The Business Case for Building an Audience for Your Brand

In the marketing automation space, there’s an interesting case study that puts into perspective the age-old dispute between marketers who prioritize reach and those who prioritize resonance.

Two of the biggest players in the lower and middle tiers of the marketing automation industry, HubSpot and Mailchimp, have been competing to win over as many small to medium-sized businesses as possible. HubSpot currently boasts four times as many social media followers and attracts almost double the amount of organic traffic than Mailchimp does, so one might assume HubSpot also generates more revenue and profit.

The reality, however, is that Mailchimp has overtaken HubSpot in both financial categories. In 2019, HubSpot saw $674 million in revenue while Mailchimp earned $700 million. Moreover, while HubSpot has yet to turn a profit, Mailchimp has been profitable for its entire existence. Now, that’s not to dismiss HubSpot’s huge success in any way — it just brings up an interesting question. Do more views and more leads actually result in more revenue? Not necessarily.

“Do more views and more leads actually result in more revenue? Not necessarily.”

If you dig a little deeper and think critically about Mailchimp’s relentless focus on audience building (which has resulted in the creation of Mailchimp Presents, a network of original content) and HubSpot’s concentration on reach, Mailchimp’s ability to generate more revenue and profit with significantly less reach than HubSpot starts to make sense.

More reach doesn’t mean more revenue

In most marketing dashboards, reach and revenue tend to trend in the same direction. More often than not, marketing teams will notice this relationship and assume that revenue will increase when reaching as many people as possible.

However, research shows that your audience’s sentiment toward your brand is what ultimately leads to more revenue. So, contrary to popular belief, while an increase in reach can influence revenue growth, it’s not the sole driver of it — that driver is actually emotional resonance.

Read more here.