If you think a B2B brand identity is merely aesthetic elements like a logo, then we’re really happy you’re here. A business without good branding can feel a lot like the tin man before he gets a heart, just an axe wielding robot (a subtle exaggeration but I think I’ve made my point). So if your business is feeling a bit robotic please follow us down the yellow brick road of branding tips and let’s put a beating heart in your business.

1. Your B2B Brand Should Have a Personality

As a B2B company it can be easy to forget that we are not only marketing to a business but to people within that business. In the B2C world companies put their demographic consumer at the forefront of their marketing and branding plan, it should be no different for B2B. At the end of the day a person is making the ultimate decision of whether or not to do business with you and that’s why it’s so important that your brand has a personality.

No matter what personality type your brand takes on make sure you’re incorporating a human voice in all of your content. A great way to incorporate personality into your brand is with humor. It may feel a bit out of place in the business world but done correctly and professionally it can have a lasting impact. After all who doesn’t enjoy a good laugh?

If you’re having issues properly defining your brand voice there is a cleverly named tool called the brand voice chart. This chart can help you identify your brand’s personality and where any brand inconsistencies may lie. Take a look at the brand voice chart below or check out this article on how to define your brand’s voice to get a better understanding.

2. Your B2B Brand Should Be Unique

A very common theme in branding is to say simply “We’re the best!”. It is good to be “the best”, and saying so must have some merit since it’s drastically overused in marketing and branding. We certainly don’t see a lot of companies saying “We’re second best!” but perhaps that might grab some more attention. The point is the B2B market is flooded with similar goods and services, and we’re constantly being overstimulated with content, so to break through the noise to obtain new leads you have to stand out.

So what are other ways to stand out beside being “the best”? Use your brands personality to start a narrative, a conversation, a community that people want to be a part of and keep your content interesting and consistent. This will build trust amongst your customers and trust equals loyalty.

3.  Avoid Inconsistencies

Inconsistencies can lead to distrust and can be incredibly damaging to your company. Brand inconsistencies go beyond logos and aesthetics. It’s important that the company, across departments, has a cohesive voice and vocabulary when creating content and communicating with customers. To make sure your team is consistently representing your brand voice create a content sample, which is simply a collection of the content that best illustrates your brand. This can be passed out to your team or posted for reference.

It is also pertinent to take a moment to address a brands digital presence. Your website along with whatever social media outlets you employ should always be professional and on brand. Social media can be a great way to show the playful side of your brand’s personality, just be sure you’re not muddling your message.

4. Identify & Assess Your B2B Brand Values

When it comes to maintaining your brand it can be a bit overwhelming to figure out where the majority of your time should be invested. You can better identify your brands needs by taking a closer look at your brand voice chart and content sample. From these, pull out key words and examples of content that most accurately embody your brand’s values. From this collection pick out the top 3 words that best describe your brand’s values and assign them a dollar figure. We find it easier to asses worth with a monetary value attached to it. This technique could also be applied if you’re trying to find where you need to make cuts or where to take focus away from.

5. Establish a Brand Promise

Every successful business has a mission statement, likely showcased somewhere in their lobby or on their websites homepage. Your mission should be present in everything your company touches. Incorporating a brand promise that aligns with your mission statement can be a powerful way to establish trust and encourage brand loyalty. A brand promise encapsulates what your brand can uniquely guarantee its customers and the values that your company stands for. Disclosing how every customer will benefit along with a public pledge to satisfy can truly help your brand to thrive, scouts honor.

In recent years General Electric has done a great job of humanizing their tech brand. Their mission statement (below) is a great example of how they’ve done this. They start off by using strong words associated with tech and industry and finish their statement by making a compassionate promise to their customers.

“GE’S MISSION IS TO INVENT THE NEXT INDUSTRIAL ERA, TO BUILD, MOVE, POWER AND CURE THE WORLD.”

Quote Source: https://www.ge.com/ar2014/ceo-letter/.

6. Revisit & Revise Your Brand Over Time

With every new business comes the aspiration to succeed and with all growth comes change. A business must constantly reevaluate its strategy and assets as it continues to become more profitable. Contrarily, if your business is failing, you should also reconsider your brand strategy. Forgetting to reassess your brand can be detrimental to furthering growth.

A brand doesn’t only change because a business does but also because the world around that business changes. In today’s digital world revising your brand to make sure you’re keeping its voice and personality fresh is more important than ever. Stay relevant by evolving with the times, aka stay trending.

7. Conduct a “No Logo Test”

Finally, if you’re not sure if your brand’s well rounded and impactful conduct a “No Logo Test”. Simply remove your logo from your product or content and see if your brand is still recognizable. If not, consider again, creating and implementing a content sample and brand voice chart to establish a stronger brand and eliminate inconsistencies.

Conclusion

As we’re ending our journey here, I’d like to leave you with an example of how even companies with exceptional branding can find themselves toes up without routine brand maintenance.

The name Xerox has become synonymous with copying and printing. Like Google, it has become its own verb. This may seem like the Holy Grail of branding, but what Xerox found when attempting to expand their business portfolio was that investors were skeptical of their other professional capabilities.

After some rebranding and with the help of content marketing, Xerox was able to evolve their brand to include other business aspects such as operating call centers and processing insurance claims.

Your brand is the heart and soul of your business. There are a lot of mechanical parts working routinely to keep a business alive but the brand is the personified essence that draws customers in and keeps them coming back for more. If you’re worried your brand may be comatose contact us for details on how we can give your business new life.

While many agencies promise high-quality leads and an effective internet marketing strategy for your business, few have the resources and expertise to deliver on these promises. That’s where the Prospectr team comes into the picture. With over 30 years of experience, we work with clients from over 40 industries, producing a proven track record of success with lead generation and digital marketing.

While we offer a variety of digital marketing services, we specialize in email marketing, pairing email strategy with digital services to help you expand your business. We know that digital marketing is about more than just targeting keywords with SEO tactics or paying for a PPC program – email marketing is an essential tool for companies to develop their digital strategy.

As an agency with a proven track record, we knew it was time for us to expand our online presence, both to advertise our service offerings and collect feedback from past and current clients. Clutch.co is a B2B ratings and reviews platform that allows us to achieve both of those goals and more. Our profile displays reviews of our work, which are created by Clutch analysts via phone conversations with past and current clients of ours.

Companies that are listed on Clutch are ranked according to these reviews as well as a handful of other factors like service focus areas, market presence, social media channels, and past and current clientele and work as shown through a portfolio. Although we have recently joined Clutch, we already hold the #2 spot on their list of digital marketing agencies in Minneapolis! We are excited to hold this coveted spot and to continue to climb their ranks as we gain more reviews and expand upon our profile.

We already have some fantastic reviews on our profile, and we are excited to share them with you! One client, the CEO of a large financial firm, told Clutch, “They’ve provided numerous leads that we’ve converted into customers. As a result, their work has been instrumental in our organization’s growth.” He continued, “As a family-owned business, Prospectr’s friendly work ethic is consistent with our own values. They are trustworthy and amicable.”

Another client of ours, the regional manager of a commercial cleaning company, commented, “Since the start of our engagement with Prospectr, our numbers have improved significantly. We’re reliably closing on 30–40% of our leads, which is sensational for our industry. Compared to our results with cold-calling, we’re getting higher-quality leads that yield higher dollar value per month . . . . They’re worth every penny we’ve spent on their services.”

He continued, “The communication is efficient and simple. The amount of interaction required to keep the relationship alive and healthy is minimal. It’s been extremely easy for us to do business with them. They simply give us the leads and let us do the rest.”

We can’t wait to hear from more clients as we compete against other digital marketing agencies to be a leader on Clutch! Thank you to all of our clients who have spoken with Clutch so far and we look forward to hearing more from you so that we can continue to provide the best service possible.

Email has proven itself over and over as one of the most effective ways to reach a target audience. While cold calling has been around forever and social media generates headlines, email continues to be the lone soldier constantly answering the call when businesses need hot leads fast. So many businesses turn to email lead generation simply because it works.

Both consumers and businesses are familiar with email as a necessary form of communication, which makes utilizing them in your marketing efforts more important than ever. Still, there are specific techniques that must be employed to get the most out of your email marketing efforts. Gone are the days when one could buy a lead generation email list, load it into a CRM and just blast away. Today’s email lead generation techniques require opt-ins, lists of leads and prospects.

Why email lead generation is the undisputed workhorse of the industry

Consider this: A 2015 survey revealed that a whopping 72% of all adults in the United States prefer to receive communications from a company through email. This is what makes lead generation through email marketing so vital.

But when we talk about lead generation through email, it is important to clarify the definition of a lead. A lead is anyone, whether business or consumer, who has a bit of curiosity surrounding what your business offers. It is important that this curiosity is nurtured into full-on interest. To accomplish this at scale, email marketing is your best bet.

To see success, it is important that the individuals you target are reached at different stages of the buying cycle. You also want to ensure you are reaching them with relevant, actionable information that is both non-invasive and holds their interest. Take the stress out of figuring out how to accomplish this by employing companies like ours to do it for you.

How we demonstrate actionable results through lead generation

Here at Prospectr Marketing, we build out email marketing “tracks” utilizing proprietary systems. These represent a library of emails sent to a specific prospect. It can also be defined further by targeting distinct areas of interest.

For example, a marketing manager for an IT consulting operation might need a specific set of email “tracks” to target individuals within certain corporate segments. These could be technical buyers, financial buyers or the individual who you are directly trying to sell the product or service to.

Our services allow us to create and schedule these emails well in advance. We do the leg work and help you craft a message that cuts through the noise and turns cold leads hot. Once your “tracks” are built out, we can adjust who is placed into the email streams whether manually or using specific triggers.

Effective email marketing design

What sets us apart from others in our field is our ability to craft email lead generation campaigns utilizing essential fundamentals of effective email communication. Whether it be through an effective subject line that is both catchy and succinct or clean design that eliminates white space or unnecessary words, we know what it takes to catch your lead and reel them in.

Beyond engaging content, it is important that a valuable offer is combined with a compelling call to action. All of the elements of an effective email lead generation campaign come together to bring leads in through the door.

Here at Prospectr Marketing, we have case study after case study proving the effectiveness of our methods. Want to learn more about how we can help you enhance your email lead generation efforts? Contact us today. Let’s make some lead generation magic happen.

Is your cleaning business taking advantage of online platforms like YouTube and Facebook? Do you have a company website or blog where you regularly post engaging, high-quality content? Considering 95% of adults between 18 – 34 interact with brands via social networking, if you aren’t online you’re out of the loop. Here are three simple ways to grow your B2B leads in the coming months:

YouTube Videos. YouTube boasts an impressive 1.5 billion active users each month, and those numbers are continuing to grow. Plus, according to HubSpot, visual content is 40 times more likely to be shared than text alone. As the owner of a cleaning business, you have an infinite number of cleaning hacks, tips and tricks that can be illustrated for an audience via video. Even if you aren’t comfortable with public speaking, just be yourself. Your industry knowledge and expertise is a great way to stand out from all of that online noise.

Social Media Platforms. When business owners are looking to work with a new cleaning company, they go online before looking anywhere else. If you have a presence on platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, you’re far more likely to be found and contacted by area businesses. With a little bit of research, you can also maximize your business pages for local SEO, a simple step that’s sure to attract even more clients.

Creating Killer Content. There have been plenty of stories about how blogging is dead, but that’s far from the case. If you truly want to build thought leadership and authority in the cleaning space, it’s important that you regularly write high-quality content for your customers. Whether you update them on new cleaning products and tools, or just provide insights and information that you’ve learned over the years, your wide range of knowledge can set you apart.

This is not a comprehensive list by any means, but we hope that it will get your creative juices flowing. If you’re ready to start building your leads and growing your B2B cleaning business, contact the team at Prospectr Marketing today. We want to see you succeed! https://prospectrmarketing.com/

By: Chelsea Nolan

One of the most important factors when considering a digital marketing campaign is the “data.” You can have the best crafted, catchiest and most relevant message of all time, but if it never gets delivered to the intended audience, it will flop everytime.

For the eleven years we have been in business, our data acquisition and organization is arguably the most important piece of our marketing puzzle. While the creative writing process, optimization of software, and multiple-touch approach are all essential to generating the qualified leads our clients need, the millions of data contacts we hold is certainly our greatest asset.

We found out long ago that having an extensive list of data points is not the only end goal. From who we source data from, how we organize and clean it, and how we utilize that data to receive the best response, understanding how we approach data will help you understand why our technique is so successful time and time again.

Sourcing

We purchase data from several different sources, including Zoominfo and Avention, which is now D&B – these are two of our main sources for acquiring data. We obtain, then clean millions of records per year from these sources and purchase more as needed using our unique buying power. Since we do buy data in large quantities, we receive bulk pricing and are able to obtain the best quality for a lower price.

We also use a backend process to make sure all data we use is active, deliverable, recently engaged, and responsive to email marketing. In other words, because we are an email marketing agency with 10 years of experience purchasing the best data available on the market, at the best price available due to the quantity of orders, we strongly believe we will outperform any single data company.

Once we have identified a new partnership and taken a new company on as a client, we purchase specific data from specific providers based on the demographics for their target market. By segmenting out data by parameters such as the decision maker’s job title, size of the company, location, and industry we know the leads generated will be exactly in the target market our client needs to be in front of to create a sale.

Sending

Many email marketing software systems will not allow the hard bounce rate to get above 2%. Meaning, if more than 98% of the email addresses you are sending to are not current and valid you will be blocked from future sends, making all the time spent crafting emails, testing copy, and acquiring data wasted. This is why “cleaning” out all old or unused email addresses from a list is essential before using it in a campaign.

The truth is it often takes millions of records to find the 10-15% of great data hidden within an overall cold list. Our core business is to purchase data from all of the best sources, then trim the bad data out through data cleaning with emailoversight.com and our demand generation service. This process gives us clean and intent based data and active lists that none of the data companies can provide. Intent based data comes from those that open, respond or click on our client campaigns. Sending 50mm+ emails per month for over 40 different industry verticals gives a pulse of what b2b prospects are looking for, what is more we actually capture the person who was interested in a specific offering and can repurpose that knowledge to give our customers data that has a proclivity to respond to their offerings.

Strategizing

You can’t expect to send something to a list once and get the highest results. Each point of data within a list represents an individual person, hopefully a decision maker, who is extremely busy in their own day-to-day tasks. In order to attain the best possible results, strategy is key.

The end goal of any marketing campaign is engagement. If people are opening, clicking on, and ultimately responding to our messages, we know everything is working as it should. However, that is not always the case. If a specific message is not getting the response we had expected, there are several factors we must consider. For example, we know the list we are using is current, so we may look at the subject line being used. Another variable may be the first few lines of the creative, the words visible before even opening the email, need to be rewritten to better entice the reader.

All of these factors are part of testing a campaign and altering small parts until everything is working in perfect optimization. Since our marketing campaigns contain up to 10 different emails based on the behavior taken by the potential lead, we have many opportunities to examine the interactions being taken and change variables based on our expertise.

Other factors we consider when analyzing a campaign are the open rates, opt out rates, sent volume, number of leads generated, click through rates, and hard bounce/soft bounce percentages.

A great example of a client we had to be strategic with data for is Vanguard Cleaning of Los Angeles.

The challenge was that the cleaning industry is a seasonal market. We needed to stay in front of Vanguard’s prospects so whenever their need arose, we were right there in their inbox. Since the territory for Vanguard LA is very specific, we had to be strategic about data use and our ability to keep Vanguard’s name in front of key decision makers without bombarding their market.

By pairing the very best quality data with our creative writing expertise, and software to track interaction, we were able to engage with thousands of businesses within Vanguard’s target area over time.

In almost a year of partnership with Prospectr, Vanguard Cleaning Systems has been connected with 1,151 engaged decision makers in and around Los Angeles. They have seen open rates as high as 21% and as many as 189 leads per month.