Council Post: A Simple Science For Sustainable Scaling

Thomas Herd, CEO of T1 Advertising.

Undoubtedly, the holy grail when it comes to digital marketing is the aim of sustainable customer-acquisition and revenue scaling. Up until recently, however, there was no infallible, bedrock science behind how brands and entrepreneurs could do this in the digital marketplace. Surely, lead gen and direct consumer outreach through paid ads and email newsletter blasts are the most direct, efficient, and parsimonious route to get your product/service directly in front of an audience and prompt them into making a yes-or-no buying decision. But if it was that easy, wouldn’t just about every start-up these days be a soaring success? In reality, the vast majority of startups fail. 

So how shall we flip that? 

Fortunately, there is emerging science behind how brands — from the day 1 startup to industry leaders — can reliably scale in the law of averages. 

The first and most principal deduction that all brands and entrepreneurs need to be mindful of is hardly rocket science, yet it is of vital, make or break importance. 

That deduction is simply that many — if not most — of a brand’s prospective new consumers (i.e., consumers who have heard about or seen an ad on the brand and have a genuine, real interest in exploring it) will invariably vet the brand and conduct due diligence first prior to further exploration or to purchase.

Due to this circumstance — which arises in one form or another nearly every time a consumer makes a purchase these days — it goes without saying that a brand that has amassed an A+, impeccable reputation on platforms used for vetting will likely fare better. These brands may see this advantage in conversions at higher percentages, distinguishing them from brands that do not have solid reputations or credibility on the channels consumers use to evaluate brands. 

My suggestion for any new startup or an established brand seeking sustainable revenue scaling is to start with two of the biggest channels, Google and Instagram. In my experience, they can be the most pivotal channels for informing consumers not only which brands have credibility, but how brands stack up against each other. The first step for a brand should be to fortify their Google and Instagram profiles with third-party validation. This can look like objective, editorial press from respected authorities on Google and highly engaged audiences and blue check verification on Instagram. 

Here are three critical steps a brand can take to help establish a clear, objective competitive advantage on Google and Instagram: 

1. Seek Verification

For Instagram, learn about what the requirements are to verify your Instagram page — and Facebook if needed. Then put an action plan in place to deliver on each of the necessary prerequisites so that you can qualify for verification. Verification can help immediately set you apart from your competitors as a more trustworthy choice for consumers who vet you on Instagram. 

2. Know Your Audience

Also on Instagram, make sure you are aware of what triggers your audience and then reverse engineer content to tap those trigger points so that you can score high engagement and perpetual follower growth. A page that has a deficiency in follower growth will automatically be a red flag to consumers vetting you on Instagram. 

3. Identify Strategies

On Google, make sure that you identify the SEO, press release and organic press strategies that will place objective third-party validation on your first-page google. This will be imperative in validating you to all prospective consumers seeking reference and validation for your company.

The end result for brands that establish an A+ reputation on these channels will be the creation of a solid status that makes way for being known as an industry leader. At this point, whenever an interested prospective consumer utilizes two of the more well-known platforms to vet the brand, they will see the brand as not only credible but potentially the superior choice in its field. Now, instead of potentially turning away from the brand due to low or no credibility, the prospective customer is more more likely to convert. 

If you’re playing devil’s advocate, you may say who cares about the response of just one consumer? But, considering the one customer is part of the buying behavior of markets on the macro scale and you can extrapolate their behaviors, a foundation of credibility — and the potential establishment as an industry leader — can help. If your brand’s reputation can turn the consumer toward the brand more than it turns them away, it becomes an excellent lever to rely on for conversion of new customers at the highest rate based on the law of averages. By extension, you can then sustainably scale, potentially at likely the highest revenue ROI.

Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?