Today your online branding is as essential to customer experience as any brick and mortar store or office. Some of the elements will overlap between online and offline, however, there are a lot of things different techniques to use to express your brand. In this slideshare we go over the 3 pillars of online branding, and some differences between B2B and B2C.

2. Agenda
2
1.The Three Pillars …………………… Page 5
2.Defining your strategy…………… Page 9
3.Step 1: Buyer Persona…………… Page 10
4.Step 2: The Customer Experience …..Page 11
5.Step 3: Identity ……………………. Page 15
6. Step 4: Presence….………………..Page 25
7.Conclusion……………………………. Page 26

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4. The Three Pillars
4

5. Introduction
• In a recent webinar and slideshare, we
discussed design and usability, which is an
important part of online branding.
• This presentation will focus on the other two
important aspects of online branding: SEO
and Engagement.
• We’ll also talk about some differences
between B2B online branding and B2C.
5

6. B2B vs B2C
• B2C is more established due to the
significance of eCommerce
• B2B has become crucial for
companies as well, due to the way
the digital space has changed the
buying process.
• B2B is still developing and changing,
but the importance can’t be
understated.
• Rise of inbound marketing is a result
of online research becoming an
intrinsic part of the buyer’s journey.
6

7. B2B vs B2C
Today's business buyers do
not contact suppliers directly
until 57 percent of the
purchase process is complete.
(Google paper, 2013)
• Customers, B2B or B2C, research online at the
start of their decision making process for
services or goods.
• During research buyer’s will also compare
different products and companies in B2B and
B2C.
7

8. Online Branding for B2B
According to Forrester, of
the information buyers
read before making a
purchasing decision, 70% is
online.
• Figures from McKinsey show that B2B
customers want more online tools to interact
with suppliers and design their own customized
solution.
• This results in a major shift from what sales
used to do to marketing in a B2B context.
8

9. Getting Started: Defining Your Strategy
• There are a lot of channels and
different kinds of content.
• Your strategy starts with
defining first your target and
what they want.
• A big difference in B2B and
B2C is that B2B has to be hyper
focused on goals and targeted
approaches.
• So how do you start?
• The next slides show steps and
some brands doing a great job
with different tactics you can
read up on.
9

10. Step 1:
Buyer Persona
• As marketers, you know
that your customer is the
central point of your
brand.
• How does this play into
developing your online
strategies?
• Part of creating your
buyer persona means
conducting research into
that Persona’s digital
footprint.
10

11. Step 1: Buyer Persona
The digital footprint will include:
1. Various channels where they spend time and
conduct research.
2. What these customers will search for.
3. What devices they will be using.
4. When and which social networks they are on.
5. Websites and apps they engage with.
6. Basically: How often, what and when.
It’s not just about what they are interested in and what
they need anymore. The great news is that this
information is available with analytics and research.
11

12. Step 2: The Customer Experience
• In a brick and mortar
world, customer
experience takes place
in your store or office,
during an individual’s
interaction with your
staff, and how you make
yourself available to
customers.
• The digital world’s
customer experience is
in your design.
• We’ve done a whole
course on UX design, so
we’ll just pick some
main points to consider
here.
12

13. Step 2: Customer Experience
Main Question to ask: Does your website create a look
and feel that will captivate your target audience and
make it easy for users to quickly navigate to relevant
information?
Tips:
• Use dynamic graphics proven to improve “stickiness”
and use a clean, contemporary, uncluttered template.
• Align your graphic design and content tone with your
audience persona.
• Keep critical information above the fold.
• Make sure your site is responsive for mobile.
• Use an elegant navigation system that complies with
the “1-2 clicks” rule.
13

14. Step 3: Identity - Voice
• Your identity in online branding involves three
important parts: your voice, naming and online
presence.
• Your “voice” refers to marketing copy as well as
longer form content like white papers and
eBooks, which are very important in a B2B
marketing.
Tips:
• Use market research, benchmark your
competitors, use some services to help you
develop the voice and brand imaging.
• Testing can also help – try different styles and
see what “sticks” with your target best and
develop your style to match.
14

15. Step 3: Identity - Voice
• Voice refers to the topics and
subject matter as much as the tone
and words you use.
• You’ll know when you have
developed the right voice when
your engagement increases.
• Key question to ask:
• Does your website encourage
visitors to stay on the site and stay
engaged with your brand? Does it
encourage lead generation and
ultimate sales conversion?
15

16. Step 3: Identity - Voice
Tips:
• Create high-value, audience-
centric content.
• Use a professional, yet
conversational, tone that fits
your audience persona.
• Create top-, middle- and
bottom-of-the-funnel
messaging, so your audience
finds content for where they
are in the journey.
• Use call-to-action buttons
liberally.
• Create landing pages to
collect contact details.
• Have a blog and make your
content easy to access and
find.
16

17. Step 3: Identity – Naming and SEO
• Identity and voice should
be developed together
with your SEO strategy.
• You must consider SEO
when developing your
naming.
• Think about your links,
which will most likely
reflect the name of your
brand and keywords you’ll
use to describe your
products.
• Success in digital means
and cohesive voice online,
even SEO, and connecting
all the different content
together.
17

18. SEO Example: ExactTarget
• You may be wondering how to
execute a cohesive SEO
strategy with your content.
• Search Engine Land did a
survey of some companies who
excelled at practicing several
principles discussed here.
• ExactTarget had a great
campaign that used many of
the tactics for SEO and online
branding discussed here.
• First, ExactTarget started with a
traditional landing page to
acquire lead information in
exchange for download access
18

19. SEO Example: ExactTarget
19

20. SEO Example:
ExactTarget
Next, they launched a coordinated,
extensive activities to support
content marketing assets
including:
• An infographic based on report
findings (see right).
• A series of blog posts.
• A SlideShare presentation.
• YouTube video .
• Outreach across third-party site
opportunities (including a review
on MarketingLand).
20

21. SEO Example: ExactTarget
What SEO initiatives and online branding
practices did ExactTarget do well?
• The outreach strategies were far
reaching as you can see in search
engine results based on the report title
alone with inbound links from
publications like Social Media Explorer,
Forbes, and Convince and Convert.
• ExactTarget took the time to make
their supporting content easy to share
and distribute for visitors.
• Their infographic included embed code
for cut and paste inclusion.
21

22. SEO Example: ExactTarget
22
What SEO initiatives and online branding
practices did ExactTarget do well?
• All content assets incorporated share
functionality across popular social media
platforms.
• Large, often consistent graphics made it
easy and more impactful when sharing in
social networks where images are seen
more prominently (like Facebook and
Google+).
• There was attention to detail, consistency
and quality in their distribution, branding of
all these assets, and the voice and tone of
the content as well.

23. Step 4: Presence – Social Media
• Developing your brand means finding
the right network to support your
image and purpose.
• Make sure your profiles, messaging
and imaging is consistent across
channels and fits your brand.
• Choose the right channels and times
for posting with the content that is
relevant for your user persona.
23

24. Step 4: Presence – Which Channels?
A few quick facts on where your user persona might be
hanging out:
• Facebook: Pretty much everyone is here
• Google+: Surprisingly good for one demographic:
men in tech, 2/3 of their users fall into this group
• Pinterest: great to reach women for brands relying
on a lot of images or that have lots of recipes to share
• LinkedIn – a must for B2B
24

25. Step 4: Presence – Social Influencers
• We are in the age of
diminishing organic reach.
• Social media is highly
competitive.
• Your average post has 17
minutes of visibility (or less
on some channels!)
• Next steps: find the
influencers your user persona
likes and follows, tag them,
engage them, guest blog for
them, and create
conversations.
25
Jeff Staple – Staple Pigeon

26. List of Tools and Services
Logo and Design
• balsamiq.com
• 99designs.com
• canva.com
• placeit.net
• Fiverr.com
• Bearddesign.co
• Thestartupguys.co.uk
• cubancouncil.com
• Crowdstudio.com
• Behance.com
• DesignStudio.com
• Crowdspring.com
Brand Voice and Distribution
• Content.ly
• Scripted.com
• Brafton.com
• SixEstate.com
• Lonelybrand.com
• Eploreb2b.com
• Scribblelive.com
• pubble.io

27. Conclusion
• There are 3 main pillars to creating a cohesive, powerful online brand: design,
SEO and engagement.
• The importance to online branding is the same as offline activities in that
they create the identity of the brand through customer experience.
• Brand identity online is very much related to the design of your website, the
voice of your content and how you engage your audience.
• SEO must be part of the identity and voice and content development.
• As with offline branding, the customer is always your main focus and starting
point.
27

28. Sources
• https://boomm.com/boommvox/build-killer-digital-brand-b2b-
website-best-practices
• http://www.labbrand.com/knowledge/best-practices/using-digital-
b2b-brand-innovation
• http://www.smartinsights.com/online-brand-strategy/brand-
positioning/digital-brand-development/
• http://searchengineland.com/3-b2b-companies-integrate-seo-online-
marketing-strategy-183837
• https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244677
• https://blog.kissmetrics.com/guide-to-online-branding-2/

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