Branding is a long-term play that wastes money for early-stage businesses. Instead, spend on direct-response campaigns you can measure and track to sales, then reinvest profits into what works. Only do branding once you can afford to spend without needing immediate returns.
Is branding a scam? Welcome to day 2 of the 100 Day Ad School. Let's dive right in. Let's first define branding, shall we? Branding is marketing that builds recognition and loyalty over time. Think Super Bowl commercials. Clearly, branding can be valuable, but it needs to be done at the right time. Otherwise, you're getting scammed. Think of it this way. If I give you $10,000 right now to grow your business and your first instinct is to spend that 10 grand to hire someone to create a logo, get a billboard, or heaven forbid, make business cards, you're doomed from the start. Here's what you should do instead: direct response marketing. Imagine you take that same $10,000 and set aside just $1,000 of it on a direct response campaign. Not only are you getting visibility to your brand in the form of views on your ads, but you're actually measuring the response and generating sales. And if you do it right, that $1,000 will turn into $1,200, $1,500, or even $2,000 plus in the form of revenue. Then you can take an additional $2,000, $3,000, and spend it only on the most profitable aspect of your previous campaign. And you continue to do the same thing over and over and over again. So the key here is control. Marketing is all about control. That which cannot be measured cannot be improved. And because direct response marketing is measurable, when you generate a trackable $50K, $100K or more for a business, how easy is it for you to charge $10,000 or even $20,000 for your services? Really? Freaking easy. So when is the right time to invest in branding then? Only when you can afford to spend money without ever seeing a tangible result. And that is day 2 of the 100 Day Ad School. Tomorrow we're talking about the most important word in marketing.
