How To Create Brand Awareness With Lead Generation
Dancho Dimkov, MSc, ExMBA, CMgr, CMC
Consultant, Coach, Fractional CRO, Founder at BizzBee Solutions
Many companies are doing great in promoting their brand. However, their websites fail to convert leads. Other businesses have the opposite problem. In other words, they have an intuitive website that offers visitors valuable knowledge, but they neglect to build brand awareness. It is almost impossible to sell to people if they don’t know that you exist in the first place. Nevertheless, in case you find yourself not receiving the desired number of new visitors to your website or not getting enough email signups through your company’s newsletters, maybe you are doing something wrong.
Obviously, you need customers and want to grow your business. Amazon founder Jeff Bozos was completely right when he said: “Your brand is what other people say about you when you are not in the room.” Besides, according to a recent statistic, 77% of marketers feel that branding should be a key part of their business strategy. Expanding your audience with brand awareness campaigns will reach new people who might be the perfect fit for the solution you offer. Indeed, establishing a solid brand will also help you to generate leads.
Brand awareness versus lead generation
Brand awareness and lead generation are different stages of a marketing methodology but they complement each other. On the one hand, when building awareness, you are trying to attract strangers and turn them into website visitors. On the other hand, with lead generation, the goal is to attract visitors to your site and convert them into leads. Like most marketing strategies, the pieces work best when they can be used together in the right way and at the right time.
Learn how brand awareness and lead generation can both help you reach your marketing goals.
Brand awareness
Branding is crucial for your company because it is the visual identity of the business. If done properly, it gives your business not just a name, but a voice too. As a result, it encourages the consumer to be aware that you exist. Brand awareness helps people think of your brand first when they need to make a purchase of the product or service you offer. Furthermore, you want to be the brand they recommend to their friends. Statistics confirm that 70% of people are more likely to buy a product or service when they see content about it that has been shared by one of their friends.
The drawback here is that brand awareness can be particularly difficult to measure. Yes, it creates visibility and demand. But, at the same time, it also lays the groundwork for lead generation. Although brand awareness does not clearly bring you, new customers, it is a huge part of the process that gains them. Without proper brand awareness, lead generation success will be very limited.
Lead generation
Lead generation is an action or process that turns people into potential customers of your product/service. The advantage of using this approach is that it identifies who your prospects are, quickly and measurably.
The last thing you want to do after you have built up a positive image of your brand is to annoy people with impersonal messaging. Don’t waste your time and resources on people who don’t want to hear from you. Instead, focus on the ones that are showing interest in your solution. Although lead generation identifies your prospects rapidly and measurable, it can unsuccessful without adequate brand awareness.
Awareness + lead generation = brand marketing
Brand building is the process of generating awareness and promotion of the services of a company through direct marketing campaigns or sometimes even sponsorship. Brand building strategies allow consumers to feel closer to the brand and provide value for them. This should help them understand, feel and experience the brand.
Hence, how do you get the most out of your marketing budget while taking advantage of the best strategies available for lead generation and brand awareness? These are some best practices:
- First, understand your market & competition. Gather information about what your competitors are spending. This should give a good indication of whether your budget is sufficient. For this activity, you can try market research services to get a clear view of the market you are investing in.
- Second, set clear goals for lead generation and brand awareness. Carefully come up with creative brand and lead generation activities that include budgets and plans to define these goals. You can always outsource your lead generation and use lead generation services that can do all the work instead of you.
Find the balance for your company
While all businesses should utilize both lead generation and brand awareness campaigns, the selected balance between them will mostly depend on your specific needs and goals. If you currently have a notable amount of traffic to your website and you are reaching out to your prospects online, then your focus should be on brand awareness in order to keep your firm on the top of your prospect’s mind. In the case your company is looking to acquire more clients, your focus should be on lead generation, supplemented with brand awareness as well.
Final notes
While brand awareness and lead generation are technically different things, they impact each other directly. Both are critical in driving a business forward and work better together than they do on their own. If you take advantage of knowing how they affect each other, you can develop a strong marketing strategy.
To sum up, it is important for companies to understand that both lead generation and brand awareness are needed to drive a business forward. To illustrate, brand awareness strategies present a clear message and image. On the other hand, lead generation reinforces that by providing a solution to an audience that if done properly can result in a new business opportunity. The right combination of both in marketing or sales will lead to better results in any campaign. Furthermore, to make the most effective marketing strategy, it is essential to understand that brand and lead generation strategies are unique too. In the end, you can’t have one without the other and expect success.
With the help of lead generation services from BizzBee Solutions, you can get your name out there and collect leads at the same time.
This article was originally published on BizzBee Blog.