Kathleen Booth’s Post

Given the avalanche of Brand Marketing reports/articles I've had to post and share the past few weeks with mostly B2B SaaS marketers who can't get their head wrapped around how/why Brand Marketing should even be mentioned in the same sentence as Demand Generation -- maybe this report from Pavilion will shed more light. BCG, McKinsey, HBR, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute and a host of others have been covering this since before COVID (if you need copies of those articles/reports -- DM me). Even 6sense sponsored recent research that surfaced similar conclusions. Thanks for sharing Jim Berkman and great work to Kathleen Booth and Vinay Bhagat.

Mary Beth Folger slam dunks it home with an outstanding assessment of why so many B2B SaaS companies are struggling. The report outlines numerous other disconnects and buyer frustrations that are symptoms of the actual problem: Buyers continue to tell companies how they want to buy and companies continue forward, business as usual. As a marketer, I whole-heartedly believe it’s my job to know my buyers better than anyone and to use that knowledge to earn (bolded and underlined) their trust and business. We’re building products for our customers, not ourselves. They should be at the center of everything we do. The collective “we” (GTM teams/leadership) have to stop expecting buyers to buy the way WE want them to.

The emphasis on awareness marketing has increased in the era of AI. Over time, SEO is going to lose a lot of traction with the proliferation of lower quality content and SGE isn't widely understood yet. Companies that can build good awareness will drive the inbound leads from buyers who have already done their research. The trick, as always, is to provide value. Ungate most of your content. Brief analysts religiously. Develop research that has value and not just sound bytes. Host selective activities at selective events (yes, I deliberately said selective twice.) This has paid off dramatically for HYPR with good on-stage recognition, analyst recommendations, and the ability to compete against much larger brands. The results aren't as easy to prove as SEM or other direct-demand marketing but it provides buyers with higher awareness and favorability.

New research from TrustRadius and Pavilion reveals a shift in B2B buying behavior. While 2023 was all about ROI, in 2024, buyers are prioritizing trust, transparency, and brand when making purchasing decisions. Here's the catch: Many companies are still allocating more budget to demand generation than brand awareness. That's a major disconnect! This could lead to a "brand crisis year" for companies that are not adapting and allocating resources to brand awareness to help drive demand. The report (available June 10th) offers insights on how to: ✅ Build brand awareness that fosters trust ✅ Craft a more balanced marketing strategy ✅ Win over today's brand-conscious B2B buyers Take a look at the early released findings and learn why 2024 is the time to double down on your brand. #B2BMarketing #MarketingTrends #TrustRadius #Pavilion #Brand #BrandAwareness

Really compelling insights into B2B buying in this preview of a full report to be released at a later date. Report findings also align with and expound upon the findings of a similar 2022 study conducted by Bain and Google (link in the comments for those interested). Both studies found that buyers build, and overwhelmingly buy from, short lists that are created before any research is conducted. As you can guess, well-known brands fair better in this process. As for vendors discovered in the research phase, there is no better than a 5% chance they will be selected. (Yes, you read that right.) As the report calls out, companies are increasingly abandoning brand awareness, instead funneling resources into demand capture in an attempt to convert buyers that aren't brand aware, much less in market. Reflected in the report, 91% of vendors stated that sales reps are one of their top three most effective tactics. Interestingly, when buyers were asked what they wish was different about tech buying, two of the top responses reflected negative sentiment towards vendor sales tactics. The report outlines numerous other disconnects and buyer frustrations that are symptoms of the actual problem: Buyers continue to tell companies how they want to buy and companies continue forward, business as usual. As a marketer, I whole-heartedly believe it’s my job to know my buyers better than anyone and to use that knowledge to earn (bolded and underlined) their trust and business. We’re building products for our customers, not ourselves. They should be at the center of everything we do. The collective “we” (GTM teams/leadership) have to stop expecting buyers to buy the way WE want them to. We have to build products that solve their problems, add value to their businesses and the way they work, and at a price that is equivalent to the value it creates. We have to stop gating product details/demos behind forms and wasting buyers' time concealing pricing until they complete a complex maze of sales calls that they don’t want to have, for a product they (possibly) can't afford. We have to intentionally stop chasing quick wins, genuinely listen to what buyers are telling us, and fully invest in GTM strategies that make choosing us the easiest decision a buyer will make. Let us not ignore yet another report of how we could be better and instead just BE better.

After a year of collective belt tightening across B2B tech, now is the time to double down on your investment in top of funnel brand awareness. New research from TrustRadius and Pavilion indicates that while 2023 had buyers focusing mainly on the potential ROI of their purchases ("prove it or lose it"), in 2024, buyers are leaning more heavily on trust, transparency and brand when making decisions. But there's a disconnect. Just as buyers are shifting their focus to trusted brands, brands themselves have failed to adapt, with many allocating less of their discretionary marketing spend toward top-of-funnel brand awareness initiatives (an average of 38%) and more to demand generation (an average of 53%). Check out this screengrab of the breakdown of discretionary spending across brand and demand. There's much more in the report. Sharing a link in the comments #brandawareness

Brand marketing plays a key role in driving awareness, customer loyalty and competitive differentiation. Strong branding enables businesses to command premium prices and to ride out turbulent times. 📈 Nevertheless, with the inevitable pressures on short term ROI, too many B2B business are primarily focused on demand generation in their marketing. But, through data analysis we can see the positive impact brand marketing actually has on demand generation, influencing buyers early on in their journey. To make this happen though, brand and demand - and sales and marketing - have to work in harmony. In Luxid’s latest blog https://hubs.ly/Q02lLKRw0, we explain how in practice you can successfully align brand and demand marketing to drive business growth. 🚀 Nikos Lemanis #digitalmarketing #brandmarketing #demandgeneration #competitiveadvantage #businessgrowth

Brand Awareness vs. Demand Generation. How is your budget allocated between the two? 👀 Data from TrustRadius and Pavilion reveal that less than 35% of marketing budgets are allocated to brand spending, with the majority funneled into demand gen. Performance-based marketing may drive immediate, measurable results that your investors love...but it shouldn't be done at the expense of branding. Allyson Havener joins Closing Time this week to help GTM leaders see the value of and gain executive buy-in for branding. ------- Watch or listen to the full episode and download the 2024 B2B Buying Disconnect Report (🔗 below) for more insights like these. #branding #demandgen #b2bmarketing

“Promises are the uniquely human way of ordering the future, making it predictable and reliable to the extent that this is humanly possible.” Perhaps this desire to order the future explains the latest work from The B2B Institute and WARC on brand promises and their impact. It’s fascinating stuff, particularly for those of us managing smaller campaign budgets and looking to maximise returns. The big things remain the big things; distinctiveness, physical availability, budget, segmentation etc. - but the data shows that giving the customer something meaningful and believable really aids impact. More good news? The impact shown isn’t in short-term, performance-centric measures, but in brand health - see the image below. Even more good news? The gap in brand health performance relative to non-Promise campaigns was noticed across campaigns with budgets of all sizes. Per the report, “in other words, regardless of budget, duration, or number of channels used, campaigns that make a Promise to the Customer are more likely to drive improvements in brand health metrics.” So, the next time you’re tasked with developing a campaign that needs to deliver, I promise this is worth considering. #PromiseToTheCustomer #B2BResearch #BrandHealth

Brand communities create a continuous stream of revenue. It sounds cliché, but people just want to belong. Belonging is a Fundamental Tenet of Human Nature. Your brand should be a community–or 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 of community–that consumers can be part of. 64% of consumers want brands to connect with them. And when customers feel connected to brands, more than half of consumers (57%) will increase their spending with that brand and 76% will buy from them over a competitor. Being a brand consumers can belong to is a powerful way to increase and maintain retention. At IDealogic®, we engineer brands around inclusive customer communities so you can appeal to the most important aspect of their human needs–belonging, status, and fulfillment. We can help you build the ultimate consumer journeys with our proprietary brand marketing strategies. Schedule your introduction appointment today to learn more: https://lnkd.in/d-5mkxi #branding #marketing #advertising #b2b #b2c #cmoinsights #creativeagency #sales #cmo #ceo #brandmarketing #ads #consumerbehavior