Without branding, performance marketing becomes a bottomless pit.

The characteristics of our two brain hemispheres actually describe the difference between performance marketing and brand marketing remarkably well. With brand marketing, you focus on your brand promise. With performance marketing, you’re aiming for leads and sales. Brand marketing helps you build long-term brand value. Performance marketing chases short-term revenue growth. But I think this quote sums it up even better: “Performance marketing is asking someone on a date; brand marketing is what makes them say yes.”

But how do you balance long-term and short-term marketing strategies? You should definitely take a look at The Long and the Short of It by Binet and Field. They demonstrate that emotionally driven campaigns are more profitable in the long run than those focused purely on rational messaging. And that one cannot succeed without the other. Harvard Business Review describes beautifully how branding and performance marketing can work in perfect harmony. In fact, when treated as competitors, both become significantly less effective. Unnecessarily so — and a real missed opportunity.

In our day-to-day practice branding in B2B we see companies primarily focused on click behaviour, lead generation and conversion. In other words, short-term performance marketing rather than brand marketing. The balance has been lost. And yet branding and activation should go hand in hand. Too often, marketing is pulled too far in the direction of sales. But that comes at a cost: it erodes your brand. Patience needs to win out over impatience again. Binet and Field consistently show that a healthy balance actually leans more towards brand building than performance marketing. Fortunately, in the B2B world, we do also see long-term partnerships with agencies to restore and rebuild brand strength.

‘Performance marketing is asking someone on a date. Brand marketing is what makes them say yes.’

And yet, most B2B companies continue to spend the majority of their marketing budgets on performance marketing, at the expense of brand building. But why is that? Boston Consulting Group provides some insight. In 2021, together with Google, they conducted a global study on the maturity of brand marketing in B2B companies. And what did they find? Most businesses invest little to no resources in brand marketing. Why? Because they believe it isn’t measurable. Because key internal stakeholders don’t believe in it. And because their marketing departments often lack the capacity and expertise to deliver it. As a result, every marketing activity is expected to produce immediate sales results. An internal urge to prove effectiveness — one that ultimately works against them.

Binet and Field describe this trend as dangerous: “There is a tendency to use very short-term online metrics as primary performance measures and this has dangerous implications for long-term success.” Harvard Business Review echoes that concern: “Pitting brand building and performance marketing against each other in a competition for budget and attention unnecessarily damages the effectiveness of both.” Does this also apply to B2B marketing? Absolutely. More mature brand marketing not only leads to a higher ROMI (return on marketing investment), but also makes it easier to attract customers and talent, drives cross-selling, and fuels overall revenue growth. And then there’s McKinsey, who add: “B2B companies with strong brands outperform weak ones by 20 percent in shareholder value.” So the real question is: how much more proof do you need as a B2B marketer?

Samengevat: brand marketing is van groot belang in B2B, maar er wordt in verhouding veel minder tijd, geld en energie in gestoken. Want ‘left-brain’ campagnes en meetresultaten zijn sneller en makkelijker te verkrijgen. Die ‘ouderwetsche’ B2B marketing sterft uit. Want je doet jezelf dan tekort als B2B-bedrijf. Als je veel aandacht besteedt aan branding, zorgt dat voor aanzienlijk hogere verkoopresultaten bij activaties. Zorg daarom voor een overtuigende, gerichte merkbeleving en maak elke marketing-actie en -uiting prikkelend met dat merk. Want performance marketing blijkt een bodemloze put als je daar geen gedegen branding tegenover zet.

Dit blog-artikel is een korte samenvatting van de presentatie die ik heb gegeven op de NIMA Marketing Day 2024. Wil jij jouw interne stakeholders ook overtuigen van het belang van branding in B2B? Hier is mijn NIMA slide deck En wil je dat ik dit verhaal ook kom vertellen in jouw boardroom, bij jouw business club of aan jouw marketingcollega’s? Stuur me dan een email: erwin@wadm.nl