I'm ending this fight once and for all.

Keep reading to see who wins, and who gets buried for good ??

????

The debate ends today!

First, I need to take you back to 2006 for a sec...

I don't talk about this much, but I had art scholarships offered to me in high school. Sadly, I never took them because I bought the lie that artists starve.

“Creative people just don't succeed.” -Me

I decided to become an architect instead.

I chased the safe-bet career instead of what was burning inside my soul to do. Turns out, you need to know how to do math to be an architect.

Good thing I dropped out six months in ??.

I started my career as a graphic designer in 2006 after I met someone who saw my skills and encouraged me to jump in.

I instantly fell in love with fonts, logos, and communicating ideas with imagery.

A few years later I built a really solid, multi-six figure business just serving clients in the corporate identity, design, and content creation space.

Turns out I was REALLY wrong about creative people being poor ????.

But then...I fell in love with this idea called, ”brand” and it consumed me.

I learned that a business could operate with a heartbeat and have a human interaction with consumers. It blew my mind ??.

I've worked with some amazing brands all over the world and been featured in a few books. To this day I joke that my parents named me Brand-on knowing what I would do for a living.

During much of this season I operated with the belief that marketing didn't work unless you had a strong brand.

Like millions of professionals for centuries, I too bought the lie that brand and marketing were at odds with each other.

?? I was dead wrong again.

After doing this for 15+ years, learning from the best marketers on the planet, and building a world class brand AND marketing consultancy I now see it clearly...

It's time to settle the score between brand vs marketing.

To actually become a strong brand you HAVE to do marketing that WORKS!

But...to actually do marketing well you HAVE to invest in your brand.

Chicken, meet your egg.

?? (hello.) ??

People have been arguing for centuries on whether brand or marketing is more important. Books are written about his. Conferences are devoted to the topic.

But here's the actual truth ????

Show me a firm whose marketing is underperforming and I will show you a firm who has de-prioritized their brand.

But also...

Show me a firm who is struggling to become a household name and I will show you a marketing playbook that either doesn't exist, or is as effective as a wet paper bag.

(Sometimes these firms have the best brand identity and style guides on the market...but it's all a nothing burger ??).

If you don't have both, you have nothing. And sadly, many firms choose immediate, short term, lead-gen-focused activities while their brand suffers...only to keep the cycle of chasing empty leads (who have no idea who your firm is) spinning.

The others dump it all into their logo, identity, and brand while they watch it collect dust with no idea how to get the brand in front of the right-fit buyers.

(Your cool new tag line is useless if no one ever sees it.)

For the longest time it's been one or the other. Brand or Marketing?

Does this sound familiar? ????

”We know we don't have a very clear story, or really know why our firm is different. We also know our brand needs updated to reflect our new capabilities and the businesses we've acquired...but the board really just wants us to focus on pipeline and our CFO won't justify a brand investment right now. ” -Tech CMO

This has been the norm for decades. Until now.

Gone are the days where brand investments die on the alter of lead gen.

AND...

Gone are the days where lead gen suffers at the cost of brand investments.

But how?

Technology is catching up with brand and marketing strategies and we're seeing these two worlds collide like never before, even for smaller firms who don't have BIG-4-sized-budgets.

We’re seeing brand + demand led approaches to marketing produce results at warp-speed that used to take years.

I'll break it down...

The dangers of a lead-gen-only approach to marketing.

Old way: Marketing's job is to JUST drive pipeline–nothing else. Sadly, most internal teams aren't even doing that well and CAC’s are at an all time high.

The lead-gen-ONLY marketing function is not only really hard and expensive, it can actually damage your firm's reputation.

When all you focus on is selling to the 5% who are ready to buy, you alienate the 95% who aren't. And if someone isn't ready to buy, chances are they either don't know about your firm at all, or you've already left a bad taste in their mouth by trying to pitch them something they don't need.

?? Trying to force someone onto a call JUST to find out if they want to buy is an effective way to make them avoid your company in the future.

The brand is how you build trust, and when the brand isn't strong, most sales-heavy efforts are a major turnoff.

When this happens, sales and marketing efforts go right back into trying to get badge scans and demos while most of your market is just out there wanting to learn, not buy!

This is why sales teams are frustrated when they have to not only spend time qualifying whether someone is a right-fit or not....they now also have to do marketing's job and introduce your firm, offering, or company.

(Sales shouldn't be the storytellers who make first introductions for your firm, but that's another article for another day ??)

This is why the whole FRICKING thing isn't working and marketing just keeps spinning its wheels trying tactics that don't help anyone hit their numbers.

??

New Way: How a Brand + Demand led marketing function impacts your brand and your pipeline

Lead-gen-focused marketing is not only hard, outdated, and expensive, it harms your brand.

We have found that when you focus on generating REAL demand THE HUMAN WAY, not empty leads, you also build awareness for your brand in the process.

(I call this a brand + demand led marketing function and I'll refer to this as B+D as we read.)

Remember that 95% of your market who isn't ready to talk to sales yet? They're spending all their time learning. And the 5% will only buy from a brand they know like and trust.

The answer: Build a B+D Powerhouse that Wins the 95% AND the 5%!

(??A brand AND marketing cocktail of awesomeness ??)

How to create a B+D marketing powerhouse:

1. Start with a strategic narrative and a strong POV that challenges the status quo in your market. When you do this, people will listen and attention will be yours. Clarify your brand’s unique story how you'll attract your ideal buyers.
2. Then, create an influence engine. Turn that strategic narrative into a POV that permeates your content. Put the content out in ways that reach buyers in every stage of their learning. You'll create actual fans who self-select to keep learning. They'll see your firm as the go-to for what you do...even if they aren't ready to spend money.
3. Having a target account list is table stakes. The key is to have one that's HYPER accurate. Once you do, you'll spend less time getting your content in front of people who will never buy from you and more time talking to EXACT right-fit prospects. Here's where the magic happens... B+D, when run correctly, enables you to capture the in-market prospects who ARE ready to buy!
4. All you need to do from there is learn, measure, and optimize. Technology has evolved so fast that tracking and optimization have never been easier to navigate. A B+D led approach uses tracking and data to literally pour gas on the fires of what's working and snuff out the stuff that's not.

A B+D led marketing function literally empowers your business to turn non-ready-to-buy prospects into fans of your brand, so that when they are ready...they pick you. And in the process it brings the 5% who are ready to buy right to the bottom of the funnel on their own.

This is why b2b tech firms are increasing their brand reach ?while? stuffing their pipeline to its brim at the same time...and they're doing it faster than ever!

It's not brand vs marketing anymore–this is the future of both, and it's so much freaking fun!

What this is NOT

No, this isn't glorified inbound, or outbound. It's not just "demand gen." This isn't paid vs organic. This isn't about tools and tech. And it's not just another way to talk about "Full Funnel" marketing. It's about a fundamental, simple, approach to turning marketing back into the brand awareness powerhouse AND the pipeline generating machine it was always supposed to be. This is a totally different way to think about building your brand while generating real leads and revenue at the same time.

This is really good news for marketers who want to be more than glorified coordinators and make a real impact on the businesses who employ them!

None of us signed up to just be another "lead generator."

Marketers want to create. We want to tell stories that move people. We want to do the brand generating stuff we dreamed about when we got into this business.

And yes, we want to GET WINS that lead to revenue, too!

?? Summary: Four Steps to Building a Brand + Demand-Led Marketing Function

????

1. Build a wicked smart and hyper accurate target account list (use AI)
2. Turn your brand's POV into an influence engine (Use your brand-story to create pillar content)
3. Put your pillar content where your buyers hang out and capture the in-market accounts while turning out-of-market accounts into super fans (Create an influence engine). This is where the revenue literally goes up!
4. Track and optimize all of it regularly. Double down on what works and quit what doesn't (Measure and improve as you go)

Results of a B+D approach

One thing we have been seeing over the past 5 years that's become part of the playbook we run: The firms who invest in a B + D approach see real results. I'm talking about more of everything:

1. Sourced Pipeline
2. Brand awareness
3. Every impression and engagement you can think of
4. More demos and booked calls
5. More audience growth
6. Actual revenue

You'll also overcome Tool Fatigue

(It's no longer just about the tools and tactics)

We all have tool fatigue, and it's only going to get worse!) Salesforce? Hubspot? Apollo? Outreach? GetRev? SixSense? Video? Organic social? Webinars? It doesn't matter! There's hundreds of tools and tactics. It's not about those!

It's about deciding that you're going to stop going after a volume of empty leads and start building your brand and your pipeline at the same time with these four, simple steps.

Every firm is different and when you implement a B+D approach to marketing finding the right tools and tech investments actually becomes way easier.

Brand + Demand will be the future of ALL business growth playbooks.

But that's not all–a wave of other changes are coming...

????

The creative industry and firms who serve these businesses are also going to be flipped on their heads.

Here's what we're going to see as brand + demand becomes the norm...

1. Private equity groups and VCs will invest in small, market-level brand + demand teams instead of teams of overpaid marketing coordinators managing projects that lead to nothing.
2. Branding firms who spend 6-12 months building strategies and identities will be replaced by agile, young, expert, strategic brand & marketing teams who can construct powerful research and turn into nail-biting narratives and beautiful identities in days or weeks...not months. (And they'll deliver all the content to go with it!)
3. Agencies will partner with other agencies like never before as competition turns into collaboration like we've never seen in history
4. Creative business acquisitions are going to skyrocket as firms realize the need for brand + demand and their inability to build this out in-house
5. Small teams of specialists are going to almost instantly replace big, bloated, in-house marketing departments.
6. Video, podcasting, and interactive media will replace white papers and boring newsletters.
7. Break rooms across the world will be transformed into content creation pods with lights, cameras, and tons of brand-ACTION!
8. Creative professionals who used to be one-dimensional are going to become what I call, "Hybrid-Creatives" and will master multiple skills that provide cross functional value. Example: Your designer will be able to write email copy and edit video...and he/she will use AI to make it better and more effective than it ever has been. 350K in salaries will turn into 100-180K overnight.
9. Brand & marketing firms across the world (yes, even the USA) will start implementing 4-day work weeks because they will discover that top talent want time with their families, not just money or fantom stock! And AI will empower this to become a reality as everyone becomes more efficient.

?? Brand AND Marketing!

?? More Leads AND A Bigger Audience!

?? Relevance AND Revenue!

?? Sexy Brand Identities and Top Line Growth!

?? Cool Videos AND Full Pipeline!

It's BOTH, AND!

The future is bright

I am so glad that I have spent the last 15+ years being wrong about lots of things, so that I could be here in this exact moment to be RIGHT about this.

???? If you're a brand or marketing person I have great news...????

? While everyone is fighting over whether brand or marketing is more valuable...

? While everyone is building SaaS...

? And while everyone is "getting into tech"

?? You don't have to feel like you're missing out any more!

Now might be the greatest (and most profitable) moment in history to be a strategic professional who knows how to move hearts and minds with the limitless combined powers of brand & marketing.

This is what we are positioned for and ALREADY doing at Forrest. So put down your weapons. Stop the fight. Let's work together so these tech businesses can finally grow and help build a world where people and technology make life better for our kids and grandkids!

For the love of humanity,

BT

*P.S. Come and build with us while we put humanity back in business, and continue to become a household name amongst the world’s most influential tech leaders.

Hit me up!

????

forrest.co