The Best Way to Invest In Branding

Executive overview

Most marketers demand ROI from every dollar — but the brands people instinctively reach for (Ferrari, Amex, Adidas) earned that position through years of consistent presence, not tracked conversions. Performance marketing generates sales; branding generates the default choice.

The two must coexist. Performance drives near-term revenue. Branding compounds over time and eventually accounts for the majority of sales at mature companies.

Brand is the asset that turns your category into a reflex, not a search.

Agency vs. in-house

• Neither is universally better — ROI determines the right mix.
• Agencies provide fractional access to specialists (e.g., TikTok ads, organic content) at lower cost than full hires.
• Most large clients run a hybrid: in-house generalists plus specialist agencies.
• Core test: spend a dollar, make more than a dollar — in the long run.

Content strategy for B2B brands

• Platform matters less than content type and target audience.
• Viral content (broad appeal) and revenue-generating content (tight audience) are different — choose based on who you're selling to.
• Repurpose content across all platforms once it's created; marginal cost is low.
• LinkedIn is the B2B network, but buyers also use Instagram and TikTok.

When to measure ROI — and when not to

• Not all campaigns need ROI tracking; social media can be treated as pure brand-building.
• Track performance campaigns; let brand campaigns run on reach and consistency.
• Super Bowl ads almost never produce positive ROI — but force bundled buys (Olympics slots, etc.), making them poor value even as branding.
• Better branding spend exists at lower cost with tighter targeting.

How branding actually works

• People default to brands they've seen consistently for years: Amex for credit cards, Adidas for shoes.
• Two factors build brand: longevity in market, quality of product or service.
• B2B brands cannot and should not aim for consumer-brand scale — their addressable market is far smaller.
• A Super Bowl spot for a B2B company reaches millions of non-buyers; the economics don't work.

Enterprise sales cycles

• Pre-economic downturn: 3–6 month sales cycles for large contracts.
• Current environment: 6–12 months is typical; some deals take 2–3 years.
• Land-and-expand is the core model: win a small division or region, outperform, grow.
• Legal review alone can stall deals significantly for software contracts involving data.

Growth strategy: global expansion

• Expanding during a downturn is cheaper — hiring costs less in a bad market.
• Goal: 20+ countries in 2023, 30–35 by end of 2024, eventually 50.
• Entry tactic: win a small deal in a secondary market with a global brand, prove performance, expand into more divisions and regions.
• Some divisions of major corporations do $3–4B in revenue — each is its own growth opportunity.

Omnichannel vs. multichannel

• Multichannel: present on many platforms separately.
• Omnichannel: channels work together to create a congruent brand experience regardless of where the customer encounters you.
• Single-channel growth hacks (pure SEO, email scraping, viral loops) still work — they're just more competitive now.
• Consistent presence across all channels, sustained over years, is the only durable approach.
• Most people don't want to hear this — but it's the reality.