Getting the CFO Behind CMO’s B2B Brand-Building Investment

In the world of B2B business, marketing and finance departments don’t always see eye to eye. While marketers are focused on strengthening brand value and awareness, the finance team’s attention is on financial performance. Despite all the evidence that in an increasingly competitive, global market, investing in your brand is more important than ever, proving the connection between a strong brand and a strong bottom line in order to get CFO buy-in can be a challenge.

Let’s look at how B2B brands, with the help of a savvy digital branding agency, can use proven methods and metrics to demonstrate the business impact of brand-building initiatives and foster better collaboration between CMOs and CFOs. This approach not only enhances decision-making but also ensures marketing efforts are financially sound and strategically aligned with broader business objectives, maintaining market relevance and driving effective brand strategies.

Understanding the CMO-CFO divide

Due to the disparity between their areas of focus, CMOs and CFOs often struggle to work well together. Current market conditions can further impact the relationship, with increased economic pressure deepening their conflicting views. Marketers believe it’s even more important to invest in brand marketing during a down economy, while your CFO may feel the opposite—often tightening marketing budgets in the face of uncertainty.

Adding to this rift is the difficulty that arises in directly linking brand marketing to financial performance. CMOs believe their work drives both short-term and long-term sales, but CFOs are unconvinced. Unlike other strategic areas, for example, sales, which provide numbers the finance department can easily wrap their heads around, proving ROI for marketing can be less concrete.

However, according to a recent Forbes article, 82% of buyers opt for brands they recognize first, and 71% make more purchases from a brand they trust. That creates a direct link between brand building and revenue growth. To gain confidence in their efforts, marketers need to focus on proving this worth.

The domino effect of a CMO-CFO disparity

Many CFOs view brand marketing as too abstract, believing buyers are more easily swayed by factors like product and price. When they don’t grasp the true value of brand marketing, they resist allocating budgets, leading to underinvestment in this critical area. This often results in a focus on short-term sales and lead generation, taking focus (and resources) away from long-term growth and innovation.

At the end of the day, both CMOs and CFOs want to drive overall success for the business. But that requires collaboration. An inability to work well together can hinder strategic alignment and growth. Misalignment in the boardroom can also make brand experiences less effective, which makes it hard to stay relevant in today’s fast-paced B2B markets. “Mental availability is about increasing the probability your brand comes to mind in different buying situations.” —Professor Jenni Romaniuk, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute

To get everyone on the same page, you need to find common ground when it comes to the commercial value of brand initiatives. CMOs must stand up for what they believe in—but they also need to bring receipts.

Better collaboration starts with communication

The first step to fostering a better working relationship is good communication. Fostering a collaborative culture is essential—structured communication and joint strategic sessions can help to open those lines and give marketers a chance to demonstrate the business value of their work.

At Clear Digital, our proprietary Velocity Workshop™ is designed to do just that, bringing together all of the stakeholders for a project or partnership and making sure everyone is on the same page about strategic goals, milestones, and KPIs. It’s a great way to get clear about what you hope to achieve—and bring the CFO into the conversation from the get go, to ensure you have their support.

Demonstrating the $ value of brand marketing

Creativity and finance don’t always go hand in hand. In fact, many CFOs think the more creative the messaging, the less effective it is for targeting specific audience segments. But digital marketing provides real value—according to Forbes, marketing assets can contribute over 50% of enterprise value when brand, customer value add, and the impact of marketing performance are measured.

Similarly, a recent Marketing Week survey found that around half (46.8%) of respondents say digital creative has “either much more or a little more emotional impact compared to creative in other channels.” Emotional connection is the basis of every relationship—and every sale. But how do we make the connection between brand building and growth?

Metrics are the missing link. To get buy-in for creative marketing efforts, you need to demonstrate ROI. The bolder your marketing plan, the more important it is to quantify the impact. You can do that by adopting a metrics-driven approach and working with a branding agency partner that knows their stuff.

Proven methods. Powerful metrics.

At Clear Digital, we understand what CFOs want to see. That’s why we leverage exclusive research and comprehensive performance dashboards to make the financial benefits of marketing investments clear and measurable. Emphasizing a metric-driven approach in marketing can help align your CFO and CMO, bolstering your brand efforts—and awareness.

KPIs such as customer acquisition rate, SQLs, MQLs, and revenue growth are all effective ways to demonstrate the value of your brand marketing initiatives and show tangible results. Increased brand awareness and consideration levels also help to prove the ROI of marketing investments.

To measure the impact of brand marketing on financial outcomes, we track metrics like conversion rates, lead generation, and ROI through comprehensive metrics analysis and research. Our custom dashboards combine qualitative and quantitative metrics, linking engagement and UX KPIs with financial performance data. This approach not only helps to prove the short-term value of brand marketing efforts, it helps to get boardroom buy-in to secure long-term support.

Adapting to economic uncertainty and future trends

As the business environment becomes more complex and outcomes need to be more measurable, the need for CMOs and CFOs to collaborate more closely will only increase. A stronger focus on a value-centric approach will emphasize long-term brand health and financial stability.

To meet the moment, B2B companies should foster a culture of collaboration and open communication. Balance short-term sales goals with long-term branding efforts to ensure sustainable growth, and be prepared to adapt through integrated metrics that reflect both marketing effectiveness and financial health.

Need to get CFO buy-in for brand-building at your B2B company? As a branding agency with 25 years of B2B experience, we draw on deep digital expertise and use proven methods like the Velocity Workshop to boost collaboration, use exclusive research and comprehensive performance dashboards to demonstrate ROI, and focus on design excellence + strategic implementation to ensure marketing investments yield measurable business results.

Let’s work together.