LinkedIn has unveiled a comprehensive new guide, "Easy to Find: Being Where B2B Buying Happens," designed to equip B2B businesses with essential strategies for effective branding. This 55-page report, developed in partnership with the renowned Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, delves into the critical importance of maintaining a strong market presence, ensuring easy accessibility, and optimizing brand visibility when potential customers are actively searching for solutions. The guide provides actionable insights across three core pillars: Presence, Prominence, and Portfolio, aiming to help businesses capitalize on opportunities and drive growth.

Understanding the "Easy to Find" Guide

The extensive guide, a collaboration with the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, offers a wealth of information on effective B2B marketing strategy. It emphasizes that for B2B growth, just like B2C, maintaining a consistent, credible, and contextual presence across both digital and human touchpoints is paramount. The report challenges the notion of "physical availability" as a mere "nice-to-have," asserting it as a critical component of growth that should be integrated early in planning.

“Just like shelf space is key to being purchased in B2C, B2B growth depends on maintaining a consistent, credible, and contextual presence across both digital and human touchpoints. Drawing on the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute’s research and LinkedIn’s experience with thousands of global B2B advertisers, the [report details] why physical availability shouldn’t be treated as a nice-to-have, tacked on at the end of planning, but instead as a critical component of growth. And, we’re not just making the case, we’re pointing marketers to where they should focus.”

The Three Pillars of B2B Branding

The guide distills effective B2B branding into three key areas:

  • Presence – Maintaining a presence where your potential customers are looking.
  • Prominence – Ensuring that your brand is easy to find.
  • Portfolio – Providing products that address key areas of need.

Pillar 1: Presence – Being Where Your Customers Are

In terms of presence, the report data suggests that brands must be acutely aware of where their customers seek information and actively capitalize on those opportunities. This involves a strategic alignment of revenue contribution with channel presence.

“Covering revenue means establishing presence in line with the channel’s value contribution to category transactions. Compare the revenue of the total category business that comes through each sales channel to the share of your brand’s business that comes through that channel. For example, if 30% of category revenue comes via brand websites, then your brand should have 30% of its revenue via its website.”

By conducting such calculations, businesses can identify where to focus their efforts to effectively reach their target audience. The guide also provides data on trade shows and other exposure opportunities, underscoring the need for B2B brands to research their category thoroughly to understand customer search behavior and then concentrate on those high-value areas.

Pillar 2: Prominence – Building Owned Visibility

The report also explores how brands can transition from "rented" prominence to more secure, long-term branding opportunities. Rented prominence, such as sponsored search ads, offers immediate access but lacks enduring security.

“Just as renting property offers immediate access to a prime location but with little long-term security, many B2B brands rely heavily on rented brand prominence (e.g., sponsored search ads) to stand out in a crowded and complex marketplace. Rented prominence is a quick fix, or a short-term lease, on brand visibility. But, without a plan to transition toward owned prominence (e.g., thought leadership, community engagement, strong brand associations), brands risk being evicted from prime real estate the moment budgets tighten, or competitors outbid them.”

To strengthen brand prominence, LinkedIn suggests an expanded branding approach that enhances presence through visual identity, thought leadership content, and community partnerships. The report also includes data on key trends in B2B discovery to further guide marketers in this area.

Pillar 3: Portfolio – Protecting Your Core Offerings

The final element, "Portfolio," examines the importance of a business's core offerings and how to maximize promotions by effectively showcasing value. It emphasizes strategic management of products and services.

“Good portfolio management is knowing, protecting, and investing in the core product/service, the one that contributes the most to the brand/company’s top and bottom line. Protecting the core is about protecting current and future revenue. It is important to ensure any marketing decision ‘does no harm’ to what is currently the most important company revenue source.”

This pillar highlights the necessity of safeguarding current and future revenue by prioritizing and investing in the offerings that drive the most significant financial impact for the brand or company.

Overall, LinkedIn's report provides valuable insights into building a more effective B2B promotion system. It highlights the key strengths and impacts of offerings across all crucial areas of discovery. For businesses looking to refine their marketing processes, reviewing the full document and applying its key principles to their specific context is highly recommended.

You can download LinkedIn’s “Easy to Find: Where B2B Buying Happens” report here.