Brand Is a Long Game—But It’s How You Win at a Fast-Growing Startup

In startup marketing, there’s always pressure to chase the quick hit: the flashy influencer collab, the big podcast feature, the viral one-off campaign. When pipeline targets loom and resources are tight, it’s easy to prioritize tactics that tease instant ROI—even if they rarely deliver it.

But if there’s one thing I’ve learned leading marketing at high-growth B2B startups, it’s this: sustainable growth doesn’t come from just one big moment. It comes from the steady, integrated build—the slow burn of brand awareness, the compounding effects of digital and content marketing, the partnership you build with your sales team when you invest in their support, and the muscle memory you develop through repeated execution across the funnel.

Put simply: fast may look good on a board slide. But slow and strategic ultimately wins the race.

And I have the data to prove it.

Chasing Tactics vs. Building a Machine

Tactics can be powerful. A well-placed newsletter ad can drive traffic. A big event can generate leads. A viral post can light up your LinkedIn for a few days. But none of those things, on their own, create sustainable demand.

Startups often mistake motion for momentum—especially in sales-led orgs. But even the best events, press hits, or features can’t carry your marketing engine if they aren’t part of something bigger.

At Passport, I made a conscious decision in 2025 to shift from just chasing isolated wins to building a truly integrated, full-funnel marketing engine. It meant investing more in sales enablement, not just sales decks. And it meant scaling our digital marketing programs and playing a longer game with brand—especially in a category where trust, compliance, and operational credibility matter.

Here’s how that's played out in 2025 so far—and what we've learned.

What Happens When You Layer Brand + Demand + Enablement

This year, my team has taken a holistic approach to marketing execution:

• We scaled our brand awareness digital campaigns targeting ecommerce and logistics leaders across key industries (specifically apparel, beauty, and wellness).

• We upped our game at large-scale in-person events—Shoptalk, The Lead Summit and Manifest—and supported them with tailored pre- and post-event cadences, lead capture tools, and coordinated partner activations.

• We scaled our virtual events, developing a tariff series of webinars that drew both current customers and potential prospects.

• We launched integrated campaigns, released original research reports, updated landing pages, and launched a timely content-driven microsite, TrumpTradeTracker.com.

• We doubled down on sales enablement—launching AE certifications, creating a robust Lunch & Learn training series, improving tool/software adoption, and delivering customized pitch materials for high-value deals.

• We generated sustained media buzz through increased press releases, influencer outreach and pitching

• And we continued optimizing our core growth engine: a blog and SEO strategy that quietly but consistently pulls in high-intent, top-of-funnel inbound leads.

  
  

It wasn’t one tactic. It was all of them, working together.

In just a few days, we launched a news-aggregating microsite, TrumpTradeTracker.com.

What We Learned from Events (Spoiler: Sponsorships Aren't Enough)

Let’s talk about events—because they’re a classic example of a tactic that can work, but only if executed as part of a larger system.

In H1 2025, our marketing-led events have generated millions in attributed pipeline. On paper, a huge win. But here's the rub: a small percentage of total closed-won revenue has come directly from those events (to date).

Why?

Live customer interview at our Shoptalk Spring 2025 booth in Vegas

Because while we nailed lead capture, booth engagement, and even high-quality conversations, we've sometimes struggled with mid-to-late funnel execution. Few meetings were pre-set. Follow-up was not always consistent. And reps didn’t always log or report on post-event conversations, making ROI hard to prove.

This exposed a key truth: top-of-funnel wins are meaningless if you can’t close them. Events can light the match—but you need structure, process, training, accountability and time/patience to turn that spark into revenue.

We’ve since reworked our Events Playbook to include more:

• Pre-set meeting quotas

• Structured follow-up timelines

• Clear internal reporting expectations

• Selective investment in events, and less spending on unproven add-ons

• More due diligence around process adherence and tracking

It’s not glamorous. But that’s what it takes to make events actually work within the larger marketing ecosystem.

Scaling Sales Enablement = Scaling Confidence

2025 has been a turning point in how we support Sales. We moved from being a reactive content factory to a true enablement partner—and the impact showed up fast:

• Win rates increased 34% QoQ across all prospect opportunities

• Our sales enablement tool (Highspot) adoption went up, with external shares hitting record highs (+47% QoQ, +56% YoY)

• Reps spent 54% more time engaging with internal content in Highspot than they did a year ago

  
  

We launched pitch certifications, hosted Lunch & Learns, ran play-by-plays on competitors, supported high-stakes deals, built customizable digital rooms for Enterprise prospects, and worked hands-on with sales leadership to revamp their sales process.

Internal sales hub for collateral, case studies, and presentation decks.

Has it been time consuming? Yes. But reps are closing more, with greater confidence, and better alignment to our value prop.

Importantly, we're holding ourselves more accountable not just to volume of enablement, but to outcomes—like win rates, deal progression, and actual revenue.

Enablement isn't about doing more. It's about doing the right things, and then scaling them to help the greater Revenue org see results, not just the Marketing win-rates.

The Quiet Power of Consistent Content

While events and enablement took the spotlight, content did what it always does when done well: drive compounding value quietly and reliably.

• Our blog was the #3 source of new user acquisition

• Our U.S. Tariff Rates by Country page ranked #2 sitewide in Q2

• In Q2 alone, we published over 20 blog posts and syndicated our research with Stacker, earning hundreds of pickups—including 98 from DR75+ domains

• We grew our referring domains by 143% and backlinks by 31%

• We're obtaining more Google snippets and ChatGPT summarized content coverage

Continual production of thought leadership content is driving web traffic and conversions.

And we did this with zero gimmicks. No keyword stuffing. Just relevant, timely, and educational content tied to real pain points.

In fact, Passport’s recent brand perception and recall survey, conducted by Drive Research, confirmed this long-game approach is working: among respondents familiar with Passport, social media, online research (SEO), and ads or sponsored digital content were the most-cited sources of brand awareness. That means our content and our digital marketing programs are doing exactly what it’s supposed to—getting in front of the right people, at the right time, in the right channels.

More than 97% of our blog traffic came from new users. That’s a signal of brand discovery, trust-building, and audience growth. Not vanity metrics—real top-of-funnel strength.

What Still Needs Work (Because No Strategy Is Perfect)

We missed in a few places. We still sometimes struggle to convert top-of-funnel momentum into closed-won revenue. On a small team we, at times, overindexed on sales enablement efforts at the expense of scaling marketing campaign launches and demand generation programs.

But we learned. We adjusted. And we’re better for it.

In H2 2025 (and beyond), we’re going to:

• Continue to evolve our brand messaging, look and digital awareness campaigns—being bolder and more innovative

• Launch more cohesive integrated campaigns (like our Summer Product Release)

• Test more mid- and lower-funnel digital strategies now that awareness is growing

• Create more dynamic content including infographics, landing pages and videos

• Take more of an account-based marketing approach to our demand gen efforts

• Continue evolving our Sales certifications, training and onboarding experience

• Build out better reporting and lead scoring frameworks

The Takeaway: Brand Is the Flywheel

You don’t build a brand in a quarter. You build it over time—through repeatable execution, intentional storytelling, and relentless focus on your audience.

At Passport, we’re not just chasing pipeline. We’re building equity: in our message, in our market position, and in the minds of global ecommerce and logistics leaders.

And that’s not just a gut feeling—it’s backed by data. In our recent brand perception and recall survey, respondents familiar with Passport linked us with the attributes we care most about: reliability and flexibility. That’s the result of deliberate, consistent messaging—and proof that the brand work compounds.

In a world where buyers don’t convert on first touch—or even tenth—it’s that equity that pays off.

So to my fellow B2B marketers: Don’t fall for the shortcut. Build the machine. 

Play the long game, not just the short one. Invest in brand, enablement, digital and content, and full-funnel campaigns. Because when you do, the results won’t just show up next quarter—they’ll compound for years to come.