Many B2B marketers feel constant pressure to tie every piece of content to revenue. Leadership wants proof, but for small teams with tight budgets, defending content efforts without a clear payoff can feel impossible.
Justin Brown has witnessed this struggle firsthand. He works side by side with small tech teams and has a clear message: not everything in marketing delivers immediate ROI, and that’s okay.
Some things, like keeping your website fresh or your social channels alive, are part of what keeps your brand visible and credible. If you’ve ever felt stuck justifying every action, you’re not the only one asking whether success should be measured differently.
Table Stakes Marketing: The Unseen Foundation
Table stakes marketing means handling the essentials that keep your business credible. They show you’re reliable and professional.
Justin says it straight: “Table-stakes marketing has no ROI to it. You just have to do it. You have to have a website, and it needs to be updated regularly. It needs to speak to your ICP.”
If you skip these essentials, you risk looking stale or unreliable. Potential buyers notice when a company keeps its LinkedIn and blog active. Even if few read every post, consistent activity signals you care about quality and plan to stick around.
The Real Cost of Attribution for Small Teams
Tracking every lead back to a single piece of content looks practical in theory but rarely works in practice.
Enterprise companies might buy the tools and hire analysts, but most B2B marketers are left juggling spreadsheets. The real barrier is cost. “Direct attribution, in many cases, is not going to be within the budget, and therefore you have to get very scrappy in the way you build your reporting,” Justin explained.
Trying to track everything often drains more time and budget than it’s worth. Rather than chasing total accuracy, use that time and money to create content that builds visibility and trust.
Why Consistency Pays Off in the Long Run
Consistent publishing isn’t busywork. It keeps your business visible to buyers, even when results take time to appear. Over time, showing up regularly earns familiarity and credibility. Justin explained, “one of our biggest lead sources is this ABM article written in 2019. We still get tons of leads from it.”
Leads often come from content that continues to resonate long after it’s published. A blog written years ago can still attract the right people today because the ideas remain relevant and discoverable. As your site builds authority and your audience grows, that content has more opportunities to connect, sometimes months or years after it first went live.
Each post adds another small reminder of who you are and what you stand for, and that steady visibility pays off when buyers are ready to make a decision
Smarter Ways to Measure Content Value
ROI alone misses important context. A clearer picture comes from tracking multiple metrics over time. Watch how engagement trends shift—site visits, time on page, newsletter growth. These numbers show whether people actually spend time with your content.
Focus on trends over time, not just one-off spikes. Ask if your content helps sales teams have better conversations or gives stakeholders more confidence in your brand. Small, steady growth is what proves consistency.
Not every success shows up in data. Positive feedback from prospects or sales calls shows your message is landing. Together, these signals tell the true story of impact.
Giving Leadership the Language to See Strategic Value
Many marketers face leaders who expect every action to show direct ROI. A clearer path to alignment is using plain language that shows how content supports long-term business goals. Describe foundational work as building visibility or preparing the market.
When someone asks about ROI, explain that some activities are essential, just like keeping your website or CRM up to date. You can say, “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 will generate some leads, but the reality is you’re trying to look like a vibrant business.” That framing makes the value easier to grasp.
Share examples where a strong brand opened doors, even if the link wasn’t immediate. Show how steady visibility makes your business more resilient and adaptable. This approach helps non-marketing leaders understand the broader impact.
Rallying Behind a Healthier Success Metric
B2B marketing needs a clearer definition of success beyond immediate ROI metrics. Focusing only on quick wins traps you in short-term thinking, where every move must justify itself immediately. A better path is steady growth, keeping your brand active and earning lasting trust.
Marketers succeed when they teach leadership how strategic consistency drives results. As Justin put it, “There are things you have to invest in as an organization.”
Lead the conversation, guide your leaders, and protect your team’s focus on meaningful work. Your website, social activity, and regular updates are not extras, they’re the heartbeat of your brand.
For more insights into content and ROI, listen to the full episode of Tech Qualified.
