Nut Monthly May

A lot of businesses at some point have a (sometimes quite robust) discussion about what success looks like for their marketing.

Of course, the ultimate answer is ‘growth’, and it is easy to agree on that. It can get more controversial when you discuss measuring individual campaigns. People (and departments) often differ on what results to expect, and when to expect them.

Much of the time, people fall into one of two broad camps — ‘leads’ or ‘brand building’. That is exactly where the problem lies.

It is a bit like being passionately committed to just one blade in a pair of scissors, and saying that the other one is pointless or overrated. One does not work without the other, and refusing to see and use them as complementary tools means that you probably won’t get the results you need. Even if you do, it will have been harder than it should have been.

Should we be prioritising leads or brand building?

That is a question I get at the beginning of a lot of client engagements, and the answer will depend on different factors. How strong is your brand currently? How many leads do you generate every month? What is the goal for this financial year and next?

However, if you think of lead generation and brand building in terms of ‘the one we need to do now’ and ‘the one we’ll do later’, then you will find each one harder. 

There are no leads without a brand. If you don’t have an identity that conveys authority and inspires trust, then nobody will enquire, sign-up, or in any way offer the details. If your brand isn’t inspiring people to engage with your content and your business, then it is failing too.

Far from being separate, unrelated, rival approaches, brand building and lead generation are fundamental elements of effective, joined-up marketing. Growing revenue means a strategy that incorporates both. 

If you think you might need some help or advice creating and executing that strategy, please feel free to drop me an email at jenny.knighting@nutcrackeragency.com.

Nutcracker: Officially one of the Best Places to Work

The Sunday Times has recognised Nutcracker in the 2024 edition of Best Places to Work. The award surveys employees for their feelings in six areas: Reward and Recognition, Instilling Pride, Information Sharing, Empowerment, Wellbeing, and Job Satisfaction. Having scored highly in each, we are thrilled to say we have been accredited as one of the best places to work in the UK. Jenny Knighting, Nutcracker founder: “One of my founding goals for Nutcracker was to create a culture where people felt a sense of belonging, could flourish and are proud to be part of something special. This makes this recognition all the more important.”

Nobody buys acronyms: how to sell something complex in B2B marketing

If there is something complex or technical behind your business’s offering, you might have found at some point that your messaging wasn’t resonating, and the new business pipeline was starting to dry up. There’s a common reason at the root of that — when the complexity of your expertise bleeds into the marketing that supports it, then the messaging becomes overly complicated and doesn’t resonate with its audience. When that happens, marketing isn’t effective.

So, how should you talk about your product or service? Read on to find out.

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Worried your offering is too boring for serious lead generation? Good news - it isn't. 

There are two main reasons why people make B2B marketing boring. One is that people think it is supposed to be. They assume that ‘professional, expert, and authoritative’ means ‘dry, boring, and robotic’. The second reason is that they think the product or service can be perceived to be boring, so that translates into the way they promote it. Unfortunately, that is devastating for lead generation.

Read why there is no such thing as a boring offering, but there is such a thing as boring marketing.

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