🔥How to set up a brand-led growth dashboard

Before we get to it, I rebuilt my website last weekend and I am not mad about how the MVP turned out. There's still a lot of formatting, design, and content upgrades I'll be making over the coming weeks but give it a visit and reply and let me know what can be improved!

I built it in Framer (for the first time) and am still learning so send tips if you have em.

Most marketing dashboards are performance-heavy and brand-bare. It’s all CAC, CPL, ROAS, and clicks.

Those metrics are not wrong (hey I love em!) but if brand drives long-term growth, why isn’t it measured the same way?

Here’s how to build a dashboard that connects the dots between brand building and business growth — without relying on BS vanity metrics.

Step 1: Start with the right question

Before you track anything, answer this:

“What do we want our brand to make people do, feel, and remember — and how can we spot signs that it’s happening?”

That unlocks three measurement layers:

• Behavior: Are people doing the things we want?
• Perception: Are we showing up the way we want to?
• Momentum: Are we building brand value over time?

Step 2: Set up metrics across 3 time horizons

Think like a portfolio manager. Mix short, mid, and long-term indicators:

Step 3: Use proxies for what’s “hard to measure”

You can’t put brand equity in a spreadsheet.
But you can track indicators that signal it's rising:

• Brand search volume: People are looking for you
• Referral traffic: People are talking about you
• Average deal velocity (for inbound): Strong brand = faster trust
• Share of voice (organic & paid): Are you the loudest? Or the most valuable?

Step 4: Build a dashboard you’ll use

Tools don’t matter as much as ownership.
Use Notion, Looker, Google Sheets, whatever gets opened weekly (think about what habits you already have and start there)

Structure it like this:

1. Key business goals: Grow pipeline from brand-led channels by 25%
2. Strategic brand bets: Podcast sponsorship, CMO dinners, LinkedIn thought leadership
3. Activity logs: What actually ran this month?
4. Brand signals: Key metrics & proxy indicators by time horizon
5. Insights & actions: “What we’re seeing” & “What we’re doing next”

Step 5: Add Human Feedback Into the Mix

Quant is good. Qual is gold. Build systems to collect:

• Sales team quotes: “They said they saw us on LinkedIn…”
• Prospect emails: “I’ve been following your newsletter for months…”
• Customer interviews: “You felt like the most legit option”

Track this stuff. Use tags. Turn it into content later. Celebrate your success. Yay you're a winner.

And cut these vanity metrics while you're at it:

🚫 Likes with no click-through
🚫 Time-on-site if you're not mapping behavior
🚫 Generic impressions
🚫 Press hits with no engagement
🚫 Brand awareness surveys with zero benchmarking

If it doesn’t tie to a business outcome, it’s just noise. And my ears hurt.

What's New in The Brand Insiders Club

Did you miss last month's events? Amanda Milligan taught us about Brand Authority, full session is available to members in the Insiders Club in the Events Replay section.

Here's what's on next:

April 29: The Impact of AI on Social Channels & Content Marketing with James Gregson

May 8: Build the Business, Keep the Soul, with Ashley Carroll

May 12: The Story Moat: How to Build a Brand Nobody Can take Away, with Milly Tamati

In May we'll be restarting Lauren Schell's Monday Meditation. Join us for half an hour of calm as well as tips and tricks to stay centered for the rest of the week.

Reminder: Events are FREE for Insiders Club Members. Not a member yet and want to try it out? Here's a day pass.

What to know this week

🤖 In tech: OpenAI is considering its own social media network. Pinterest is exploring five adtech acquisitions. Facebook is resurgent after algorithm change. A judge has ruled that Google has monopoly in online marketing. TikTok introduces new branding tools.

😋 Are you seeing a lot of "I'm so hungry I could eat..." posts on social? It's a big trend right now especially among parents, and here it is explained.

😡 Tori Dunlap, CEO and founder of HerFirst100k speaks up about how incel groups meme'd her content and tore apart her looks and career as it went viral.

✌️ I gave away the playbook I used to help a founder who made an 8-figure exit develop and launch her personal brand.

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