Originally Published in BIC Magazine, October 2019

BIC Magazine: Branding is a Prerequisite to Effective Marketing

Why industrial companies must establish strong brand foundations before investing in direct-response advertising and keyword-driven SEO campaigns.

BIC Magazine Cover, October 2019

BIC Magazine Article, October 2019

February 2026 Update

The sequence this article describes, foundation before advertising, brand before SEO, is the correct framework. The FADA structure formalizes exactly this logic. What's worth noting in 2026 is that the stakes around brand foundation have increased.

In 2019, inconsistent branding created confused prospects. In 2026, inconsistent branding creates confused AI representation. The distinction matters.

AI systems build their understanding of a company by synthesizing information from multiple sources simultaneously. Your website, your LinkedIn company page, your LinkedIn articles, trade publication mentions, directories, and any other crawlable content all contribute to how AI systems describe you when someone asks. If those sources tell slightly different stories about who you serve, what you specialize in, or what makes you different, AI systems average them into something generic.

The article used LinkedIn as the example channel for building brand credibility before capitalizing on SEO. That's still accurate, and it's worth noting why LinkedIn matters even more now. Standard LinkedIn posts sit behind an authentication wall and can't be indexed by AI crawlers. LinkedIn Articles, however, are publicly accessible web pages. They can be indexed by search engines and read by AI systems. Publishing substantive LinkedIn Articles on industrial marketing topics creates crawlable content that AI systems can cite alongside your website and trade publication work. This is a direct extension of the "establish expertise before advertising" principle.

The article also mentioned branded SEO: optimizing for your own company name so that searches for "Mansfield Marketing" return accurate, brand-controlled results. That concept now extends to AI representation. The question isn't just whether your website ranks when someone searches your name. The question is what AI systems say about you when someone asks for recommendations in your category. Building that AI representation requires the same discipline the article prescribes for traditional branded SEO: consistent messaging, credible third-party mentions, and clear differentiation.

The branding prerequisite hasn't changed. What has changed is the number of channels where brand consistency matters and the AI systems that are now synthesizing all of them simultaneously. The companies with clear, consistent brand foundations across channels have a structural advantage in AI search that generic, inconsistent brands cannot easily overcome.

The original article appears below.

Foundation First, Then Advertising

The cornerstone of your company's marketing campaign should be a solid foundation that communicates the values of your brand with authority. Too often, companies jump to direct-response, keyword, pay-per-click advertising without first having control of their own brand and message. While this may be effective to generate short-term return on investment in consumer products, it is rarely the best strategy for those in the industrial sector.

Effective branding is paramount to long-term engagement. Thus, supplementary components of consumer outreach like direct-response advertising can be employed in a more compelling fashion later, but only once the branding foundation has been established. In doing so, the identity of the company will be substantiated as a place where values can be communicated with precision.

Brand Value and Awareness First

Mansfield Marketing is a staunch proponent of developing a strong brand campaign. The first objective is making sure clients understand the brand and, second, what services and solutions that brand provides.

The standard for Mansfield Marketing is using channels like LinkedIn to communicate the credibility of the brand. While this may be perceived as advertising, the objective of these outreach platforms is not to advertise, but to communicate brand expertise first. When viewers resonate with the values of a company, whether they feel the services are trustworthy is conveyed through the branding. The priority is to establish Mansfield's acumen for industrial marketing followed by services, not the other way around.

Strategic Advertising After Foundation

Search engine optimization (SEO) for solution-based keywords is most impactful only once the brand reputation has communicated a compelling message to the audience. People will be enticed to take action when the message of your brand communicates value to them. Additionally, optics are important, and when the first glance of your brand evokes expertise and credibility, people will be motivated to research more about the services you provide. This is when you can best capitalize on SEO because the audience knows your brand is credible.

As an example, the trademark campaign for Mansfield Marketing is an important component to externally conveying the value and reputation of the company. After the trust, value and expertise of industrial marketing are established, Mansfield can then capitalize on SEO and advertising. For effective trademark campaigns, search results are optimized to focus on exact match and phrase-match keywords. This helps to make sure whenever people search for the keywords "Mansfield Marketing," they are searching with specific brand values in mind. Phrase and exact matching helps strategically engage with the target audience. This is generally a lower-cost advertising campaign than competition-based pricing for generic solution keywords such as "welding supplies."

Ultimately, everything builds off of effective branding as the foundation of your company. When you are able to communicate a message that conveys expertise, trust and value, consumers will be more inclined to investigate the benefits of services. Once your value and reputation have been established, SEO and advertising strategies can be employed to facilitate consumer action.

This article was originally published in BIC Magazine (February 2019). Read the original publication →

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