Is it the correct choice for a company, regardless of the type of business developed in Italy and abroad, to focus all digital investments only on lead generation activities?
In reality, it has been shown that investments aimed only at generating leads, at the expense of choices aimed at optimizing the reputation of the corporate brand, can prove to be counterproductive and have a negative impact on lead generation campaigns.
The dichotomy between brand awareness and lead generation can only be overcome by the awareness that the two strategies complement each other effectively: the key is the right balance.
Lead Generation
The contact generation process is not so straightforward. Although the web has democratized communication and promotion sharing, it's not that easy to get results from a conversion campaign. A lead generation strategy requires a preliminary analysis of the business, of the Buyer Personas and their decision-making process, the so-called online Customer Journey to understand which digital channels to use (search engines, social networks, etc.).
The other aspects to consider are the following:
- Create a value offer for the identified audience;
- Promote the offer through the chosen channels;
- Create an effective and original communication;
- Make sure that the landing page asks visitors for the right information: too many can make the user hesitate;
- Once the lead has been generated, it is important to implement an additional lead nurturing process to advance them on the path to purchase.
Brand Awareness
Brand awareness activities are aimed at creating and spreading the knowledge of one's brand on the reference market. Creating a brand, in fact, is not a trivial matter: you need to have a clear focus on who we are, who we speak to, what our identity values and our position are.
Positioning takes time and pays off in the medium to long term. Brand awareness is the extent to which consumers can remember and / or recognize a company's brand; therefore, these campaigns must help the consumer to become familiar with it.
In addition, they must also help understand the perception that the target has of the company; all of this can be done with very low costs: through, for example, a careful content marketing strategy where the contents are multifaceted and valuable (videos, ebooks, whitepapers, SEO activities).
Working on the brand can help you sell more.
If already building an effective lead generation campaign is not so simple because it requires specific experiences to manage all the different activities to be done, when you find yourself working with little-known brands or just launched on the market it can become a real own challenge.
From this assumption arises the importance of working and investing also in the reputation of the brand, since despite having a return in the medium to long term, it is a multiplier effect on sales.
The effects of a series of periodic campaigns, focused on persuasive messages or specific promotions, cannot be compared with those of a single annual brand reputation campaign, based on creative and emotional content capable of generating attachment to the brand and a spontaneous word of mouth. To maximize sales volumes and minimize price elasticity, it is therefore important to find the right compromise between brand strategies (long term) and sales (short term).
These considerations are valid for all business realities, regardless of the medium used for the digital or traditional campaign, or from the B2C or B2B sector.
To maximize results, therefore, it is important to plan parallel marketing and communication activities aimed at lead generation (adv campaigns, landing pages, dem, etc.) and the construction of the brand image (Digital PR, newsletter, social media). Remembering that the commercial actions combined with the brand building actions can be observed over a longer period of time than the single sales intervention.
Finally, we must keep in mind that Marketing is an activity that requires competence, culture and analytical skills but above all it requires patience: as in all things, it takes time and work to get good results.
E-Business Consulting, a digital marketing agency active since 2003, deals with the creation of digital strategies for every type of business. Call and request a consultation now!