Due to the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020, many brands paused or reduced their brand awareness efforts to save money. Brands focused their remaining resources on retaining existing customers rather than acquiring new ones.
Lower-funnel tactics like these are appealing when markets are uncertain and marketers want to keep reporting results to leadership. However, sacrificing upper-funnel priorities (like brand awareness) for a slower ROI isn’t sustainable for long-term brand growth.
Marketers have learned to adapt their strategies to new realities while preparing for future success. Growth requires a balanced marketing strategy that combines upper-funnel brand building with mid- and lower-funnel efforts.
Brands can use a balanced marketing strategy.
Consider the entire customer journey
To build a sales pipeline, marketers must target new prospects through brand awareness campaigns. Lower-funnel efforts have a larger pool of consumers to influence once these prospects enter the pipeline. According to a recent Nielsen study, a 1-point increase in brand awareness leads to a 1% increase in sales.
Brands that claim their current focus is on maintenance rather than growth must remember that even loyal customers need reminders to return. Even well-known brands use upper-funnel tactics to stay top-of-mind with consumers. Given consumer choice and access, staying top-of-mind can make or break a sale.
Make Use of Right Messages on the right channels to target prospects
Brand messaging that resonates with consumers is critical to capturing their attention and driving sales. Marketers can draw inspiration from major trends or news events and explain how their products or services align with them, thus reinforcing brand relevance. Marketers can better target their messages to their target audiences and show them that their business is valued once they learn more about them. Similarly, newcomers to a brand may not respond to the same calls to action as long-time fans. Marketers must therefore mix messaging to grow each audience along the customer journey.
Marketers must think similarly about channel selection. Nielsen discovered that most of the channels that were effective in driving short-term sales failed to raise brand awareness and consideration. Despite the budgeted amount, this result was achieved. It’s just as important to consider how consumers will receive a brand’s messaging as its content. Inability to tailor messaging across platforms risks wasting money on well-planned messaging.
Sell upper-funnel efforts to business leaders
Business leaders expect results. However, marketers should educate the organization on the value of branding. Measuring the long-term sales and/or brand equity effects of upper-funnel marketing will reassure leadership that their patience for sales results will be rewarded.
While lower-funnel activity generates quick sales, it is ineffective in generating future sales. As a result, focusing on conversion-oriented marketing will slow sales and brand growth. Low-funnel activity cannot sustain a brand. While upper-funnel marketing produces less immediate ROI, it still contributes to short-term sales and builds a future sales pipeline, according to Nielsen research.
However, sales are not the only metric. Because lower- and upper-funnel activations have different goals, measuring them together risks underestimating their combined impact. Upper-funnel messages can be evaluated based on awareness and consideration, while lower-funnel messages can be evaluated based on conversions. Consumers can convert by signing up for email newsletters, downloading whitepapers, attending webinars, and more. Brands can track the long-term effects of brand building and awareness efforts to identify areas of success and improvement.
Conversion-driven marketing may feel rewarding in the short term, but it rarely leads to long-term brand growth. Marketing strategies should adapt to the ongoing pandemic as brands and budgets do. To stay on track and grow the business, marketers should create a plan that balances the funnel.