For me, a practical creative, true impact on your audience takes more than a really sexy website (but that too). You need both looks and substance to be attractive. We all know this from our dating lives. One solid way to have an impact on your audience is to share the impact of your business.

So meta I know. 

No good story today is complete without data. It should have more than that; it should have heart too. But data helps to ground emotion in the tangible. Gathering impact stats is important in today’s data-driven world. But what numbers should you track? 

• If I told you the number of hours Four Fin spends on design projects this year, you would not care. 
• If I told you that 15 of Four Fin’s clients sold or received additional funding after working with us, you might care. 

The might is important, because it shows that the impact of our work, and how we talk about that impact is only as important as our desired audience thinks it is. And the metrics we as a creative agency focus on, tell a story in themselves. 

By telling you impressive stats, I am inadvertently telling you what we at Four Fin care about and measure. 

• If I told you that we’ve grown year over year since our founding, you’d know that growth matters to us. 
• If I told you that we have completed over 70 brand sprints, you’d know that I care about dialed processes and niched expertise. 

So… what matters to you and your company?  

What matters to your direct audience? 

Finally—and this part is an often overlooked consideration by young and thirsty entrepreneurs—what can you realistically track on an ongoing basis from a capacity and logistics standpoint? We call this “sustainable branding” because brands are built over time and you have to be able to keep up with the story without burning out resources.

The below diagram shows the intersect where impact stats truly can have, well, impact, on your brand.