Episode Summary
In this episode of Tech Qualified, host Baylee Gunnell sits down with Justin Brown, Co-Founder at Marketers in Demand, to tackle the real challenges of measuring content ROI for small B2B marketing teams. They dig into why direct attribution is so hard when you’re working with limited budgets and lean teams—especially when enterprise tools are out of reach.
Justin shares why not every marketing activity needs to show a direct return. He explains the concept of “table stakes marketing”—the foundational work like keeping your website and social media fresh—that builds trust and credibility but rarely delivers a clear, immediate payoff. Justin stresses that this work matters for brand health, even if you can’t tie every action to a new lead.
Together, Baylee and Justin explore smarter ways to track progress, like watching for growth trends and engagement, rather than obsessing over single-channel metrics. They remind listeners that investing in marketing is a long game, and lasting results often come from consistent, visible effort—not just short-term wins.
Key Insights
Table Stakes Marketing Keeps Your Brand Alive
Some marketing tasks are simply the price of entry in today’s B2B world. Keeping your website current, posting on social channels, and updating content don’t always drive immediate leads, but they build trust and show your business is active and credible. These “table stakes” activities help buyers see you as a real, reliable option—especially when compared to competitors who may not invest in their public presence. Even if you can’t pin direct revenue to every update or post, this work signals that your company is healthy and engaged. Over time, these efforts pay off by making you the clear choice when prospects compare options. If you skip this work, you risk looking outdated or even invisible in your space.
Attribution Isn’t Always Possible—Focus on Progress Instead
Trying to track every marketing dollar back to a result can eat up your time and budget, especially for small teams. Attribution tools often cost more than many companies can justify. Instead, look for signs your marketing is working by watching trends over time. Are more people visiting your website? Are they sticking around to read or listen? Are you seeing steady growth in net new opportunities? These signals show your efforts are working, even if you can’t point to a single campaign as the hero. Aim for a holistic view of progress, not perfect attribution. This approach keeps your reporting honest and your team focused on what matters most: steady growth.
Marketing Is a Long Game—Trust the Process
Building a strong brand and generating leads takes consistency and patience. Content that pays off months or even years later often starts as a table stakes project. Quick wins are rare, especially in B2B tech where sales cycles can stretch out and involve many decision-makers. Instead of chasing instant results, invest in the basics, create content that answers real buyer questions, and keep your channels active. Over time, these efforts compound. A blog post written years ago can become a steady source of leads. Social posts build familiarity, even for people who don’t engage right away. Trust that the work you put in now will help unlock growth in the future.
Episode Highlights
The Budget Barrier to Attribution
00:00:50
Many small B2B marketing teams struggle to measure direct return on investment because attribution tools often cost more than their entire monthly marketing budget. This forces teams to get creative with reporting and data connections, using automation and free tools to approximate results. The discussion highlights how expectations for clear attribution often clash with financial reality, especially in companies with limited resources. Instead of perfect data, teams must settle for the best results they can achieve with what they have—accepting that some marketing actions won’t be directly tied to revenue, but are still essential for growth.
“So I would say, financially speaking, I’ll start there. The biggest challenge for attribution is the financial flexibility to be able to afford attribution. […] Direct attribution in many cases is not going to be within the budget, and therefore you have to get very scrappy in the way that you build your reporting, which is what we do all the time using zaps and make.com, and finding ways for these tools to be able to speak to each other so that you can get the best possible attribution in a scrappy way.”
Why Table Stakes Work Can’t Be Ignored
00:06:11
Even when you can’t connect every marketing activity to a closed deal, foundational efforts like keeping your website and social profiles fresh are essential. These actions create a credible, trustworthy brand—especially when buyers compare you to competitors. The episode underscores that most buyers won’t fill out a form just because they saw your social feed, but if you neglect these basics, you risk sending the wrong signal. The goal is to look active and relevant, not just to win quick leads.
“There is not an ROI on managing your website. There’s minimal ROI on running organic social. If you do it really well, maybe you generate some leads, but the reality is you’re trying to look like a vibrant business in 2025, 2026. […] It’s valuable and you should be doing it. I see that more as a necessary expense for a business that will have no ROI—we call it table stakes marketing.”
Holistic Strategies Beat Channel-by-Channel ROI
00:10:26
Trying to isolate the return on investment for each channel or campaign leads to confusion and missed opportunities. The conversation demonstrates how smart teams track overall growth in net new opportunities rather than picking apart every tactic. Integrating content, paid media, and account-based marketing into a single plan makes it easier to justify spend and see where marketing actually moves the business forward. Ultimately, focusing on holistic outcomes keeps teams aligned and focused on business goals, not vanity metrics.
“We have identified metrics as an organization that we look at, which is, for us, it’s net new opportunities. And that’s where our ROI is. Then we are trying to build a holistic strategy, which includes content, paid. We’re going to be rolling out a new ABM program for one of our business units, but rolling it all together versus trying to isolate channels and say, ‘What did that channel do for me?’”
The Reality of Multi-Touch B2B Journeys
00:19:06
Modern B2B buying rarely follows a straight path. Buyers might see ads, read articles, ask colleagues, or use tools like ChatGPT before ever reaching out. The show highlights how large deals—sometimes worth six figures—won’t close just because of a single ad or campaign. Instead, buyers build familiarity over time, often without leaving a digital trail marketers can track. Companies need to accept this complexity, measure what they can, and focus on overall business growth instead of chasing perfect attribution.
“The odds of you just having an ad and they see it and they click it, and then they submit a contact form, they eventually buy from you—those days are done. People have the ability to go to ChatGPT, to go to friends, to use LinkedIn and social. […] In most cases, what you’re going to see is that that person is going to be hit with ads over time. They may go read an article, see the value of it, talk to some internal shareholders, and then they’re going to reach out and they could reach out completely organically.”