Performance marketing versus brand building?  One of the biggest tensions in healthcare startup marketing right now is prioritizing spending on performance marketing versus building brand. The pressure is on to generate leads and conversions in the race to revenue and performance marketing seems like the shortest path to that goal. But is it? At Hippos Health, we offer both brand building and performance marketing services and have a point of view on the two strategies based on client experiences. 

 

Client A invested in thought leadership to define itself in the marketplace and to engage with influential stakeholders.  The notoriety it gained out of the gate, drew customers to consider its services, in short, warm leads ready for conversation. Client B eschewed thought leadership, deciding that performance marketing would put its services directly in front of potential customers faster. It struggled to generate leads. In fact, it developed zero leads.

 

These examples evoke the idiom of the carrot and the stick and the relative value of persuasion over force. The truth is we resigned Client B, knowing their lack of brand awareness and perceived value rendered their direct marketing ineffective. Alternatively, Client A has continued on a path of outsized growth and market leadership doubling their recognized revenue.

 

In the midst of this experience, a conversation with a CMO put in context the balance between brand awareness and lead generation. In a job measured quarterly by hard metrics for leads generated and conversations achieved, he prioritized a high volume of lead generation efforts, using multiple vendors from across the globe, because his brand had enough awareness and respect to capitalize on the value of those efforts.

 

What is enough brand awareness and value for successful lead gen? That’s a great question and we’ve tried unsuccessfully to find data or research that indicates an exact tipping point. However, research by Analytic Partners provides evidence that brand marketing outperforms performance marketing 80 percent of the time. The brand is the better investment.  Humans need to be motivated to make one choice over another. A respected position in the marketplace, validated by influential stakeholders not only drives consideration but purchase decision and loyalty. That’s a result of brand building. And, in a world in which lead generation efforts are growing exponentially and saturating the market, the constant barrage of emails and targeted marketing is a din that people want to shut out.