Customer acquisition costs are through the roof, but CEOs are still reluctant to spend on brand building. Only being focused on demand generation is an old-school way of thinking.
Here's why you are scared to spend on building brand awareness:
- Hard to prove instant ROI, i.e. easier to spend on ads
- Attribution is a challenge, i.e. easier to see a lead from an event
- It's not data-driven, i.e. can not use a model from day 1 to prove it works
- The lens is on the short term, i.e. only thinking about this quarter's number
Demand and acquisition is the easy route.
The challenging route is investing in the long-term leverage of building a movement and message. That's why most opt for easy. But if you choose the hard way, you'll be forced to work through big problems that will help support your go-to-market success.
These are:
- How to improve the clarity of messaging and positioning
- How to be positioned in a noisy market
- Does the value proposition resonate
- Are people engaging with what you do and the mission
- Who is your ideal audience profile
Isn't it time to rethink the value of brand spending?
The case for ROI is what if you don't do anything.
What happens in 6 months when you have no ad budget spend, Linkedin ads increase prices by 40% with a crowded category, or you have no outbound/ demand generation team?
You'll wish you built a brand when those situations happen, that's for sure.