Ultimately, the difference between hitting a performance plateau and reaching new heights comes down to a solid understanding of marketing. And for this article, we’re focusing on the nuances between brand marketing and performance marketing.
Let’s start with the former. Brand marketing is all about creating a strong brand identity over time. It involves appealing to a consumer's emotions, creating brand awareness, and improving brand perception. By perfecting brand messaging and identity, you begin to connect with consumers over time.
However, measuring brand performance can be a challenge. There are no direct ways to identify how brand marketing contributes to sales and results can take a while to see.
Performance marketing, on the other hand, is all about meeting the immediate needs of reaching your target audience and generating leads and/or sales. It’s a data-driven approach that’s a lot more tangible for brands to understand - and justify.
As you can see, both types of marketing serve an important purpose. But this is often lost on decision-makers when dollars are on the line. Less than two years ago, Forbes reported that 70% of marketing professionals expecting budget cuts predicted they would make them to brand advertising. Performance marketing was expected to be among the least affected areas of investment.