Happy Halloween!

5 ways to create Brand Value in a B2B Landscape

Before we start, our motive here is not to take a branding class, or write a preachy article on what you should or shouldn’t do with your brand. Instead we wish to share our experiences in what we have found works best for us in our industry vertical. Here they are in no particular order:

1. Show Up:
Every industry has numerous (global) conferences that bring together and unite members of the industry. This is the best opportunity for you to give a face to your brand. Get your team out there to network, even if you’re not exhibiting, sponsoring or speaking. Take prospects to lunch, dinner, or maybe just a drink and get to know the people you may be doing business with.

2. Accreditations / Awards:
Awards, recommendations, reviews, badges and Accreditations do matter a lot especially in B2B environments. These lend significant weight to your brand, positioning your company as an established player in the market. Most aspects of your business may be common to your competitors; the differentiating factors are what companies look for when choosing a business partner.

3. Be Everywhere:
We don’t need to stress on this point too much because we all know how important this is, especially in our industry. Be active on Facebook and Twitter, post regular blog posts, run promotions, write PRs, invest in SEO, etc. Some of these may be expensive, some not that much, but essential they are.

4. Create Brand Recall
Tshirts, pens, post-it notes and the likes are good as branded stationery and giveaways but, to make a lasting impact choose something that you can easily associate your brand with and that has frequent utility value.

At one of the recent conferences, we gifted Clockys to some partners and prospects. It’s a hip clock on wheels which runs away and hides if you don’t get out of bed. Just above the alarm off button, we put our prominent logo, and a line that went ‘It’s time to get Accredited!’. It’s a likeable, usable product with effective messaging.

5. Be Focused on Sales and Numbers, but Not Too Much:
At the end of the day, what matters is how many clients you bring on board and manage to retain, through these activities. However, to drive those numbers, you need to work with real people. And to keep people happy, you need to have some fun, right? Be innovative in what you do to achieve this; throw a bash, a theme party, or organize a short trip. After all, you need to make sure your audience remembers you when they need to make the switch.

That’s about it from us, what strategies do you follow for your company?

ICANN Strengthens Registrar Accreditation Applications

As per their latest announcement, ICANN has recently introduced an enhanced set of terms and conditions for Registrar Accreditation Applications.

The company says that this step is a result of community input that called for the strengthening of the requirements for registrar accreditation, and to address changes that have arisen in the registrar marketplace.

While they haven’t mentioned the specific enhancements, they’ve publicized a partial list of changes. This incudes:

• Stronger terms governing the accuracy of the information provided by the applicant and an ongoing obligation to maintain accurate information during the course of the application process
• Granting ICANN permission and indemnification for conducting additional due diligence checks
• Sets forth in greater detail the application process and obligations

These terms and conditions will be applicable on all applications received on or after October 5, 2011.

UPDATE: 10th October, 2011

We’ve done an analysis of the exact changes and have enlisted them here for everyone’s reference:

1. Individual & Sole proprietorships are ineligible for accreditation

2. The applicant can withdraw a submitted application and the one-time application fee will remain valid for one year. However, if before the application is resubmitted, the one-time application fee is increased, the applicant will have to pay the difference.

3. ICANN reserves the right
a. to use the name and logo of the applicant wrt the application
b. Share the info rmation in the application with relevant third parties for the purpose of due-diligence
c. Disclose / share / publish any info rmation from the application including any personal, technical and financial info rmation

4. ICANN indemnifies itself from any damages / loss caused to the applicant, by way of the review process or if the application is rejected

5. If the applicant wishes to keep any part of the application confidential, he can do so according to a set of guidelines laid out by ICANN

6. ICANN explicitly mentions that it must comply with all U.S. laws, rules, and regulations and the fact that it cannot work with any country/company/individual on which US has imposed sanctions

7. ICANN also mentions that any additional information / documents that it requests, must be provided within 72 hours

Key take-aways:
Make sure your application is complete, accurate, consistent and thorough right from the start. This is even more important than before, and can hardly be stressed upon enough. Ensuring so, will avoid unnecessary delays and iterations. Since there will be third part investigating agencies involved, we expect the delays due to iterations to be longer than usual.

Found this post useful? Need help with ICANN Accreditation? You know who to contact