How To Get The Business Bought Into Brand Building

Brand marketing has a bit of a reputation for being intangible.

Some people (especially non-marketers) find it hard to understand. Because of this, it can be difficult to get the business bought into your brand marketing efforts.

But with a few simple steps, you can get the rest of the team on board. Show them you got this and they’ll be much more likely to back investment into brand.

Track your brand perception

We can’t get away with saying “brand is magical and untrackable”. Especially when we’re trying to get the business on board with investing in brand.

Your finance team won’t be able to get their heads around something “magical,” so do what you can to make it trackable.

Choose metrics that you’re going to go after, ones you can measure. Then, hold yourself accountable. Measure if your efforts are working. The easiest way to do this is to ask your customers.

Send out a survey and ask them if they agree that your brand is a natural brand, a charitable brand, a luxury brand, or whatever perception you’re going after. Survey regularly to start tracking gradual changes in perception.

If you like, you can also look into brand health tracking tools. We work with ProQuo AI — this is another great way to make your brand efforts measurable.

Pragmatic vs. perfect

Know when to be pragmatic and when to go after perfection.

This balance is really important. Too much pragmatic can mean a sloppy, inconsistent brand. But too much perfect can slow progress.

Aim for perfectionism when it comes to your brand assets. Your logo should always be the same, the colours you use should never change, etc. This is where you need to invest time and money into getting it right.

But when you’re testing out social media posts, for example, don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. Keep up momentum by being pragmatic and iterating.

Proving to the business that you know when to be pragmatic vs. when to be perfect will show them you know what you’re doing. Investing in the right efforts will get results (which you’ll be tracking), and make it easy for them to say yes to more marketing budget.

Optimise before asking for more

It’s part of our jobs to get as much investment as possible for marketing. But before you ask the business for more, make sure you’re getting the most out of all your touchpoints.

Have you optimised absolutely everything you can? Is every customer having an experience that means they leave with the sense of the brand you want them to have?

Look at every touchpoint. Make it all shout about your brand. A good place to start is:
- Founder profiles
- Packaging
- Website
- Emails - how they’re written and how you sign them off
- Social media
- Customer service
- How you answer the phone (and even your hold music)
- Newsletters
- The t-shirts your team wears at tradeshows

Interrogating everything about your brand experience and making changes is a great way to move the needle on perception without spending too much money.

Once you’ve got everything tied up, it’s easier to make the business case for more investment as the rest of the team will see you’ve sweated all your touchpoints.

If you want to hear more about brand building, including how to actually do it in the first place, become a member to watch my full talk!