Watch the episode
About Nathan Yeung
Nathan Yeung is a dynamic entrepreneur and seasoned marketing strategist with over a decade of experience guiding B2B businesses toward sustainable growth. As the founder of “Find Your Audience,” Nathan offers fractional CMO services with a sharp focus on delivering pipeline growth and addressing the multifaceted challenges that today’s businesses face.
With a rich background that spans marketing, finance, and management consulting, Nathan’s strategic acumen is formidable. His integration of long-term strategic thinking with hands-on tactical expertise, particularly in SEO, sets him apart in the competitive landscape. Known for his candid insights and innovative approaches, Nathan often tackles the nuanced intersections of packaging, branding, and trust within the B2B space — areas he believes are undervalued yet critical to a brand’s success.
His career has been motivated by a passion for correcting misguided marketing advice and empowering businesses to leverage marketing as a cornerstone for strategy, not just a support function. Whether experimenting with new SEO strategies or advising startups, Nathan remains committed to ensuring his clients understand the pivotal role of clear, consistent branding in creating meaningful first impressions and long-lasting business relationships. Nathan’s unique perspective and consultancy approach have positioned him as a sought-after voice in the industry.
Traditional packaging doesn’t exist in B2B. Digital footprints do.
When we talk about “packaging” in the B2B world, we’re not discussing cardboard boxes or plastic wrappings. Instead, we’re looking at the entire digital footprint and the first impression your brand creates. As Nathan Yeung, founder of Find Your Own Audience, explains:
“I think branding is packaging for B2B. And what I mean by that is, like, everything that you showcase is the package. And if you think about packaging in just the most simplest of terms, it’s a first impression. And in the B2B world, our first impression is, I’m gonna argue, likely your digital footprint.”
Research by Nielsen indicates that 64% of consumers try a new product because of its packaging, and 41% continue purchasing a product because they prefer its packaging design. While this data comes from consumer markets, the principle translates perfectly to B2B, where your “packaging” is often your website, social presence, sales materials, and every customer touchpoint.
In B2B markets, which are characterized by complex products, longer sales cycles, and multiple decision-makers, effective “packaging” becomes even more crucial for standing out. A Harris poll revealed that 82% of shoppers wanted brands and values to align with their own, and three-quarters have parted ways with brands over conflicts in values, proving that trust and alignment are universal needs across both B2C and B2B spaces.
Let’s explore how B2B companies can leverage brand packaging strategies to build trust and drive sustained revenue growth.
1. Recognize that First Impressions Are Primarily Digital
In today’s B2B landscape, potential clients will almost always encounter your brand online before any personal interaction occurs. This digital first impression serves as your packaging—and outdated digital assets can significantly undermine trust.
Nathan shares a powerful example from his consulting experience:
“A great example is a software company that we just started helping and, you know, for lack of better words, their website looked like it was from 1995. So in a highly homogeneous, highly commoditized business, how is it that anyone’s gonna believe that you’re better and differentiated if your website looks like it’s from 1995? It’s not gonna leave a good impression, and it’s gonna be hard for salespeople to close things.”
Key Implementation Strategy: Conduct a digital audit looking at every customer-facing element with fresh eyes. Ask yourself: “If I were seeing this for the first time, what impression would it create about our capabilities and relevance?”
According to Nathan, many B2B companies fail to realize how much business they’re losing due to poor digital impressions:
“Often, we’ll talk with companies. They’re like, ‘Oh, we don’t need to touch our website. We’re getting leads.’ And they’re always thinking too positively about it, which is fine. I agree with that. But it’s often this idea where it’s you don’t know how much you’re missing or you haven’t done enough analysis to understand how much people are maybe dropping off and the reason why they’re dropping off.”
2. Invest in Market Research to Understand Positioning Opportunities
Effective B2B brand packaging begins with understanding your market landscape and identifying positioning opportunities. Nathan’s firm conducts extensive market research for clients before making creative decisions:
“We do a ton of market research. We’re looking at competitors. We’re looking at the color palettes that they use. We’re looking at their language. We’re looking at the frequency of how much they’re posting. We’re identifying their funnels. We’re figuring out what funnels are built out well, what funnels are nascent or very early stage. We look at how much they’re spending. We look at their organic.”
This research provides the strategic foundation for making differentiated brand packaging decisions. Without this foundation, creative decisions lack strategic direction.
The process involves becoming subject matter experts in the client’s business:
“Usually, what we’re doing is doing our best based on our current internal process to become SMEs, that subject matter expert in their business… understanding their industry, understanding the nuances, understanding all of the objection points that they’ve ever received from their sales, understanding why are we winning sales, why are we losing sales, understanding why we have churn.”
Key Implementation Strategy: Before making any branding decisions, invest in comprehensive market research to understand competitor positioning, messaging, visual identity, and marketing funnels. Look for gaps and opportunities to differentiate your “packaging” from competitors.
3. Be Bold in Commoditized Markets
In crowded B2B markets with similar offerings, being overly cautious with your brand packaging is a recipe for invisibility. Nathan urges companies to take more risks:
“I tell them you’re in a red ocean, and unless you wanna be blood in the ocean, the middle is where you go to die, so make a choice. And what I mean by that is I think often when any company does their marketing, they often, again, overconfident. They think that when they make a mistake or they’re too aggressive in their creatives, that everyone’s gonna notice. But, realistically, no one really does because, one, you don’t have enough budget for you to distribute that content far enough and wide enough and frequent enough for anyone to care.”
Nathan shares a practical example of how boldness can help brands stand out:
“I told one of our companies we’re using memes. They’re like, why? I was like, no one cares. No one cares about your business. No one cares about your industry. You’re boring. You’re dry. And the people that read your stuff are IT people. So for the love of god, we’re just gonna do something fun. Because if it’s funny, at least people are gonna talk about it. And you’re the only one that’s gonna do something fun.”
Key Implementation Strategy: Assess how your brand packaging compares to competitors. If you’re following the same conservative approach as everyone else, identify one area where you can make a bold, differentiating choice—whether in messaging, visual identity, or content format.
4. Speak Your Customer’s Language, Not Your Own
A critical aspect of effective B2B brand packaging is using language and terminology that resonates with your customers—not internal jargon or corporate-speak. Nathan shares a revealing example:
“I was working with a company that was dealing with real estate, and I came into this company and had this weird rule where they’re like, ‘We only call people who live in the units residents.’ And I was like, because they’re renters. And they’re like, ‘No. They’re residents.’ I was like, ‘No. They’re renters.’ And they’re like, ‘No. We can’t use that term. That’s mean.'”
Nathan challenged this approach by asking a simple question:
“Have you ever heard anyone go to their friend group and be like, ‘Hey, guys. Has anyone become a resident recently? Hey, John. Are you a resident of your house?’ It’s not, like, common language. And I literally just asked them. I was like, ‘Why are we not just using what they call themselves, which is renters?'”
This example demonstrates how B2B companies often create artificial language that doesn’t resonate with their audience, diminishing trust and authenticity.
Key Implementation Strategy: Review all your marketing and sales materials for language that doesn’t match how your customers naturally speak. Interview customers and note the exact terminology they use to describe their challenges and your solutions. Then adjust your messaging accordingly.
Nathan emphasizes the importance of empathy in communication:
“I think a lot of companies aren’t empathetic enough. And you see this in every part of the organization. You especially see this in sales. Right? We forget that we’re talking to a human. We forget that they have very specific problems that they wanna be heard on. I think a lot of businesses that don’t do well are just not empathetic enough.”
5. Create Community Experiences That Deliver Triple Value
Another powerful B2B brand packaging strategy is creating community experiences that deliver multiple forms of value simultaneously. Nathan explains the economics behind successful community building:
“When you wanna build a community that is actually tight knit, you have to give that individual the outcomes of not only being personally fulfilled, socially fulfilled, and commercially fulfilled all at the same time with a level of consistency. And when you do that, then you have a community.”
He breaks down why this “triple value” approach works:
“The reason why you have a community is because, yeah, they love their friend, but they don’t get a commercial benefit of it. But when they come to your event, not only do they make friends, they feel good and they also learn something. So now the substitution cost makes sense. They get more out of it.”
Nathan shares a specific example of how he created this triple value at an event:
“I took 50 CEOs of companies that are doing more than 5 to $10,000,000 a year in revenue to axe throwing… I made everyone awkward. And when you make everyone awkward, no one feels awkward… But everyone was on the same playing field, so there was this natural connection people make. So not only did I invest into getting a community of people who were of the same seniority, I gave them an event where essentially they no one had an ego because I forced them into an activity that had nothing to do with their business, and they all suck at it. And so what that ended up doing was allowing all these individuals who had to be paired up to be forced into conversations in an activity of which neither of them were good at, which then creates social bonding.”
Key Implementation Strategy: Design community experiences that simultaneously deliver personal, social, and commercial value. Focus on creating environments where hierarchies are flattened and authentic connections can form.
Nathan notes that effective community programming addresses what he calls “the awkward turtle problem”:
“At every event, you always know there are a couple people that don’t know what to do with themselves. They don’t feel comfortable to engage in a conversation. They feel by themselves. They’re hovering around the coffee machine, and they’re just awkward because they don’t know who to talk to.”
Successful community events eliminate this awkwardness through thoughtful programming.
6. Turn Customers Into Evangelists Through Strategic Investment
Many B2B companies focus heavily on acquiring new customers while underinvesting in turning existing customers into brand evangelists. Nathan makes a compelling economic case for shifting this balance:
“The easiest thing for me to go back is to explain to them the power of network effects and also the cost of acquisition. I don’t think it’s new news to anyone that’s listening that the cost to acquire customers is obviously far more expensive than the cost of not selling a customer. So there’s an inherent economic question there that’s quite obvious.”
He outlines the three-fold benefit of investing in customer relationships:
“One, you know that it’s far more expensive to acquire a customer. Two, it’s incredibly cheap to expand your revenue opportunities with a current customer. And three, for a fact that if you can get more customers talking about you, you’ll get more sales. So this is a tree that keeps on giving. It’s a money tree. And if you don’t take care of it, you’re just letting it die.”
Nathan emphasizes how powerful customer evangelists are in B2B contexts:
“In B2B, we’re not selling to 300 runners. We’re selling to 30 CTOs, 30 CSOs, 30 CFOs, whatever C-suite you want. And I can guarantee you about 20% of these people, whatever that niche is, run into each other at conferences. And the power of having two people say your name is incredibly powerful. It’s almost, to be honest, a sale.”
Key Implementation Strategy: Calculate your customer acquisition cost and then allocate 20-25% of that amount to initiatives focused on delighting existing customers and turning them into evangelists. This could include exclusive events, early access to new offerings, or customer advisory boards.
7. Test Your Trust Levels With the “Call Test”
Most B2B leaders overestimate how much their customers trust them. Nathan offers a simple but revealing test to gauge actual trust levels:
“When we do a discovery call and we do our discovery process, one of the parts is interviewing customers. And I often lean into my clients and go, ‘Look, don’t give us the customer that’s obviously a high potential for churn. Give us the customer that you know literally in the next hour you can call, and they’ll take your call. That’s a customer that’s proud of you.’ And more often than not, I don’t think C-suite put it this way, but that’s only a handful of clients. That’s not all the clients.”
He suggests an even more revealing metric than traditional NPS scores:
“How many customers do you have that wanna call you? Not for a problem. Just call you and ask for product updates. Ask for the product road map and is actually excited to figure out more about what you’re doing. That’s more of an indication how many people trust you than an NPS score.”
This reveals a common disconnect:
“When they say your customers trust us, they’ll say all of them do. But when it comes to the people which can do a customer interview with us, very few are available. So that’s the obvious gap where if they really trusted you and you guys had an amazing relationship, having a fifteen-minute call with your new marketing team isn’t much to ask. And if it is too much to ask, I’d argue that you likely don’t have trust.”
Key Implementation Strategy: Conduct an honest assessment of how many customers would take your call just to hear updates (not to solve problems). If this number is low, prioritize trust-building initiatives before expanding acquisition efforts.
Tactical Applications of B2B Brand Packaging
Let’s examine how these strategies can be practically applied across different elements of your B2B brand:
Digital Presence
Your website and digital properties are the most immediate expression of your B2B brand packaging. According to Nathan, many companies overlook significant problems:
“For lack of better words, their website looked like it was from 1995. So in a highly homogeneous, highly commoditized business, how is it that anyone’s gonna believe that you’re better and differentiated if your website looks like it’s from 1995?”
Ask yourself:
- Does your website reflect current design standards and user experience expectations?
- Is your messaging focused on customer problems or company capabilities?
- Do your visual elements differentiate you from competitors?
Sales Materials and Presentations
Every sales touchpoint is an expression of your brand packaging. Ensure these materials:
- Use language that matches how your customers speak
- Focus on addressing specific pain points identified in your research
- Visually align with your broader brand identity
- Tell a consistent story across all touchpoints
Customer Experience
The post-sale experience is a critical component of B2B brand packaging that affects retention and evangelism. Nathan explains:
“The hard shift is letting your marketing people do their job and giving them the opportunity to do that. I think, again, going back to this idea that I certainly believe that we’re all at fault for being a little overconfident. I think it’s really important for especially if you are hiring a marketing firm or a marketing resource to so long as they’re educated and they have the experience to do to give them the environment to do what they need to do so they can do it fast and do it well.”
Community Programming
Creating effective community experiences requires addressing what Nathan calls “the awkward turtle problem”:
“At every event, you always know there are a couple people that don’t know what to do with themselves. They don’t feel comfortable to engage in a conversation. They feel by themselves. They’re hovering around the coffee machine, and they’re just awkward because they don’t know who to talk to.”
Successful community events solve this through thoughtful programming that creates equal footing for all participants.
Why Most B2B Marketing Efforts Underperform
Understanding common pitfalls helps shape more effective B2B brand packaging. Nathan identifies several key reasons why marketing initiatives fail:
1. Unrealistic Timeframes
Many companies expect immediate results from marketing initiatives while giving sales teams months to ramp up:
“Everyone thinks marketing is so easy. Everyone thinks that marketing is gonna drive results in a month. And maybe if you’re lucky, it will. Maybe if you hire a marketer who literally comes from a competitor, who literally takes their playbook, likely steals data… you might be able to get results in a month. I’ll argue that. But outside of that, you are likely building a funnel from scratch.”
2. Underinvestment in Existing Customers
Companies often prioritize new logos over maximizing value from existing relationships:
“The cost to acquire customers is obviously far more expensive than the cost of not selling a customer… It’s incredibly cheap to expand your revenue opportunities with a current customer.”
3. Expecting Too Much From Limited Resources
Nathan notes that many companies hire a single marketer and expect comprehensive results:
“With a 95% probability, and I’ll say that if you’re not a marketing person and you try to hire your first marketing person, you’re gonna be incredibly disappointed with the results. That’s likely because you are expecting far too much from your first marketing person.”
He explains:
“It is very unlikely if you don’t have a full function or a process for a single marketing person to do well. Incredibly unlikely. And you will likely only see economies of scale of your marketing function when you can afford to have about three FTEs or three full time employees.”
4. Chasing New Tactics Instead of Optimizing What Works
One of Nathan’s key takeaways:
“If you’re listening to this and you care about marketing, I can almost guarantee that there is a marketing tactic right now in your organization that you’ve likely underutilized. And this constant chase for the shiny object is a waste of your time. Unless you’re a hundred million ARR business, you’ve likely not maximized a channel that’s already working for you.”
His advice:
“The biggest takeaway I would tell for anyone that’s listening is to stop reinventing the wheel. You have a wheel that works, and I can guarantee you have it over engineered. So over engineer it before you start looking at trying to reinvent the wheel.”
Measuring B2B Brand Packaging Success
How do you know if your B2B brand packaging efforts are working? Nathan suggests several metrics:
1. The Trust Test
The simplest measure is what percentage of your customers would enthusiastically take a call from you not to solve problems but just to hear updates:
“How many customers do you have that wanna call you? Not for a problem. Just call you and ask for product updates. Ask for the product road map and is actually excited to figure out more about what you’re doing. That’s more of an indication how many people trust you than an NPS score.”
2. Evangelist Metrics
Track how many new prospects are mentioned as being referred by existing customers. In B2B markets, these referrals are golden:
“In B2B, we’re not selling to 300 runners. We’re selling to 30 CTOs, 30 CSOs, 30 CFOs, whatever C-suite you want. And I can guarantee you about 20% of these people, whatever that niche is, run into each other at conferences. And the power of having two people say your name is incredibly powerful.”
3. Digital Engagement Metrics
Monitor improvements in website engagement, bounce rates, time on page, and conversion rates as you improve your digital brand packaging:
“Often, we’ll talk with companies. They’re like, ‘Oh, we don’t need to touch our website. We’re getting leads.’ And they’re always thinking too positively about it… But it’s often this idea where it’s you don’t know how much you’re missing or you haven’t done enough analysis to understand how much people are maybe dropping off and the reason why they’re dropping off.”
Conclusion: Brand Packaging Is Strategic, Not Superficial
B2B brand packaging isn’t about superficial aesthetics but strategic positioning and trust-building. As Nathan explains:
“I think branding is packaging for B2B. And what I mean by that is, like, everything that you showcase is the package. And if you think about packaging in just the most simplest of terms, it’s a first impression.”
By investing in these seven strategies, B2B companies can create packaging that builds trust, differentiates their offerings, and drives sustainable revenue growth:
- Recognize that first impressions are primarily digital
- Invest in market research to understand positioning opportunities
- Be bold in commoditized markets
- Speak your customer’s language, not your own
- Create community experiences that deliver triple value
- Turn customers into evangelists through strategic investment
- Test your trust levels with the “call test”
Companies that understand this broader definition of packaging and invest accordingly will be positioned to build stronger customer relationships and drive sustainable growth in increasingly competitive B2B markets.
Some areas we explore in this episode include:
Listen to the episode.
Related links and resources
- Check out Find Your Audience
- Learn from Jeremy Nagel – Business Productivity: How to Increase Productivity And Drive Growth
- Learn from Lindsay Scherr Burgess – Scaling Creative Businesses: Data-Backed Strategies for 20%+ Growth Without Losing Artistic Soul
- Learn from Sam Drauschak – How to Use Process Science to Drive Business Growth And Digitization
- Learn from Mark Osborne – How to Double Your Sales Pipeline And Revive Your Business to Drive Growth (in 90 Days)
- Check out the article – Sales Flywheel: The Ultimate Guide to Using the Approach that Works Best for Your Business
- Check out the article – The Ultimate Guide to Customer Experience Measurement: Proven Strategies to Transform Your Business
Connect with Nathan Yeung
Subscribe to & Review the Predictable B2B Success Podcast
Thanks for tuning into this week’s Predictable B2B Podcast episode! If the information in our interviews has helped your business journey, please head over to Apple Podcasts, subscribe to the show, and leave us an honest review.
Your reviews and feedback will not only help me continue to deliver great, helpful content but also help me reach even more amazing founders and executives like you!
B2B Growth Marketing: Building High-Performing Tech Brands
Leave a Reply