#INBOUND2021: How B2B Brands Grow

Live from #INBOUND2021

It’s day two of #INBOUND2021. This afternoon we are hearing from LinkedIn’s B2B Institute Director, Ty Heath and B2B Institutes Global Lead, Jon Lombardo on how to take on a more evidence-based, but most importantly, more successful approach to marketing.

Their approach revolves around the idea that just like the laws of physics govern gravity, the laws of marketing govern company growth.

Partnering with the Enhrenberg-Bass Institute, Ty and Jon will be outlining the laws they have found that marketers must follow to enjoy reliable and continual growth.

It’s exciting to get the opportunity to learn how a company as successful as LinkedIn approach their marketing, so let’s see what they have to say!

Brand Awareness – A global issue

Ty kicks things off with a very surprising statement: “every business has a brand awareness problem”.

Even the biggest B2B companies in the world.

In many cases these businesses are not seeing ‘brand awareness’ as a key area of focus within their marketing plans.

By building mental availability with your customers, you can ensure that your brand awareness grows. This can be done by linking the brand to more buying situations and making your brand easy-to-mind and easy-to-find.

Here are the ‘laws’ they believe we should be adhering to when it comes to marketing.

The 95-5 rule

Ty highlights that 96% of B2B marketers are running ‘in-market’ campaigns and expect results in 2 weeks. But the problem is that focusing on these in-market customers, is restricting your business.

They have often already made their purchase or decision. Your advertising to the people who are less likely to buy or engage with you.

You can grow your business quickly by reaching buyers who are not yet in the market funnel. That way, when they enter the market they already have the recognition of your brand. The first brand that’s thought of is often the first one a customer chooses.

You are future-proofing your business and brand.

B2B Brand Recognition

Jon discusses how they asked LinkedIn members about brand awareness. They found that 71% of marketers believe brand perception is more important that brand awareness in order to grow.

But the data doesn’t support this at all. Brand rejection is very rare, and your marketing focus can be better used elsewhere.

So what is more important than brand awareness?

Well, quite simply: brand unawareness.

Customers who don’t know about your brand at all are going to affect your business more than those who do. Increasing mental availability in your brand is crucial to your growth.

Awareness trumps perception, time and time again.

Duplicate Purchase Law

Jon highlights how we can’t choose who our competitors are. It is out of our hands, instead we compete with the biggest brands in our categories, irregardless of their size.

Duplicate purchase law states that we always compete with the biggest brands in our respective categories and we shouldn’t ignore them.

Jon goes on to show us the data they’ve collected that shows we likely share our customer bases with the biggest brand and should market around this.

Double Jeopardy Law

Businesses mistakenly believe that customer loyalty is more important than customer acquisition. According to this law, your B2B business grows by expanding the size of your customer base.

It makes sense right? To grow and become the biggest brand in your category, you must grow your customer base.

So is market penetration more important than loyalty?

No. They work together hand-in-hand, when you do it right. Growing your business and increasing your businesses penetration naturally drives customer loyalty.

…and it doesn’t end there.

Market penetration doesn’t just drive customer loyalty – it also drives perception. Take a look below at how this can take place.

So what do all these laws equate to?

Well Jon and Ty make it very clear that it all comes down to one question and one succinct answer…

Want to grow? Build Mental Availability

It’s all about being remembered. A business that focuses on reaching their whole category, doesn’t just focus on one entry point and strongly brands everything is one step ahead of the game.

To finish things off Ty Heath and Jon Lombardo offer a word of caution to all B2B businesses: “Don’t get distracted by other advertising objectives. Build your brands mental availability”.

It’s clear to see that this approach to marketing isn’t about reinventing the wheel. They’re simply showing us how we can steer our businesses to focus on the right objectives and put less stock in certain myths that have plagued the marketing world over the years.

About Insynth

At Insynth we deliver a predictable flow of leads, customers, and specifications for building product brands through our inbound marketing approach, proven to reach a technically demanding audience.

We use the latest marketing techniques such as construction inbound marketing, to equip building product companies to grow sustainability in this era of digital transformation.

As the only HubSpot certified agency to major in construction marketing. We have a proven formula of bringing a variety of functionalities together including CRM Implementation, Web Design, Sales Automation, SEO, and Email Marketing to achieve your ultimate aim: Growing your business and gaining new specifiers and customers.

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