Marketing to the Federal government is no simple task. It is a distinct ecosystem that differs considerably from business-to-business marketing. It is a huge, segmented market and has multiple decision-making players, layers, and audiences. The sales cycle for B2G is also considerably longer than for B2B.
Though many core marketing principles remain consistent with both B2B and B2G marketing, understanding the nuances of government marketing is essential for success, growth, and scalability in this unique sector.
The Importance of Government Marketing
The GovCon space has huge opportunity. Data from Bloomberg Government estimates that in fiscal year 2024, federal procurement spending will reach as high as $870 billion. However, this space is highly competitive, and unseating an incumbent is often difficult. Securing a foothold in this competitive arena requires strategy, planning, specific marketing tactics, keeping a close eye on metrics, and a lot of patience.
Early-phase start-ups are most often faced with tackling this mountain with a bootstrap budget and wearing all of the hats themselves. As government contracting companies grow out of the start-up phase and move into a more established phase of growth and scale, they often find it advantageous to plan their marketing budgets to enlist the expertise of a government marketing agency that can help propel their business forward. Larger GovCons most often outsource their marketing to a fractional government marketing agency, hire a full in-house team, or a combination of both.
Whatever stage your company is in, don’t fall into the common trap of believing that marketing does not matter in government contracting!
Hiring a Government Marketing Agency
There is a good reason top government contractors are successful—they deliver great results and have a strong brand. A marketing agency that has the experience and subject matter expertise in the GovCon space has the industry knowledge to help custom tailor government marketing strategies—no, you cannot reuse the strategies and materials you use to market to commercial targets.
With agency assistance, growing companies will be equipped to effectively communicate how company services and solutions align with target audiences’ mission and resolve their issues. They will also help foster and improve brand awareness and brand trust. Agency expertise helps companies
- Stand out from competitors
- Build credibility and trust
- Build brand awareness
- Grow relationships with key stakeholders
- Attract and retain top talent
- Attract and retain great teaming partners
- Get in front of and influence opportunities
- Drive business growth
- Stay relevant and competitive
The Challenge of Government Contractor Branding
In today’s government services landscape, where the lowest price and technically acceptable (LPTA) frequently beats the best value and best solution, organizations—both established and emerging—are all vying for a share of limited federal funding. In this financially constrained and highly competitive environment, a well-crafted branding strategy is critical for a GovCon company’s sustained success.
Messaging
Messaging is at the core of a brand. And yet, messaging is one of the biggest challenges facing government contracting companies. The greater the targeting and alignment between your message and the prospect’s problems, the more likely it is to close new deals. When messaging isn’t on point and isn’t clear, concise, and consistent, credibility—along with potential clients—is lost. GovCon messaging is also at the heart of attracting and retaining teaming partners and top talent.
Download the 6 Messaging Must-Haves To Close More Deals.
Clear, concise, and consistent messaging will help define your brand, grow brand awareness, differentiate a business from the competition, and succinctly communicate the value proposition to target audiences.
Great messaging will help grow your GovCon relationships and drive business growth.
Understanding and explaining what is at the heart of your brand—why you do what you do—is critical for aligning your messaging with your brand. Ironically, it can be difficult to verbalize. Those start-up bootstrap marketing budgets may get you out of the starting block, but when it is time to grow and scale, getting your messaging right—and aligned between leadership, HR, sales, and marketing—is paramount. Your messaging should be the foundation of all your communications.
Consider working with a government marketing agency to conduct a messaging strategy workshop. Reach out to speak with one of our messaging experts.
Discovering the Heart of Your Brand
Branding is More Than a Logo
Often a “brand” is thought of as a logo, font, and color choices. While this package is part of a brand, it is not the whole story. The brand is a perception of every representation of a company—internally and externally, online and offline.
What is at the heart of your brand?
Your brand expresses the passion that drives you to deliver value to your customers/clients—as well as your teaming partners and employees—every day. It is the sum of your mission, vision, values, philosophy, and essence. It is who you are, what you do, and why you do it. It involves how your company makes people feel and the experience they have when they interact with you.
Federal buyers buy from people and companies they know, like, and trust. Your brand needs to communicate that
- You understand and align with their mission
- You understand their problems
- Your solution solves their problem
- Your solution is better than your competitors
- Your solution reduces risk
- Your solution helps them meet deadlines
Clarifying and documenting these elements are key to crafting brand messaging and visuals that project who you are as a company, your beliefs and principles, your key differentiators, and the problems you solve for your specific target audience.
Another note on messaging. One of the biggest mistakes made in sales and marketing messaging is that it focuses on “me, me, me” instead of proving that your company understands the problem your target audience is trying to solve—that you understand their pain, and what keeps them up at night. The script needs to be flipped and transformed to become audience-centric. It’s about them, not you.
Successful GovCon companies often partner with a government marketing agency that specializes in branding, to help uncover the answers to all of these questions and help clarify and personify the target audiences—who are they, what matters to them, what problems and challenges they have, and how they prefer to communicate.
Government Contractor Brand Consistency
Once a government contractor’s brand messaging has been crafted, it’s time to create a content plan to disseminate that messaging across all communication channels. It is critical that messaging be consistent throughout all sales and marketing communications and proposals. Clarity and consistency amplify brand awareness and help build brand trust.
The messaging on the company website, blog articles, white papers, and educational materials needs to be aligned and consistent with the messaging on proposals, pitch decks, marketing emails, social media sites, etc. Verbal conversations and presentations should also align and reiterate the brand message. Aligned messaging should also be applied to internal communications and recruitment channels to support talent acquisition and retention.
Inconsistent messaging leads to confusion and loss of trust—and will damage a brand.
A government marketing agency can help GovCon companies refine and craft brand messaging and build consistency through strategic planning and marketing execution—taking the heavy lifting off of internal resources and ultimately supporting business development and HR success.
Consider working with a government marketing agency to help your growing organization with brand consistency and take the heavy lifting off your internal resources. Reach out to speak with one of our government contracting branding experts.
Further Increasing Brand Trust
Showcasing your knowledge and experience will further increase brand trust. You are a subject matter expert in your field..show it.
Website Design and Development for Government Contractors
Your website should be more than just an online brochure. It is a potential powerhouse tool to help build and reinforce brand trust.
On your website, display your expertise by highlighting your capabilities and past performance. Include your capability statements on your website and as a downloadable PDF. Highlight case studies and client testimonials. Offer downloadable whitepapers behind a form to help you capture visitor information. Our survey of government influencers and decision-makers concluded that they are looking at your website, and if they don’t find the information they are expecting to find, they will move on to another website within seconds—that would be your competitor!
In another survey by Government research experts, Market Connections, it was discovered that 82% of Federal decision-makers rated corporate websites as their top-rated sources for research.
82% of Federal decision-makers rated corporate websites as their top-rated sources for research.
Social Media for Government Contractors
A haphazard posting on social media is not going to help develop brand trust. It may just further confuse matters. If you are going to use social media channels, having a social media strategy is imperative to the most effective use of your marketing time and financial investments as well as developing brand awareness and brand trust. For Government contracting social media, we are primarily talking about LinkedIn. A December 2023 study done by government contracting LinkedIn expert, Mark Amtower, found that there are 2.84M federal “govies” on LinkedIn with appx 600 company pages including the Fed, military, civilian, and intelligence communities! Make sure you have a cohesive strategy that connects to your other marketing and BD efforts to take advantage of this valuable resource.
There are 2.84M federal “govies” on LinkedIn with appx 600 company pages including the Fed, military, civilian, and intelligence communities! Have a strategy to take advantage of this valuable resource.
Summary
The GovCon space has huge opportunities—as high as $870 billion estimated for fiscal year 2024. But, this space is highly competitive, and unseating an incumbent is often difficult.
Marketing to the Federal government is no simple task. It is a huge, segmented market and has multiple decision-making players, layers, and audiences to educate and influence.
Government contractor branding is a challenge for most GovCon companies. Messaging is at the core of a brand. And yet, messaging is one of the biggest challenges facing government contracting companies.
Federal buyers buy from people and companies they know, like, and trust. Your brand messaging needs to communicate that you understand their problem, explain how your solution solves their problem, demonstrate why it’s better than your competitors, and prove it reduces risk.
It is critical that your messaging be consistent throughout all of your sales and marketing communications and proposals. Clarity and consistency amplify brand awareness and help build brand trust.
Your website should be more than just an online brochure. It is a potential powerhouse tool to help build and reinforce brand trust.
As government contracting companies grow out of the start-up phase and move into a more established phase of growth and scale they often enlist the expertise of a government marketing agency.
A government marketing agency can help GovCon companies refine and craft brand messaging and build consistency through strategic planning and marketing execution—taking the heavy lifting off of internal resources and ultimately supporting business development and HR success.
Selling to the federal government may be challenging and competitive, but it can also be quite rewarding. Perfecting your brand message and consistently communicating it, will increase your opportunities in the GovCon space through brand visibility. Partnering with a government marketing agency will give you a competitive advantage.
Government Marketing with Ocean 5 Strategies
Ocean 5 provides consulting and marketing services to government contractors. Most engagements start with an assessment of the existing brand messaging, digital presence, or website status.
The services we are hired for the most:
We help our clients modernize their branding, clarify their messaging, redesign their website, and build visibility and trust with government decision-makers, teaming partners, and top talent. We help B2G companies clearly communicate their services, differentiators and the value that they bring to these critical audiences using modern marketing best practices and techniques specifically refined for the GovCon industry.
Related Blogs:
- My Government Contractor Website Doesn’t Look Like a Grown-Up Company
- Best Government Contractor Website Design Companies and Content
- Top Branding Tips for Government Contractors from Website Design Companies
- Recruiting Top Talent by Promoting Your Government Contractor Brand Identity
- 5 Marketing Strategies for B2G Businesses
