Don’t Ignore Tomorrow’s Customers

As businesses navigate through the current economic recession, no marketing goal has ever been more important than increasing brand awareness. Why? Because you can’t ignore tomorrow’s customers. While some may not be ready to spend right now, perhaps they will run into some money tomorrow or near in the future (hello stimulus checks) and begin to enter the buyer’s journey. Once those customers are ready to spend, how will they know to shop from your business? Brand awareness.

How many times have you seen a product you want but know you have to save up or wait for the right time to actually purchase that product? You know you want that product because it was made aware to you beforehand. In this blog post, we will discuss the importance of brand awareness and how to effectively increase your brand awareness to reach your marketing objectives.

The Importance of Brand Awareness

While there are many important marketing goals you should be working towards, increasing brand awareness is the most important. Why? Because brand awareness is the route to accomplishing all other marketing objectives. Without brand awareness, it is nearly impossible to generate leads, push a product, improve conversion rate, or increase engagement. Before any of these things can happen, customers need to be aware of your brand!

When it comes to marketing, we tend to seek instant gratification. We want to see instant results from our efforts. However, all good marketers know that seeing good results takes time and patience. Strategies take lots of thought and effort, trial and error. Marketing goals are not met overnight. That’s the tricky thing about brand awareness. You have to be willing to invest in brand awareness campaigns knowing you won’t see any ROAs any time soon.

If at any time your advertising or marketing budgets are cut short, focus your objectives towards building brand awareness first, and pushing sales second. If customers aren’t ready to spend, don’t force it on them! Allow them to become familiar with your brand so you are the first place they come to when they have the budget to do so.

How to Build Brand Awareness

So how exactly do you build brand awareness? Well, it starts with a diverse marketing strategy. On average, it takes 6-7 times for your brand to make an impression on someone. This means you have to create 6-7 different opportunities for people to see your advertisements. This is made easier when you market on multiple platforms. Advertising on one medium is not enough to build brand awareness and generate leads. Blip (and most marketers) recommend using a combination of the below marketing strategies:

Billboards

Did you think we could write a blog post without talking about billboards? You were wrong! Billboards are key in building brand awareness, as they allow you to broadcast your brand at large. With billboards, hundreds of thousands of people are able to see your advertisement, creating an impression and allowing them to become aware of your brand. In addition, you are able to reach people beyond your targeted audience.

Blip allows you to advertise BIG for such an affordable price. It’s 100% worth the money as you work to target tomorrow’s customers. Blip advertiser Derrick Machado started his first Blip campaign with the goal of increasing brand awareness. Derrick said “We just want people to see our brand. It usually takes 5-7 times for people to see your brand before taking action. I know this eventually will generate sales, but I wasn’t expecting that to happen immediately. We know the sales are coming.” As we’ve said, brand awareness is not an immediate thing. Derrick and many other small business owners are taking the right steps to increase brand awareness through Blip.

Both your paid and organic social media efforts are great ways to continue building brand awareness. Organic posting strategies allow you to continue getting your brand in front of current and potential customers. Maybe someone isn’t ready to purchase from your business yet, but by following your brand on social media, they can be made aware of news, updates, new products, or be reminded of the product they want to buy. Not to mention hashtag strategies are a good way to reach new people within your target audience. With a good organic strategy, you can keep current and future customers engaged with your brand.

Paid social media is a good way to reach tomorrow’s customers that may or may not have heard about your brand before. In fact, billboard and paid advertising works hand-in-hand. You can read more about how billboards can boost your Facebook ads here. With paid social media, you can target your exact audience and watch their buying journey closely. If you are not yet taking advantage of paid social media, start doing so now!

Google Ads

Google Ads are perfect for those targeting consumers ready to make a purchase, however, they also have a hand in creating brand awareness. As consumers are researching products and brands similar to yours, Google Ads can help bring awareness to your brand or your specific product. Who knows, someone ready to make a purchase with one of your competitors could see your ad online and change their mind. Just like paid social, Google Ads ensure you are targeting your exact target audience and reaching tomorrow’s customers.

SEO

The benefits of SEO to increase brand awareness are similar to Google Ads, however, SEO is a little trickier to navigate as it is all done through organic, strategic efforts. By having a strong SEO strategy, you can get your website ranking on the first page of the search results for multiple keywords. Let’s say you own a small cookie shop, and someone researches “chocolate chip cookies”. With the right SEO strategy, this user can see your brand on their search results page. Although they probably weren’t looking for a place to buy cookies, they are now aware that your business exists.

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By using a combination of marketing mediums, creating impressions upon people will come much faster, and in return, cause people to start purchasing sooner. Brand awareness is one strategy that cannot and should not be overlooked. Tomorrow’s customers are out there, and it’s up to you to find them. To start creating impressions, sign up with Blip today.