Most buyers already know who they’ll buy from before they fill out a form. If you’re not remembered when they’re back in market, you don’t make the cut. This article covers how brand-building for B2B tech helps you get on the shortlist and how to prove it’s working in ways your CEO and CFO will actually care about. If you want to build brand in B2B tech, focus on being remembered instead of being the best.
By the time most B2B buyers contact a vendor, the deal is already more than halfway done. As covered in Part 2: Real Buying Signals, the shortlist is set more than 80% of the time.
So if buyers have their winner selected on Day 1, how do you make sure it’s you?
Brand-building is your best defence because it won’t matter how good your product is if no one remembers you.
And being remembered is more valuable than having a better widget.
The 95:5 Rule says that at any given time, only 5% of your market is actively looking to buy. Sadly 3 out of 5 deals end in no decision because that’s the safest decision, especially when confidence and trust have yet to be earned.
The remaining 95% won’t take your calls, answer your emails, or fill out your forms because they’re not ready. But they are watching. Learning. Clicking your ads or downloading your PDFs is not buying intent. It’s merely curiosity (assuming they are human and not bots).
Every time you show up on their radar, you earn mental availability for when the time is right. And when that happens, the brand they remember is the brand they add to their list.
Brand memory reduces perceived risk because reputable brands instil confidence and trust.
When buyers see your brand consistently over time, they perceive you as legit, even if they have never engaged with you directly before.
Research from Forrester and McKinsey shows that the Divide Between CMOs and CEOs is Growing.
It’s not that CEOs and CFOs don’t value their brand. It’s because Marketing struggles to demonstrate its direct impact on revenue.
As long as brand initiatives are perceived as disconnected from tangible business outcomes, they risk being sidelined in favor of strategies with more immediately measurable returns.
Important: Marketing does not actually create revenue. But it can positively impact revenue when executed effectively both short-term and long-term. That in turn mitigates risk, earns buyer trust, and drives future growth (things CEOs and CFOs care about).
First, don’t rely on marketing-sourced metrics like last-touch attribution. As discussed in Part 1: Why MQLs Don’t Work, that’s a surefire way to get shown the door.
Instead, move away from granular MQLs and consider buying group signals that are part of an opportunity (this includes AgenticAI).
Example: Three different people from the same company downloading the same PDF is more valuable than one person downloading three different PDFs.
The metrics below show whether or not your brand is building mindshare.
Brand-building is not the opposite of performance marketing. It’s the precursor for it.
If you want to be the vendor buyers remember, you have to earn their confidence and trust before they start their buying cycle again. There are no shortcuts.
You can get on the B2B buyer’s shortlist by showing up consistently where they hang out. When they’re ready, they’ll remember you.
If you’re new to the game and they don’t know much about you, start building up your brand reputation and mitigate as much risk as possible.
Stay visible. Be generous.
Next week will dig into Part 4, how to build a repeatable system that integrates brand with GTM.
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