The internet is thick with business guru after business guru telling you to sell painkillers rather than vitamins.

What does that mean? Well, the theory is that we all know we need vitamins, need the good stuff that sustains us over time. But in the heat of the moment, we all just want our pain taken away. “Solve my today problems, not my next-year problems,” says the world.

In marketing terms, this often translates as ensuring sales now. We’ve all heard about quarterly numbers to hit.

And this translates to marketing teams being tasked to deliver qualified leads to their colleagues in sales. (More on that harmonious relationship another time.)

So we have whole industries that have grown up around demand generation, lead generation, pay per click (PPC) and so on.

What happens if you take too many painkillers?

Too much focus on hitting immediate targets can leave you addicted to those methods of teeing up sales.

And it can leave you unhealthy in the medium to long term.

That’s because there’s no way around it: we all need our vitamins, whether for our human bodies or our businesses.

In business terms, lack of investment in brand is analogous to not getting your vitamins, protein and other good stuff that sustains you.

And you’ll see marketing experts say time and time again that a great brand makes everything else easier.

But that ‘great brand’ can take years or decades to build.

Better pass those painkillers again.

What’s the answer?

Most businesses need to build their brands and at the same time bring in business through leads and conversions.

Different parts of in-house marketing teams, just like different types of external agency, help in those different ways.

And sometimes you get a discipline such as content marketing where you can take both pills at once.

Content both fuels demand generation (this is one reason you often see demand-gen agencies trying to be findable as content agencies) and brand building.

We don’t say it enough, but content is the foundation of so much in business. This isn’t anything new. But in a world of me-too AI content, global business uncertainties and the need to hit targets and grow your brand, content has never been more important.

PS: The Gary Lineker Effect

A few years ago, we heard someone refer to PPC as ‘the Gary Lineker Effect’. For those who aren’t old enough or just don’t care for football, in his playing days, while Gary Lineker was a prolific goal scorer, he was known as the king of the tap in, as an opportunist – or poacher, as some would put it.*

But his goals were the product of hard work by the rest of his team. He was just the one getting the credit.

Similarly, a lot of purchases that follow a click on a PPC ad are rarely just because of that ad. Buyers will have seen other marketing, maybe content by that company, and may have many years of associations about that company. This is branding.

All B2B sales are the product of long-term dynamics.

And in the long term, it’s always about painkillers and vitamins.

How do you get yours?

 

 

*Don’t believe it? Lineker, on his final, emotional Match of the Day sign-off, in May 2025, even said: “Rather like my football career, everyone else did all the hard work and I got the plaudits.”