Comparing Brand Awareness And Lead Generation. Where Should You Focus?

Many business owners want to increase their brand awareness. It makes sense that they want to reach more people and build a strong brand. Many marketing experts suggest brand awareness as the best strategy for small and medium businesses, But is it really the best way to get results?

What Is Brand Awareness?

Brand awareness is the process of sending your message in front of a broad audience. A brand awareness campaign aims to make people remember your business, your logo, and your message.

You can achieve that online and offline. For example, tv ads, billboards, or some social media focuses on getting as many views as possible. Big brands like Coca-Cola and Nike never stop creating new advertisements. You don’t have to be on the target audience of these brands to see their ads. But they want you to know their brand name.

When they advertise their product to as many people as possible, a small percentage of these people will get interested in their message and their products. These campaigns also have long-term benefits like customer loyalty and credibility.

The Problem With Brand Awareness Campaigns

When creating ads that focus on brand awareness, you get quantity but not quality. There are no guarantees that your message will reach the right people and your best potential customers. Another problem is that you might reach potential customers at the wrong time and place.

So, the success of a brand awareness campaign depends on the people that get your message. In some cases, you will reach a part of the right audience. Of course, brands with a huge advertising budget can reach a massive audience and have more chances to get results.

What Is Lead Generation?

When you focus on getting more customers or more referrals for your business, this process is called lead generation. Your goal is to find the right people at the right places and send a message to a narrow but targeted audience.

The process of lead generation is quite different than brand awareness. First, it targets an audience with specific demographics and interests. Second, it is measurable and allows you to check the results of your campaigns anytime you want.

Get Personal

Your target audience wants to know that you can solve their problems. The only way to convince them that your business or product has the solution is by getting personal.

Instead of a generic ad, you must figure out how to reach people that are interested in your products or services. Your message must make the target audience make a phone call or subscribe to your email list. So, it’s important to talk about their problems and frustrations.

They must feel that you talk to them and have the answers to their questions. Lastly, they must get your message when they are ready to hear it.

How To Get More Leads

A brand awareness campaign is measured with metrics as impressions and likes because the goal is to reach many people. Lead generation is measured with conversions. Here are some methods that you can use to get more leads and customers:

Google Ads

Google Ads allow you to target demographics and keywords that are at the bottom of a sales funnel. These keywords include products, locations, and buying terms.

Google Ads has automated bidding strategies that make sure you get the results you want. You can focus both on brand awareness and lead generation, depending on your goals. You also get specific metrics about the people you reach, the clicks of your ads, and your campaigns’

conversions.

SEO

It is a long-term strategy that helps with both brand awareness and lead generation. In both cases, you need to create content for various topics in your niche. When you get ranked on the first page of Google, many visitors will come to your site.

Then, you need to filter out the visitors that are not relevant to your product. You can add calls to action and links to your content that will be interesting only for the right people. A percentage of your traffic will visit your sales pages and make a purchase.

Email Marketing

If you run an advertising campaign or get traffic from SEO, you can request emails for potential customers. Usually, marketers give something for free in exchange for an email address. Those who are not relevant to this offer and product will not subscribe.

Then, you can send emails to promote your products. A part of the process is to build a relationship with your subscribers, and then you solve their problems with your product. Email marketing is a great way to narrow down your target audience and filter out any people that are not interested in your products.

Social Media Marketing

Social media are great both for brand awareness and lead generation. If you go viral, you can reach a significant amount of users and get tons of followers. However, some of these people are not relevant in your niche.

You can reach potential customers if you create niche-focused posts. The chances are that if you have something important to say, you will find an audience on social media.

Social media platforms also have advertising programs. They work like Google Ads and have options for engagement, followers, traffic, and conversions. If you want to focus on lead generation, it’s important to set the right demographics and interests to narrow your audience.

Conclusion

The difference between brand awareness vs. lead generation is on the goals of your marketing efforts. A brand awareness campaign wants to send a message to many people. In many cases, these people are not the right audience for your business.

On the other hand, lead generation campaigns search for the right audience at the right time. They are focused on a very specific group of people that is highly interested in the products or services of your business.