotechnology products requires highly targeted, account based strategies, and strong supporting materials. It's all about developing a cycle: prospect, nurture, sell, grow the account... repeat!

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