All marketing efforts need to start somewhere, and that is with brand awareness. Found at the top of the sales funnel, brand awareness efforts introduce your business to new people. This step is imperative to getting people interested in your business and what you have to offer.
Why brand awareness?
The number one thing that brand awareness does is introduce people to your brand. This is why it’s at the top of the funnel. You can’t get conversions if nobody knows that your brand exists. By introducing your brand and what it has to offer to your target audience, you generate interest and bring those people into your funnel.
Good brand awareness also builds an association between your brand and the service or product you’re providing. You’ve probably noticed that brands with great awareness strategies have become synonymous with the service or product they offer; think Band-Aid, Kleenex, and even Google. Beyond just being brands, these are now words we use in our everyday vocabulary.
What does brand awareness look like?
In traditional marketing, awareness campaigns are usually seen as billboards, bus benches, flyers, and TV and Radio commercials. These strategies cast a wide net. Marketers choose where to place an ad by the location and demographics who are likely to see it. While these strategies have been relatively successful (let’s face it, a giant sign on the side of the road isn’t a bad way to get your brand out there), there has been a shift to digital spaces.
With people spending more time online (especially recently), advertisers have also shifted to online advertising. Specifically, to social media. Through organic content, like Facebook posts, YouTube videos, blogs, and podcasts, brands have been able to build awareness. Beyond that, they can connect with their target audience in more in-depth ways. Additionally, brands can also use paid advertising on social media, as well as Google. Similar to traditional marketing, they are able to cast a wide net with Reach or Awareness campaigns, targeting certain demographics. However, they can also be more specific and target interests and online behaviors to get in front of their target audience more effectively.
How to measure brand awareness
Brand Awareness can be harder to measure since you don’t have a direct conversion. However, there are several ways you can keep track of your awareness efforts. First, even though traffic is not your main goal, you can still use it to measure the success of your awareness campaigns. This can mean traffic to your website or even in-store traffic. Because once your brand is introduced to people and they are interested in what it has to offer, they are likely to check out your site to do some research. They may also click straight to your site from your ads.
You can also see the fruits of your awareness efforts on your social media. From page views to likes and comments, people interested in your brand can be expected to engage with your social media. You can see the results of a good awareness campaign in your page analytics.
Brand awareness is going to be at the forefront of any marketing effort. Before you can move on to other marketing goals, you’ll need to start by introducing your target audience to your business and what it has to offer. Then, once you have built up your audience, you can start retargeting and moving those people further down your funnel.
