Striking a balance: Brand building versus sales activation

I recently spoke with an executive who wanted to grow his business. “Just give me a list of targets to call,” he asked, convinced that’s all he needed to generate sales.

Many business leaders wish they could gain more sales faster. They may think if they just had a list of the right people to call or if they just ran the right promotional deal, they could quickly bring in revenue. However, even if these tactics succeed in boosting the bottom line in the short term, they won’t be enough for sustainable growth.  

While generating sales, or customer conversions, is a top priority for any business, it’s important to keep both short-term and long-term growth in mind. If you invest all your marketing and business development budget and efforts into short-term sales activation, you'll be missing out on the long-term benefits of brand building. Likewise, if you only invest in brand building, you won’t reach your full revenue potential. 

The key is finding the right balance.  

Activating sales 

Sales activation strategies focus on driving immediate sales or leads for a short-term boost. These strategies, such as promotional discounts and offers, abandoned cart emails, and lead generation ad campaigns, can be very effective at converting prospects who are already near the bottom of the sales funnel (i.e., close to making a purchase decision).  

Sales activation (aka short-term marketing or performance marketing): 

• Converts prospects at the bottom of the funnel 

• Targets a narrow segment 

• Uses persuasive, rational messages about a product or service 

• Activates mental brand equity to elicit a response 

• Results in immediate sales but limited growth 

Building a brand 

Brand building, on the other hand, focuses on long-term growth.  Strategies such as content marketing and thought leadership, event sponsorships, and brand awareness ad campaigns, introduce future customers to your brand when they are at the top of the sales funnel (i.e., becoming aware of a product or service), influencing future sales. Brand building improves brand perception and loyalty, leading to sustainable growth over time. 

Brand building (aka long-term marketing):  

• Fills the pipeline at the top of the funnel 

• Has a broad reach  

• Uses emotional appeal in messages about the brand 

• Creates mental brand equity 

• Leads to future sales and sustainable growth 

Finding a balance 

So what’s the right balance between brand building and sales activation?   

While the right mix will vary depending on your industry, business model, and other factors, there is a generally accepted answer to the balance question. Marketing effectiveness experts Les Binet and Peter Field conducted one of the most well-known studies on brand building and sales activation and found that a roughly 60:40 marketing campaign budget split – with the higher percentage for brand building – is the optimal ratio. That means for every $4 you spend on generating immediate sales, you should allocate $6 to building your brand.   

It’s worth noting it’s much more common for organizations to over-invest in sales activation and under-invest in brand building than the other way around. However, Binet and Field’s research shows it's better (in terms of business effects such as profit, sales, market share, etc.) to overspend on brand building than to underspend. 

As management guru Peter Drucker famously said, “You have to produce results in the short term. But you also have to produce results in the long term. And the long term is not simply the adding up of short terms.”  

Ultimately, brand building and sales activation go hand in hand. They are both necessary for growth. Sales activation drives immediate results while brand building sets up your business for sustainable success.