Trust fuels the relationships with clients, employees, investors, or others. Being authentic about your brand is vital to earning that trust. Learn how to become more authentic about your brand to attract, captivate, and motivate the people essential to your success.

1. FOUR WAYS TO
TUNE UP YOUR
B2B BRAND
By Kelly Stewart, On-Demand Marketing Director
www.attractivate.net
From the Building the Brand From Within Series

2. YOUR BRAND IS
AN ENGINE OF
TRUST
In an informed, connected, and transparent B2B
market, trust fuels the relationships with the
people you want to engage. Building trust means
being authentic about your company's brand.
Here are four ways to become more specific and
genuine about your brand to attract, captivate, and
motivate all of the people essential to your
success.
1

3. 1. UNDERSTAND
WHAT CLIENTS
WANT FROM
AND VALUE
ABOUT YOUR
COMPANY
Market Research
Formal and informal market research,
whether quantitative or qualitative, can
help you understand what clients think and
feel about the relationship they have with
your company.
When you survey your clients include
current and former clients. Talk to those
who hold you in high regard, the silent
clients, and even those with whom you
might be struggling.
Use the results to develop marketing
personas, decide on marketing strategies,
and create audience-driven marketing
plans.
2

4. SURVEY TOOLS
AND TIPS
SurveyMonkey
SurveyGizmo
Zoho Survey
Google Forms
Survey Development Tools
Tips
Develop clear objectives that articulate what you want to learn from the research
whether that's insights that help you refine your service or novel, yet relevant, ways to
reach your audiences.
Decide on the right survey instrument -- questionnaire, focus group, one-to-one
interview, or a combination of two or more.
Summarize key, actionable take-aways.
3

5. 2. INVEST IN
LEARNING ABOUT
YOUR TEAM AND
ITS STRENGTHS
Go beyond using familiar terms such as
"collaborative" and "innovative" to describe
the people behind your brand. Formalized
assessments can help in uncovering the
strengths that form your brand's
distinct and genuine attributes.
Is your team resourceful, adaptive, social,
deliberate, or empathetic? Use assessments
to find out and bring that language into
everything you publish, print, and post. It's a
great way to differentiate from competitors.
4

6. ASSESSMENT
TOOLS
Note
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
Clifton StrengthsFinder
Harrison Assessments
And more - search online for other
personality assessments
Results of these assessments are intended to help you speak more authentically about your
team. They are not intended for HR-related functions. In this branding context, however, the
assessments can be taken privately and individual team members can choose to share the
adjectives that best describe them to inform marketing messages.
5

7. 3. LINK YOUR
COMPANY'S
CORE VALUES,
ITS BUSINESS
PRACTICES,
AND ITS
STAKEHOLDERS'
EXPECTATIONS
When your company's core values are woven
into how you do business it improves
performance and helps you develop trust with
people you value.
This means infusing them throughout the
organization and into practices related to:
Marketing, Sales, Account Management,
Recruiting, Hiring, Professional Development,
Employment Manuals, Contracts, and Billing.
All materials, processes, practices, and
procedures should be in harmony with your
brand's identity.
6

8. ALIGNMENT IDEAS
Everyone's in Marketing, and Marketing is in Every Function
Articulating core values alone is not sufficient. There needs to be evidence of these
values in the culture and in how the company works. Here are two examples:
Does your company value creativity? Excellent! This is the time to ensure you have
internal policies and practices that show how creatively your company develops new
services or recruits for new team members or onboards new clients.
Is honesty a way of life at your company? Then paths for achieving it should cascade
out of your Mission Statement and into the work. Indicate how people in your
company are empowered to take responsibility for mistakes. Define leadership
practices that model honest behaviors, especially when crises occur.
7

9. 4. DEVELOP AN
AUTHENTIC
VOICE FOR YOUR
BRAND
This is your opportunity to get people excited
about being on a journey together. Is your
brand considered a trusted analyst? An
exacting coach? A wild-eyed visionary?
Whatever it is; own it.
The language you use to convey that
personality becomes its distinct brand voice.
Use it consistently and compellingly in all of
the company's materials.
8

10. BRANDING ROADMAP
Here's a methodology that can help
you further develop your brand's
voice. It's called PACE.
Purpose: Discuss the outcomes you want to help others achieve; this is the "big"
benefit that helps you connect and resonate with all of your audiences.
Ability: Be specific and genuine about your company's talents and the unique
and inspiring ways in which you express them in service to others.
Compassion: Show compassion for what stakeholders want and need especially
in times of change or uncertainty.
Enthusiasm: Be open about what motivates the people in your company to
create value for others and how they persist when faced with obstacles.
9

11. REVVING UP
YOUR BRAND
HAS ITS
BENEFITS
Authenticity in B2B marketing
stands up to scrutiny; it inspires
confidence; it inspires trust.
Not so coincidentally, when you become
more authentic about your brand, the sales
cycle may improve, clients may stay with
you longer, and attracting new
talent may become easier.
These and other desirable outcomes
cannot be achieved with a bump and run
approach to marketing.
Being specific and genuine about your
brand will help you develop trust with the
people who are essential to your
success. And that's good news for
companies that want to go the distance!
10

12. KELLY STEWART
About
As an On-Demand Marketing Director, I help business
owners, marketing executives, and HR professionals speak
more authentically about their brands, build on what’s
working to develop strategic, audience-driven marketing
plans, and measure the value of marketing along a
Quadruple Bottom Line.
e: kelly@attractivate.net
o: 267-491-5616
Visit: www.attractivate.net
Let's work together to eliminate the weight of
business as usual.
On-Demand Marketing Director /
Speaker / Champion for Positive
Organizations / Practical Optimist
Designed with Canva
Images from Unsplash
Founder, Attractivate
11
Leverage Attractivate's complete approach
to B2B marketing.