5 Ways Brand Building Helps Your Demand Generation

This is going to sound incredibly hypocritical, but it makes sense if you hear me out. I hate networking events. As a marketer and entrepreneur I should love them. But there is a very good reason why I despise networking events so much. It is because everyone forgets the whole “like, know and trust” factor that is crucial to nailing the sale (or in this case building connections). When you are initially introduced to someone, they ask the typical questions of, “Who are you? What do you do for a living? How long have you been doing that?”. And while those questions are important, I don’t feel they are as important as warming up the relationship to build interest. Often, those introductory questions usually end up leading to someone pushing their agenda a little too soon. Business cards are exchanged, and swiftly tossed into a pocket - only to be crumbled up and forgotten about. 

Put me in a room full of strangers; all there for the same reason - networking in the cannabis industry - and I want to know why you do what you do. I want to know your “why”. Because your “why” is what will set you apart from everyone else in the room. The same can be said as a business. Your brand and everything it stands for and hopes to make people feel is going to be the distinction between you and your competitors. Your “why” helps tell the story of your brand and guides your potential customers to gain interest, get to know you, and begin to trust you; initiating the sale. Brand building is the single most important puzzle piece to creating a successful business and creating your demand generation; bringing customers back again and again.

What Is Demand Generation and Why Is It Important?

Demand generation is exactly what you might think it is. It is the generation of demand for a product or service. Without brand building, your demand generation is null (or close to it). “Demand generation starts by identifying and qualifying prospective customers through content and inbound marketing, direct response and email campaigns, and events, before passing these leads to a nurturing team. This team then further qualifies these prospects through scoring systems depending on the stage at which the prospect is in the conversion funnel, before passing these highly qualified, nurtured leads onto the sales team” (Shewan, 2021). This may look a little different for your cannabis business, but the stages of your demand generation are still equally as important to the growth of your business since they take place over an extended period of time. 

How Can Brand Building Help Your Demand Generation

One of the things you might have discovered is that 80% of your business’s sales come from 20% of repeat customers. Because of this principle, often referred to as the Pareto Principle, your brand building is a crucial part of your demand generation and a big return on investment. So what are some of the ways brand building can help your demand generation?

#1: Customer service. “73% of consumers love a brand because of helpful customer service” (Curatti). Having knowledgeable team members in the cannabis industry is not only important because of the types of products being sold, but also because your team is building a brand of SMEs (Subject Matter Experts). Their guidance and informative wisdom will help garner a lasting customer relationship for your business. 

#2: Consistency. “Presenting a brand consistently across all platforms can increase revenue by up to 23%” (Forbes). Sending a consistent message of who you are, what you represent and what you hope to make people feel will help your brand recognition. Showing up consistently from your logo to packaging, to social media to website will help build your brand as a recognizable business. Your customers will know exactly what to expect every single time.

#3: Trust. “59% of shoppers prefer to buy new products from the brands they trust”

(Invesp). Back to the 80/20 principle - once you have built a relationship with customers, they are more likely to return to purchase new products from you.

#4: Content Marketing. “53% of businesses rely on content marketing as a branding strategy” (SmallBizTrends). Because many of your potential customers will more than likely see your competitors through their marketing efforts from social media to content marketing, it is highly important that you are showing up in those ways too. Even if your customers love your brand, if you aren’t showing up in front of them consistently through content marketing, there is a better chance of your competitors swooping in. Showing up as the expert in your industry to offer insight and education, vetted articles and blogs, and helpful product reviews will help you stay relevant and meet your customers where they are. 

#5: Brand loyalty. “The top 4 qualities people use to describe why they are loyal to a brand are cost, quality, experience, and consistency” (Facebook). Your brand is already unique because of your “why”. But really what keeps customers coming back again and again are those top four components of cost, quality, experience and consistency. People come back to familiarity. Those qualities described are also how you begin the relationship towards building your demand generation.

Now that you know why brand building is so important to demand generation, you probably see a little bit clearer as to why I said I despise networking events. If your cannabis company just showed up on the scene without considering the types of efforts needed to create lasting relationships, you probably would fall flat on your face. Your competitors would outshine you and your hypothetical business card would be the one crumbled up in a pocket along with a piece of lint and a half chewed piece of gum. Building your brand is crucial to ushering in demand and successfully growing your business.

Resources:

Curati. 8 Branding Facts and Statistics. 2016, December 5. https://curatti.com/branding-facts.

Facebook. 25 Benefits of Branding Your Business for the Future. Lyfe Marketing. 2019, October 25. https://www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/benefits-of-branding/.

Forbes. 10 Marketing, Web Design & Branding Statistics To Help You Prioritize Business Growth Initiatives. 2018, August 10. https://www.forbes.com/sites/gabrielshaoolian/2018/08/10/10-marketing-web-design-branding-statistics-to-help-you-prioritize-business-growth-initiatives/?sh=561f816d708b.

Invesp. How Branding Influences Purchase Decisions. Nd. https://www.invespcro.com/blog/how-branding-influences-purchase-decisions-infographic/.

Shewan, Dan. 9 Killer Demand Generation Strategies for New Brands. Wordstream.com. 2021, November 22. https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2015/10/22/demand-generation.

SmallBizTrends. Content Marketing Statistics You Should Know. 2022, January 27. https://smallbiztrends.com/2020/11/content-marketing-statistics.html.