16 Sep Content Treadmill
Brand, demand and the battle for sales relevance
Marketers have never had more channels to push content through, but ask most sales leaders and they’ll say the same thing – too much content misses the point! It’s often company-centric, designed to impress the board, but not built to progress a decent sales conversation.
The tension between brand and demand
For years there’s been a tug of war between brand-building and demand generation. Brand campaigns are visible and safe, while demand content – case studies, ROI tools, tailored sales collateral – takes more alignment with sales and is harder to measure. But in a world where budgets are tight and attribution is under a lot more scrutiny, demand-led content isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s critical.
Company-first or buyer-first?
Too many messages still start with ‘who we are’ rather than ‘here’s how we solve your problem’. This leaves sales teams without the ammunition they need to build relevance in front of decision makers that are more difficult to reach. Buyers don’t want another glossy company profile. They need content that reflects their needs, helps them to understand risk, benchmark their position, and justify decisions internally.
SEO battles and shifting discovery
Marketers are still fighting to rank on Google, but an increase in LinkedIn and AI-powered search has changed the game. Buyers increasingly find answers in generative engines without ever landing on your site. The future isn’t just about keywords, it’s about authority. Companies need content in the formats discovery engines prefer – short video, structured Q&A, practical guides – and they need it distributed across the communities where buyers now spend their time.
Where battles are being lost
- Content overload – too much produced, not enough consumed
- Sales enablement gap – content is created but rarely used by sales
- Attribution struggles – brand gets the spotlight, demand impact is harder to prove
- Channel misalignment – buyers move across social, search, communities and video; single-channel content simply misses them
Brand vs demand in 2025
It is still easier to focus on brand. It’s broader, less risky, and can be outsourced. Demand, on the other hand, needs sales and marketing alignment, deep buyer knowledge, and content that adapts to different stages of the funnel. But the companies leaning too far into brand are seeing pipelines slow and conversion rates fall.
What the future looks like
- Video – short, sharp, buyer-friendly formats
- Interactive tools – ROI calculators, benchmarks, solution configurators
- Customer content – reviews, peer insights, community-driven validation
- AI personalisation – tailoring content by industry, account, even individual
The winners will not be those who create the most content, but those who orchestrate content across the buyer journey, where every asset is designed to move a conversation forward.
At Incognate we’ve seen this shift first-hand. Our REACH campaigns build content not for clicks, but for conversations, ensuring marketing output supports sales cycles directly and delivers measurable outcomes
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