When is the right time to invest in marketing?

What sort of marketing should I do, and when? What's the difference between marketing at a startup level, versus scale-up?

Most businesses go through a similar marketing evolution; from owned media channels (i.e. organic social media, blog, newsletters… ) to paid media (i.e. post-boosting, social ads or PPC), to earned media (i.e. press coverage or influencer shoutouts).

The marketing evolution corresponds to the company’s market success - from getting early adopters to become the first customers, to nailing that all-important product-market fit. The marketing evolution ultimately corresponds to the financial health of the company. When the business is starting out budget is tight pre-revenue, so owned media channels such as organic social and blogging serve as the low-risk paddling pool for testing out offers and messaging.

As the business grows, either profits are re-invested into the business or funding is secured based on the early traction, to then boost the marketing activities so far. This is where paid media - and in particular performance marketing - comes into the picture.

The winner in a pay-to-play game is the brand with the deepest pockets.

Performance marketing - which includes social ads, PPC, display, and retargeting - is a natural next step for most high-growth startups due to the immediacy of results, the low barriers to entry, and the (seemingly) reliable analytics this playground can provide.

The problem is a lot of companies get stuck here.

Over time, ad performance plateaus, there’s a lack of clarity beyond the visible numbers, and the winner in a pay-to-play game is often the brand with the deepest pockets. The conversions nosedive when you lower the spend, or disappear altogether when you switch off campaigns completely. You’re also at the mercy of Meta, or Google, or ByteDance - and have probably found yourself handcuffed to unexpected account pauses or other technical difficulties from time to time.

But there’s comfort in the numbers. The spreadsheets appease the finance team, the reporting placates the revenue team, and the data-driven decision-making keeps the bosses happy. Magnify this over-reliance on the data if you have VC funding.

How marketing can take a business from startup to scale-up

In order to go from good to great, leaders need to take gutsy action. It takes persuasive superpowers. It takes bold thinking without having all the numbers. It takes dreaming and instinct and creativity. This is what launched the entrepreneurial, innovative startup in the beginning; not the process-driven weekly reporting machine it’s turning into.

You see, being data-driven is based on the past. It does not create a breeding ground for innovation, or set up the business to stand out from the crowd.

This is where the next level of marketing comes in.

Enter brand performance marketing, where all the maths and science of marketing meet the creativity and innovation.

What is "brand performance" marketing?

Brand performance, or a brand-led form of integrated marketing, combines the learnings to date with brand-building for the future. It balances the long and short, cycling in longer-term thinking and brand activations to build more mental availability, memorability, and recall for your target customers - alongside the shorter-term tactics that mops up existing demand or converts the lower-hanging fruit in the meantime.

This is particularly vital when the majority of your target audience is not in market at any given time.

Reports indicate that only 2-5% of B2B businesses' ideal customer is in-market and ready to buy at any point in time - so your marketing needs to work on the larger proportion that are in the earlier stages of the funnel (consideration, intent) so that when they are ready to buy, you're the first solution that comes to mind for them.

That is the recipe to go from startup to scale-up.

A healthy marketing plan should contain a mix of strategies and tactics, including a relevant combination across both short- and long-term activities, plus some tolerance for experimentation.

Bringing in strategic thinking and laying the groundwork for more lasting brand effects is the natural graduation to go from startup to scale-up.

Ok, so when exactly should we bring brand performance into the mix?

This level of marketing makes sense to start implementing when the business ticks the following five boxes:

1. In-house marketing - There is either a junior to mid-level marketer who’s truly a scrappy startupper; they roll up their sleeves and do a bit of everything, in particular managing the day-to-day ‘hygiene’ level of marketing activity with a performance agency to support; or a senior marketer acting as the “marketing department of one!” These marketing pros are immersed in the business but need support, either with external agencies/consultants or with more hires.
   

2. Senior staff fulfilling a role in Ops, Revenue, Commercial, and/or Growth functions. These could be titles like Chief Operating Officer, Revenue Lead, Commercial Director, or Growth Consultant. These are all non-marketing yet marketing-adjacent roles that are conducive to the wider success.
   

3. Product-market fit achieved for the business, with a reliable income stream and regular revenue, like annual subscriptions in SaaS or monthly retainers in B2B. This not only indicates a level of financial health for the business, but it denotes the product attractiveness and customer loyalty from a market perspective. (Ultimately product-market fit).
   

4. Healthy finances - be it through revenue generation, lucrative profit-making, or external funding - a financially sound business will have reliable income, a safety buffer, and a long enough runway to ensure the business is in a solid position. It’s with this level of confidence the business can go the next level in its marketing.
   

5. Keen drive, hunger, ambition to take the business to the next level, with the patience to commit to lasting brand-building, and awareness this will not garner the same instant gratification as the performance marketing the business has become accustomed to.

I get it! But how do I convince my boss?

Think of marketing like nutrition. A healthy plate of food should look like a rainbow, with colourful fruit & veg containing vital nutrients, with some protein, fat, and carbohydrates to add energy to the vitamins and minerals. Realistically speaking, maybe there’s a glass of wine or sweet dessert to follow.

Performance marketing - with its immediate results and interactive data - is like the sugar kick from the chocolate cake. It’s a rush, and, when switched on, the energy spikes. But after it quickly dissipates comes the crash landing. So, you have some more chocolate to pick things back up again. On continues the cycle.

Did you know the value of brand can be worth 20% of your overall company valuation?

To talk numbers, businesses with a strong brand enjoy 33% higher revenue than those without, 306% higher customer lifetime value, and 3X their speed to profitability. Not to mention the higher margins, loyalty, and advocacy rates that businesses with a strong brand can enjoy.

I'm in! What's next?

Simply book a call or send us an email - we'd love to help your business bloom!

Bloom is an award-winning marketing agency taking startups to sophisticated scale-up status through marketing strategy. With work featured in the likes of Forbes, The Independent, and Sifted, we are proud to help UK businesses achieve the next level in their growth journey.

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