Your most valuable marketing asset has no ROI. Or does it?

When it comes to measuring your marketing there are a stack of variables that need to be taken into consideration. But, instead of it coming from us, we decided to call up Katy and Hayley from Oh My Digital to get their opinion on the topic (actually… we emailed, does anyone even call these days?). And, Katy has given us a cracker, so we’ll let her take it from here.

If there’s one thing that really gets on my goat, it’s the current obsession everyone seems to have with measurement and instant success in marketing.

As digital marketing has taken off, and our tactics become more and more measurable, many of us have become overly-obsessed with attaching ROI figures to all of our communications efforts. This is a problem. 

Hear me out.

Yes, we need to measure the ROI of our campaigns (I do this every day) but do these figures alone tell us the full story? Hell no!

Depending on the value and level of perceived risk involved with a purchase, consumers will go through multiple steps before coughing up their coins, but oftentimes we can only measure any ROI in that final step when they buy the damn shoes that we’ve been following them around the internet with for three weeks. 

You see, it’s the things we can’t always measure in marketing that are the most valuable – like how someone first hears about our offering, what makes them consider it in amongst all our competitors, and the factors that ultimately make them choose us. 

If our marketing strategy focuses only on sales and ROI from day one, we completely ignore this whole process, and people never get to start this journey with us in the first place. In other words, they don’t buy. 

TLDR; Just because you can’t always attach a dollar figure to something doesn’t mean it is worthless – it usually means it is PRICELESS.

So, what does all this boil down to? Yep, you guessed it. Your brand! 

This is what you need to know about it.

Rule #1 Your brand determines your pricing

Why do people pay $7 for a Starbucks coffee when a similar drink at the cafe next door is $3.50? 

Why do people pay more for the latest iPhone when it has the exact same features Samsung came out with 2 years ago in a phone that’s cheaper?

Why do people spend $2k on a Gucci sweater when it’s comparable quality to something that could be purchased for 50 bucks?

The answer to all of these questions is the same. People are willing to pay more for a brand that’s desirable to them (or people they wanna impress).

Seriously, there is no other logical reason than that people who like these brands, want these brands, even if they’re not superior in quality, features or hard value. 

Rule #2 Your brand gets you into people’s consideration sets

If you want to beat out your competitors, you need to get in people’s consideration sets first. If people aren’t considering and comparing your offering when it comes time for them to make a purchase, you aren’t going to get a look-in.

But here’s the thing about investing in building a recognisable brand, someone might interact with your brand who is not even a prospective customer right now, but 6 months, 12 months or 2 years later when it does come time for them to make that decision, you are right there at the top of their mind (if you make a good impression!)

But what’s even better than getting into that consideration set? Getting selected from it!

When people are overwhelmed by choice, or trying to make a decision quickly, they’ll fall back on simple decision making rules to choose which laptop they’re going to buy or what fast food to eat for lunch.

Imagine you’ve just arrived in a foreign country late at night, you’re starving and aren’t sure of any good places to eat yet, but you spot a McDonalds. It’s familiar and you know what to expect, so you make a b-line for that Big Mac.

If you want another example, go and talk to anyone who owns a Toyota Corolla and ask them why they bought it. I can almost guarantee you the conversation will go something like this:

You: Hey, that’s a really generic car you have, why did you buy it?
Them: Well, it’s reliable and cheap to maintain.
You: Why is that?
Them: Because it’s a Corolla. 

BOOM branding b*tch. 

So not only does having a strong brand help you sell at a higher price point, it also makes it super easy for customers to choose you and offers protection from competition.

Rule #3 Nothing works unless your brand does

• A Facebook conversion ad for a brand no one has ever heard of
• A $300 pair of pool slides from a brand no one has ever heard of
• A cold email from an SEO agency no one has ever heard of

What do all of these things have in common (besides being from a brand no one has ever heard of)? 

They don’t sell sh*t!

Today Oh My Digital has been going for the best part of 3 years, and we can proudly say that every single client project we’ve worked on has come from word of mouth or social media. Sounds like the dream for any agency right? So why do you see so many people in our field sending cold emails or running ads to get leads? 

It’s usually for one of two reasons; a) they’re more comfortable with rejection than we are, or b) (and this is 99% of cases) they don’t have any brand equity (yet).

Originally, we started our agency as a side-hustle, and we were posting super valuable content and building an engaged social media community for around 12 months before the inbound leads starting pumping through. Going through that process taught us a really valuable lesson; a brand is DAMN powerful, but it also doesn’t just spring into existence overnight. 

So what’s our point? Branding is a long-term investment, and if you get it right from the start, it’ll pay off exponentially over time. Don’t get so obsessed with short-term revenue that you lose sight of long-term profitability, because the latter wins every damn time.

Katy Gillies is one half of Oh My Digital, an agency serving up Digital Marketing strategy (without the BS). She loves caffeine (particularly from Starbucks), op-shopping, finance documentaries, and literally every dog she’s ever met. 

People who really like or dislike her normally stalk her here on Instagram or here on LinkedIn. 

If you have any questions or want to know more, click here and get in touch. Or check out the services page to see what’s on offer. Alternatively, head over and follow us on Instagram and see what’s happening with us daily!