It’s well documented that lead generation is the favourite sibling when it comes to B2B (receiving 36% of budget vs. 30% for brand building according to latest stats released by the B2B Institute1). And because bottom of the funnel tactics can quickly show clear and quantifiable business outcomes, they’ve often been favoured at the expense of longer term brand building activity.
When we think about this with the 95:5 rule in mind, where typically 95% of a target market is not ‘in-market’ for goods or services, focusing solely on lead generation will only capture a percentage of the 5% of buyers who are ‘in-market’.
In uncertain economic times a strong brand is often key to having the resilience to ride out the storm. Keeping brand spends high during economic slowdowns can also contribute to a quicker bounce back. So it’s not surprising then that globally, 59% of B2B marketing leaders say their C-suite has increased the importance of brand building given economic conditions1.
To back this up further, Tye Heath, Director of Market Engagement at The B2B Institute stated, “Most of your growth potential lies in marketing to people who won’t buy from you today, but will buy from you in the future”.
Shifting budget and focus towards longer term brand building activity can be difficult when the business is shouting out for sales leads and the seemingly instant gratification bottom of the funnel activity can provide in the short to mid-term. There’s also the risk of getting caught in the cycle of switching between lead generation and brand building activity, meaning neither objective ever truly gets met.
That’s not to say that during uncertain times CMOs and their teams shouldn’t be agile and adaptable, and adjust their plans and budgets to navigate changing market conditions and maintain business continuity. However, to make these decisions effectively and know what the likely outcomes will be - and to be confident in sharing these with the wider business - requires having the right data, structure, people and processes in place.
Can brand building be used for lead generation?
Long-term, sustainable growth can be achieved by adopting a more balanced full funnel approach; after all brand building is the main driver of long-term growth and profit. When you grow the size of the pie (making more new people aware of your product or service) as well as the size of your slice (converting the people that are aware of your product or service) is when the real growth happens.
LinkedIn’s B2B Institute has termed one approach as ‘Performance Branding’, whereby strong brand messages are incorporated into lead generation efforts to offer a more balanced approach to satisfy both lead generation and brand building requirements.
Brand-led top and mid funnel messaging can not only be used to create more meaningful and emotional engagement with your product or service - important when a brand or organisation’s values and beliefs have greater influence on buying decisions - it also has a strong role to play in nurturing leads which, with long timeframes and complex buying journeys in B2B, is an important consideration for advertisers.
Whilst we’re firm believers in a balanced full funnel approach at Croud, it needs to be led by data and have the constituent parts that enable success to be measured meaningfully.
This is all in the storm of cookie deprecation, with the need for advertisers to future-proof their media measurement in a privacy-first manner never being more pertinent if they haven’t done so already.
For Regus, the flexible working and serviced office provider, we’ve rapidly piloted and scaled measurement solutions across 120 markets. Putting Enhanced Conversions, Consent Mode and GA4 in place has enabled the recovery of 9% more leads previously lost to browser and cookie choices, leading to a 8.3% reduction in CPA - find out how we did this here.
How can B2B marketers drive meaningful measurement?
Adopting an incrementality-centric approach to marketing and analytics execution is a strategic shift to a more nuanced and insightful way of understanding marketing’s effectiveness - giving a true understanding of what impact or results would not have been achieved without your marketing.
Ultimately, this approach empowers organisations to optimise marketing efforts, maximise ROI, and cultivate a data-driven culture that thrives on measurable success - across all of their marketing.
This is especially true when it comes to understanding effectiveness across the full portfolio of channels, and thus forecasting where to place budget, and how to balance budgets between brand building and generating sales leads - which gives the confidence and insight to justify investment decisions to the CFO (and sometimes even request more budget).
Where is B2B heading in 2024?
Cookie deprecation is finally happening, making measurement and proving the value of marketing more challenging than ever before for those that don’t yet have the right solutions in place.
In Raconteur’s webinar ‘What B2B marketers need to know for 2024’ predictions included the rise of storytelling to generate demand, the continued proliferation of AI to drive personalised interactions and a marked shift of budgets back to brand.
When asked if brand building is a non-negotiable, Croud COO Sophie Wooller commented
“It’s critical to have some level of brand awareness to know what the options are in your space. In B2B whilst much of marketing focuses on facts and the product, you are still selling to people who have opinions. Even to make the shortlist you need some level of brand awareness, not just product awareness”.
In a wider context, the macro economic climate is still somewhat challenging, and a General Election in the UK and US Election tabled for later this year will only add to the unpredictability.
To drive sustainable growth, B2B brands will need to be smart with their marketing investment decisions, and strike the right balance between lead generation and brand building. Brand building activity will offer resilience and longer term growth versus lead generation, but ultimately the foundation to decide what that split is is rooted in the ability to measure and understand effectiveness, and ensuring media measurement is future proofed in a privacy-centric way.
What will B2B decision makers be prioritising?
We’ve commissioned a survey of 1000 B2B buyers to understand their behaviours and priorities for FY25 and we’ll be sharing our findings at a breakfast briefing on the 19th of March 2024.
We’ll be unpacking the insights with representatives from LinkedIn, The B2B Institute along with other B2B marketing decision makers. If you’d like to be added to the list to receive an exclusive invitation to join us, please email [email protected].
Sources: 1B2B Institute, LinkedIn & Ipsos B2B Benchmark Report 2023
