exitfive Newsletter #93: What makes a brand?

Hello and welcome to the exitfive Weekly Newsletter - read by 15,000 B2B marketing professionals around the world. Exit Five is a membership site designed to help you build a successful career in B2B marketing. Join 3,000 other members at exitfive.com.

By the way - this email was designed in Knak which helps you create email and landing pages in minutes without having to write code. Learn more about Knak here.

Today's newsletter is sponsored by PharosIQ

In 2024, you face tougher pipeline challenges than ever: reduced budgets, tighter resources, and fewer active buyers. 

Yet your growth goals remain unchanged. 

That's why you need PharosIQ to help you identify who's in the market and target them without wasting money.

Their tool collects purchase intent signals from multiple sources and transforms them into powerful insights for your marketing campaigns.

With PharosIQ, you are not only generating leads, but you are generating leads that convert.

Check them out at PharosIQ.com/exitfive.

Plus, they're giving away free Exit Five memberships. If you're not a member and want to be, book a meeting with their team and tell them you want a membership.

What makes a brand?

When we talk about branding, too many people jump straight to thinking about the visual identity - logos, color palettes, fonts., catchy tagline. Sure, those elements are part of the visual identity of a brand, but they barely scratch the surface of capital B BRAND.

Your brand is your reputation.

Your brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room.

When I was at Drift, the brand became known for the term "conversational marketing" and it also became known for an approach to marketing that was innovative, approachable, and not like any of the competitors in the space at the time.

Brand encompasses every interaction a customer has with your business, from the quality of your products or services to the way your customer service team handles inquiries, to the sales process (yes, the sales process is a big part of "brand").

Brand is the emotional and psychological relationship your customers have with your business.

And if I had to pick ONE key ingredient for brand, it wouldn't be the visuals, the tone, the style, the approach to marketing. All of that comes secondary.

The #1 ingredient for building a brand is your positioning.

Positioning defines how your product should be seen in the eyes of your customers.

Positioning sets the context for how you want people to see your product.

Why do you exist?

How do you help customers make money or save money?

How are you different than the competition?

The goal of positioning is to create a unique impression in the customer's mind so that they associate something specific and desirable with your brand that sets it apart from competitors.

And that is where brand building starts.

🎧 Podcast #129: Inside Exit Five | Do Nurture Sequences Work? How to Become a Better Copywriter and Why Brand Matters in B2B

We are debuting a new regular segment of the podcast called “Inside Exit Five.” We will dive into some of the popular topics and share lessons and learnings from inside the Exit Five community.

I'm joined by Matt Carnevale (Marketing Manager at Exit Five), and we cover

• Do nurture sequences still work in B2B?
• Best books, resources, and strategies to become a better copywriter
• How to become the go-to resource for your customers
• Why brand matters in B2B
  

PS. We’d love to get your questions and feature you on this podcast. Have a hot topic, a burning question, or just want to say hi? Send us a voicenote at hi@exitfive.com and we will feature you on the show. Emails are fine too, but a voice note might get you on the pod :)

Listen to the Episode Now on Spotify

Or find it everywhere you listen by searching "Exit Five" podcast.

🎧 Podcast #130: Strategy | How to Measure Your B2B Marketing Efforts (With Pranav Piyush, CEO and Co-Founder of Paramark)

I'm joined by Pranav Piyush, CEO and Co-Founder of Paramark. With 15 years of growth and marketing experience at companies like PayPal, Dropbox, Adobe, and BILL, Pranav is convinced that CMOs deserve better measurement solutions. That’s why he started Paramark, a tool to help Marketing leaders become more confident about how to invest their budget for maximum returns across all types of marketing—brand and performance, online and offline, paid and owned.

We discuss things like

• The challenges of marketing measurement
• Short-term vs. long-term investments
• UTM tags
• How to understand the correlation between each marketing channel and pipeline
• Measurement for Non-Direct Response Initiatives

Listen to the Episode Now on Spotify

Or find it everywhere you listen by searching "Exit Five" podcast.

📺 UPCOMING EVENTS

Get feedback on your website 

This week, we’re bringing Talia Wolf, Founder and CEO of Getuplift, into the community to analyze your website and give tactical suggestions for improving your conversions.

Send us a link to your site here and she’ll reply with high-level changes you can make to improve conversions.

Talia was recently listed as one of the most influential experts in conversion optimization. She’s trained companies all over the world and has taught on stages such as Google, MozCon, CTAconf, Search Love, and many more.

You’ll get easy website changes to help you hit your pipeline goals and get smarter about websites and conversions.

Submit your website for feedback here.

 🏢 OPEN ROLES

Who's Hiring Right Now

Are you hiring B2B Marketers? Now you can post your jobs on our job board for $1

HOT JOB OF THE WEEK: Spot AI is looking for a strategic, data-driven, results oriented Director of Demand Generation to join the team. This person is excited to own and build new (and rebuild existing) demand generation programs to help the business move upmarket. They also appreciate the need to continuously iterate to meet business needs and industry trends, and can work effectively both autonomously and as part of a collaborative team.

If you're interested you can apply here. 

Other open roles on the Exit Five job board this week:

• RethinkFirst is hiring a Social Media Manager. Remote Role 
• RethinkFirst is hiring a Growth Marketing Director. Remote Role. 
• Tribunus Health is hiring a Growth Marketing Manager. Remote Role. $80-120k salary.
• Meter is hiring a Field Marketing Manager. Remote Role. $85-143k salary.
• Auror is hiring a Director of Field Marketing. $150-168k salary.
• Aimtal is hiring a Marketing Account Manager. Remote Role.
• Tiugo Technologies is hiring a Director, Content Marketing. Remote Role.
• OlyBet Group is hiring a Group Director, Customer Marketing. 96-144k€.
• ContactMonkey is hiring a Senior Website Growth Lead. Remote Role.
• MightyScout is hiring a Growth Marketing Manager. $90-$110k salary. Remote Role.
• Flowhub is hiring a Demand Generation Manager. $95-$125k salary. Remote Role.

Join us in Exit Five

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We have a private community + content site for marketing pros like you and me if you’re looking for a peer group and discussion forum to help you grow your career in B2B marketing.

Get feedback, campaign ideas, browse templates, videos, guides, get recommendations on agencies and vendors, find contractors and freelancers, vent about your boss, find new jobs and more.

We have a 7 day free trial so you can join 100% risk free. 

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Thanks to our friends over at Knak for being our 2024 newsletter sponsor.

Want to sponsor a future newsletter or learn more about other sponsorship opportunities with Exit Five? Email hi@exitfive.com (or just reply to this email).