Image source
Kristan Rodriguez
There’s a loud obsession in the marketing landscape today. Marketers love hand-raisers, form fills and MQLs. But here’s the reality:
95% of your potential buyers aren’t ready to purchase today.
That’s right. If your marketing strategy is focused on chasing the 5% that are, you’re gambling growth potential on a shrinking pool of demand.
All too often, brands over-index on last-click metrics. Performance dashboards show green, but the sales pipeline dries up six months later. Leads don’t equate to revenue.
Marketing leaders today aren’t here to stop at MQLs or fill CRM databases with contacts. They’re here to orchestrate the pipeline, drive revenue and build sustainable growth. The old model of lead gen and demand gen is carving the path to revenue generation.
Competitors who build awareness today dominate Day-1 Lists tomorrow.
The LinkedIn B2B Institute evangelizes the 95-5 Rule, stating that 95% of your buyers aren’t in-market right now and only 5% are actively ready to buy.
Harvard Business Review outlines serious risks some advertisers and marketers underestimate when the 95% flip in-market:
TrustRadius also provides the data on the realities behind B2B shortlists:
Brands that focus heavily on handraisers are already invisible when customers are ready to purchase.
Ty Heath of LinkedIn B2B Institute put it best during our Making the Case for the Marketing Budget fireside chat:
Marketers no longer have the luxury of dreaming of being on a shortlist with five to seven other companies. Those lists have been shortened to three to five companies, and sometimes just one.
In this age of shrinking consideration sets and faster decision cycles, brand building is how companies pre-sell their product before sales gets involved. Say goodbye to seeing brand as a discretionary line item on the marketing budget. It’s now strategic infrastructure.
For B2B marketing and beyond:
brand = risk mitigation.
And the psychology behind B2B consumer behavior is simple:
These factors above are why being on the Day 1 List is mission-critical for brands.
Here are the business impacts of being on the short list:
Nisrin Makki, Senior Digital Advertising Manager at Closed Loop, sums up why traditional channel thinking fails today:
This is why strong brands invest in video, thought leadership and storytelling on LinkedIn, not just conversion ads.
For years, marketers have grouped channels by the funnel stage. But channel-first marketing is outdated. After all, channels don’t live in the funnel. Buyers do, and they move quite frequently.
The buyer journey is no longer linear. Customers don’t necessarily see an ad on LinkedIn, then engage in a search and subsequently fill out a form or make a purchase. They bounce around between touchpoints and self-educate, engaging with different content on the same channels for various reasons.
Treating channels like buckets begets serving the wrong creative to the wrong buyer state. Imagine serving a demo ad to an audience out of the market or an awareness ad to a prospect actively evaluating you. The wrong goals, message, and time. That’s a waste of money and the chaos of fragmented paid media strategies.
Channels can serve multiple purposes depending on audience targeting, KPIs and creative messaging.
Full-funnel planning isn’t about buckets but the right balance and media mix:
Investing in future buyers doesn’t mean neglecting the pipeline today. Marketers must move beyond the false “brand or performance” debate and instead engage in full-funnel media planning.
Full-funnel media planning balances spend so brands can create tomorrow’s demand while capturing today’s. It’s about balance.
Start with an audience analysis to better understand your customer and identify areas of opportunity to connect. The more brands know about the customer, the easier it is to find connection points.
Use tools like Resonate & SparkToro to understand:
It’s critical to understand how buyers move from awareness to being in-market. As such, brands should map journeys so they know when to inspire, educate and convert customers.
Creative needs to match intent across the funnel. When it doesn’t, media and creative work against business goals.
When determining your media mix:
Full-funnel measurement considers other touchpoints and moves away from last-click metrics when measuring pipeline performance.
Giving competitors market share is never a good idea, but it’s always a brilliant idea to build sustainable, long-term growth.
Full-funnel paid media is where brand and demand meet. Pivot your paid media strategy today to create the demand your future pipeline depends on.
Marketing leaders can no longer stop at MQLs. CMOs who align their teams around revenue, and run through the finish line, own the growth narrative, earn influence in the boardroom and build marketing engines that drive pipeline, not just leads.
Fragmented teams. Misaligned goals. Disconnected campaigns. It’s costing more than performance. It’s costing control. Now is the time to consolidate, align and reclaim your paid media strategy.
The evolution of AI has transformed more than tech stacks. It’s exposing strategy gaps in paid media, creative and visibility. Here’s what top experts are doing differently.