Why do you need branding campaigns?
A branding campaign is nothing more than an attempt to tell a brand’s story. To show the values that are behind it and with which it would like to be associated. For what purpose? To communicate effectively with a specific group of customers. To exist in their consciousness for a longer period of time and at the same time stand out from the competition.
A properly designed and executed branding campaign should positively translate into improved brand visibility, building lasting relationships with consumers, and ultimately their greater trust and loyalty.
The key to success is to understand the differences between a performance campaign and a branding campaign. While in the case of the former we will not have to wait long for the effects of our actions (high conversion), in the case of branding campaigns we have to be patient to see the positive impact. This is a long and tedious process, requiring creativity and, above all, a proper definition of the target group, nevertheless is extremely beneficial for the organization in the long run.
Measuring the effectiveness of performance campaigns is definitely a difficult and demanding task. How do you measure and evaluate the effectiveness of branding campaigns? In this case, the task is even more complicated. There are usually many data related challenges and it is much more difficult to find an objective measure of success, but you can always measure the effectiveness using: ad viewability, in-time view or video completion rate.
Good to know: What are the Differences Between Brand Visibility and Brand Awareness?
Branding campaigns – past and present
In the past, brand-building campaigns were largely carried out through media campaigns (radio and television) and outdoor advertising. Conducting a large-scale brand-building campaign was associated with the need to commit considerable financial resources. It allowed for a wide range of potential recipients to be reached, although not always the target group. With the development of technology and its increasing availability, many marketing activities have moved to the Internet.
The Internet has undoubtedly opened up many new possibilities, but it cannot be said that running branding campaigns has become easier as a result. Reaching the target group online is extremely demanding. Fortunately, modern technology helps to optimize marketing expenditures and to reach potential customers at the right place and at the right time. What is more, with a message and a marketing creation that has a chance to win their attention and persuade them to take a specific action.
What should you keep in mind when creating branding campaigns?
How do you plan an effective branding campaign? This is undoubtedly a complex and time-consuming process that requires careful analysis and planning on many different levels. To increase your chances of success remember the following principles:
Reach the right target group
The effectiveness of any branding campaign depends, to a large extent, on the correct definition of the target group. By properly defining your buyer personas, it’s much easier to make the right decisions. Knowing who you are targeting will make it easier for you to choose effective forms of advertising, where to use them, and what message will appeal to them.
Use the data your organization collects to get to know your target audience as well as possible, and then define your target audience precisely based on your analysis. Targeting the right audience is essential to your branding campaign success so take it really seriously. Try to understand your customers as much as possible but remember to avoid false assumptions. Considering demographic, socioeconomic and psychographic features may be useful, however it is not the best approach and it is no longer needed. A better and much more effective approach will be to completely abandon profiling in favor of analyzing online behavior. Target users based on what they do online rather than who they are.
Allocate an appropriate budget for your campaign
A performance campaign and a branding campaign are two separate spheres of marketing activities with different goals to be achieved. Performance campaigns are geared towards increasing sales quickly. Getting a positive effect here and now. Branding campaigns are governed by slightly different rules. Although they lead to the same thing – i.e. improvement of the organization’s financial results, the effects of the actions taken are not visible immediately – brand building takes time, but it brings long-term effects.
With this in mind, don’t mix your budgets for individual campaigns. Separate them and monitor the effects of your activities independently (using the right success metrics) – otherwise you’ll be constantly shifting the budget from branding to performance campaigns. Such a demarcation will also help you in creating the correct setup of the campaign and consequently will allow you to use the available budget much more effectively. The implementation of such a scenario requires of course the proper background or the right partner – with extensive knowledge, market experience and right tools to optimize your budget even more.
Diversify the channels through which you reach potential customers
Once you’ve defined your target audience and budgeted for your campaign, make sure you choose the right marketing channels. Knowing where your current and potential customers are, decide on the channels that will allow you to reach them with the right message. Want to make the user journey with your brand more exciting? Think about using streaming video ads in the most suitable size and format. Regardless of which formats you choose, don’t forget to be consistent across all channels!
To avoid burning through your marketing budget, consider reaching for modern technology. Artificial intelligence, or more specifically Deep Learning, is a solution that will allow you to reach your target audience even more precisely. It can analyze lots of information in real time and, based on the outcome of this analysis, perform the desired actions. A perfect example of using DL in marketing is Contextual Targeting. The model can immediately review all the details available about the user who is just visiting the website and decide whether to show any marketing content. What is more, the model will choose the banner that has the best chance of grabbing their attention. This allows you to use the budget allocated for brand-building activities on the Internet in the most effective way.
Remember to include emotions in the message
A branding campaign that touches the emotions of the recipient is a marketing technique used by the biggest brands. So who should you follow if not the leaders in their categories?
It’s no secret that emotions have a huge impact on purchase decisions made by consumers. They allow customers to be led effectively to the last stage of the sales funnel, and also to build loyalty, which is priceless in business. The right message of a branding campaign is therefore no less important than the budget or the choice of channels to reach the customers. An inappropriate way of communicating with the customer can effectively derail the chances of success of even the best planned campaign. Remember this and make sure that you have planned your campaign down to the smallest detail.
Designing a branding campaign is a really complex task. It requires not only excellent knowledge of your industry, your customers or the needs of the market, but also an excellent understanding of marketing trends, best practices and technologies that can take your campaign to the next level. If you do not have a lot of experience in this field, consider using the help of professionals who will not only help you create attractive marketing creations, but also use your marketing budget in the most effective way. Contact our MarTech experts and let us support you on this journey.
