Measurable results mean paying a hidden price

Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.

In many ways growth marketers are from the lineage of direct response marketing: we worship data, tracking and performance.

We've all read our Ogilvy, Halbert and Kennedy.
We know our Scientific Advertising.

We believe in results.

Measurable results.

But the bummer is: this is our weakness, too.

Or as Rory Sutherland likes to say:

“When you demand logic, you pay a hidden price:
you destroy magic.”

Some of the absolute best investments that a growth-stage marketing team can make are exactly the things that numbers can't justify.

Those investments can pay such high dividends because in the early days you really can't justify investing in anything frivolous. You can only pay for things that bring immediate results: paid ads, funnel optimisations, message testing, etc.

But as you scale, you should scale your investment horizon.

I repeat:

As you scale,
you should scale your investment horizon

Here's what that means:

• If you're a Seed stage startup, you focus on "doing things that don't scale" — customer interviews, manual onboarding, hustling your friends and family on board.
  
  

• If you're a Series A startup, you invest in figuring out how to reach distribution at larger scale: paid ads, influencer marketing, sales teams, predictable MQL pipeline generation, etcetera.
  
  

• If you're a growth-stage company (Series B+) — it makes sense to invest in longer-term channels like brand quality, content marketing, high-quality video content, et cetera
  
  

• … and if you're a massive corporate, you invest in big brand campaigns that only fully pay back over periods 10+ years (think Mercedes, Rolex, Coca Cola, Gillette, etc)

At every step on that ladder, you go from more measurable —> towards less measurable.

More short-term payoff —> to more long-term payoff.

More direct response —> to more brand building.

The price you pay is measurability and attribution.
The benefit you receive is that these things actually compound better and ultimately pay off higher returns.

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This all might sound a bit abstract and theoretical.

So I want to wrap up this email with a rule of thumb that can immediately be applied, at almost any stage of business:

Rule of thumb:
Over-invest in branding and visual design

You want to invest in branding and visual design beyond what you feel comfortable with. You want to spend more on a fancy website than you feel you can justify for your stage.

Remember: to a buyer, buying from a startup is more risky than sticking with the incumbents. So to compete with those incumbents, you should focus on reducing perceived risk, rather than building even better products. 

This is why branding matters.

• It frames you
  Visual design is the first impression — it helps people design how to mentally frame you. Are you a scrappy startup, or a fast-rising new disruptor?
  
  

• It closes deals faster
  Good design breeds confidence. Good design shows that you're investing in the future. A strong brand makes it easier for fence-sitters to give you the benefit of the doubt (or—importantly—to convince their boss!)
  
  

• It increases conversions
  Closing deals faster means better conversions. Better conversions means that certain channels that didn't work before now become profitable. Branding & visual design is an investment in your sales funnel.
  
  

• It attracts luck
  Everyone wants to work with the winners. Startups are always "fake it till you make it", so you might as well do it convincingly. Over-investments in visual design make it easier to close not only bigger customers, but also convert investors, new hires, and other stakeholders.

Over-investment in branding and visual design signals that you're confident, and signals that you're a winner. 

So when should you start brand building?

I’d say: a little more than you think, a little earlier than you think.

Early-stage startups should spend more money on their website (and especially the website homepage and first impression), better photography of the team, better pitch deck, a better visual design for all their core flows.

Growth-stage startups should spend lavishly on their website, but also invest more in crafting credible case studies, improving their technical documentation, articulating their position in the market, and generally growing the perceived weight and depth of their brand.

A similar advice applies to career success:

"Dress for the job you want, not the job you have."

If you're a growth-stage company, spend some real money to look the part.
Invest in yourself.

Become the brand that you know you can be.
Become the market leader that you know you can be.

Until next time,
— Pieter