Dear Direct Response Letter Subscriber:

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According to an article in Business Marketing SmartBrief (11/20/25), "B2B marketers are focusing on demand capture at the expense of brand-building as budgets tighten."

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But research from Initiative, YouGov, and Google indicates brand-building is the more significant driver of commercial outcomes--with fame 24% more correlated with buying intent than demand activation.

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Kandace Barker of Initiative recommends marketers audit their brand performance, collaborate with finance and sales on metrics, and invest in creativity to balance brand and demand efforts.

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Well, that's what to do.

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But as to how to do it?

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I'm not sure—and one can argue that many brand marketers aren't sure either.

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That's the real challenge and risk of emphasizing brand over demand generation.

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I spent my career in demand generation, called lead generation when I started back in the late 70s.

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The formula was simple:

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Your promotion generated a response rate you could measure.

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From there, a percentage of those inquires resulted in sales, orders, revenue—and money.

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So you had a reasonably accurate idea of how well your marketing campaign worked and how profitable it was.

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That's my comfort zone in B2B, and still a model I like and use.

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As Lord Kelvin said: "When you can measure something in numbers, then you know something about it."

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Back in the day, getting thick stacks of reply coupons and cards in the mail was like Christmas in July—especially because you could hold those inquiries and orders in your hand.

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Regards,

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