There’s no disputing it. Conversions are king. In the era of data-driven technology, companies have become obsessed with boosting Return on Investment (ROI) with hyper-specific analysis of sales funnel metrics. But if you focus only on marketing tactics with easily trackable, concrete results, your sales team may still end up struggling to connect with potential buyers. This is because concentrating all your efforts on the sales funnel ignores a pivotal piece to the marketing puzzle – brand awareness.   

WHY FOCUS ON BRAND AWARENESS?

A marketing campaign where the primary goal is simply getting your brand’s name out into the world; a brand awareness campaign may seem like an oddity in the current advertising landscape. It won’t directly improve your ROI, and it isn’t focused on driving on any particular direct action. So why is it valuable? A few reasons:

TIMING

Although the ultimate goal of marketing is to drive purchases, many potential future customers aren’t currently close to this stage of the sales process. But just because someone doesn’t need your product or service today doesn’t mean they won’t tomorrow. Brand awareness campaigns allow you to pitch people on your business even before they might know they have a need for it. This, in turn, makes it easier for your sales team to make contact with customers once they do start looking since you are top of mind and instantly recognizable.

TRUST

Brand awareness is defined as the likelihood that consumers will recognize your company’s products and services. Recognition leads to familiarity. And when it comes time to make important decisions, we tend to trust things we are more familiar with. This is because they require less mental effort on our part, and when we need to make tough decisions, we subconsciously shortcut the task of narrowing down choices by favoring products or services we have a memory of. This means that even though it doesn’t drive direct action, your brand awareness strategy will be the key to maintaining a foothold in the decision-making process once it begins.  

MARKET SHARE

If you consider that potential customers are essentially subconsciously choosing whom to buy from even before they are actively looking, then it follows that companies who do the leg work of raising brand awareness will dominate market share down the line. So even though you don’t see returns on your investment in the short term, if your company is diligent in its branding strategy, the long-term outlook of your company will be much brighter.

TIPS FOR RAISING AWARENESS

So how can you get on the front foot and build awareness for your brand? Here are a few strong ideas:

FOCUS ON WHAT MAKES YOU DIFFERENT

Your customers don’t just need to know your name. They need to know why you stand out. Find ways to share with them all the reasons your product or service is unique, and they are more likely to remember you down the line.

UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE

Even though brand awareness marketing is a bit of a numbers game by nature, you should still tailor the messaging, branding, and aesthetic to the people you feel are most likely to need your services. Find your tribe, and then promote yourself to others like them.

BE CONSISTENT

Branding is about clarity. If you try to mix in too much variety, what you are all about may become vague and unintelligible. So choose your messaging, color schemes, logos, and brand identity wisely and then harmonize them across all your platforms. Twitter, Facebook. Instagram. Whatever you choose to use, make it consistent across the board

Looking for more tips on how to keep your business in people’s minds? Contact OSR today to learn more ways that you can put your sales team on the fast track to success.