There appears to be a change in the way businesses are allocating marketing budgets due to commercial pressure and changing marketing conditions. New research from Propolis shows that 76% of B2B businesses are now favouring sales over long-term brand building. According to just over three-quarters of the 150 UK chief executives and senior business leaders surveyed, budgets are too tight to support marketing activity unless it has a clear connection to lead generation.
A further 77% of respondents prioritise revenue growth over market visibility. The report highlights higher scrutiny around marketing budgets than sales budgets, with more than four in five saying marketing budgets are harder to justify in the current market.
The findings suggest that businesses are placing greater emphasis on marketing activity that can demonstrate a relatively quick commercial return. When budgets are tight, as they are for many in the current climate, companies are under greater pressure to maintain revenue. As a result, a growing number of businesses are less willing to spend on marketing when the benefits are longer term.
The long-term cost of short-term marketing
B2B purchase cycles typically require patience, with buying cycles sometimes taking half a year to a year. Marketing activities, like building brand awareness, may influence someone early in that process, but the final sale may not occur until many months later.
This is where brand investment can come under pressure in the boardroom. When the value of brand-building activity is difficult to demonstrate in the short term, it can become harder for marketing teams to justify continued investment, particularly when budgets are already under scrutiny.
According to Propolis, the longer-term consequence could be a weaker pipeline. If businesses focus too heavily on immediate sales, they may invest less in activity that creates future demand, leaving fewer potential customers to enter the buying process further down the line.
Richard O’Connor, Chief Executive Officer at Propolis, commented on this disconnect between short-term measurement and long-term marketing value.
“When businesses prioritise only the marketing activity they can immediately connect to leads and revenue, they risk undervaluing the brand building and demand creation that influence buying decisions much earlier in the journey. The danger is that this leads businesses to cut the very marketing investment that helped create that growth in the first place.”
O’Connor continued, saying the onus shouldn’t only be on marketers to fix. He says it’s also a “business problem.”
“Chief Executive Officers have a responsibility to understand where sustainable growth comes from and give their marketing teams the support they need to demonstrate their commercial contribution, whether that’s better access to commercial data, greater financial understanding, or much closer alignment between marketing and sales.”
The findings also highlight a wider challenge around how marketing performance is measured. Sales outcomes can often be linked directly to leads and revenue, while the impact of brand building may emerge over a longer period and across several touchpoints.
A wider view of marketing performance is therefore required, ensuring long-term demand is not sidelined.
In B2B markets, purchasing decisions are typically more complicated and may involve several stakeholders who want to research and compare different suppliers for some months before deciding on a purchase.
During this period, marketing can have a significant influence, with brand awareness and reputation helping shape what companies to consider before a buyer even speaks to a sales team. Businesses need to balance activity that captures immediate demand with investments that build awareness and create demand over time.
The challenge, then, is not simply proving that marketing works, but deciding which results should determine how budgets are allocated. Propolis’ findings suggest that businesses with long sales processes could put future growth at risk if they focus too heavily on short-term marketing results.
Whether this is a wide-scale movement in marketing priorities remains to be seen, but the findings indicate an increasing need for marketers to demonstrate value across both immediate and future growth. How businesses measure marketing performance will be an important topic at upcoming DMWF events, where marketing experts will explore these themes and more, beginning at the next European conference in Amsterdam.
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