Why connecting brand to demand is the future of B2B marketing.

In the kaleidoscope of digital transformation, brand and demand in B2B marketing have twisted themselves a vibrant new pattern.  

The modern B2B marketer is sketching out a masterpiece by blending data with creativity – with alignment of brand and demand strategies webbing into a cohesive work of art. 

Understanding and embracing the brand-to-demand connection is like finding your signature color palette. This strategy is the future of B2B marketing, promising to add depth to online B2B sales and enhance the customer experience. 

Boom. Picasso. 

The Power of Connection

Most B2B marketers are now taking a full-funnel approach to demand gen to guarantee that all marketing efforts are beating in sync across brand and demand.  

This isn’t an overnight trend but rather, more of a natural evolution. A staggering 99% of marketers agree that their brand strategy significantly influences their demand gen programs.  

How’s that for mutual agreement? 

Despite alignments, there are real challenges when passing leads to sales.   

Not all connection is good connection. 40% of marketers have too many unqualified leads as a primary pain point in their funnel. Even more concerning is that a third of organizations report having weak pipeline as a major issue. 

Intervention time. 

Keeping the lights on

Marketers need to sit down chair-to-chair with other teams to strengthen the brand and demand connection. 

Too often, marketers will pass their leads over to sales and consider their job then to be complete. Instead, focusing on collaboration between sales and marketing is crucial to identifying, activating, tracking, and closing the ideal B2B customer. Brand and sales processes should be viewed as intermingled efforts since they do work in tandem throughout the B2B buyer journey. 

How to achieve internal alignment nirvana in three steps. 

1. Define the role of the marketing and sales teams across the buyer journey so you can allocate resources to the right people at the correct times. 
2. Identify the difference between points of collaboration, and/or when marketing and sales need to part ways. Hashing it out among those two departments within your organization is the only way you’ll create a full-funnel system that meets your business objectives. 
3. Don’t expect to figure out the brand-to-demand immediately. Just know that each step made to strengthen the brand bond is progress – and you’ll get to your destination eventually. 

The brand-to-demand strategy pairs cohesive storytelling with lead generation tactics to supercharge the entire B2B customer journey. It’s about managing both as a connected value continuum that multiplies the impact of each. Moreover, this approach is a powerful way to balance short-term action and long-term investment. 

The psychology is that you want to generate brand familiarity and affinity in your marketing so that when a need arises, your product or solution quickly comes to mind. You have to maintain a wait-and-see attitude before you see results. 

Practice makes perfect with this strategy, and success won’t happen overnight. But when its done right and done consistently, you’ll see an increase in both your sales volume and customer lifetime value. 

Create Your Marketing Masterpiece

It’s time to dip your brush, align your brand and demand strategies, and paint a picture that resonates with the contemporary market.  

Understanding and embracing the brand-to-demand connection is like finding your signature color palette. It’s about mixing data into vibrant insights, breaking down the barriers (interdepartmental siloes), and crafting a strategy that delivers a masterpiece.  

Want to learn more insights about modern B2B marketer and the state of the demand gen industry?  Check out the Dimensions of Demand Gen Report, which includes learnings gathered from 1,500 B2B marketers from around the world who work at the manager level or higher.