Most startup businesses go through the same order of marketing – from owned media (i.e. blogging on your own website, creating content for your own social media channels, or running email campaigns to subscribers) to paid media (i.e. social ads, pay-per-click, display, retargeting…).
This makes perfect sense from a practical and financial perspective. (When you’re bootstrapped just starting out of course you’re going to start marketing with your owned channels, and as soon as you start making money or secure investment, the next place it makes sense to try is performance marketing). The problem is that beyond this point things get a bit cloudier. Advertising performance starts to plateau after a while, and the same efforts don’t seem to be garnering the same results.
Enter the power of brand.
Now, before you dismiss branding as simply being a logo, or as “the fluffy stuff” – think again.
A strong and well-executed brand has been proven to increase customer retention (emotionally-connected customers have a 306% higher lifetime value than those without); increase revenue (consistent presentation of a brand has been seen to increase revenue by 33%); triple your speed to profitability; and – theoretically – enjoy unlimited profit margins.
Just look at Chanel, the world’s most coveted luxury fashion brand. Their most expensive handbag sold at auction for $107,000. Shein has a similar bag on sale at the time of writing for £5.75.
More realistically, businesses with a strong brand can achieve anywhere between 30% and 500% higher profit margins than those without. (Just think about the last time you forked out for a branded good instead of unbranded. Jo Malone perfume for Christmas? Nike trainers? Maybe a bottle of Heinz ketchup in the supermarket?)
More importantly, when it comes to any sort of campaign performance, though, the strength of the brand has been proven to be the number 1 most effective contributing factor.
In an in-depth analysis of the Effie Awards by marketing legend, Mark Ritson, he and his team reviewed over 6,000 winning case studies over the past 50 years to understand what it really takes to craft a successful advertising campaign. The answer of course lies in the level of brand awareness and emotional connection consumers have to said brand.
So, next time your ad performance is plateau-ing or you find you’re not getting the same results as before, the answer may lie in the fluffy stuff 😉
This is a guest blog post by Bloom, an award-winning marketing agency for startups and scale-ups in the UK’s technology industry. Through refreshing strategy and expert execution, we deliver impactful services across brand & marketing strategy, branding & brand activations, advertising & campaign management, content marketing & content creation (including graphic design, videography, and copywriting). As one of the best digital marketing agencies (or tech marketing company) in the UK, we also offer social media marketing services and brand strategy consultancy to help startups succeed.
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