When creating a digital marketing strategy, it is easy to become enamored with products that are at the bottom of the sales funnel. It would be easy to think, “I’m going to focus only on Pay-Per-Click/Search Engine paid ads, Retargeting and SEO because they will help me drive the most conversions.” This way of thinking is not entirely untrue as conversions do happen at this level, and quite a bit! As a consumer, if I am aware of your brand, familiar with your products and services and if I have been to your website and know your company, yes, I am likely to convert. The key in that sentence is “if I know your company”. What if the consumer is ready to make a decision and hasn’t had any exposure to your company?
That is where branding/awareness and consideration/evaluation digital products come into play. If it really was that easy to drive conversions, there would be no need to do other types of digital ad products. You need a mix of digital ad products to get the best results.
This article from Search Engine Journal explains this conundrum extremely clearly:
“…if consumers have never heard of you, they won’t search for you when they need the product or service you sell. And if they do a search, most probably won’t click on your paid search ad or organic listing. And if they don’t click on your brand, they can’t buy from you. Why? What’s stopping them? They’ve never heard of you. You aren’t a magical unicorn everyone knows and loves. You’re just a boring donkey — another link in a sea of blue links.”
So what does this really mean? If you want people to eventually convert – they must know you and your brand first. The first step is to introduce yourself. In fact, the single biggest predictor of whether people will purchase is whether they’ve heard of you before.
Think of your own purchase behavior – what is the last thing you remember purchasing, or the last “conversion” you made. Where did the decision start? For me, my last purchase was lipstick. Simple right? I needed wanted some new lipstick before heading to the beach so I ran out and got some, right? No! The process started way before that. Branding alerted me way before I was ready to convert. Because of branding, I’m well aware that Katy Perry has a new lipstick line out. How do I know? I see it everywhere. Style blogs, TV, In-Style.com, and on online articles I consume. I knew this lipstick existed before I knew I needed it. How did I know I needed it? Cosmo told me I can’t live without it this summer. Then Glamour reinforced letting me know this color is the go-to color for the summer.
This information combined with ads and images have earned Katy Perry’s Coral Kat a solid place my arsenal of lipsticks. The point? A conversion doesn’t just happen, it is a relationship that develops over time with a brand.
If you’ve built a brand people know and love, people are more likely to click on your organic listing or seek you out specifically. You transition from a donkey to a unicorn.
What does this mean for your business? You can target your audience using a wide variety of digital ad products to promote your brand. Consumers may not convert immediately, but expertly mixing this cocktail of digital means when you hit them with an offer the next time, they will be 2-3 times more likely to convert. I’m sold.
