On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Michael Doyle, a brand and capital-raising guru who founded Brand Iron 20 years ago. Michael combines his branding and market-making experience with his investment reporting analyst strengths to shape a company dedicated to creating congruent brands supported by strong financial and investment stories. With this approach, Michael helped the companies he supported raise over $5 billion in capital.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Most people think of branding as how they present themselves and their company. I take branding beyond simply the message into something that produces tangible results. By integrating branding into all areas of the business – Sales, Marketing, Operations, Finance…- you can create a dynamic value proposition that comes alive, generates leads, and drives revenue.
- We work with companies to identify what’s unique about their brand, how we successfully package and communicate that, and how we put together and take them to market to drive real results and help them achieve their outcomes, whether that’s driving revenue, driving growth, expanding a new product or service into the marketplace, or expanding into new geographies.
- The formula for raising $5 billion is really about understanding your niche, how and why you’re better, and how to package that into a clear, concise message. That’s the brand story. What most companies really struggle with is telling a compelling financial story. When I start out with most companies, they give me financials and spreadsheets, and my job is to extract that information. The other side is communicating, highlighting, and showcasing the team and their experience to effectively execute this plan and make investors feel comfortable that they know what they’re doing and confident that they’ll deliver and make this a reality.
- In order to make ‘x’ revenue, we have to get so many people to make buying decisions. To make those buying decisions, we have to drive so much traffic and convert interested visitors into buyers by getting them to click an ad, blog post, or video. It’s a mathematical formula. We need to understand what it’s going to take, what our message needs to be, which mediums are most effective, and what the timing is. All these ingredients have to come together to deliver the results we want.
BEST MOMENTS
‘You need to understand what your ‘holistic brand’ is. It’s not just logos and websites – which are important – you've got to have a good culture and have the team that's going to deliver, communicate, and convey the claims on your website and brand materials.’
'We don't want our companies to be vaporware. We want them to be real and to do what they say they will do. By doing this, you can produce some great results.’
'Whether you're a startup, SMB, or a large enterprise, you should always start with the end in mind. What are the end goals you want to achieve?’
‘Nothing ever works perfectly. The key is starting with assumptions and then adjusting, optimizing, and fine-tuning it to where it's producing your desired outcome and results you're trying to achieve.'
ABOUT THE GUEST
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