The Slow Burn of B2B Marketing: Why Patience Pays Off

Let me get straight to the point: there's no silver bullet when it comes to B2B marketing. I know we all want those quick wins—the instant ROI that gets everyone in the boardroom nodding in excitement- but here’s the hard truth: marketing, especially in B2B, is a slow burn.

It takes time, patience, and relentless consistency.

It’s not sexy, but it works. And the best results come to those who are willing to put in the effort over the long term. Let me walk you through three examples from my own experience that demonstrate exactly what I mean.

1. Training Business: Building a List of 5,000 Prospects One Lead at a Time

One of the businesses I’ve been working with is in the training industry. When we first started, their biggest challenge was finding a reliable way to generate inbound leads. Now, generating leads is the easy part, right? You throw some money at ads, build a landing page, and wait for the leads to roll in.

Wrong.

We focused on doing the right things consistently. That meant creating valuable content tailored to the target audience, optimising the messaging, and building a pipeline that nurtures these leads over time.

Fast forward to today, and we’ve built a list of nearly 5,000 prospects—people who are genuinely interested in what my client offers.

But here’s the kicker: we didn’t convert those leads into paying customers overnight.

The magic lies in nurturing.

This business has been consistently providing value to those 5,000 prospects through well-timed follow-ups, educational content, and just staying front of mind. When you’re offering something that takes a bit of thought and consideration (like a business training program), people aren’t going to bite immediately. They need to trust you. They need to feel like you understand their problems. And that takes time.

The difference between this company and others that struggle? They’ve stayed patient. They’ve been playing the long game, and as a result, when the time comes for these prospects to make a decision, my client is the first brand they think of. It's a classic case of give, give, give before you get.

2. Heating Engineering Company: Three Years of Optimising for Low-Cost Leads

Another client of mine is in the heating engineering space. We’ve been working on their Google Ads account as well as SEO and local marketing for over three years now. Yes, you read that right—three years.

If you’re looking for instant results from Google Ads, let me stop you right there.

When we first started, the account was a mess. Their ads were all over the place, targeting everyone and anyone, and the cost-per-lead was astronomical. So, we rolled up our sleeves and got to work. We focused on refining the targeting, testing new messaging, optimising landing pages, and—most importantly—continuously tweaking and refining the account based on the data we were gathering.

Now, three years later, we’ve got a finely tuned machine.

The cost-per-lead is at an all-time low, and the client is generating leads at a fraction of the price they were paying when we started. But this didn’t happen in a few weeks or even months. It’s been a process of incremental improvements, continually learning from what’s working and what isn’t, and making sure we don’t just get complacent.

That’s what a slow burn looks like. You have to commit to the process and trust that, in time, all the small adjustments will add up to something substantial.

3. Logistics Business: Reaping the Rewards of SEO (in Time)

Finally, there’s a logistics company I’ve been working with. When we first started, they were positioned as a courier company.

So, we helped to pivot their positioning, reworked their website and SEO strategy, and started laying the groundwork for long-term success.

SEO is the ultimate slow burn—especially in competitive industries. You won’t see results in the first few months, maybe not even in the first year. But if you do the right things consistently, it pays off.

In the case of this logistics business, we’re just starting to see the early signs of success. Traffic is up, inquiries are starting to trickle in, and we’re positioning them to be a leader in the event logistics space.

But we’re not there yet.

The real rewards will come in another 12 months, as all the groundwork we’re laying now starts to bear fruit. It’s about patience. It’s about trust in the process.

Steve says...

In B2B marketing, the biggest wins come to those who understand that success doesn’t happen overnight.

It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

The businesses that are willing to show up consistently, make incremental improvements, and stay patient are the ones that ultimately see the greatest success.

The slow burn might not be as exciting as a quick win, but it’s a whole lot more sustainable.

Whether you’re nurturing leads, optimising ad campaigns, or building your SEO strategy, remember: the magic happens over time.

Stay the course, and the results will come.

I'll leave the final word to one of my early heroes in marketing, Seth Godin...

"The only way to consistently grow in B2B is to be better than very good."