Do you really need to prove it?

Brand- and relationship-building efforts are hard to measure. So what? [View Message in Browser]( / [Add Us to Safe Sender List]( You won’t get this newsletter next week because of the July 4 holiday. We’ll return with new stories on July 12. Enjoy the quiet(er) week. You won’t get this newsletter next week because of the July 4 holiday. We’ll return with new stories on July 12. Enjoy the quiet(er) week. WEEKLY NEWS 6.28.24 WEEKLY NEWS 6.28.24   FEATURED [Groundbreaking Autism Travel Series Rockets Myrtle Beach Tourism]( By Amanda Subler Myrtle Beach’s tourism bureau chief talks about why they created a series about traveling with autism that may soon hit a popular streaming service. He also recaps their debut owned content, Chef Swap, which appears on the Cooking Channel. [Read more](  READ OR LISTEN TO MORE STORIES FROM THIS WEEK: [How To Build a Winning Content Plan for Social Media [Template]]( by Jodi Harris A content plan for social media gives your brand a better chance for success in that volatile and ever-changing marketing space. Learn the four steps to laying the groundwork and how to build a plan that everybody on your team can easily use. [Why Brand-Building Matters, Even When You Can’t Measure It]( by Robert Rose If you can’t measure it, it doesn’t matter, right? Nonsense. Brand-building through content and marketing pays off in many measurable and unmeasurable ways. Here’s how to convince business leaders to trust the process more than the numbers. [What Should Agencies Do in a Flat-Growth Year?]( by Content Marketing Institute Team Ad Age released the Agency Report for 2024, and it’s not good news for big firms. Frankly, it’s not that great for small, independent firms either. Find out the possible reasons and what successful agencies should do now. [ICYMI: How To Write Effective Social Media Guidelines That Protect Your Brand]( by Erika Heald Many companies present a list of what not to do and call them their “employee social media guidelines.” Innovative brands see the power of employee ambassadors. Here’s how to create company social media guidelines for the win.  A NOTE FROM ROBERT ROSE Do you really need to prove it? A long time ago (so long ago that Nickelback still had hits), my marketing leader would ask me what value my brand-building programs added to the business. My answer to him was always the same: “Good things.” Halfway through 2024, brands are desperate to make every piece of content catch their audiences’ attention. That’s no easy task in the “For you” feed era. But chasing short-term attention and performance too often comes at the expense of the long game — building and deepening brand trust. Brands often default to the short-term view because they understand the associated metrics (pageviews, click-throughs, comments, etc.). Associating performance measures with brand-building is much more challenging. I see this all the time with my clients. There’s the nonprofit that desperately wants to measure its brand impact on stakeholders. There’s the AI startup trying to measure how its content affects its audience share with its competitors’ buzzword-filled treatises. There’s the enterprise brand trying to maintain its relevance in an evolving industry. Yet, despite the measurement difficulty, brand awareness remains the most common content marketing goal mentioned in CMI’s B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends research year after year. In that way, brand awareness is like exercise. We know it’s good for long-term health. But the incremental changes that result are hard to spot. And that makes brand-building programs difficult to justify in a performance-driven culture. It’s not that brand-marketing metrics don’t exist. Myriad articles, classes, best-practice guides, and tech products claim to help you associate transactional data with brand value. Most of these encourage marketers to look at the growth of direct traffic, earned media coverage, social media share, or even brand-recall surveys to measure the increase of our brand value. But anyone who has argued for more money for brand marketing (or content marketing as a lever to build a brand) will tell you those metrics won’t get you far. And the pushback is warranted. More traffic doesn’t prove the brand has more unaided or aided recall. It could mean a content piece suddenly ranked well for an unbranded search term. Here’s an example: About three years ago, I noticed a significant bump on my consulting website (contentadvisory.net). “Ooh, my brand is growing!” I thought. But when I investigated, I found that most of that traffic went to an 8-year-old blog post that suddenly ranked for the phrase “purple duck meaning.” I still don’t know why that phrase suddenly went viral, but people searching for it weren’t interested in whatever that blog post was about or my consulting services. (Google it at your own risk.) So, more traffic doesn’t always indicate that brand value or trust has grown. The traffic could have everything to do with a topic but nothing to do with your brand. It also could mean people are scrutinizing your digital content because they don’t trust your brand. Put simply, many of those metrics may have nothing to do with increasing or decreasing the brand’s value. And, ironically, some may run counter to it. But if transactional metrics aren’t optimal, how do you build a better business case for brand marketing? I suggest a few ways to convince leaders that good things will come of brand building in [Rose-Colored Glasses]( this week. Remember, it’s your story. Tell it well. Robert Rose Chief Strategy Advisor Content Marketing Institute Robert Rose Chief Strategy Advisor Content Marketing Institute Would any of your colleagues or friends benefit from Robert's weekly updates? Please invite them to [subscribe]( here.  A WORD FROM ONE OF OUR SPONSORS 5 Steps to High-performance Campaigns With Visuals From the Internet Find out how to take visual content from the internet and use it in your digital marketing campaigns. Get the guide now. [Download the e-book »](  Unlock the Secrets to Success With The Definitive Guide to Planning a New Content Initiative Discover the ultimate roadmap to content success! The Definitive Guide to Planning a New Content Initiative reveals key strategies and practical tips for planning impactful content initiatives that drive engagement and growth. [Download now! »]( MORE FROM CMI Content Marketing World: 2024 Agenda Now Live We’re excited to share that the Content Marketing World 2024 session lineup is now available! Get ready for 100+ sessions designed to keep you at the cutting edge of content and marketing trends. This year’s program is your toolkit to supercharge your strategies and spark new ideas that will transform the way you approach your work. Explore the agenda, then register to join us October 21-23 in San Diego, CA. [View the agenda »](  Content Marketing Certification: Last Chance to Save! Good news — it's not too late to save 20%! With the deadline extended until tonight, you still have time to take advantage of the discounted [CMI x AMA Content Marketing Certification]( and embark on a journey of discovery and professional growth. Use code EXPLORE20 to save 20% and start elevating your content marketing expertise today. [Enroll now »](  Was this email forwarded to you? 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