Season 1: 'The Branding Series' / Episode # 8

'B2B Branding' is a bit different from Consumer Branding. Branding Experts And Top Entrepreneurs Reveal What It Takes To Get It Right, Why It's So Important, And Whether It's Harder Or Easier Than B2C Marketing.

Guest Bios:

Neil Luo (https://www.linkedin.com/in/neil-luo/)is the Global Head of Growth at Airwallex (https://www.airwallex.com ), a $1 BILLION fintech start up.

Dr Rob Newman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-newman-007757/) is CEO of ASX 200 online mapping technology provider, Nearmap. (https://nearmap.com.au).

Victoria Coster (https://www.linkedin.com/in/creditfixsolutionscreditrepair/) is a Telstra Business Person of the Year finalist 2019, & founder of Credit Fix Solutions (https://creditfixsolutions.com.au)

Rachel Bevans (https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelbevans/) is branding expert & director of The Healthy Brand Company (https://www.thehealthybrandcompany.com/)

What to listen out for:

2.00 The story of IDA Ireland 'Right Place, Right Time' B2B branding campaign

8.29 The importance of emotion in B2B marketing

9.20 The example of Xero, 'beautiful business'.

12.23 How to segment the SME market when you're selling B2B

13.26 The 'trust barrier' is actually higher for B2B than for B2C

21.31 What is 'insight generation'

23.48 The role of courage in effective B2B branding

26.39 Recurring segment - NERD SUPER POWER

29.56 The long-term value of networking for B2B brands

34.59 Recurring segment - NERD UNDER PRESSURE

Resources & links:

1. IDA Ireland campaign https://wearesculpt.com/blog/b2b-social-media-campaigns/
2. 'Cross the Chasm' by Geoffrey Moore. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_the_Chasm

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Hi there and welcome to the nerds of business podcast. My name's Darren Moffatt. I'm a director at Webbuzz, the Growth Marketing Agency. And I'm your host. It's great to have you with us for episode eight of the branding series. If you're new to this podcast, our vision is to make entrepreneurs happier by solving the key challenges that all businesses must overcome. One problem at a time today's topic is B2B or business to business branding. Now, before we get started, if you're running a B to C venture business to consumer, you might be tempted to skip this episode, but I'd recommend you stick around because there are some valuable tips for all business owners in much of what you're about to hear those companies who sell mostly or exclusively to other businesses, instead of consumers still have all of the same challenges we've covered so far in this series, they need a good brand identity.

They need effective brand positioning and to grow sustainably. They need to foster brand awareness and loyalty amongst their customers, but there are some crucial differences with B2B branding. When putting this episode together, I must admit, I found it difficult to find a B2B case study that would resonate with both the B to C entrepreneurs in our audience and also our international listeners. And then I had a kind of a light bulb moment. I remembered that countries themselves are B2B brand marketers. You may not be aware of this, but there is competition amongst federal governments around the world for the capital investment of multinational companies. So, our opening story today looks at how a tiny but much-loved country outmanoeuvred, bigger nations to get a slice of the international corporate investment dollar

inaudible.

The country of Ireland has a population of just 4.9 million as a small open economy within the Eurozone its citizens depend on foreign investment for continued economic growth. Over the years, Ireland has had some big wins in 2008 it's favourable tax laws famously attracted the attention of the social networking giant Facebook who established it international corporate HQ in the capital of Dublin, but by 2016, a huge opportunity has emerged its neighbour. Great Britain has voted to leave the EU in the famous Brexit referendum. This will leave Ireland as the only English-speaking member of the European union to capitalize on this. They launch the Island right place, right time campaign its goals are to position Ireland as investment friendly to foreign companies and to raise awareness of the benefits of locating their corporation in Ireland, such as tax breaks and a highly educated workforce. The government agency tasked with managing the campaign. Ida Ireland choose LinkedIn as their main marketing channel to foster engagement with their audience and convert users into leads. They use a mix of sponsored content, dynamic ads and native regeneration forms. Their efforts yield incredible results. By the end of 2018 Ida Ireland see a 25% increase in social media engagement. Their top of funnel reach extends to over 800,000 prospects. The campaign ultimately leads to 237 foreign investment decisions and to the creation of more than 20,000 new jobs for the Irish economy. Many presumably at the expense of their Brexit loving neighbours.

The Ida Ireland campaign is a great example of a B2B marketing campaign that achieved its objective by getting the basics of branding, right. But it's also a demonstration of how B2B branding is a bit different from B2C. The fact that it was carried out almost exclusively on a business, social networking platform is a good example of this. If your company sells to other businesses, LinkedIn will probably feature heavily in your channel strategy too. But when it comes to B2B brand strategy, what are the main differences that you need to consider? And what tactics can you use to really connect in a meaningful way with your target customers?

I love data. You need to have systems. You need to have structure. You're going to get chopped to pieces is unstoppable. We kind of hit a point where we were like, we need to round yourself with people who are smarter than you and Richard and you.

This is Nerds of Business. So, the problem we're trying to solve, and the title of today's episode is B2B branding. How is it different? And what can you do to be number one in your market? We've got some great guests with some amazing, true stories and real-life case studies in particular, listen out for our regular segment nerd under pressure. This week's nerd is from a $1 billion tech unicorn. He shares perhaps the most powerful LinkedIn marketing hack I've ever heard. We've tried it here at Webbuzz, and I can tell you it is absolute killer. So, stick around for that. But first here's just a quick reminder that if you're enjoying nerds of business, to please hit the subscribe button on your podcast player, it means you'll automatically receive each new episode every fortnight, and it makes it easier for us to stay in touch now to begin a conversation about B2B branding. I think the logical place to start is with an exploration of how it's different from B2C marketing. So, to kick us off, I spoke with Rachel Bevans from the healthy brand company. She's one of our two branding experts for this series. And she's consulted to some of the biggest brands in the world.

The interesting thing which I love is I started in consumer 25 years ago. And then about 10 years ago, when I started working on agency side, I worked in B2C quite a lot in and then in the B2B, the business-to-business side. And I brought in a lot of those consumer aspects. So emotional connection in particular to the B2B side when I was doing that. And so, people used to think that business to business was like cold harsher. And it wasn't, they didn't think about emotional connection and that is there. We're talking to people at the end of the day. So emotional connection is incredibly important. So, it might not be, you know, talking to a dad about his kids and about talking to that same man, you know, that same sort of mid-forties guy was talking to him about how he can achieve in his business and how our technology can help him do that.

Um, it may, we may bring in a bit of a kid’s aspect, you know, we might go, we, you know, you’re stuck under a whole lot of paperwork. Um, you, you'd rather the time to go spend with your kids. Um, but in order to, for your business to succeed and for you to succeed in business and to be able to pay for your kid's school, you know, you need to do all this paperwork. So, we're going to give you this fantastic piece of technology, which will enable you to free up your time so that you can actually go, um, you know, be at succeed at business and, you know, see your kids to bed before they go, you know, before they go to bed. Right. So, bringing in, you're talking to people and that might not work for all businesses as well. So, you might need to stick to the profession a bit more of a professional side, but you still got motivations there. So, what's motivating these people in their roles. And how can you, um, meet, meet those, um, meet, meet those motivations.

I think that's such a good point because I've definitely noticed over the last decade or so that business to business marketing has become much warmer and more human. I mean, it did, it used to be, and still is for some brands, it is quite, um, cold and mechanical. Um, but I think that's a really, really good point. If you're going B2B, you're still dealing with humans, it's a human being making the purchase decisions. And particularly if you're working more towards the, the SME market, often people running the business, its very small teams running these businesses, it's the sole trader or it's the, it's the husband-and-wife partnership, or to, you know, just a very small group of directors. Um, and it's about, as you say, the emotions, um, yeah,

And we talked about it earlier saying when we're talking about start-ups and small teams, small entrepreneurs and so forth is they're generally all driven for a certain purpose. And they found this great product that meets a gap in the market that they're really driven to go and launch to help people to make their lives better and to solve a problem and make the lives better. So, um, if you're talking to those people, you've got to tap into those drivers. Um, if you're trying to sell them a product, um, I think the brands that does it brilliantly, I can't imagine them doing this 10, 15 years ago is Xero with 'beautiful business'. Who would have ever heard of that, putting those two together? Um, but you know, that's a brilliant way that the brand has done, but I think the other aspect is that as a base business to business brand, you've also got to remember that you're attracting people, not just customers, but employees.

So, um, what is it about, you know, how do you bring, if its people talk a lot about a values led business, which is what the successful businesses are. They value, they're values-led; groups of people that are drawn together to achieve a common goal. And generally, they have similar motivations and they set have similar values. Um, they might not be, you know, they might compliment their value. So, might not be exactly the same, but they sort of like with these values led side of the business, but in order to develop a B-to-B brand, if you've got a group of lawyers, what brings them together, what unites them, you know, what unifies them, what is it about that those people that actually will make their business special?

So, it's about finding that common ground speaking, the same language and the genuinely sort of shared values, very powerful for B-to-B marketing. Yeah,

Absolutely. Um, and, but all of this is, again, it goes back to meaning, you know, motivations, um, how do you actually make it, um, how do you make that emotional connection and actually really have meaning in people's lives?

So that's the technical perspective from an experienced brand consultant who's worked in both B to C and B to B, but what do entrepreneurs and senior leaders have to say, how is building a B2B brand different when you're actually inside the company growing the business every day. For this, I spoke to Neil Luo. Neil is the head of global growth at $1 billion tech unicorn Airwallex. And before that, he held senior roles@andhotels.com. Airwallex are a payments platform for SMEs and they're disrupting the world of foreign exchange and international payments. Listen to what Neil has to say on how a B2B business is a bit different and why customer segmentation is so important. How is building a, B2B brand different from a consumer brand and what challenges and opportunities, uh, do you think, uh, are unique to B2B leadership teams?

It's a really good question. I think, I think the first challenge is how different businesses are, and I think it's very dangerous to lump businesses as all SMEs right? Because it's, there's very different challenges. And I think you have to kind of segment into different size SMEs. So, we kind of see it as kind of your micro-SMEs, which are more like, you know, one to two people, your, your traditional SMEs, which is kind of more like one to 10 and then maybe more your mid-market SMEs. We just kind of tend to 50 and each of these have very different needs. Um, so one that's, that's really, really important. Um, and secondly, I think, uh, businesses just have a much higher trust threshold versus consumer. So, I think with consumer, you find that they're more than more willing to try, try brand straightaway and not really need much, uh, handholding, whereas the businesses, they always want to be able to talk to someone, kind of check, check certain things, um, before they try something. So, so that level of trust is really important, um, to, to kind of breakthrough that database space.

I think that's a killer insight. That's, that's a really amazing bit of info you've just shared there that the trust threshold is actually lower for consumers than it is for businesses. Um, which is a bit counterintuitive. When you think, when you think about it, that, you know, um, businesses have got generally more resources and individuals, individuals have potentially got more to lose if they get ripped off or whatever it might be have about our com. Um, can you share with us a couple of things that you've done, um, with Airwallex to overcome that scepticism and, and help nourish that sense of trust with the brand?

Yeah, I think, I think what key for us is that I think right now, especially in the, in the business segment we're playing in, which is kind of, you know, all the way from small to big businesses. You can't just have a pure online strategy. You can't just say, oh, everyone's gonna self-serve. Um, because there's, there's bound to be questions. So, so we've kind of taken this approach where, uh, we have a mix of online and I guess, offline capabilities. Um, so we allow businesses to easily book an appointment with someone in our business and have a chat, do a demo of our product that, that works really, really well. Uh, we, we emphasize customer support a lot say, hey, if there's any, you have any needs, uh, feel free to contact us whether by email or by phone and, you know, businesses that they want that, um, they want that reassurance.

If they have an issue, they can, they can, you know, talk to someone like that. The funny thing is we've done a lot of customer interviews and they say, oh, I like to go to the traditional bank because I like to have a brunch I can go into. And we say, well, how often do you go into the branch? They're like, Oh, maybe once a year. Right? So, they don't go that often, but if I need reassurance, so that's really important for us to give, give customers that reassurance. And some, some of them might, you know, contact us a lot and that's totally fine. And some of them may not, but it's very important to give that business, the reassurance they need so that if there is an urgency, they can contact you and speak to someone and we can kind of serve them. And one of the biggest differentiators we've found when we talk to customers is they say, hey, I don't want to use TransferWise anymore because I don't have customer service. I want to use their walks. And it's not that they call us every time, but they just want that reassurance that if there's an issue, they can talk to someone.

Yep. So, I think that's a great insight into how you guys are running your business. You're really opening up the inbound communication channels. You make it really easy for people to talk to you and have a human experience, um, which is fantastic. What are you doing around social proof? So, in terms of your online marketing, so, you know, pre-conversion, people are looking at you, they're thinking they might sign up, they might give it a go, but they're not sure they've heard of the brand a little bit. What are you doing to build your social proof online, to lower those trust barriers?

Yeah. And that's a, that's a really good point. So, so one is obviously, um, you know, surfacing some of the press releases that we have, right? So, we're, we're legitimate business. Um, so that's a really important, um, especially when it comes to, you know, money and financial services, people are obviously very concerned about, you know, potentially you going bankrupt or going under. So, we have a lot of, um, kind of, I guess, media quotes on our website showcasing how we're very well-funded start-up. We are a high value valued start-up, um, can trust us. Um, the second is, is kind of case studies and testimonials. So, you know, having customers, um, talk about us about how they use us, whether that's through a case study, whether that's through a review, um, that's really important, um, to build that. Um, and the third thing we actually find is actually just having a lot of screenshots of how the product works is really important. Especially with financial services, they want to see the tangible product. They want to see that under the hood, so to speak. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So even before you sign up, this is what it looks like, and that's actually very, very important from a trust perspective as well.

What about video? Have you used video much today to, to sort of humanize the platform and the, the user experience?

Not, not as much today. I think it's something we want to explore. Um, I think it's the production values on the video is obviously a lot higher and also, we've actually gone through in the last three months, really re-skinning our product. So, we just saw at this stage, maybe the video is not quite the right time because, you know, we had to shoot it again. Um, but we definitely want to go into video a lot more. Um, and then the other thing we're going to a lot with content. Um, so we really try to drive a lot of content around business. I just, how you grow a business, how you manage your business. And again, I just kind of provides that kind of credibility that, you know, this space really, really well, and that business can trust you.

Continuing on with the tech theme. I also spoke to Dr. Rob Newman, the CEO of mapping platform, NEARMAP Rob shares some valuable insights into the role trust and certainty play in his brand marketing strategy.

Yeah. Look, and I'm going to admit right up front, I'm not a, not a B2C expert. And so, you know, even in my time in venture capital, I tended to focus on those businesses that were B2B. I had a business partner who was much more B2C, um, you know, so, but I think in, in a beta B brand marketing, um, it comes back to two themes we talked about before one was focused, uh, and the other one is, is certainty. Right? Um, look, I think for any brand, um, you know, if you're, if you're offering something to a, to a business, their business is going to depend on yours. And particularly if you're solving a key pain point for them, um, you know, and as a start-up, and even as a scaleup, they're making a decision, do I keep buying from my existing provider?

Who's probably a large multinational that's been safe and you know, or am I going to risk my job on a, um, on something that's new and untested? And it looks like it's a whole lot better, but you know, it's a big risk, right? There's a very good book. I know it's old school, but, um, Geoffrey Moore's crossing the chasm, you know, it's, um, it's a worthwhile read. It tells you the difference between some of those first buyers who are the early adopters and will take all the risks and you mainstream market. And that mainstream market is looking for, um, you know, basically how do you take all the risk out of the decision for them? So back-to-back to the brand marketing, it does come down to, you know, you've got to have certainty in what you're providing to them for, from a business perspective.

And then you have to have that compelling reason to buy. Why are you just so much better? So again, bringing this back to the NEARMAP story is, you know, hey, you're already spending money on, on a digital mapping or aerial content. Um, you know, hey, if you start a subscription with us, we here, you know, we've been operating for the last 12 years. You know, the services there, you can test it, it, you know, it becomes and will integrate with all your systems, with all of the things that need to happen. So, we solved the problem for the customer. So they go, well, I'm paying less, I'm getting more. And I know it works. Uh, the risk seems pretty low to me now. Right?

That's a pretty compelling value proposition. Um, yeah. So, if you're an entrepreneur, who's weighing several potential business ideas, or maybe you're already operating in the B2B space, but you're thinking about going direct to consumer, you'll be interested in the next question is building a B2B brand harder or easier than a consumer brand.

I think they both have their challenges. So, consumer is harder in that. A lot of the markets they're like, if you think of a supermarket, it's so hard to break into that because there are already so many competitors in there. And so, you've got to identify insights solve a problem that nobody else is. Yeah. So, it's actually very difficult to differentiate. Yeah. So, in that sense, it's very, it's quite difficult. And also, the process of insight generation and so forth has been practiced so well over time that it is quite, it can be quite laborious, nerdy

The insight generation. Can we, can we hear about that?

Yeah. So, um, finding those insights or those w what is it that really turns the consumer on, like, what are those core values and what are those nuggets that we can actually tap into? Um, the emotional drivers that might might've the key motivations and so forth. Um, and then the pain points and the barriers as well. So, what are those? And because that process is, I've been doing that for 25 years, is you get a lot of debate because everybody's at now has almost in every consumer driven organization, even in the big ones, like just about everyone in the whole organization has gone through the process, like training and so forth, so they know how to generate it. So, you have a lot of points of view. Yeah. So, in that way, it becomes quite a change, quite challenging from a process perspective as well.

So not only is it like the competitive environment, it's really hard to break through because a lot of the points of entry are taken and it's very difficult to differentiate. And, um, there's also like a process thing that people everybody knows better. But then if I go to the flip side in terms of the B2B, or if you're dealing with a service brand in particular, you know, you've got six lawyers in the room for six engineers who are the leaders of the business, then they are very case they've really key stakeholders. And that's really where I think I learned personally was stakeholder engagement was actually understanding what all of the, you have a lot of very senior stakeholders involved in building the brand. And so, stakeholder management for business to business tends to be really challenging

All the key stakeholders on the same page, agreeing to the strategy. Yep. And what about in, in sort of linked to that being brave? So, if you know the opportunity for the business in a B-to-B market to stand out and grab more market share means pushing the brand position out to the extreme a little bit in one metric or value or the other that can sometimes make people feel uncomfortable. What are your thoughts on that? Is that a, that's a challenge to get people on board for that sometimes.

Yeah. I think I've been lucky in that sense because I've worked for most of the business-to-business brands I've worked with have had everybody wants to make a big difference. So, they actually want to stand out in the market and it's a big cause you're working with a lot of personal pride. Um, so, but I mean, so braveness, yeah, courage. Absolutely. But I think courage is really important for both M and T when it comes to consumer in order to, um, break away, you need a lot of courage in terms of creativity and, you know, following different communications methods, doing things differently, um, in order to break through, um, to consumers' attention, um, in, uh, in the B2B environment, you need courage to push yourself outside of the blue,

Because I find a lot of, a lot of B2B, um, market. If you look at it, take any vertical, um, and you know digital marketing, you can have a look at the different agencies out there, and there are a lot of them tend to cluster around the middle. You know, the websites look the same, your logos look kind of similar. The values are obviously pretty, pretty similar. And so, there's that clustering effect. Everyone comes around in the middle. It's the same in accountants, lawyers, you name it, it's really common. Uh, and I've noticed that the brands in B2B that push it out to the extreme and are brave, they have the courage and the conviction to do so, uh, often the ones that do the best.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think Xero definitely did that for an example, but, um, I think, you know, you look her in the eye, you're looking at a lot of the professional markets and they're all like, think of, is there grey and dark blue? And they still are very grey and dark blue. So, if you want to cut out from the crowd, then again, this is looking at category codes and the codes might be from a positioning perspective, but they also might be from an identity perspective. And I think if you think of the business-to-business environment, typically you think blue and grey, and it's very different to that now. And so, I think a lot of these entrepreneurs and start-ups in particular are really breaking away from all

Well, they're using, even from a colour perspective, they're using a lot of pinks and Magenta's and bright colours. Um, and you know, that's a shorthand way to create a visual language. It's a little bit different and it makes you stand out. But again, it takes courage to do that. And I think that's where a lot of people fall down.

We worked with a construction company in the UK called Curtains Consulting and that's, that's like really a lot of really male, a very, quite a macho industry. Yup. The identity was pink. Yeah, absolutely. When you were saying that I was like, actually I remember that. Yeah,

That's brilliant. All right, Rachel, so we've got another segment here, uh, that we want to introduce to you. And this one is called Nerd Superpower. Got the response I was after. So, do you know how long I worked on that hang on? So, uh, you know, you're obviously a branding nerd, right. So, if you had to sort of nominate one talent that you have one really sort of defined skill around your branding work that you do, uh, what, what would be your branding superpower?

Um, I, I actually have the quote on my website because this is where I call it. I mean, it is the tipping point. Um, but what I'm really good at is involving people as I need to, to get, to develop the strategy. And then when you actually get, when you've built that strategy and you get to that tipping point and they are they're on board with the strategy and then can generate those ideas as to how to implement that to me would be, what am I sort of, I guess my superpower is, I guess, getting the, bringing the people along the way it is that essentially alignment, putting all the pieces in place and then giving people the tools and the empowerment to actually go and create everything.

Awesome. Great answer. That's Rachel Bevans again from the healthy branding company, she highlights how in some respects, B2B can be easier, but what does a small business owner who operates in both markets have to say on this question, Victoria Coster is the founder and CEO of Credit Fix Solutions. They are a leading name in credit repair. And Victoria was a top six finalist in the 2019 Telstra business awards. She's a client of our agency at Webbuzz, she's a good friend and she's a real powerhouse of an entrepreneur. In fact, she's also now a published author, keep an eye out for her book from 'Zero to CEO', according to Victoria, although the branding for B2B is more work than for B2C getting the sale is actually easier. So, you're really uniquely positioned to share some insights here with our listeners on which is harder for brand building and why?

Um, well, yeah, and I don't think I'm uniquely different. I think I'm just weird. And I think I just, when I get into something I'm like, what else can I do now? I've done that. So, yeah, you're right. I've oddly enough, got, you know, B to B and B to C, um, as well as other things going on as well. It's a little bit ridiculous, but, um, B2B I think with, with, with the B2B side, um, it would be your time, um, would be the most difficult thing because networking isn't easy. Um, I have to admit, I, you know, um, I'll, I'll, you know, show up and get dressed and do my hair and put that smile on my face, but to actually engage with people is scary. It can be quite tiring. As you know, we've been to many events with hundreds of people and to do that every day of the week and to keep doing it and keep connecting and keep networking.

Um, that, that, that is hard because you're looking at a long-term investment and a lot of people, in fact, some lady came up to me at an event about a year ago and she goes, I don't know how you do this. It all takes too long. You know, why don't you just go and do more Google ads, you know, who could be bothered, but, you know, it's, so that, that, that is hard. Um, but then again, the flip side of that is that the sale is a lot easier. So, you know, jumping into B to C, for example, your sales are a lot harder, you know, because you got, you got cold inquiries, you got no trust whatsoever. Um, so you're really working your butt off to convert that lead to an opportunity and into a client, um, B2C can be cheaper, you know, if as well, so B2B can be quite expensive.

Um, you know, petrol going to events, flights, accommodation, all the rest of it that has cost me like a lot of money. I don't even know how much you'd have to ask my accountant. So, so B to CS is easier in that sense because it's not as expensive to get out there to get on page one, it's to do YouTube videos. Well, that's free, you know, and then pop them on a YouTube channel to use LinkedIn Facebook or that's free and you want to go and do some ads and that's great, but a lot more free available platforms for small business to start, um, B2C um, and faster, right? So B2B is hard because it takes so long or it's B2C you can go here's my messaging wax, or it's all out there.

But is it fair to say that certainly in your business, uh, putting in the hard yards building that B2B network, does that, has that given you more scale, has they're given you more, more consistency?

Yep. Yep. Definitely. You know, if your vision is long term, um, you know, networking and building those relationships is the way to go because you know, people just love you. And then once a year just throw a really fabulous Christmas party and do a dance in a Santa suit and everyone's your mate,

Yeah, that's fantastic. It works. It definitely works. I'm not sure that I'm quite ready to put on the Santa suit yet.

I reckon it'd be great in one. We'll get you doing one for this year. Okay.

Yay. All right. Here's the challenge. I'm down for the Santa suit. So, the problem we set out to solve in this episode was B2B branding. How is it different and what can you do to be number one in your market? Our branding expert, Rachel, from the healthy branding company shared a technical perspective on how B2B branding is different from B2C. And we've also heard some fascinating, real-life stories from our entrepreneur guests, Neil Luo from Airwallex, Rob Newman, from NEARMAP and Victoria Coster from Credit Fix Solutions. I hope their wisdom and insight to have given your ideas to crack the code to growth in your own venture for me. However, there are three important conclusions that we can all draw from this episode. Firstly, you need to segment your customers. As Neil said, the B2B market is actually comprised of several discrete segments who each require a slightly different approach.

If you work in B2B, it's important, you segment your database and tailor you’re messaging for each group. Secondly, your branding should strive to be human at all times, as Rachel said, it works best when you don't focus on your product or service, but rather on how the use of that product or service affects your customer's life in a personal way. I was a really key insight and finally put in the work and persevere, as Victoria said, she spent a huge amount of time and money on networking events over the years. But ultimately, it's paid off with a large and engaged network of distribution partners who refer her business on a daily basis. Although all the core branding principles still apply. It is true that B2B marketing is a bit different. This is both an opportunity and a threat for business owners. As we heard from Neil at air wallets, the trust barrier for SMEs is actually higher than for consumers. So, consistency and social proof are especially important, but if you can get this right and humanize the brand for the real people who ultimately make the buying decision, it might lay just the foundations you need to become number one in your market.

We're coming to the end. But before we go, it's time for our regular segment nerd under pressure where a guest has to share one killer hack or tip, they recommend for you. Our listeners let's find out who our nerd under pressure is today. Okay. So now we now turn to a regular segment of ours called

Fresher.

It always gets a chuckle. So, nerd under pressure is where we put, uh, our guest’s nerd under a bit of pressure. We ask you for one killer hack that you can recommend to our listeners on a particular topic. Um, and today, Neil, we're asking for a killer hack, one killer tip that you can recommend to entrepreneurs on B2B branding and your time starts now.

Yeah. So, I think, I think my killer hack would be, you know, if you're B2B kind of branding go through LinkedIn, obviously there's a lot of businesses there, but I'd say don't offer your product straight away on LinkedIn. Um, say that you've got a great product and that if people are interested, they should comment on your posts like interested or something like that. And then you send them the link, uh, through a personal message. Um, and the reason you do that is when you put a comment on, on, on a post, it goes to the viral loop. We are really crazy viral loop. You get a lot more awareness. It gets posted through all their network. Anyone that comments on it it'll get posted through their network. Um, and we better drive a lot of leads and engagements that way through LinkedIn.

That is a fantastic hack that seriously, that for anyone working in the B2B space, that's killer. And, um, we'll be sure to promote that very heavily. Thank you. Thanks Neil. So, thanks for listening to episode eight of nerds of business. If you've enjoyed it, please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, Google, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. It helps us climb up the ranks and become more visible to other people. Just like you. We want to help as many entrepreneurs and businesses as possible. If you've got a question or some feedback, we'd love to hear from you, you can engage with us webbuzz.com.au/nerds. That's webbuzz.com.au/nerds. So, feel free to reach out and say hello. I want to thank all of our guests and the team at Webbuzz for helping me put this show together. We'll be back in two weeks with the last episode for this series, which is on brand damage until then I'm your host, Darren Moffatt. And I look forward to nerding out with you next time. Bye for now.