What Happens to Marketing Post Acquisition
If you’re running a B2B software company and thinking about the future, whether it involves growth, funding or acquisition then marketing will play a bigger role than you might expect. Not just in telling the story, but in showing your business’s value.
Both Zafar and I have supported software companies at different stages of growth, including before and after acquisition. We’ve seen what happens when marketing is structured and measurable. We’ve also seen what happens when it’s not…
This post shares a few things we’ve learned from working on the buy-side and partnering with founders during transition periods. The aim is simple: to give you a clearer picture of how marketing is viewed post-deal, and what you can do about it.
Marketing often fades into the background
After an acquisition, priorities shift quickly. The focus moves to finance, operations, product and integration. Marketing doesn’t always make the list.
We’ve seen strong businesses go months without any real marketing support post-acquisition. Content stops. Lead generation stalls. There’s no one owning the messaging. Teams lose direction. By the time someone steps in to fix it, the pipeline has already slowed.
If you’re preparing for a sale, ask yourself what you’re handing over. Can someone step in and understand your strategy, your channels, your priorities? Or will they be starting from scratch?
Your brand will become part of a wider picture
Before acquisition, your brand reflects your own vision and voice. After, it often needs to fit within a broader portfolio strategy. That doesn’t always mean a full rebrand, but it usually requires clarity and consistency.
We worked with a company that had grown quickly through strong word-of-mouth and a founder-led sales model (quite common!). Their brand was familiar to customers but hadn’t been fully defined with no clear positioning, no documented messaging, and a website that hadn’t been updated in years. After acquisition, the lack of clarity became a blocker. Internal teams didn’t know how to talk about the product. External teams didn’t know how to sell it. It slowed integration and created friction across departments.
We started with a value proposition exercise and then helped build a simple, focused brand narrative that could be shared, adapted and used across the portfolio. That work didn’t just improve marketing, it helped unlock sales conversations, onboarding and cross-team collaboration.
Founder-led marketing is hard to scale
Founders often drive marketing themselves in the early stages. That energy creates momentum, but it can’t be handed over easily. If everything lives in your head or in a few slides or half-finished documents, it disappears when you step back.
One founder we worked with had great instinctive marketing. Their messaging was strong, they knew their audience, and their content converted. But none of it was documented. When they stepped away from day-to-day marketing, the new team struggled to replicate that success.
Before you exit or scale, take stock. Is your positioning clear and documented? Can someone else explain your product in simple terms? Do you have a repeatable process for generating leads?
Buyers look at systems, not just results
Creative campaigns and brand design get attention, but buyers usually care more about systems. They want to know how leads are generated, how attribution works, and how performance is tracked.
We’ve worked with teams that had strong brands and lots of activity, but couldn’t explain what was actually driving growth. On the other side of the coin, we’ve seen quieter brands with structured funnels and measurable outcomes get real credit during diligence and integration.
If you can’t show how marketing contributes to revenue, it becomes easy to de-prioritise it post-acquisition. A clean CRM, a consistent funnel, and reliable reporting matter more than clever headlines.
Buyers want to scale what’s working
After the deal, the focus shifts to scale. Buyers want to know if what works for you can work elsewhere. That might mean reusing your content model, adapting your lead nurture process, or building group-wide campaigns based on your success.
This can be an opportunity, but only if your marketing function is transferable. Can another team take your approach and apply it to a similar business in the group? Can your playbook be used again without guesswork?
The more repeatable your approach is, the more value it creates beyond your own company.
Is your marketing ready for what’s next?
Whether you’re actively preparing for acquisition or just planning to grow, it’s worth stepping back and asking a few simple questions. Could someone else pick up where you left off? Would a buyer understand the value your marketing creates? Are your systems built to scale?
At Remora, we help B2B software companies get clear on what’s working, what’s missing and what needs to change. That includes work before and after acquisition, but it also includes day-to-day marketing strategy, audits, websites and campaigns.
