Companies in digital commerce often feel they have to choose between growing their brand and generating demand.
Of course you want to generate demand for your product, but to do so, people need to know about your brand. But to grow your brand presence, you need to make enough sales to have the capital to run ad campaigns and establish yourself as a strong player in the market. So which approach do you prioritise?
Well, we think you can do both.
That’s where hybrid marketing comes into play. In this article, we’ll explain what hybrid marketing is, why your ecommerce business can benefit from it, how to build out a hybrid ecommerce marketing strategy and which KPIs you need to track to measure success.
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Hybrid marketing combines branding and demand generation to build a more holistic approach to marketing. While you need to bring in sales to grow, you should also be consistently working on building your brand and a loyal customer base.
Stephen O’Rowe, Juni’s Head of Demand Generation, emphasises that “branding influences buying decisions by reflecting a company's values and identity, both consciously and subconsciously. Demand marketing focuses on specific campaigns to quickly generate interest in your products or services.”
He gives the example of a hybrid marketing social media campaign that directly sells a product while incorporating storytelling about its manufacturing. This enhances your demand gen results and strengthens your brand identity simultaneously.
Just because you have a strong brand doesn’t mean your product will start flying off the shelves. And generating demand takes strategic, dedicated effort to bring in consistent sales.
According to Stephen, “Neither branding alone nor a sole focus on demand is sufficient for sustained sales and revenue growth.” That’s why, he says, “a hybrid approach works best.” With hybrid marketing, you can still bring in conversions in the short term without sacrificing your long-term strategy for building up your brand.
In other words, by growing your brand in conjunction with generating demand, you can ensure you have money coming in to sustain your business while setting yourself up for future growth and stability.
Whether you have big goals of becoming a household name or shorter-term objectives of optimising your online ads, effective hybrid marketing starts with understanding your customer. We’re not just talking about knowing what type of person is interested in your product, but deeply understanding their pains, preferences, desires and habits.
According to Stephen, you should “engage with, survey and analyse your customers whenever possible. Guiding someone from initial awareness to becoming a loyal customer is a complex journey.”
He underlines that “by understanding the use cases and motivations of your top customers, you can identify numerous opportunities and tests to enhance their purchasing experience. Don't leave it to guesswork, simply speak to them.”
So while ICP and buyer persona research is important when developing your product, it’s not a one-and-done task. You should be engaging with your customer base constantly, gathering insights on what makes them connect with your brand and motivates them to buy (or prevents them from reaching checkout). Then, you can use these insights to develop and iterate on your hybrid marketing strategy.
According to serial ecom entrepreneur Nick Shackelford, your product always comes first. That’s right: Even before your brand.
In his words, “It needs to taste great, it needs to feel great, and it needs to be made well… Those are the areas of product before brand.” He also warns ecommerce businesses about pumping too much money into building their brand before they’ve developed a strong product.
How does this tie into hybrid ecommerce marketing? No matter how strong your brand is, the demand generation side of this approach to marketing will never be successful if your product doesn’t wow consumers. So first things first—invest in developing a product that buyers won’t be able to resist. This will make the demand gen side of things much easier down the line.
Before combining your branding and demand gen efforts, you need to make sure your approach to performance marketing is on the right track. You can do that a few ways:
A solid ad is just the first step to increasing sales—you also need to make sure your landing page’s copy hits just the right points to captivate customers. Read our guide on copywriting for next level landing pages.
A big component of hybrid marketing is integrating your brand values and tone of voice into your paid ads. So from your social media posts to Shopify storefront listing, your brand voice should be consistent across all platforms.
A company that does this well is IKEA. The Swedish furniture brand has a relatable, recognisable and clever tone of voice that’s consistent with its casual, affordable, no-nonsense furnishings. One example: A Valentine’s Day coupon for a cot with the offer, “Free for babies born 9 months from today.”
More often than not, you’d be able to recognize that IKEA’s behind an ad without ever having to see the brand’s logo on it. That’s thanks to the brand’s consistent, unique messaging, along with its trademark bold colours and clever copy.
According to Hubspot’s 2024 State of Marketing Report, 75% of marketers believe personalised experiences drive sales and repeat business. So while someone may convert from a paid ad, you need to do more to turn them into a loyal, repeat customer.
Beyond pricing and quality, consumers are drawn to brands that they feel connected to, and there are a number of ways you can foster this sense of connection. For example, give your customers more value by sending recommended products based on what they previously purchased or looked at or providing them with content that directly addresses their needs.
So if you’re an online business that sells international wines, don’t just stop at that first sale and assume you have a customer for life—follow up with personalised pairing tips, curated recommendations for their next purchase and a guide to this year’s emerging wine regions.
Measuring the success of your hybrid marketing efforts can be tricky. You’re not just tracking sheer sales, but also brand growth and loyalty. Here are some metrics you can use to measure your efforts, so you can modify as necessary and deliver more impact with your marketing budget.
With hybrid ecommerce marketing, you can grow your brand while simultaneously bringing in sales—every digital commerce company’s dream. But to do so, you need to:
A big part of hybrid ecommerce marketing is ads, and we know you need sufficient resources to run your campaigns. With Juni, you can access more capital for your marketing spend through credit lines made for media buying and financing for media invoices*.
Get up to 20 million EUR in easy, flexible financing to pay off all your marketing expenses, like Google, Meta and Klaviyo, and see returns on your campaigns before you pay for them.
Plus, you can track your Microsoft, Google and Meta campaigns' performance with Juni while accessing sales data from Shopify and Amazon—all in one convenient view.
*Juni Capital for cards is available for companies registered in UK, NL, SE, DE, FR, ES, IT, NO and FI, upon eligibility. Juni Capital for invoices Invoices is available for EU-based companies only. Media financing is available for companies registered in NL, SE, DE, FR, ES, IT, FI and NO, upon eligibility. Fees and terms and conditions apply. Click here for more details.
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