Executive Branding for Manufacturers: Your Hidden Marketing Superhero
by Emily Swet
Manufacturing is a traditional industry. And traditionally, industry executives have stayed off the grid, focusing on marketing their products and brands. Companies were a brand unto their own, and there was formidable strength in remaining faceless. But trends are shifting. Today’s audience is increasingly accustomed to building relationships not only with brands, but the people behind them. Work this to your advantage, and unleash one of your best assets – executive branding for manufacturers.
What is Executive Branding?
Executive branding is when key players at a company build their profiles online for the benefit of the company. Their beliefs, opinions, and most importantly, their industry expertise are put front-and-center. For manufacturing brands, it’s a great opportunity to bring your brand to life and add a little personality. Especially if your key players are already blessed with great personalities to begin with.
Manufacturing marketers often struggle with how to present dry subjects in ways that make an impact. And they’re often marketing to other manufacturers or distributers instead of directly to a consumer. As one of Forbes’ top trends for B2B marketing in 2017, executive branding is an effective strategy to counter this. Breathe life into your campaign by putting your leaders at the forefront. By placing some marketing emphasis on your leaders, prospective buyers will have a human reference point in their decision-making process. Plus, they’ll know what the company culture is like and a little about what the brand is likely to stand for.
Same Techniques, Smaller Scale
Executive branding takes the same concepts you’d use to market your products or services, and applies it to your executive leaders. Build and market your individual leaders’ knowledge, authority, and humanity. Use your executive to answer they buyer’s “why” and build their trust. Seeing the company from the CEO’s point of view goes a long way – buyers want to know what they think, not the staff writer. And a strong executive brand can create a connection with your future buyers long before the first purchase.
Think of your CEO as a brand persona. Create an executive communication plan that addresses:
- The kind of content your thought leaders (or the marketers behind them) will create
- The kind of content they will comment on/interact with
- How they present their persona digitally, as well as in real life
And when it comes to content, focus on knowledge, expertise, and personality. But – and we cannot express the importance of this – omit the direct pitch. A well-branded executive can guide your buyer into your funnel without needing an obvious shove. From LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to a personal company blog, there are plenty of opportunities to promote your executives as thought leaders. Even the humble email newsletter has a powerful impact when it comes from your CEO.
If you’re not interested in promoting yourself, we get it. A seasoned marketing company is a good place to start, both for devising a strategy and executing content. And consider the consequences of not participating on social media. Executives can come off either not technologically advanced or worse, not transparent. At a time when social presence, public relations, relationship building, and marketing are intrinsically linked, executive branding shouldn’t be considered an add-on, but a necessity.