What Is Brand Marketing? (& How to Get It Right)

Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare? The hare sprinted ahead with impressive speed, but in the end, the tortoise won the race through persistence and consistency. We’re sure Aesop wasn’t thinking of brand marketing when he conceived the fable, but he might as well have been.

Like the tortoise plugging away, brand marketing is a strategic, long-term approach to building recognition and trust, while your competitors exhaust themselves chasing quick wins. 🏃🏽‍♂️‍➡️

In this guide, we'll explore what brand marketing is, why it matters in B2B marketing, and how to create powerful brand strategies that deliver concrete value.

Brand marketing is developing and conveying a unique identity for your business that resonates with your audience. Unlike product marketing, which focuses on specific features and benefits, brand marketing communicates your company's values, personality, and purpose.

Effective brand marketing wins mindshare—i.e., real estate in your audience's minds. When your brand comes to mind first when someone thinks about your product category, you've earned valuable mindshare that translates directly to ROI.

This might seem like a basic question for seasoned marketers, but it’s worth touching on. A brand is more than a logo or brand name. It encompasses everything people think and feel about your business—their perceptions, experiences, and associations. Your company’s brand exists in the minds of your audience, including customers, prospects, employees, and other partners.

Brands apply to companies (Apple; Nike), products (iPhone; Air Jordan), and even people (Gary V.; Taylor Swift). The strongest brands create consistent, positive associations that drive customer loyalty within a target market.

In addition to driving positive associations, brand management may encompass removing negative associations. It’s about figuring out where changes need to happen once you’ve developed your brand identity. “You could define almost anything as a branded activity,” explains Jaime Punishill, VP, Enterprise Marketing at MetLife. “I’m just trying to change associations.”

Brand marketing vs. performance marketing

Performance marketing focuses on immediate, measurable results—think clicks, conversions, and sales. On the other hand, brand marketing builds long-term brand awareness and mindshare. Here's a quick comparison:

Of course, you don’t have to choose one or the other. The most effective marketing strategies combine both types of marketing tactics.

A strong brand supports performance marketing efforts by increasing click-through rates, conversion rates, and customer lifetime value. Research by Forrester revealed 77% of purchase influencers consider brand awareness when deciding whether to trust a business.

Investing in brand building feels intuitively right for most marketers, but how does it impact your bottom line? Let us count the ways:

• Recognition: When people recognize your brand, you gain valuable mental real estate—they think of you first when considering solutions in your category. In B2B, this recognition means you're a shoo-in for the shortlist when buyers evaluate vendors. When you introduce a new product, it’s backed by your existing recognition.
• Trust: A strong brand signals trust and reduces perceived risk. When prospects recognize your brand from events, content, and industry conversations, they're more likely to trust your expertise, making the sales process smoother.
• Consistency: An intentionally-built brand creates brand consistency across all touchpoints. This reinforces your identity and ensures your customer base knows what to expect from you.
• Endurance: Strong brands can weather challenges and market fluctuations better than their weaker counterparts. When economic conditions tighten budgets and shrink risk tolerance, prospects often choose the brands they know and trust.
• Value: At the end of the day, brand equity does translate to financial value. Companies with strong brands can command premium prices, attract top talent, and achieve higher company valuations.

Connecting these dots helps you (and executive leadership) understand how brand marketing impacts your bottom-line business goals.

If you’re here, your brand probably already exists. So how can you intentionally strengthen your brand marketing plan? Here are six proven strategies to put into action:

The foundation of effective brand marketing is a clear brand identity. Even if this is a refresher exercise, it’s worth going through. Your brand identity includes:

• Brand purpose: Why does your company exist beyond making money?
• Brand values: What principles guide your business decisions?
• Brand personality: How does your brand communicate and behave?
• Brand positioning and differentiation: How do you stand out from competitors?
• Visual identity: What color palette, fonts, and design elements represent you?

All these elements form your brand story—so don’t just pull them out of thin air. Deep customer research is the key to developing a brand identity that sticks. Understanding what your target audience values helps you build a brand that resonates with them authentically.

Consistency is crucial for effective brand marketing. Your audience should immediately recognize your content, regardless of marketing channel or format.

Develop brand guidelines that outline:

• Brand messaging frameworks
• Visual standards
• Tone of voice and style
• Content guidelines

Then apply these standards across all customer touchpoints, from your website and social media to events and sales presentations.

Goldcast makes it easy to create a branded experience across the customer journey. Book a demo to see how you can keep your brand identity front and center across all your content.

“Brand is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes time,” explains Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek, CMO at International Data Group. Create a long-term brand strategy that maps out how you'll build trust over time.

Your strategy should include:

• Multi-year brand goals
• Key messages and themes
• Channel strategy
• Content calendar
• KPIs

This approach ensures your brand evolves thoughtfully rather than changing with every shiny new marketing trend.

And keep in mind that because your brand is more than a logo or color scheme, you’ll need your entire organization on board with your overall brand strategy.

“My favorite expression of all is, ‘Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department,’” continues Michelle. “Every single individual in an organization has the opportunity to contribute to the brand, because brand is how you experience a company.”

Content marketing is the foundation of successful brand marketing. It’s not about churning out low-effort marketing materials, but investing in high-quality content that demonstrates your expertise, communicates your values, and provides value to your audience.

To reach your audience effectively, create a multi-modal content strategy that includes:

• Blog posts and articles
• Videos and webinars
• Podcasts and audio content
• Social media marketing
• Email marketing and newsletters
• Interactive content and tools

Most B2B buyers consume at least 3-5 pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep—creating multimodal content increases your chances of connecting with these prospects.

“There’s something to be said about the right proportions,” remarks Amrita Mathur, B2B tech marketing expert. “A little bit of written content, rich graphics, lots of video to explain complex things.”

Video has become essential for building a memorable brand and earning mindshare. It creates emotional connections, demonstrates authenticity, and drives higher engagement than text alone. Research shows that viewers retain 95% of a message when watching it in video compared to just 10% for text alone.

Incorporate video into your brand marketing campaigns through:

• Webinars and virtual events
• Thought leadership interviews
• Product demos
• Customer stories and testimonial videos
• Behind-the-scenes content

The best content won't do a thing for your brand if nobody sees it. Create a distribution strategy that puts your brand in front of the right audiences:

• Identify key channels where your audience spends time
• Build partnerships with complementary brands
• Participate in industry events and communities
• Develop a demand generation strategy that integrates brand and performance goals

Part of effective distribution is efficient content repurposing. Kochava, a real-time data solutions company, seriously boosted their distribution efficiency with our AI-powered Content Lab. "What used to take hours now takes just minutes," says Chloe Huffman, Social Media Manager.

Repurposing webinar content into social media posts and video clips has generated the brand over 15,000 new impressions.

Brand marketing results aren't as immediately visible as other digital marketing metrics, but you can still track them. Here's how to measure brand awareness and impact:

Monitor metrics that indicate growing awareness:

• Website traffic (especially direct and organic via SEO)
• Social media following and engagement
• Email subscriber growth
• Search volume for brand terms
• Share of voice in industry conversations

Tools like Google Analytics, social listening platforms, and competitive intelligence software can help track these metrics over time.

Regular surveys provide direct feedback on brand perception. Consider measuring:

• Brand recall (unaided awareness)
• Brand recognition (aided awareness)
• Brand associations
• Net Promoter Score
• Brand attribute ratings

Compare results over time to track improvements in brand perception and identify areas for improvement.

Listen to what customers say, but only believe what your customers do. Customer behavior is a powerful indicator of brand strength. Look at metrics like:

• Customer retention rates
• Repeat purchase frequency
• Customer lifetime value
• Referral rates
• Customer advocacy (testimonials, reviews, brand ambassadors)

Strong brands typically see improvements in these metrics as brand marketing efforts take hold and they earn loyal customers.

For more comprehensive measurement, consider formal brand lift studies that assess changes in awareness, perception, and preference before and after a major brand initiative.

These studies can quantify the impact of your brand marketing and provide insights for optimization.

The top B2B companies didn’t get there by accident, or by performance marketing alone. They’ve built powerful brands through strategic brand marketing.

Slack: Transformed workplace communication by building a brand around simplicity and human connection. Their brand marketing focuses on the emotion of work rather than technical features, with campaigns like "Where work happens" that position them as essential to modern teamwork.

HubSpot: Built a brand synonymous with inbound marketing through consistent content, education, and community-building. Their extensive resource library, certification programs, and annual INBOUND conference have established them as trusted experts in marketing, sales, and customer experience.

Gong: Disrupted the sales tech market with a distinctive brand voice that's conversational, direct, and occasionally irreverent. Their data-driven content helps sales professionals improve performance while reinforcing Gong's positioning as a revenue intelligence platform.

Intercom: Built their brand around being the AI-first customer service platform through a robust, scaled webinar program. By creating consistent, high-quality educational content, they've established thought leadership in the customer service space while dramatically increasing audience engagement. This consistent presence has reinforces their brand identity as innovative leaders in the customer service tech space.

Building a strong brand takes time, but the right tools can help you do more with less, increasing your ROI. Goldcast helps B2B marketers create professional, branded video content that builds recognition and trust with a suite of tools:

• Virtual event platform
• Video and audio Recording Studio
• Content Lab for editing and repurposing

Our platform streamlines content creation, maintains brand consistency, and helps you turn one piece of content into many—extending your reach while reinforcing your brand identity.

Want to take a look? Try Content Lab with a free account or see Goldcast in action.