Brand is your best bet
Here’s why it’s the multiplier behind your GTM.
I've been fascinated by brands for years, not because they're fluffy or creative, but because of how powerful they are.
Take Slack for example.
In 2016, Microsoft launched Teams - free, bundled with Office 365, and backed by one of the biggest enterprise sales machines in the world. Analysts called it a Slack-killer.
But Slack didn’t compete on features or price. They doubled down on brand, selling one idea:
“Work doesn’t have to feel like work.”
They built trust, familiarity, and emotional connection - long before anyone filled out a form.
Four years later, Salesforce acquired Slack for $27.7 billion - not because it was the only choice, but because it was the one people preferred.
That’s brand.
Or as Jeff Bezos puts it:
Even simpler? Your brand is your reputation.
Why brand isn’t optional anymore
I hear many B2B companies say they don’t have time to build a brand.
Because they're stuck in a short-term mindset, chasing quarterly pipeline.
But here's the problem:
Buyers don’t start at your website. They start with what they’ve seen and heard.
So, if they don’t already remember or trust you by the time they enter the market, you've already lost.
Brand is the multiplier for everything else you’re doing. It’s the compounding force that makes your entire GTM work better - paid, outbound, sales. All of it.
Because when buyers already know your name, they respond differently:
They’re more open. More trusting. More ready.
And the data backs it up:
According to Bain & Company, 80-90% of buyers already have a set of vendors in mind before they do any research, and 90% of them pick a vendor from that initial list.
A strong brand is what gets you on their vendor shortlist.
“Brand takes too long to work”
One of the biggest myths I hear from B2B companies is that brand takes "too long" to deliver results.
That’s wrong.
Good brand marketing starts working immediately, especially on the 5% of buyers who are already looking for a solution like yours (the 95:5 rule).
For the other 95%, brand builds memory & preference, or what neuroscientists call "mental availability." It sticks around until those buyers enter that market weeks, months or even years later.
In other words, brand isn’t slow. It’s compounding.
Your brand can impact both your short-term results and long-term growth. Performance alone can't do that. The chart below shows it clearly.
How it actually fits your GTM
Let’s break it down:
→ Brand builds memory, trust, and emotional preference before intent ever shows up.
Think: thought leadership, founder POV, storytelling campaigns & brand videos.
→ Demand creates intent (why now), captures it, and turns it into pipeline.
Think: educational content, customer stories, webinars, comparison pages & retargeting campaigns.
→ Expand grows the value of customers who already trust you.
Think: product updates, newsletters, exclusive training & CS content.
Yes, brand doesn’t just live at the top of the funnel but runs through your entire GTM motion.
So, how do you know if your brand is working?
Glad you asked.
Brand rarely shows up in your attribution software and its impact isn’t always immediate.
But it shows up where it matters. Just to name a few:
You start hearing “I love your content” on sales calls
Faster sales cycles & stronger win rates
Your CAC & CAC payback improve
You see more direct and branded search
Your outbound response rates go up
Expansion gets easier (renewals, upsells, advocacy)
When your brand is working, everything else starts to work better too. You’ll simply feel it.
Between the lines
What I love most about brand marketing is that it gives you the freedom to be creative.
But only if you let it.
If every campaign has to prove ROI, you’ll never leave room for bold ideas. And that’s exactly what makes so much B2B marketing forgettable.
When you give your team space to be creative, not just efficient, you unlock what brand is really for:
Making people care. Making people remember.
One of my favorite examples of this?
Mailchimp’s “Did You Mean Mailchimp?” campaign.
To stand out in a crowded space, they didn’t run traditional ads.
They launched a bunch of bizarre fake brands like MailShrimp, KaleLimp, JailBlimp - with short films, strange visuals, and even original music.
The goal?
Get people curious. Confused. Searching.
And it worked. Their brand awareness jumped 79% among small business owners. While they didn’t share sales numbers, that kind of awareness almost always leads to growth.
That’s what happens when you stop treating your brand like a nice-to-have, and start letting it do its job.
Thanks for reading & see you next Saturday!
Alon
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