7 Years Brand Marketing Turned Global Selling: Solopreneurs, Stop Dreaming About 'Brand'! Sell First, Survive! Brand Marketing Diary (1)
New series, new pit! Some diaries, some thoughts, reflections and summaries of seven years of brand marketing self-indulgence experience.
New series, new pit! Some diaries, some thoughts, reflections and summaries of seven years of brand marketing self-indulgence experience. More importantly, sharing practical and actionable brand marketing tips!
Why Can't Global Selling Solopreneurs Do Brand?
As mentioned before, for global selling solopreneurs, especially beginners, talking about "brand" is simply a fantasy.
Why?
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ROI-wise, it's longer than SEO and weight loss, and more resource-consuming (both human and financial).
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The biggest drawback of "brand" investment is inability to trace and track. In other words, even if conversions happen, we can't attribute whether they came from a certain "brand" strategy or action, which makes decision-makers confused or even shaken.
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These two problems are based on your brand strategy and execution being professional enough, from aerial brand strategy to ground execution, being able to unify.
That is to say, unfortunately, most brand people or those trying to do brand actions can only self-indulge. After self-indulgence, they find they can't execute in actual conversion, let alone integration of brand and sales.
This leads to "brand" seemingly bringing almost no actual business conversion value. For global selling solopreneurs, this is disastrous. After all, we solopreneurs will cry and curse if we spend $100 on ads without orders. You want me to spend $10,000 on brand strategy and filming? Dream on.
You're Not Good Yourself, Why Say We Brand People Self-Indulge?
Why do most brand people only self-indulge?
1. The biggest reason is not understanding their own business or products
They haven't studied and learned their company or products deeply enough. Relying solely on brand professional skills can actually get through daily work.
They can do brand for FMCG today, internet tomorrow, and cars the day after, regardless of whether they understand what PHEV or EREV is.
So understand it this way: brand professionalism is horizontal, industry professionalism is vertical. Truly professional brand people should ideally deeply cultivate one profession and industry.
Formula: Brand Professionalism x Industry Professionalism = True Brand Person Strength
2. Second, as channels and user touchpoints evolve rapidly
Traditional brand people or those unwilling to accept new things may be beaten by various innovative channels.
3. Third, even if you're willing to learn
If you can't personally, skillfully, professionally experience the full chain of interest-traffic-conversion multiple times, you'll still float at the aerial level, hard to achieve integration of brand and effect.
Not Just Global Selling Solopreneurs, All Companies Are Like This?
Unfortunately, yes.
In many companies, bosses or business departments complain: "Damn, what does this brand department actually do? Spends the most money, completely no performance results, still gets high salary, only knows how to post fancy Moments, checking in at Wukang Road for brunch one moment, sharing Hypebeast or GQ articles with 'Oh my god, love xx brand' the next. I just want to know, do they actually work? Who are they showing off to?"
This is a dilemma faced since ancient times, regardless of company size.
You Watch Cross-Border Self-Media Share Excellent Cases Daily, Yet Become More Confused
I know, most newcomers enter cross-border e-commerce because they're attracted by exciting cases from self-media:
- "I won't allow you not to know this global selling independent site! 2 people, 0 investment, now $100k monthly sales!"
- "This DTC brand! 5 people reached $1M annual sales in 1 year!"
- "How great is having your own brand! Global selling is so great! Being a digital nomad is so great!"
