Brand-Led Growth in Building Materials: Inside National Nail's Strategy

00:00 - Building Brand Trust in a Traditional Industry
04:15 - Bringing Product and Brand Together
07:30 - Why Brand Loyalty Starts with Internal Alignment
12:50 - Evolving the Customer Journey for the New Pro
17:45 - Local Dealer Relationships and National Messaging
23:00 - Navigating Change in a Legacy Industry
 

Dani Zizak is the Chief Marketing Officer at National Nail, where she leads brand, marketing, and product strategy across their portfolio. With a career spanning consumer and B2B marketing, Dani has a unique perspective on what it takes to build strong brands in industries where relationships, reputation, and hands-on experience matter most.

At National Nail, Dani has helped the company modernize its brand approach without losing sight of its core customers: contractors, builders, and dealers. She believes that brand trust isn't just about campaigns—it's about aligning every part of the company around a clear promise and delivering on it at every touchpoint.

Dani, Beth, and Zach kick things off by unpacking why "brand" still has a huge role to play in an industry that often prizes price and availability above all. Dani shares that for contractors and dealers, trust is currency—and brand is how you scale trust beyond a single salesperson or one-off interaction.

By investing in brand, National Nail ensures that every experience with their company, from product performance to customer support, reinforces a consistent promise. It's not just about logos or taglines—it's about creating expectations and consistently meeting them.

Building external loyalty starts internally. Dani emphasizes that the marketing team can't be the only brand stewards—every department, from product development to sales, has to understand and live the brand values.

By fostering cross-functional collaboration, Dani ensures that brand strategy isn't a "marketing thing" but a company-wide commitment. She shares examples of how product launches, sales training, and customer education all ladder back to a unified brand story.

The contractor landscape is changing. Today's pros are more digitally savvy, value-driven, and brand-conscious than ever before. Dani explains how National Nail is adapting its messaging, marketing channels, and customer journey to meet these evolving expectations.

Instead of assuming loyalty is a given, the company invests heavily in staying top-of-mind—whether that's through better digital content, clearer product education, or closer collaboration with distribution partners.

One of National Nail's challenges is balancing the needs of local dealer relationships with the consistency of a national brand presence. Dani talks about how they equip local reps and dealers with tools to tell a consistent brand story while still leaving room for local flavor and personal relationships.

Empowering partners while maintaining brand integrity is an ongoing balancing act—and Dani shares how transparency, shared goals, and listening to partner feedback make the difference.

A strong brand isn't a "nice to have"—it's a critical growth engine, even in industries where sales have historically led the way. For National Nail, putting brand at the center of the business has helped them build trust at scale, drive consistency across teams, and better adapt to a changing customer base.

For companies looking to do the same, Dani's advice is clear: align internally first, listen to your customers, and make sure every touchpoint—not just your marketing—lives up to the brand promise.

You can connect with Dani Zizak on LinkedIn or reach out to National Nail through their website for more insights into their brand-first approach to building materials marketing.

The Smarter Building Materials Marketing podcast helps sales and marketing professionals find better ways to grow leads, sales and outperform the competition. It gives insights, examples and shares stories about how to create a results-driven digital marketing strategy for building products and construction companies of any size. SBMM is co-hosted by Venveo’s Founder, Zach Williams and Venveo’s CEO, Beth PopNikolov.

Thanks for tuning in! If you enjoyed this episode and want to catch future insights, be sure to like and subscribe to the Smarter Building Materials Marketing podcast wherever you listen. Got questions or suggestions about today’s episode? Drop us a line at [email protected]—we’d love to hear from you!