When pitching new marketing initiatives, supplement ROI projections with research demonstrating a clear audience need for the content. Framing the project as a valuable service to the customer, rather than just another marketing tactic, is a more powerful way to gain internal support.

Thorne's CGO wins budget for educational content by measuring its impact with brand lift studies. Instead of seeking direct conversion, they track changes in brand consideration, website visit likelihood, and future purchase intent to demonstrate the value of upper-funnel activities to stakeholders like the CFO.

For content without direct attribution, prove its value by systematically collecting qualitative feedback. Create a 'Trophy Room'—a document with screenshots of positive social media comments, Gong call mentions, and Slack messages—to tell a compelling story of impact beyond hard metrics.

Instead of tracking immediate demo requests post-webinar, Airops uses a 30-day window for demos booked and a 90-day window for closed-won business. This long-term view allows them to focus on building trust and educating, proving that influenced revenue is more valuable than instant MQLs.

Not all brand campaigns have direct, measurable ROI. Justify their cost by tracking "soft ROI," such as increased employee pride and retention (e.g., employees on billboards), positive candidate feedback during interviews, and using tools like Gong to track how often the campaign is mentioned in sales calls.

Make "influence" defensible by comparing opportunities with prior marketing engagement to a "cold" cohort. Demonstrating higher win rates, faster sales cycles, and larger deal sizes for the engaged group provides hard, financial proof of marketing's impact on revenue efficiency.

When shifting budget to upper-funnel activities, sales impact takes time. Use leading indicators like increases in branded search volume, website sessions, or social follower growth to show early positive signals and maintain buy-in from leadership while tests are still running.

To justify long-term brand investments to sales-minded executives, use the analogy of hiring a new AE. An AE hired in Q1 won't contribute to that quarter's number but is vital for hitting Q3 targets. Brand marketing requires the same upfront investment for future returns, a concept executives already understand.

Position marketing as the engine for future quarters' growth, while sales focuses on closing current-quarter deals. This reframes marketing's long-term investments (like brand building) as essential for sustainable revenue, justifying budgets that don't show immediate, direct ROI to a CFO.