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In this episode of Confessions Of A B2B Marketer, I'm joined by B2B brand expert Jason Vana of SHFT Agency.

We get Jason to share how they develop B2B brands that stand out... not fade into the background.

In today’s competitive business-to-business (B2B) industry, it’s essential for companies to stand out from the crowd. To do this, they must build a strong brand that resonates with their target audience and leverage the power of social media platforms like LinkedIn to maximize their reach. In this blog post, we’ll discuss how to stand out in the B2B industry by building a successful brand and leveraging LinkedIn for maximum impact.

We’ll cover topics such as:

The first step in standing out in the B2B industry is developing a unique brand identity. This includes creating an eye-catching logo, designing professional website templates, and choosing colors and fonts that reflect your company's values and mission.

It also involves creating content that speaks directly to your target audience and conveying your message clearly across all channels. By doing so, you can ensure that your company stands out from the competition and resonates with potential customers.


Once you have established a unique brand identity, it's time to craft an engaging story about your company.

This should include details about why you started the business, what makes it different from other companies in the same space, what services or products you offer, and how these can benefit customers.

By telling an interesting story about your company through various channels such as blogs or videos on social media platforms like YouTube or Vimeo, you can create an emotional connection with potential customers which will help them remember your brand more easily.


Another way to stand out in the B2B industry is by leveraging LinkedIn for maximum reach.

With over 500 million users worldwide, LinkedIn is one of the most powerful social media platforms available today for businesses looking to connect with potential customers or partners on a global scale.

By optimizing profiles with relevant keywords related to their business offerings as well as regularly posting quality content related to their industry on their page or group page(s), businesses can increase visibility among potential customers who are actively searching for solutions within their field of expertise.

Additionally, businesses should take advantage of paid advertising options available on LinkedIn such as sponsored posts or InMail campaigns which allow them to target specific audiences based on job title/functionality/location etc., thus increasing chances of success when trying to reach new prospects online.


In addition to optimizing profiles and posting quality content regularly on their page(s), businesses should also consider utilizing paid advertising options available through LinkedIn Ads Manager platform such as sponsored posts or InMail campaigns which allow them target specific audiences based on job title/functionality/location etc., thus increasing chances of success when trying to reach new prospects online .

Additionally , businesses should take advantage of advanced targeting capabilities offered by this platform , including lookalike audiences , retargeting , A / B testing , etc . All these features enable marketers not only increase visibility among potential customers but also measure results more accurately so they can make informed decisions regarding future campaigns.


Finally, creating quality content is key when it comes standing out in the B2B industry . This includes writing informative blog posts related topics within one's field expertise, sharing helpful resources (e.g. whitepapers) via email newsletters / social media accounts, hosting webinars/podcasts featuring experts within one's niche market etc.., All these activities help establish credibility among potential customers while providing valuable insights into one's offerings at same time.

Additionally, businesses should consider repurposing existing content into different formats (e.g. turning blog post into video) order maximize its reach across multiple channels simultaneously while saving time effort associated with creating new material from scratch each time they need promote something online .

Standing out in today’s competitive B2B market requires companies build strong brands that resonate with target audience while leveraging power social media platforms like LinkedIn order maximize impact online presence has upon prospective clients / partners alike .

By following, tips outlined above – developing unique brand identity crafting engaging story utilizing ads manager creating quality content – businesses will be able position themselves better amongst competition ultimately leading increased sales conversions long run

Thanks for listening and hit me up on
if you have any questions!

Episode transcript

That is a great place to be as a B2B company when they're like, I've learned so much from your content. I don't even wanna work with anyone else because I already know I wanna work with you. And this was months before they were even had the approval or the budgeting to actually work with us. That doesn't happen in the sales and marketing side.

That really only happens when you double down on brand.

Jason, how are we doing? I'm good. How are you doing? Really good. Now, first thing I want everybody in the audience to do is open LinkedIn search, Jason Vanna, so it's v a n a, and just subscribe slash follow to Jason's LinkedIn post because here's how I found you, Jason, is your LinkedIn. Yeah, that's actually how most people find me and how most of our clients find us as well is my LinkedIn post.

And that is, I'm glad you said that because I wanna dig into that later in this interview. But so for the audience, Jason seemed to me from this LinkedIn follow to be one of the people to talk to regarding B2B brands, and specifically the headline or your cover picture on your profile is about becoming the only choice.

Yes. And so this is what we're gonna dig into. And I guess my first question is the, something that I've been thinking a lot about recently for our company and for the podcast we produce, that's what our business has is weaving in unique or controversial opinion to your brand. Is that something you guys think about or would do with your clients?

So I think this is where most B2B brands get it wrong, is they will look at their industry, they'll look at their competitors and say, We have to sound like them. We need to use the same verbiage, we need to have the same look. And, and most people wouldn't come out and say it that way, like, I need to look like my competitors.

But you see this mindset when it's like, Well, we don't do that in this industry, or We wouldn't say it that way in this industry, or, No one else does it like this in the industry. And all those kind of objections, I guess would be signs that. Really what you're doing is you're trying to fit in instead of stand out.

And if you think of the best brands in the world that you know off the top of your head, like an Apple, a Nike, a Google, like any of the brands that you love, the Liquid Death, water, that kind of, those kind of brands that stick in your head. The reason they stick is because they are radically. Different.

And so to give you an example of this, I served as head of marketing for seven and a half years for a B2B equipment manufacturer. Not really the most exciting stuff to sell. It's like food processing conveyors and smoke houses. Like it's not the stuff that's gonna be go viral on TIC or anything like that.

And when I started, the very first thing I did was say, Okay, what are the competitors. And what are the competitors not doing? So I know what we need to do. And so we, what I did with that brand was we came in very. Differently. We sounded different. We acted differently. We provided value in a way like blog posts and social media content and all this stuff that no one else in the industry was doing.

And they went from a, no one in the industry has even heard of you to now they're the premier vendor for some of the world's largest food processing companies. How do you do that? You. Different. And that's what gets people to trust you and wanna buy from you, is if you're different. If you sound the same, and this is where a lot of people miss it, if you sound the same, then the question becomes, why should I buy from you when I can get on Google?

Find 2000 of your competitors and you all sound the same. Now you're competing on. And that's it. And no one wants to compete on price, but if you can highlight how you're different, if you can say like, We're unique because we do this. That's where people are like, Oh, that's why I should work with you, as opposed to all the 2000 I just found on Google.

And that's where EDB just gets it wrong. They're. I wanna sound like our competitors. And it's like that's how you don't get leads and you don't get conversions is when you sound like everyone else. Now you're competing on price instead of what is that differentiation that you bring to the market? Great explanation to make it clearer.

Could you share an example, And this could be with Shift or it could be with a client or even a non-client of how somebody has gone from being the same to being different and the process they went through. Yeah, so this is actually something we. And shift ourselves. So obviously as a branding agency, we have to have a good brand or people are gonna be like, You don't even practice what you preach.

Why should I listen to you? So one of the things we did is we were building out our brand, is we sat down and said, Okay, there are a lot of branding agencies out there. And then you add on the fact that some marketing agencies think they understand brand. And it's like, Well, I'll just get you a logo or some LinkedIn content and that builds your brand.

And so we're like, We have a lot. Competition here. And so what we kind of, where we position ourselves or how we say that we're different is we don't just give you, and we've actually had clients come to us because of this, most brand agencies will give you a really nice brand book. Here's your logo, here's your colors, here's your message, here's the ads that you should use.

And it's usually they're beautiful like awesomely designed. It's got messaging in there and it's like, ma, We had a prospective client send us the brand book that another agency did for them, and I was like, This thing is phenomenal. The designer in me is like going gaga over this brand book, but the prospect looked at us and said, I don't know what to do with this.

I don't know how to actually implement or what I should implement or what I should do, or what's most important here. They understood none of that. They had a great book. But they didn't know what to do. And so where we position ourselves and what we say is different about us is we provide one page implementable strategies.

So we'll give you the brand book, but then we'll give you the one page documents that say, Okay, of all this, here's the checklist. Do this first. Then do this, then do this. And it's as simple as, Hey, this message that you find on page 20, take that, put that at the top of your website. Change this call to action button to read this.

Like we lay it out that simply because most of our clients are not brand people, and a lot of even marketing people, they are CEOs and founders that understand they need to build their. But I have no idea if I gave them, Here's all the research. They would look at this and be like, Awesome, Jason, what do I do with it?

And so we've developed these one page documents that act as a, Here's your message, here's where to use it, here's this, here's what you need to do now. And then at the end of it, we give them this priorit. Do this, do this, do this, do this. There are not, we haven't found another brand agency that like holds your hand like that and says, Okay, this message, top of your website, this message, your LinkedIn profile, this message goes here.

Or, Hey, now you need to tweak this on your website, or now you need to create content around this. Like most of them, just give them a nice. And what we do is we go further and say, You don't understand how to use this. So we will give you that checklist. So if you don't have a marketer, you can still go in and make the changes and see the impact from your brand and not just, we got this awesome book that sits in my filing cabinet and we don't look at for the next year or two.

So this makes total sense, and I understand how you have changed your offering in order to become. How does that then tie into your brand? Do you just talk about how you do that in your like marketing materials and then that makes it clear to people that's how you change offering? Do you see what I'm saying?

It seems like that answer was about product versus brand or maybe it's the same thing. So there's two side, really two sides to brand and this is where, or my business partner says there's like three brand terms that most people get wrong, iuse them as well. And so I add to the confusion, but. Brand strategy is what I just talked about.

We determine this is what's gonna make us different. Branding is the act of taking that strategy and implementing it to build a brand. And then your brand is that perception or that reputation in the market. Now, a lot of people will use these interchangeably and be like, Well, I'm doing branding. And it's like, No, you're.

You're doing a brand strategy, there's a difference here. And so what most B2B companies don't do is they don't do the brand strategy side. And so the brand strategy side is the determining what makes you different, what sets you apart, who are you targeting, how do you wanna be perceived in the industry.

The branding side is taking that. And implementing it. So to answer your question, how did we do this? At Shift is one of the ways we do it is through our content. So if you do go and check out my LinkedIn content, what you're gonna find is it is very much practical steps that we give you. It's not like, Hey, you can do it.

You can just be yourself in your. Which to me is like, duh, If I have to tell you not to try to pretend to be someone that you're not, it's not time for you to build a brand. But like what we do is we provide that very practical, like, start here, do this, do this. So all of our content, our email newsletter, the stuff we put out on Twitter, all of it, and even we're launching a podcast here probably in the next month or two, all of that is gonna give this very practical.

If you don't know branding, here's how this works. Here's things you can do. So like recently, I think it was this week of recording this, I did a post on like, Here are three quick ways to improve your brand message instantly. Now the thing with content like. I'm not expecting someone who doesn't know branding to actually take that, evaluate their brand message, and come up with an awesome, stellar brand message that everyone's gonna love.

If you're not a brand strategist, if you don't know how to do this, I could give you the step by step, which you're still gonna be like, Well, I don't know what terms to use. I don't know how to shape this. I don't know the format or the templates, or how all this should. But what it does is it shows people we have a process, a step by step.

We will walk you through how to do even something as simple as you have a brand message, how do you fix it? And so taking that uniqueness and building it out in everything you do. That's the aspect of branding and that's the what I just said. There is the key in everything you. So branding is not this like shiny thing that you put on top of marketing to make everything look good.

Branding is, we say it this way, a brand strategy is the customer facing side of your business strategy. So it sits like if your business strategy is here, your brand strategy sits on top of it, and then sales and marketing and everything else is built on top of it. So what I mean by that is in your branding, it's not just LinkedIn content.

It. When people call your office and the secretary or the receptionist answers, are they giving that same perception of we have this process, this step by step that we can help you with on your website? Does it list out processes in your email newsletter in the way that your customer service responds to support issues and the way that your operations.

Works like when you onboard a new client, are you giving them step by step, like, do this, then do this, then do this, like that. Those are all the little ways. Our onboarding, we've got a page on our website that says, here's step one, here's step two, here's step three. Step four is we're ready to go. So in everything we do, you're gonna find this kind of like handholding.

Do this then do. Then do this, because that's part of our differentiation. So it, it's in everything operations. All of the templates we give to clients even will include in there, Here's the 10 pages of research, here's what to do with it now. So even in operations, it works like that In our Slack channels with clients, we give them the step by step, Here's how to do this, here's how to do.

And then you get this. And so finding that one differentiation and then making sure every aspect of your business is aligned around it. And that's where most people miss branding is they think, Well, it's just the colors and the verbiage and the message I've got on my website. And it's really how does everything in your business play out to, excuse me, to show people this differentiation.

And it's also part of the clothes you wear on Zoom calls, right? Because your shirt is perfectly aligned to colors. It's, I did that on purpose, . Incredible. Okay. Can we move on if possible, to. Four stages. You can tell. I done my research. Four stages of B2B brand building. Yeah. So how we do this is whether you have an existing brand and you need to reposition or you don't have a brand and you're starting, the first step is a little different.

So if you have an existing brand, if you're. Coming. You've got a great website. You've already had brand messaging. You've been successful, but you're like, something's not working. The first step in that case is a brand evaluation. We go in, we see where is your brand aligned? How are you positioned in the marketplace?

We'll, research your competitors, see where you fit. We look at all your brand assets and we look at marketing campaigns and stuff to see. Is the messaging, the tone and voice, the design, everything that you're putting out in line with the right position. If you are coming as a startup and you're like, I don't have anything to evaluate, I need a brand, then what we do is we look at what we call your sweet spot of opportunity.

In your market, in your ideal customer base and in your company internally, what are those opportunities that maybe you're looking over? What are those differentiations that might be able to fit in those places for you to actually. The majority of the market share. And so we'll look at like if you are a software development company, we'll look at software development companies and say, Okay, what can you do differently?

What is missing in the market that you could kind of squeeze in and be like, This is my differentiation cuz no other software development company is doing this. So we look at that to start. Second stage is identifying your ideal customer profile. And I say it that way instead of target market because there's a fine difference here.

Target market can be anyone who would buy your service. Ideal customers, who do you actually wanna buy? So like even here at Shift, we'll take on clients that maybe aren't 100%. But they still fit in the target. But the ideal is who you wanna build your brand after. Cause those are the ones you eventually only wanna work with.

So we go through exercises to figure out how do we determine who an ideal customer is, who would be an ideal customer. And then we do customer research. We will, if you have existing customers, we do customer interviews. If you don't, we do interviews with prospective customers or like we're working with one startup.

He doesn't have customers yet, but he has like connections that could be customers and like friends and positions who could be customers. So we're like, Well, let's just talk to them and get their insight. So we do that because a brand, your brand is not about you. It's about how you help your ideal customers.

And so if you don't know your ideal customers, if you don't know the pain points they they're after, if you don't know the ideal state they're trying to get, if you don't know what motivates them to actually get up off the couch and make change. Because, and without trying to go too deep into this, just for time's sake, like there are pain points that we're all comfortable.

Like I don't need to go out and pay money to solve every single pain point. There's some of it that I'm comfortable, Yes, it's a pain, but it's not painful enough for me to put money to it yet. And so you need to figure out what is that motivation that gets them to say, Okay, this is now painful enough.

I'm ready to put money to it. So what is that motivation? And then we do those interviews, validate everything, then we move into. Based on what these clients are after, what they like about you, what they don't like about you, what they see as the reason why they do work with you or would want to work with you, what makes you unique, what makes you different, what do you do that other people don't?

And so we dive into, this would be step three. We dive into that differentiation, and then we build. Around it. And not just messaging, but we build your identity. So your tone voice, your brand persona or archetype, your core values as a company, all of that should be shaped around your differentiation. What makes you different.

So like for us, we are this kind of boutique brand agency. We walk you through step by step. And in that way we're partners and so. In our identity, we said we're gonna be this like no nonsense, no fluff. Like it's why sassy Jason exists and why our posts kind of have that little bit of tinge of snark and sass to it is because we want people to understand if you work with us, we're not gonna be like, and I wanna say this carefully, we care more about making you successful than we do about offending you.

And so if you come in as a CEO and you're like, this is how it needs to be, and. And we've done this with clients before where we're like, I know you're the CEO and I know you're the one that hired us, but you're wrong and here's why. And you can go down this. But you're gonna stay in the exact same place you are, or you can take our advice, do it this way, and you're gonna see results.

So we're not the yes man, like, Yes sir. Yes sir. We'll, we'll do it your way. So we build this identity, your brand identity, and your messaging around that differentiation. That is all brand strategy, where brand starts becoming revenue. Is when you activate it. And this is where you build out brand touch points like your website, like your social media, like your email newsletter, like your onboarding process, like any leg gen magnets that you create.

Making sure all of those touchpoint, your onboarding process, your offboarding process, your operations, like all of those are touch points. Anytime someone, a prospect comes in contact with your business is a brand touch. And what happens is most companies, even if they do a brand strategy, they stop there and they're like, Whoa, got wisdom, got direction, know where I'm going.

And then they don't implement it throughout every aspect of their business. And so now you've got this message on your website that's like, Yes, this sounds great. But when I onboard, you guys are a flipping Madison. No one knows what they're doing, and I have to do 20 calls with you because you don't have a process laid out.

That's a brand touchpoint, and if that's not built out, if your onboarding process isn't and doesn't relate to what that differentiation is and how you. The identity you're trying to build, you're gonna lose clients. You're gonna, It's why a lot of SaaS companies have churn is they make this bold claim on their website and, Oh, we got this awesome brand message, but they never implemented it throughout the entire company.

They didn't do the activation side, they didn't actually do the branding aspect of this. And so now what happens is you've got a message that clients are like, That's not the experience I actually have with you. So now I've lost trust with you and you've lost my money. And that's where those are kind of the four main stages.

You can't stop just at, I've got an awesome brand message and brand design. Now you need to actually activate it. Every stage of your business operations, your sales, and how the sales process looks, needs to be in line with your brand, your marketing, your customer service, any aspect of your business, if you're in manufacturing, how you manufacture, how you, the, the quality of what you manufacture, your pricing.

All of it needs to be aligned with this identity. And so those are kind of the main four stages of building a B2B brand. So would you say. Rebranding or branding as a workflow. Can't just sit in marketing because in order for a brand to be effective, it has to be infused through the whole organization.

So you need the buy in from the ceo. Would you agree? Uh, 100%. And I actually get a lot of flack for this. Cause I've said this on LinkedIn, actually, I have a, a post in my featured area. I think it's towards the back where I sketched out like a, an org chart of what a B2B company should look like. And I've got CEO.

Cbo, Chief Branding officer, and then the rest, and I had so many marketers that were like, This is crap. Like that's a made up position. No one does it. So sassy me, I like got onto LinkedIn, did a search for chief branding officer. There was like a hundred thousand results and I grabbed the URL for the link and I was like, Oh, made up position.

Huh? There's a hundred thousand people on LinkedIn with that position. But yeah, it's made up anyways, so, And that's the reason why I think most B2B brands, Struggle. They struggle with inbound leads. They struggle with like building this affinity with people that they want to work with you and not that you have to hire 20 sales people to get out there and harass people is because they never, They see branding as a function of marketing and when you see it as a function of marketing, all it does is the promotion side.

But a brand really is, I always say this, the person who is most qualified. To lead brand efforts is either the ceo, if they understand brand. Now, a lot of product led CEOs, like especially in software development and SaaS companies, if they're product led, they don't understand the importance of branding.

So if you don't understand the importance of branding as a ceo, if you don't understand how to do that, your next best bet is to hire a chief branding officer and give that person authority over every single department in your. Now understanding their goal is not just to say you didn't use the right font on this document.

Like it's more to come in and say, All right, operations, this is what we said our differentiation is. The entire company agreed on it. You're not living up to it. What do we need to tweak and change in our operations to make sure that if a client has a touch point in the operate, It aligns with this experience and this promise that we made to them.

Same with sales, same with marketing, same with customer success or, or customer service, or whatever you wanna call it. Same with manufacturing. It's all about, this is the identity we're building, this is the experience we want our customers to have in every depart. Is it living up to that? How do we improve it?

How do we tweak it? Do we need better tech? Do we need a better process? Do we need, what do we need to make sure that if they call in, if they email, if they stop at the facility, like I've done a post on this, this is probably a year ago. If you have like a physical location where customers come, How often you empty the garbage cans in the office is just as much part of branding as the logo.

Because if I walk in and I see heaps of garbage in your garbage cans, what that communicates to me is you can't even handle simple tasks. Why the hell would I give you money to handle my problem if you can't even figure out how to empty a garbage can? And so people don't think about that, but. Like janitorial is part of brand.

How clean are your restrooms when they come in and visit? If you have like an office space, all those, if you have a boardroom that people come into and you, you're pitching to clients, how comfortable is that boardroom? What are the colors in that boardroom? What are you providing? Water and stacks and all that kind of stuff.

What, how are people able to see the projector, the TV or whatever? Like is it comfortable? Is it, are the chairs. Stiff and people are constantly like moving around trying to get comfortable. All that stuff is an experience and a touchpoint and all those things Leave a brand, like leave an impression on your brand.

And so if they have a bad experience at any level in the company, that's a brand issue. And so you should have branding outside of marketing to direct every single touchpoint that a client has or a prospective client has with your. I'm gonna link to that post below and show it. It's just four out likes, by the way.

Not bad. Yeah. , which leads us nicely onto the next topic, and I want to look at LinkedIn from two angles. I wanna look at LinkedIn from how a B2B brand can use the platform to be a good brand line touchpoint. And then two, I'd like to understand how you do that shift and how you, as you mentioned at the start, is called the A.

A chunk of business for shift is coming through. Yeah, so what we teach our clients, we have a lot of CEOs that we actually go strike their content for them on LinkedIn, and so we train them, how do you use LinkedIn for your brand? And then here's the type of post you should be posting for your brand. So one of the key things that we teach is.

You need to figure out your one thing focus. What I mean by that is if you jump on LinkedIn and you listen to some of what I call the fluff flus, like these big influencers on LinkedIn who just put out the like, keep going. Just show up. Just be yourself. That's like, Oh, that sounds good. And everyone's like, Yes, just be yourself.

But how does that relate to actually writing content? They never tell you like, Just show up. Great. I'm on LinkedIn every single day. I'm not getting leads. What? This doesn't work. So you listen to those fluffs and what they would tell you is just post whatever you want. What we tell our clients is, Find your one thing focus.

What is the one thing on LinkedIn that you wanna be known for? Is that, And we usually tell them to tie that to how you make revenue. So for us, we're a Shift is a branding agency. So our one thing focus is branding. We're gonna talk every post you see from me or you see from my business, Step egger.

You're gonna see we're talking about some aspect of branding, whether it's brand strategy, branding, or content. You're gonna see us writing about. Reason being, and I get a lot of kickback from this, from LinkedIn creators cuz they're like, No, people wanna see like what you did with your kids and they wanna see all this stuff.

Great. Do that. 80% build around your 180 to 90%. I actually tell people now around your one thing focus reason being, This is a psychological tactic. So studies have shown that in order to get your name or your brand name or your solution buried in the back of people's heads, they need to hear it seven to 20 times before they'll even remember.

In the B2B realm, it's more like closer to 20 times than it is seven. So imagine if I'm trying to generate leads as a branding agency, I want people to hire us for our brand Strateg. If my strategy on LinkedIn is day one, I talk about brand strategy. Day two, I talk about leadership. Day three, I I share about some motivational thing.

Just keep going, it'll get better. Day four, I share a picture of a hike. Day five, I talk about something personal that happened in my life. You've only talked about what you like, the solution you provide. In five posts. Now put this in the context of LinkedIn. Most people are not going to your post page and flipping through all of your posts.

They're on the feed, so they see a post from you on day one on brand strategy. Then they look at the next post is from someone else. The next post, next post. By the third or fourth post, they've forgotten what you wrote. The next day I get. Again, now I see you, but you're talking about leadership. Next post, next post, next post, next day.

Now you're talking about going on a hike. Next post. Next post. In an entire week. There's been no association in the back of my brain on what you actually do. So if I'm in the market for your service or if I'm struggling with brand and I don't know it's brand yet, like that's the issue, but I'm trying to learn what's going on with my company, you have not made an impression.

To say you are a solution if I'm struggling with this. And so this is where like it's psychology applied to branding and marketing. You need to be repetitive. Now, I don't mean go out there and be like, Our solution is this. What I mean is you teach people around that topic. So again, if you get on my LinkedIn post, what you're gonna see is every post is something on branding or something.

We see content as a branding tactic, not a marketing tactic. So we include content in our offerings. In my content, I talk about content, but you're gonna see from us. Topics on how do you evaluate your brand? How do you know if it's working? You're gonna see things like, how do you write a great brand message and how does brand messaging impact conversions?

On your website, you're gonna see us teaching this kind of stuff and revolving, I do, about 90% of my content is on brand. Maybe 10%. Every once in a while I'll talk about my life as a founder, or I'll talk about something that's happened in my life, but that's very minimal. The majority of my content is around branding.

And what's happened now is I've had people tell me, I know when I see your profile in my feed that I'm gonna get something on branding, that I'm gonna build my brand. So now what's happened, 95% of them are not ready to buy yet. And this is. Branding is a little different to marketing is the, LinkedIn has this B2B growth agency or or institute, LinkedIn.

B2B Growth Institute, I think is the name of it. And they, what they found is that in the market, whatever industry you're in, whatever level you're at, there's two types of buyers. There's 95% are not ready to buy. They're not even looking for a solution yet, and only 5% are most B2B companies focus on the five.

And never get ahead. Never have people coming to them. It's always sales. Always sales, always this kind of performance marketing that's by now, buy now, get here, do this, and they neglect the 95 branding and brand tactics attract the 95. I'm gonna come in front of you before you even know you have an issue, before you're even looking for a, a solution.

So now when you do move into the 5% and you are ready to buy, you already know my name. You already know shift. You already know our processes. You already know what we do. Who are you gonna go to? The random salesperson that sends you a pitch flap on LinkedIn, or are you gonna go to the person? Has given you resources with their logo on it that you're trying to build your brand, that you're learning about branding?

We have prospective clients, big prospective clients that are like, because of your content, I'm not even considering anyone else that is a great place to be as a B2B company when they're like, I've learned so much from your content. I don't even wanna work with anyone else because I already know I wanna work with.

And this was months before they were even had the approval or the budgeting to actually work with us. That is an amazing place as a brand to be when people are like, I'm not even considering your competition because I already know that I wanna work with you when I'm ready to work on this. That doesn't happen in the sales and marketing side.

That really only happens when you double down on on brand and so on. LinkedIn. All that to say on LinkedIn, If you write about one main topic, 80 to 95% of the time, here's the caveat, you probably will not become the major influencer on the platform. If you're after a thousand likes on every post, be fluffy, attract everyone.

Don't worry about leads. If your actor leads and you're after growing your business and growing your brand, one thing focus. 80 to 90% of the time, you'll build that recognition in the back of people's minds. So when they are ready to buy from you, you, or when they're ready to buy, you'll be the only choice.

And that's why that's our label on as a agency, is we train and help people become that, that when their ideal customers move into the 5%, you're the only choice for me because I love your. Hide up very nicely there. . I tell you what, Jason, the only thing I wanna say is I'm looking forward to hearing the podcast when you're really sick.

Cause I assume it's gonna be about hiking and about your personal life. Oh yeah, totally. actually, what we're doing, it's a little bit of our, our personality coming through. We're calling it shoot the shift. Nice. And it's basically, and we're doing this, the quality of what we put out we're, I'm actually flying out to Vegas where my business partner.

We've rented a podcasting studio and it's gonna be us sitting across the table having conversations on brand and content, addressing some of this fluffy stuff you see on LinkedIn of like, just get started with your content. Yeah. Or you can, I don't know, come up with, spend a day or two come up with a plan.

And like eliminate 50% of the learning curve and actually see results faster if you actually do it right instead of listening like, so we're gonna have these conversations and it's gonna be, we're inviting our listeners into it to learn how a brand strategist and a content strategist, like look at branding and look at how a B2B company really should build their brand.

And so that's what it's gonna be. Now we will share some. Stories about ourselves for sure in there. But 90% of the podcast is high quality. We want you to see us as experts in brand and content, and so that's what all of our content's gonna be. Awesome. So again, everybody, Jason Vanna on LinkedIn shift.agency of the Domain without the I.

Yes, but I, I suggest go to LinkedIn. Obviously you can find everything. Jason obviously subscribing to the show as well, but you'll be posting on LinkedIn when it launches, right? Oh, we definitely will be Amazing. You guys will see a lot of videos from us coming out with clips from that, from those podcasts.

Great. I'm gonna be calling this episode B2B brand of Masterclass, cuz that's exactly what it was. Jason, thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much for having me on,

and what a great episode. A seminal piece on B2B brand building by Jason. Quick shout out to Team Wael who dropped a very nice review. Tom, thank you so much for sharing your ideas. You're truly a pioneer, and listening to your show has validated my own processes that I've created through experience and qualitative feedback from clients by social media.

Thank you so much for that review, and if you'd like a. To the show and simply go to Apple Podcast. Leave a rating and review. Send me a screenshot on LinkedIn or by email, and then I'll get you a completely free shout out on the show. Of course, we need to say thank you to hrs. Go there completely free.

Connect your Google search console, and then you can get access to backlink tracking FIO Health. The health of your domain, and then also keyword tracking as well. Completely threes webmaster tools. Just Google that and of course, thank you.

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