Splitting Marketing Resources

Most of your potential customers aren’t looking to buy right now.

That’s the reality. And it creates a tension at the heart of B2B marketing: do you focus your budget on the small group that’s ready to act - or invest in the much larger group who aren’t?

Startups under pressure often go all-in on lead gen. It’s visible. It’s immediate. It feels productive.

But growth doesn’t come from who’s buying today. It comes from who remembers you tomorrow.

So it’s not a case of in-market vs out-of-market.

It’s about finding the right balance - for your category, your stage, and your sales cycle.

Get it wrong, and the effects are predictable:

• Over-focus on short-term demand capture and you may hit this quarter’s target - but create no pipeline for the next.
• Over-focus on brand, and you risk a dry quarter when you need revenue most.

Effective marketing teams manage both - using data, not guesswork.

What Do We Mean by In-Market and Out-of-Market?

In-market buyers are actively researching. They’re comparing suppliers, attending demos, responding to outreach. They’re ready - or nearly ready - to buy.

But they’re a small fraction of your market.

According to Professor John Dawes¹ at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, only around 5% of B2B buyers are “in-market” at any given time.

That means nineteen out of twenty aren’t.

These are your out-of-market buyers.

They might have the problem you solve. They might even recognise it. But they’re not actively shopping. Not yet.

When they do move, the key question is:

Will they think of you?

That’s what brand marketing is for. Not to manufacture demand - but to create memory. So when the trigger happens, your name comes up.

The Two Jobs of Marketing

Marketing has two core jobs:

• Create future demand - by building mental availability and reach
• Capture current demand - by converting existing intent into revenue

Dawes refers to this as planting and harvesting.

You can’t make someone buy before they’re ready. But you can make sure they already know who you are.

That’s why brand investment isn’t optional. It’s long-term sales enablement - what Jenni Romaniuk² describes as “catching buyers as they fall.”

Brand-building is cumulative. You won’t see a spike next week. But over time, it makes all your marketing work harder.

Activation, by contrast, is fast.

It’s outbound. Retargeting. PPC. Product pages. Demos.

It’s easy to track. Easy to scale. And for in-market buyers, it works.

But it only works for the few who are already looking.

And without brand, those few shrink.

You can’t grow by just catching the ripest fruit.

What the Research Shows

Les Binet and Peter Field³ frame this as “the long and the short of it.”

Their research - based on decades of campaign data - shows:

• Sales activation delivers quick, measurable uplifts - but the effect fades fast
• Brand building works more slowly - but its impact compounds and lasts

Without brand, every new campaign starts from scratch.

With it, each one performs better - because memory and reputation are already doing part of the job.

Strong brands convert more. Even when the creative’s not perfect. Even when the targeting’s off.

How Should You Split the Budget?

Binet and Field suggest:

• Consumer: 60% brand / 40% activation
• B2B: 46% brand / 54% activation

That slight lean towards activation in B2B reflects the need for more detail at the point of purchase - but brand still accounts for nearly half.

In practice, most B2B teams don’t come close.

Recent surveys⁴ suggest many operate closer to a 33/67 split - with startups spending even less on brand.

It’s understandable. Activation shows numbers. Brand takes faith.

But without balance, the consequences add up:

• Cost-per-lead rises
• Conversion rates fall
• Pipelines dry up

Peter Field⁶ put it simply:

“If you only harvest and never sow, even the most fertile field will eventually turn barren.”

Why Focus on Buyers Who Aren’t Looking Yet?

Because they’re your future revenue.

Ehrenberg-Bass research⁸ confirms a consistent truth: growth comes from customer acquisition - not repeat purchase alone.

Most of the buyers you need haven’t engaged with you yet. And they won’t all enter the market next week.

Brand marketing is how you reach them in advance - and stay in memory until they’re ready.

That’s mental availability.

It’s not just “awareness.” It’s being easily recalled when a relevant need arises.

Think:

• “Didn’t we see something from them on this?”
• “They feel like the safer option.”

It helps buyers make faster decisions. It reduces perceived risk.

And in B2B, where purchase decisions are often career-relevant, that matters a lot.

If you wait until someone is actively researching to introduce your brand, it’s probably too late.

Emotion Still Works in B2B

There’s a myth that B2B is all logic and comparison tables.

But preference is shaped long before the spreadsheet stage.

And emotion is what does that shaping.

Campaigns that speak to ambition, frustration, identity - not just features - tend to stick.

The data⁵ shows emotional campaigns consistently outperform rational ones when it comes to long-term ROI.

You still need rational content to support buying decisions.

But without emotional salience, you won’t be in the running.

Emotion sets the frame.

And strong framing improves everything that follows - from engagement to conversion to price sensitivity.

Always-On, Not Always-Loud

You can’t time when someone enters the market.

So your brand marketing needs to be always-on.

That doesn’t mean always spending big.

It means showing up consistently - just enough to stay in the memory.

As the B2B Institute⁷ puts it: “Successful marketers don’t try to time the customer.”

They show up early. And they keep showing up.

What About Activation?

Brand is the long game.

Activation is the short game.

And both are essential.

Revenue needs to come in. Especially early on, when cash flow is tight.

That’s what activation does: it converts existing intent into pipeline.

But it works best when brand has done the groundwork.

The message lands better. The funnel flows more easily. The cost-per-conversion improves.

So make sure your activation is:

• Aligned with your brand positioning
• Consistent across the journey
• Measured against outcomes - not just clicks

Activation closes the sale.

But brand sets the terms.

References

1. Evidence on how many B2B buyers are in-market at any given time, Dawes, J., Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, 2021.
2. Building Mental Availability, Romaniuk, J., How Brands Grow Part 2, 2018.
3. The Long and the Short of It, Binet, L. & Field, P., IPA, 2013.
4. 95:5 Rule and Brand Building in B2B, LinkedIn B2B Institute, 2020.
5. Emotional vs Rational Advertising Effectiveness, IPA Databank Analysis, 2020.
6. Brand Investment and Share of Voice, Field, P., IPA/LinkedIn Talks, 2021.
7. Don’t Time the Market, Weinberg, P. & Lombardo, J., B2B Institute, 2020.
8. Laws of Growth in B2B, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, 2020.