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Must-haves to build your brand and customer relationships, with Brandon Freisen

Marketing with data is all about trying to put your audience at the center of the universe and understanding when, where, and how you connect to them. Right audience, right message, right time. But how do you make that happen? 

Recently on an episode of The Intent Data Exchange, our Mike Burton spoke with Brandon Friesen, CEO at Just Global, Inc., about the evolution of Just Global, and his take on building your brand and a stronger emotional connection with your audience.

Let’s dive right into this data mine of a conversation!

The keys to brand marketing success

Brandon has been a part of the B2B marketing world since childhood, growing up in his father’s telecom business. There, he learned three key must-haves for growth, and despite the progression of time have remained the same throughout his career:

  1. Great content
  2. The right audiences
  3. The right advertisers

After college, Brandon entered the tech publishing industry with a hunger to learn the editorial side of the business. In publishing, he learned to envision how advertisers could interact with audiences in a digital environment.

After publishing, Brandon pivoted to sales, and from there, his journey lead him to be a future leader of what was then called Just Media (now Just Global).

Using data to plan customers’ campaigns

About nine years ago, Just Global dipped its toes into the usage of programmatic platforms and social in B2B. After much success, they launched their creative team based on listening to customer demand to become a full-service agency for B2B brands. And less than two years ago, they acquired another agency and globalized to four continents and 65 countries.

“We deliver a combination of strategy, media activation, creative and content experiences, and advanced B2B analytics to accelerate relationships for our clients in the market,” Brandon said. Almost a decade ago, Brandon realized that this thing called “Intent data” was going to become big. The data market has changed since then, but the role of Intent data has immensely grown — and is instrumental in the success of Just Global.

So, a lot has changed — yet not in fundamentals. In our podcast, Brandon shared some core tenets that have always been foundational in B2B. 

Be intentional about every marketing touchpoint

It’s important to avoid the “random acts of marketing,” as Brandon put it. Make sure you have a strong strategy in place based on data that allows you to put the customer at the center of the universe.

Consider every single different touch point throughout the buying journey — not just after the sale has closed.

Plan your brand marketing efforts with data in mind

Use data to understand when, where, and how you connect with customers.

“Right account, right audience, right message, right time,” Brandon said.

Demand gen and performance activation and sales enablement tools are all well and good, but building your brand on customer relationships is the essence.

“It’s not just about activating the audience, it’s also about that long-term brand relationship with your customers,” he added. Customer lifetime value comes from thinking holistically about long-term strategy.

"Intent data sets allow you to put the customer at the center of the universe and think about all those different touch points throughout that buying journey."

Brandon Friesen, CEO of Just Global

Use data to craft your story internally

It can be a challenge for marketers to build a B2B brand focused on customer relationships.

Oftentimes, marketing is carrying a sales number, making justifications to their CFO or board on where they’re spending. The temptation is to say, “I spent this and drove this many leads.” But if you aren’t curating your brand long term, your growth is slower.

“Your share of voice needs to be greater than your share of the market if you want to grow,” Brandon pointed out, referring to the piles of research that support the claim. “About 4% of B2B marketers measure beyond six months, yet the average purchase cycle is six to 12 to 18 months, especially in enterprise.”

Data is what should drive your brand activations, as well as your boardroom conversations about strategy.

Trending video: Does Intent data work?

“When you’re in this industry long enough, you see who puts marketing on the same playing field as sales and product and who doesn’t. Then you see who grows over time and who doesn’t,” Brandon said.

Using numbers to show how brand voice impacts conversions down the funnel? Measuring numerical KPIs at the account level? Making numerical connections between website traffic and your podcast? Priceless. Data is your best companion for telling a persuasive story to your stakeholders and nothing makes a point better than a number in its natural context.

For brands to drive performance, you need an amazing performance infrastructure. But beyond all the tech tools and sales enablement, you have to show how all the pieces work together.

Related resource: Unlocking bottlenecks: How Intent data influences change

Click here to listen to the full conversation with Brandon about branding and connecting with your audience. And never miss an episode of Intent Data Exchange by following us on Apple PodcastsSpotify, our website, or anywhere you get podcasts.