Brand equity is cumulative

By Alexandria Trusov, Alpha Resources LLC

Last week I got asked about ROI. On this year's ad spend, which happens to be focused on a particular product line.

I truly hate that question. Because it is typically asked by a finance dude who took one marketing class in college about a single ad campaign.

I can give him a number.

It would be wrong.  

Because there is no ROI on a single branding element.

Everything builds the brand. The website, the social posts, the PR. The tradeshow attendance. The ads you ran two years ago. The article mention in the industry press. The word of mouth from current customers. It's called brand equity.

Oh, and that digital ad campaign the Finance Dude just asked you for an ROI value on? Yeah, that also builds the brand equity.

What can you offer? You can give the click numbers. You can give the impressions. You can offer the leads that came in during the campaign – their value and close rate.

What you can't quantify is how many of those other brand building activities were experienced by your leads before they clicked the ad. (You can ask - it's rare for a customer to be able to verbalize each one of the interactions.) And without taking all of the other factors into account, you can't value the singular ad campaign investment to explain the return on it.

What's more valuable to track than fictitious ROI? Website traffic, qualified leads, length of sales cycle, and sales close rates. Improving any of those (or selling more product/services to current customers ) will impact your bottom line in a more substantial way.

The point – The value of brand is built from every action.

Goal for the week: To impact sales, look for ways to increase website traffic, improve the quality of your leads, shorten the length of your sales cycle or increase close rate. (Take your pick.)

P.S. I sound a little cynical about "finance dude." I'm actually just exasperated at the rehashing and wish more emphasis was placed on the value of brand equity during that one marketing class. Amortization gets explained; brand equity is not a more difficult concept.

Alexandria Trusov is a marketing expert with a deep understanding of the manufacturing industry. Currently she is the CMO of MITO® Material Solutions and the Global Marketing Director at Alpha Resources LLC as well as a B2B marketing consultant to manufacturers and other B2B companies. With over 100+ published articles in leading industry publications, she helps manufacturing SMBs develop marketing strategies that drive sales and recognition. Hear more from Alexandria at the NFFS 2025 Industry Executive Conference on February 21-23, 2025, in New Orleans, where Alexandria will present Sales ≠ Marketing.