Before working at a creative agency, I thought this was fairly limited to marketing departments, but I’ve since discovered that creatives, communicators, brand designers, copywriters, and anyone who works in or around the ‘crayon pit’, actually, faces similar levels of interrogation.
This isn’t intended as an attack on any individuals in particular, more the inherent mindset and behaviours of businesses.
As Rory Sutherland points out in his book, ‘Alchemy’, “unfortunately, because reductionist logic has proved so reliable in the physical sciences, we now believe it must be applicable everywhere.”
In other words, we’re addicted to logic, requiring evidence wherever possible to draw reasonable, logical conclusions. For everything.
But, as Rory also points out, “when you demand logic, you pay the hidden price: you destroy magic.”
It’s this demand for logic that means anyone working to evidence the value of brand has to constantly prove that what they do has a fairly instant, obvious return, shown in cold hard stats, spreadsheets, and charts.
Yes, a lot of marketing can be backed by metrics, but the real ‘magic’ lies in the creativity. It lies in strategy, in the original thinking, in the wording, tone, design, delivery… This creative magic is almost impossible to compress into the linear constraints of a spreadsheet.
Therein lies the challenge and the struggle.
So, I’m here to share some of the tips and tricks I’ve picked up over the years for shifting this narrative and convincing even the most analytical of people to recognise how marketing and creativity drives success in business (and get that much needed budget approved).
1. Know your stuff (and encourage others to know it, too)
It’s always easiest to make a good case when you have all of the evidence. Know your brand, your customers, their pain points, the journey they take, how your marketing has performed in recent months and years, etc etc.
Include those key metrics where possible. It’s highly likely that they will support your argument to the number-driven stakeholders you need the buy-in from. (See tip 7 for how to present these).
I’d also highly recommend getting well acquainted with brand guru, Marty Neumeier. He has a range of books on what a brand is, does, and how you can build a successful one.
He also presents various strong facts and arguments for why branding is so valuable which are almost impossible to dispute.
2. Use SOV/listening tools
Tools such as Mention or Brandwatch can provide great insight into where, how and how much your brand is being spoken about in the digital landscape. Not only that, but you can measure your brand against competitors within your industry and gain a clear understanding of your brand’s ‘share of voice’ (SOV) compared to others.
This can be really powerful for showing how marketing and branding aligns with success (especially when looked at against Share of Market (SOV)).
Seeing a key competitor own a greater SOV online can be quite the eye-opener to those you need to sell marketing to.
3. Use visual heatmapping tools
Using a heatmap tool such as Hotjar or Crazy Egg shows how users interact with your website or app.
Scroll depth, rage clicks, use of call-to-action buttons (and much more!) can all be tracked to show how your customers are engaging with your content. This can be a great way to visually represent the power of web design such as button positioning, copy length, and content order. (And obviously, it is generally a brilliant tool for refining your UX).
It’s difficult to argue that a contact form doesn’t need to be moved if you can prove that only 5% of users scroll to where it is on the page…
4. Ask the customer (or even better, analyse the customer)
“A brand is not what you say it is. It’s what they say it is.” - Marty Neumeier, The Brand Gap
If you’re struggling to justify the value of your brand and marketing efforts, send in the big guns. Your customers.
There’s a variety of ways that you can gain insight into what customers really think about your brand and this will be way more powerful than you telling stakeholders what your brand needs (even if it’s the same).
After all, the customer is always right.
Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys, focus groups, online reviews and referral schemes are all great ways to gain an honest, external impression of your brand.
Additional tip: don’t just rely on asking customers, you want to know how they actually feel and interact with your brand, so analysis of behaviour is often even more powerful than a customer testimonial. You’d be surprised how many people will say one thing when asked, but do something completely different in reality.
5. Create clear SMART goals
Probably an obvious one for most marketers, but still an important one to remember.
Always tie your activity back to a goal. Even if it’s hard to quantify, there should always be an objective you’re trying to achieve.
By setting clear and concise SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) and attributing all marketing and branding activity to these, you’ll find it a lot easier to communicate its relevance and worth.
For example, ‘the summer promotion to existing customers should drive 17% more sales in Q2, which will provide 5% of the overall annual sales target set for 2025'. So, less focus on the promotion itself, but the goal it’s being created to achieve. There’s a very clear relation between marketing and sales here, something leadership teams are far more likely to understand and buy into.
6. Track retention
You might be able to make a sale, but it’s repeat custom and advocacy that really breeds success.
And everyone knows it’s easier (and usually cheaper) to keep customers than it is to get new ones.
If you can prove that your marketing strategy helps retain customers and build advocacy, people are more likely to see its value.
7. Speak their language
Telling people outside of marketing that you’ve “achieved a 12% increase in followers” won’t mean a lot to the person approving your budget.
However, repositioning it to “our latest social media campaign has created an audience that is 12% more likely to convert” ties marketing efforts to business goals more clearly.
You’re providing the same information, but you’re repositioning it to align more clearly with business goals which is always easier to sell to key decision makers.
Give yourself a decent window for reporting on metrics, too. Brand building takes time, so looking at metrics through a microscope isn’t realistic and won’t help your cause.
8. Always bring it back to the customer
Focus less on the how, and more on the why. You’ll often lose people when talking about the intricacies of the colour choice on a flyer. That’s fine, not everyone needs to know the psychology behind the design or approach.
Instead, focus more on what the customer journey is and how the creative will influence users to take a specific action.
When people understand that a design has been created to prompt a specific action (such as make a purchase) they can clearly draw a connection between marketing and
When people recognise the link between a design and a specific action it has been created to elicit, they can see purpose in it.
Summary
Unfortunately, a lot of key decision makers within businesses are innately logical and require cut and dry evidence for proving the value of marketing activity.
You know as well as I do that not all brand and marketing ‘magic’ can be measured, so it’s often more about how you position your creative, and ideas (alongside the necessary metrics).
Know your stuff, educate others where possible, and always focus on the results you’re trying to achieve. Not everyone needs to know or understand the ‘magic’ we use along the way.
Use tools where possible to further support your reasoning and position your brand within its industry to help influence decision makers and get the marketing budget you deserve (and need!)
