Brand Awareness Campaigns - Is it Smart for you?
Whether you are a startup just trying to build a name for yourself in a crowded market, or you are trying to rebrand an old company, you can benefit from a brand awareness campaign
Have you been running paid ads and having a difficult time getting people to engage with your business? You may be overlooking a crucial part of your marketing strategy- brand awareness!
Brand awareness represents how familiar your audience is with you brand and how well they recognize it. Brands with an established brand awareness are generally referred to as ‘trending’, ‘buzzworthy’ or simply put, ‘popular’. Establishing brand awareness is extremely valuable when marketing and promoting your company and products, especially in the early stages of business.
So, why is brand awareness so important to incorporate into your marketing strategy?
Why a Brand Awareness Campaign?
It Creates a Solid Foundation
To start seeing a return on investment, you need to start from the ground up. Create your social media channels to engage with your potential consumers, set aside part of your budget for Facebook ads that will drive awareness, and keep your business information up to date. When consumers are presented with your company more and more and when it comes to them making a purchase decision, you will have a better possibility to come to their mind. Your brand awareness strategy will set a solid foundation of trust between you and the consumer, and you’re more likely to become a reputable brand in their minds.
Consumers Need to Trust You
Consumers will spend their money on products or service that they trust. You’ve heard this before. So, as a business owner, how do you plan to get them to trust your business? First, focus on a brand awareness strategy, you can create a positive perception of your business in the minds of potential customers. You can earn loyal customers that come back again and again by creating a positive association for your brand with your product or services that you offer.
It Sets You Apart
What would a company like Coca-Cola be without their classic red cans? Can you imagine an iPhone without picturing their logo? The branding strategies that these companies have built into their campaigns have set them apart from their competitors. Because people recognize these brands (without even thinking about it), consumers are more likely to purchase from them than from a competitor. Try to stand out from the rest and make a name for yourself. It will pay off in the long run.
Reputation is Essential in the Digital Age
When was the last time you posted to your Business Facebook Page? Have you responded to reviews or comments? Are your business listings up to date? Having those essential conversations across platforms is crucial for a strong digital presence, which is necessary in today’s world. Being an easily accessible, up-to-date, and easy to contact brand goes a long way. Remember- consumers are more likely to trust a brand with a strong digital presence. Transparency and responsiveness are key!
Steps To Successful Brand Awareness Campaign
Your quest is to put your brand name in front of as many relevant users as possible. This means not spending millions on a billboard advertisement when you have no idea who’s going to read it. So how do you maximize the success of your brand awareness campaign? Use these 5 steps to help create a successful brand awareness campaign.
#1 Know Your Audience
The first step is to understand you are actually targeting. To start, analyze your existing customer base. Who is purchasing your product or service, who is following you on social media, who is engaging with your brand? These are the individuals who already identify with your brand, so look at what they all have in common. What matters to them? What problems do they have? How can your product or service help them?
Once you understand this. Do market research. Where else are your customers shopping? Who are your biggest competitors? Odds are, your target audience is also shopping at your competitors, so spend some time doing your research to fully understand who they are.
Lastly, analyze the data you collected from your research and build a profile for your ideal customer. What do you want them to associate your brand with? Your answer to these questions will help point the direction of your campaign.
#2 Where Does Your Audience "Live" Online?
After nailing down who your target audience is you must understand where they are spending their time online to ensure they will actually see your campaign. Do they spend time on LinkedIn? Place your ads there. Is there a forum or message column they frequently visit? Be active there. Are there blogs that this persona reads regularly? Try contacting the website to see if you can guest write or have someone write about your brand on that blog page.
It’s important to remember that you shouldn’t advertise everywhere. If you audience isn’t active on Facebook or Snapchat don’t waste your money or time by advertising on those platforms since your audience will never see that ad.
#3 Remember Your Budget
When creating a budget, you will be able to efficiently allocate your dollars properly once the above steps are thought through. If you don’t have much money to spend, it’s time to get creative: what platform makes the most sense that will put your brand in front of the most potential buyers within your audience? Utilize the bulk of your ad dollars there. Also use organic, creative approaches where you can. Why? Because you never know what carrot they’re actually going to follow!
#4 Know What Success Means for You
How will you know that your campaign was successful? What are you trying to accomplish through this campaign? Are you looking for more exposure/ awareness? Do you want lead captures and email addresses? Or are you looking for website visits?
If you are only tracking your brand awareness, metrics or KPIs will most likely be your content’s likes, follows, shares, retweets, impressions, and reach. If you are looking to push your audience further into their buyer’s journey, establish that up front before starting your campaign.
What numbers would you like to see in order to know that this campaign was successful for your business? Figure out those numbers and what it looks like for your business before starting this campaign journey.
#5 Track Performance
You have set your KPIs and now understand what you’re looking for in order to call this a successful campaign. Don’t forget to watch those measurements carefully. Look at the data that shows you whether or not you hit your goals.
Analyze which avenues produced better results. Consider how much time was spent for different avenues and which overall produced the best results. And remember don’t be afraid to fail and then change up some things. Retargeting is designed to let you learn from your data and make better ads for the next time.
Compile information, deploy campaign, track performance. Compile better information for new campaign, deploy another campaign, track performance. That’s how you create successful campaigns