Boosting brand engagement for B2B organisations
FMI Agency is a brand engagement agency who have worked with brands like Sony, LG, Three and bp to implement brand engagement solutions for over 15 years – so we definitely know a thing or two about boosting brand engagement for B2B companies!
In this article we delve into “What is brand engagement?” We will look at several examples as to how organisations can use brand engagement both with B2B and B2C audiences and discuss how to boost brand engagement for your brand.
What is brand engagement?
Brand engagement is the connection that customers, employees and business partners have with a brand. It refers to the emotional, cognitive, and behavioural connection that audiences have towards a brand – and when delivered correctly can be provide significant benefit and advocacy for a company.
For a B2C audience, brand engagement reflects the level of interaction, loyalty, and advocacy that consumers exhibit towards a brand, encompassing how they perceive, interact with, and support the brand over time. Effective brand engagement involves creating meaningful and lasting relationships with consumers, encouraging them to actively participate in brand-related activities, and fostering a sense of loyalty and commitment.
However, for a B2B audience, brand engagement reflects the level of engagement and loyalty that employees and business partners show, including how they talk about the brand, sell the brand’s products or services, and if they believe in the brand for future partnerships.
In our experience, business leaders, backed by strong, collaborative HR, marketing, events, and communications teams, can use brand engagement to inspire and engage employees, customers, and business partners alike.
Brand engagement solutions are varied and far reaching and may take the form of consumer experiential or employee recognition events, through to online solutions and incentive programmes – all of which should be tailored to your business objectives and brand values. Brand engagement will not break the bank either and should always be planned and scaled against a company budget, but it is likely the most effective brand engagement solutions encompass multiple mediums, and this is where an agency such as FMI can come in to support.
Brand engagement in the B2B sector
Brand engagement differs significantly between B2C (Business-to-Consumer) and B2B (Business-to-Business) contexts due to the distinct nature of their target audiences, decision-making processes, and the dynamics of their interactions.
When a B2B organisation is reliant on its channel partners, distributors, and resellers to sell their products or services to customers, brand engagement can become a critical component to selling, over and above a competitor. The target audience will be a business which involves multiple stakeholder and decisions-makers, with niche industries or roles within.
Through our experience, it is clear that B2B salespeople sell what they know – so if you can better inform them of your brand, its values, products, services, and ROI, and help them to truly become a part of your brand, then they will recommend you to their customer.
Whilst both B2C and B2B brand engagement aim to build strong, positive relationships with their audiences, they do so through different strategies, messaging, and channels tailored to the unique characteristics of their target markets. A B2C business will target individual consumers who make personal purchasing decisions, often relying on the emotional appeal to a broad audience with diverse interests and needs.
For several of our telecoms and electronics clients we have helped identify engagement channels and tactics, designing and delivering impactful industry conferences, trade show stands and web-based engagement programmes. With data at the heart of all engagement channels we have also been able to demonstrate the return on this investment for B2B organisations.
For our B2C clients, across utility and financial sectors, we have rolled out and managed customer loyalty schemes, digital marketing campaigns and advertising messaging and social content to reach their wider audience effectively and with clear results.
We work as an extension to our client’s HR, marketing, events, or communications team, ensuring their brand is correctly represented through strong storytelling and campaign messaging. Leveraging multiple channels, both online and offline, we help to clearly communicate the brand’s expertise, its reliability, value proposition and the benefits of doing business with them. With the measurement of engagement captured at every interaction point to demonstrate ROI and success.
How to boost brand engagement
Delivering effective brand engagement can sound a little overwhelming and seem like a lot of work for your team – so how do you boost B2B brand engagement?
Boosting B2B brand engagement involves creating meaningful interactions with your audience, proving your value, fostering a sense of community, and encouraging ongoing participation.
Here are some effective strategies to boost brand engagement:
- Create High-Quality Content
– Value-Driven Content: Share informative, valuable, and inspirational content that helps your audience understand your brand and what you stand for.
– Consistency: Communicate regularly to your audience to keep your brand front-of-mind.
– Multimedia: Use a mix of text, images, videos, and infographics to keep content dynamic and engaging.
- Leverage Technology
– Active Presence: Be active on platforms where your audience is most engaged, perhaps company intranets or social media channels – if platforms do not exist then why not create your own and invite them to it!
– Engagement Tactics: Use surveys, competitions, and videos to interact directly with your audience.
– User-Generated Content: Encourage your audience to share their own content related to your brand, sharing their own hints and tips – this could form the basis of an ambassadorial programme!
- Personalise Communication
– Segmented Marketing: Use data to segment your audience and tailor messages to distinct groups.
– Personal Responses: Respond to comments and messages with personalised replies rather than generic responses – making them feel like they are part of the brand.
- Run Incentives
– Interactive Campaigns: Create fun and engaging competitions that require participation, such as photo challenges or trivia.
– Incentives: Offer attractive prizes to motivate your audience, encourage participation and ensuring persistent engagement.
- Build a Community
– Online Communities: Create a dedicated online website of Facebook group where your audience can interact with each other and your brand.
– Offline Events: Take this principle offline and host corporate events, meetings, or hospitality events to connect with your audience in person.
- Provide Excellent Customer Service
– Responsive Support: Offer timely and helpful customer support through various channels, live chat, free downloads, how to videos etc.
– Proactive Engagement: Reach out to customers for feedback and address their concerns promptly – do not let them fall out of love with your brand!
- Monitor and Analyse Engagement
– Track Metrics: Use analytics tools to monitor engagement metrics such as likes, shares, comments, and conversion rates.
– Adjust Strategies: Continuously refine your strategies based on what the data tells you about your audience’s preferences and behaviours, what products are selling or not for example.
- Offer Exclusive Content or Benefits
– Trade Engagement Programmes: Create a B2B engagement or loyalty programme that offers exclusive content, early access to products, training and more.
– Behind-the-Scenes Content: Share behind-the-scenes looks at your brand, staff, or upcoming products to build a deeper connection with your audience.
By implementing these strategies, you can create a more engaged and loyal B2B audience, ultimately leading to stronger brand loyalty and increased sales.
Building brand engagement with FMI
As a reputable agency, we have worked with household brands to engage their customers and partners globally. We have helped design and deliver strategic engagement programmes and solutions that help businesses grow. We do this by understanding your business, your competitors, and the landscape you operate in. We will ask a lot of questions, get under the skin of your thinking, and collaborate to build tailored brand engagement for your company.
We work with brands across many industry sectors including telco, electronics, finance, energy and automotive – and for sales incentive planning none are more successful than those we have designed and delivered for Three UK.
“On behalf of Three and my team we’ve been really impressed with yourself and team from FMI. We’ve been able to successfully execute two different briefs for different audiences and had amazing feedback from our Partner teams internally.” Three UK
For incentive planning we can support with:
- Consultancy to help you define a brief
- KPIs and Metrics
- Campaign Design and Branding
- Digital Website and Communications
- Data Management
- Corporate Rewards
- Measurement and Performance Analysis
We are here to support with fulfilling the delivery of incentive programmes using new technologies and innovation. Our deep-rooted knowledge and extensive experience help us deliver stand out campaigns for our clients.
A ‘ringing’ endorsement: How our sales incentive worked for Three call centre staff
Let us explore together how we can help boost brand engagement – tell us about your project or ambitions below and we will arrange a call to start the conversation.
