Hi there š
This might be the most technical newsletter title Iāve ever used (āCompound Interestā yikes), but rest assured, it wonāt be all numbers and math. In fact, thereās nary a number in this weekās issue. š The inspiration for the topic came from a book Iāve been reading about money management and conversations Iāve been having about brand investment. Isnāt it funny how our brains connect random dots like that? If youāre reading anything interesting or discussing anything cool at work, let me know. Iād love to learn about your world.
Wishing you a great week ahead,
Kevan
(įµį“„įµ)
Thank you for being part of this newsletter. Each week, I share playbooks, case studies, stories, and links from inside the startup marketing world and my time at Oyster, Buffer, and more.
Say hi anytime at hello@kevanlee.com. Iād love to hear from you.
Brand-building is like compound interest.
How do you advocate for an investment in brand-building?
That is a million-dollar question. A hundreds-million-dollar question maybe, depending on your companyās trajectory.
Iāll write future emails about some of the many tactics Iāve used over the years to advocate for brand. Some include:
Brand measurement frameworks
Brand as a macro growth loop that makes all other growth loops better
The power of brand on your sales efficiency
Brand as fuel for acquisition
Brand as fuel for retention
And the list goes on.
I found myself in some of those brand-building conversations recently, where I was making the case for all the amazing things that brand can do. Fortunately, Iām at a company that already has a high belief in brand. (Thatās probably trick #1 for advocating for brand-building: work at a place that understands the value of brand.)
At the same time, I was reading a book about money: Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. Itās fantastic. Itās not at all about startup marketing, so I apologize to Morgan for the dots Iām about to connect.
The book talks about this idea of compound interest. In finance, compound interest is the way that a small amount of money grows to become a large amount of money because the interest you earn gets larger and larger each year because your yearly base $$ gets larger (thanks to the interest youāre accruing).
Compounding doesnāt rely on earning big returns. Merely good returns sustained uninterrupted for the longest period of time will always win
The idea of compound interest applies to many, many things. Morgan wrote a blog post just the other week about the power of compounding when it comes to jobs. Essentially, the longer you stay in a job, the better chance youāll have to build trust, expertise, and confidence and to do great work. This was absolutely true for me at Buffer.
Nassim Taleb says if youāre going to panic in investing, panic early. Same goes for your career ā if youāre going to quit, quit early so whateverās next has a shot at compounding.
Do you see where I might be going with this?
A brand compounds.
If youāre going to build a brand, build it early.
(And if you want to build a successful company in 2022, you better build a brand!)
And by all means, donāt stop building it once youāve started.
As marketers, we have a job to do when it comes to educating our peers on branding. The below video is a good introduction on what weāre even talking about when it comes to branding.
But we also have work to do in advocating for the actual building of the brand. I could write newsletters for days about the misconceptions around brand marketing ā one of the most obvious being that brands build themselves. Untrue. Brand marketers know the strategies, the tactics, and the infrastructure to put in place so that your brand can scale to extraordinary heights.
But it all requires investment.
Iām often asked when should a company invest in brand.
My answer: If youāre asking the question, you should already be investing!
I believe in investing in brand from Day One. I also recognize that even for companies who start with brand at the top of their minds there will come moments in a companyās journey when we brand marketers have to re-advocate for our brand.
Thatās where ābrand as compound interestā becomes an important paradigm.
If you stop investing in brand, you delay your payoff.
Losing three months of brand investment can mean falling a year behind with your brand-building goals.
You see a similar dynamic with sustainable channels like SEO where the long-term payoff relies on the near-term investment. There are a handful of compound-interest strategies we employ as marketers, and it doesnāt get much more important than the long-term play of brand-building.
Misc.
Product āseedingā ā How to get your product everywhere on the day it launches
4 common mistakes of SaaS analytics
About this newsletter ā¦
Hi, Iām Kevan, a marketing exec based in Boise, Idaho, who specializes in startup marketing and brand-building. I currently lead the marketing team at Oyster (weāre hiring!). I previously built brands at Buffer, Vox, and Polly. Each week, I share playbooks, case studies, stories, and links from inside the startup marketing world. Not yet subscribed? No worries. You can check out the archive, or sign up below:
Thank you for being here! šāāļø
Iām lucky to count folks from great brands like these (and many more) as part of this newsletter community.