At any level, any advertising workforce has infinite concepts and alternatives.
New applied sciences, channels, methods, and techniques are continuously rising. It’s not possible for any workforce to pursue each concept.
What do you do then? How do you vet every concept and determine which one to take a position assets in?
We’re no strangers to this drawback too.
That’s why we determined that we would have liked a constant technique to vet concepts. Not simply to select the perfect ones, however to additionally perceive why we had been pursuing them.
Getting issues completed is sweet, however you additionally have to be strategic and keep away from losing time and assets on initiatives that gained’t transfer the needle.
So we created the B.R.E.W. framework.
The BREW framework stands for:
- Business potential
- Revery
- Effort
- Who
Let’s unpack every half:
B: Enterprise Potential
“How properly are you able to pitch your product?”
We rating each advertising concept from 0-3 based mostly on how important our product is to the issue.
- 3 — Our product is an irreplaceable answer to the issue
- 2 — Our product helps fairly a bit, however isn’t important to fixing the issue
- 1 — Our product can solely be talked about fleetingly
- 0 — There’s no clear technique to point out our product
R: Attain
“Who will see this and the way many?”
Attain isn’t nearly numbers; it’s additionally about relevance. A viral tweet or TikTok video would possibly get hundreds of thousands of views and cost you with dopamine, but when they’re all random individuals, then it’s simply noise.
For instance, I as soon as went viral on Threads. I didn’t even get one new follower
Distinction this with my colleague Louise’s article on the best way to observe AI visitors. The key phrase she focused didn’t have a lot search quantity:
However her article was learn by determination makers, even influencing them to make a change of their workflow:
E: Effort
“How a lot time and assets would you want? And is it even value it?”
Assessing effort isn’t simply concerning the hours required; it’s about understanding the hidden prices and implications:
- Time: How lengthy will this realistically take to finish?
- Manpower: Do you might have ample assets out there internally?
- Dependencies: Are you reliant on different departments, exterior distributors, or know-how?
- Threat: What’s the chance of issues going fallacious or surprising challenges arising?
- Alternative value: Each minute spent on one concept is a minute misplaced elsewhere. May your effort be higher allotted elsewhere?
Quite than shying away from bold, high-effort concepts, all the time begin by asking: “What’s a lower-effort model of this we will check first?”
For instance, our two-day convention, Ahrefs Evolve, is a big advertising effort that takes not less than half a 12 months to plan and execute. It includes coordinating between exterior distributors and inside groups, corresponding to design. It prices us not less than $400,000.
However we didn’t leap straight into this mission. It really took us years earlier than we even determined to run one. We began by sponsoring occasions, then moved on to gentle networking classes we hosted at our workplace.
We solely began scaling and rising complexity after we proved the worth at every step.
W: Who
“Do you might have the proper individuals or expertise to execute this concept successfully?”
With out the proper individuals, and even an inside champion to cleared the path, even the perfect concepts can stall or fail.
Critically consider your workforce’s capabilities. Transparently acknowledge your workforce’s strengths and gaps upfront. If essential, complement with freelancers, consultants, or companies.
For instance, when our Chief Advertising Officer Tim Soulo needed to construct hyperlinks to his content material, he employed an company as an alternative of asking the workforce to deal with it.
Not as a result of the workforce didn’t understand how, however as a result of he would have needed to redirect our time and a focus away from different duties to serving to him construct hyperlinks.
He judged that it wasn’t use of assets and subsequently determined to outsource it to an company with SOPs and processes.
Our B.R.E.W framework may be utilized on any scale. You possibly can apply it to particular person tweets, posts, and articles or one thing as huge as operating a two-day convention.
Listed below are some examples of how we scored completely different advertising actions:
1. Concentrating on the key phrase “weblog submit concepts”
Earlier than we created B.R.E.W, I as soon as pitched the subject “weblog submit concepts” to the content material workforce.
There was a simmering feeling from the workforce that concentrating on this key phrase wasn’t the perfect use of my time. Not solely was it an especially newbie key phrase, its search quantity was additionally on the decline.
Is sensible: with LLMs, who nonetheless wants an article to present them weblog submit concepts? The concept was shot down.
The truth is, this was one of many triggers behind B.R.E.W. We needed to cease evaluating advertising concepts by intestine and have a technique of vetting them.
Right here’s how I might consider the subject as we speak with B.R.E.W:
| B.R.E.W | Rating | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Enterprise potential | 1 | You should use Key phrases Explorer to generate concepts, but it surely’s not 100% essential. |
| Attain | First rate | Ahrefs’ Key phrases Explorer reveals a Visitors Potential of two,300, which is fairly good. Nonetheless, its precise search quantity is declining. A Google seek for the subject additionally reveals a “Sources from the online” SERP characteristic that lists out loads of concepts.
Actual click-through charges for this matter will need to have declined considerably. Additional, it’s an especially newbie key phrase, so we’re reaching newbies. Not our ultimate buyer (or maybe sooner or later.) |
| Effort | Low | I can whip out this submit in a day or much less. |
| Who | Me | We have now a content material workforce (sure, me) that may make this submit. |
We finally concluded that because it was so low-effort, the payoff was value it and subsequently I wrote the submit.
2. Programmatic search engine optimisation for ‘Prime Web sites’
In 2023, we launched “Prime Web sites”: a web page exhibiting the highest 1000 most visited web sites on this planet by our natural search visitors estimates.
That is how we scored it:
| B.R.E.W | Rating | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Enterprise potential | 2 | Whereas it doesn’t exhibit our product in motion, it closely options our knowledge and advertises the way you’ll want Ahrefs to see search visitors for different web sites. |
| Attain | Very excessive | Not solely do the key phrases “hottest web sites” and “most visited web sites” have tons of visitors potential, we will additionally rank for every web site’s model. Nonetheless, the visitors is probably not of the very best high quality. |
| Effort | Medium | Builders had been wanted however LLMs made numerous the work simpler (e.g., copy) |
| Who | Our product supervisor | We have now a devoted product supervisor to see this mission by means of |
Right here’s a enjoyable truth: this mission was really within the pipeline for years. But it surely was thought-about too high-effort—we would have liked developer assets, copy, design, somebody to steer the mission, and extra. So, it was by no means prioritized.
Nonetheless, issues modified. The workforce grew larger, so we had extra developer assets. We employed a product supervisor whose certainly one of his tasks included programmatic search engine optimisation initiatives.
The development of LLMs additionally made the whole lot simpler. For instance, we may generate copy for every web page with out having a poor copywriter writing along with his eyes glazed over.
The lesson right here: simply because a mission didn’t rating properly the primary time with B.R.E.W., doesn’t imply you completely hand over on it. It merely goes again into your backlog of concepts.
Revisit them now and again and re-score them. A few of these initiatives turn into attainable when your workforce grows, your assets enhance, and know-how advances.
3. Ahrefs Evolve
In 2024, we organized a 500-person, multi-day convention in Singapore known as Ahrefs Evolve.
Right here’s how we scored it:
| B.R.E.W | Rating | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Enterprise potential | 3 | The convention is actually Ahrefs Evolve. Because it’s our convention, we will promote our model and toolset closely all over the place. |
| Attain | Medium | Reaching 500 individuals isn’t rather a lot. Nonetheless, these 500 individuals will seemingly be decision-makers or individuals who can affect them. A lot of them can even be our clients with whom we will construct nearer relationships.
They’re even flying down (in the event that they’re not locals) to the convention in Singapore. Speak about dedication. |
| Effort | Very excessive | Organising a convention is not any small matter. A lot of coordination between inside groups, exterior distributors, sponsors, and audio system; numerous planning and execution; numerous advertising in order that tickets may be offered and sponsors wish to sponsor the convention; numerous fire-fighting as Murphy’s Regulation dictates.
Nonetheless, we’ve constructed as much as this over the previous years. We’re not ranging from scratch. We will re-use present assets and replace and improve them. |
| Who | Shermin | We have now a devoted occasion advertising supervisor. |
If we had scored our convention from the start, it could by no means have been completed. Effort would have been extraordinarily excessive; we must be taught and begin the whole lot from scratch (and hope to not lose an excessive amount of cash); and we must redirect somebody from their tasks to do it (with none expertise!)
Certainly, it was most likely the case for a few years as we watched our rivals and different SaaS corporations launch their very own conferences.
Nonetheless, by lowering the trouble and making one thing smaller first, it reduces the complexity and may function proof-of-concept for the channel.
The truth is, that is most likely how we’d have scored our first networking classes (search engine optimisation Beer and Snacks):
| B.R.E.W | Rating | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Enterprise potential | 2 | Because it’s simply networking, it doesn’t have excessive enterprise potential. However we will improve its enterprise potential by including branding components to the meetup (e.g., freely giving swag, utilizing branded standees, inviting enterprise shoppers so we will construct goodwill with clients, and many others.) |
| Attain | Low | Networking classes are usually small. Nonetheless, they’re extraordinarily focused because the probabilities of random individuals turning up are very low. |
| Effort | Low | We have already got an present venue: our workplace. We simply have to ship out invitations and get individuals to come. |
| Who | Shermin | We have now a devoted occasion advertising supervisor. However even earlier than that, I had expertise organizing networking occasions. |
Closing ideas
To get a inexperienced gentle, your advertising concept needs to be balanced when it comes to these 4 components.
For instance, if there’s an opportunity to get insane attain, however the enterprise potential is low and energy is excessive, then it’s most likely not value it. Then again, if enterprise potential is excessive and energy is low, then the concept would possibly make sense even when attain is low.
Ultimately, nobody can let you know whether or not an concept is sweet or unhealthy. It’s as much as you to vet, rating, and consider them to see if they’ve legs.
And keep in mind: even when an concept doesn’t have legs now, it doesn’t imply it’s not viable endlessly. Issues change and a backlogged concept can turn into the subsequent concept to execute as we speak.
