Branding vs Action Campaigns
Most of the tactics we use to get results for our clients involve the sales funnels and tracking results throughout a campaign. Yet, this isn’t the only way to do marketing. If we were to look at most marketing campaigns they fall under two types, branding and action campaigns. Today, we’ll cover the differences between the two, when your jewelry store should utilize each one, and how to not lose your entire marketing budget running a branding campaign.
Action campaigns are also known as direct response or call to action campaigns. Their goal is to drive customers to a specific action. These can include filling out a form, calling a phone number, clicking on a video, or basically any action you can think of. The idea is to have someone take an action, track the response and encourage those who took action to continue onto another action that drives a potential customer to make a purchase. This is known as a sales funnel and we dedicated a couple of blogs to the subject. You can read about it in Sales Funnels for Jewelry Stores Part 1 and Sales Funnels for Jewelry Stores Part 2.
Branding campaigns are known for not having a clear call to action. Picture a billboard on a popular highway in your town. This billboard has giant logo of your brand and your website underneath. This is a clear example of an awareness campaign. It is designed to keep your brand top of mind. The way branding campaigns work is by placing your brand and elements associated with it in as many places as possible and if people want to make a jewelry purchase they will go to your store because they’ve seen your brand everywhere they turn.
While both types of marketing campaigns can be very effective they can also turn out to be failures and cost you a lot of your marketing budget. The best way to know which one you should consider is by looking at the major differences between the two and determine which type will help you reach your goals.
Major Differences
Attribution
Action campaigns can usually be tracked by measuring the number of people who took the action in the advertisement and compare it with how many people saw the ad. For example, let’s say you sent out 1,000 postcards with a special promo code for $50 off their next purchase. It is very simple to see how many people used the promo code.
With branding campaigns the ultimate goal is to have someone come in and make a purchase. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to track how many people made a purchase as a result of a branding ad they saw or a referral from a customer. It is very difficult to see how well a campaign did unless you can see which parts worked and which didn’t.
Targeting
Branding campaigns tend to discriminate less than action campaigns. In fact, the idea of action campaigns is to filter out people who are not qualified to make a purchase. Branding campaigns tend to focus on frequency, the number of times an ad is shown to a person, and reach, the number of people you touch with your ad. Branding campaign have higher reach to keep the brand in front of as many people as possible. Even if these people may never make a purchase. The goal is to keep the brand associated with the product in the minds of everyone.
Short vs Long Term
If you’re looking for quick results then action campaigns are the right approach. The results are clear and usually immediate. The response to the action is either there or not. That’s what makes action campaigns so effective. The cycle is a lot faster because the feedback comes quicker. If something isn’t working then it must be adjusted quickly and re-assessed.
Branding campaigns focus on a long term effort to build the brand and awareness. The ads require a lot exposure for them to be effective. A billboard’s impact gets stronger each time a person notices it and associates the brand with a problem they’re looking to solve. It is tempting to pull the plug on a branding campaign, but this is a huge mistake. Months should be dedicated to a brand awareness campaign in order to begin to evaluate its success.
Budgets
Since running a brand awareness campaign is a long term strategy then it makes sense that it will also require a larger marketing budget. This type of marketing is very competitive and businesses are trying to get the best placement for their advertisement. This forces prices to jump up and the spot goes to the business with the deepest pockets. It’s no wonder why a few seconds of commercial air time during the Super Bowl can cost millions.
Action campaigns require a little bit more work and involve more steps but since the targeting is so specific, extensive placement in several areas is not as important. Instead marketing budget is spent on making wiser decisions and hoping to get an immediate ROI.
When to launch a branding campaign
Branding campaigns can put your store in front of locals who may have never heard of you. Right now, platforms like Instagram and Google allow you to set up campaigns with the sole focus of brand awareness. In order for a branding campaign to be successful you must set up goals, have a dedicated budget, and be prepared to invest several months to let the campaign run its course.
The best of both worlds
Branding and action campaigns don’t have to work independently of each other. In fact, when using both the right way, you can find a lot of return on investment when you use branding and action campaigns at the same time.
The goal is to use brand awareness to bring people into various sales funnels you have set up (action campaigns). You’ll want to focus a small portion of your budget to brand awareness if you haven’t ran a campaign before. Branding campaigns require you to use creativity to grab someones attention and a firm message that makes it simple to associate your brand with the type of jewelry you sell.
Retargeting and following up with potential customers is how you’ll get them into your action campaigns. The big difference is that branding campaign is not being tracked for specific actions, instead you’re monitoring all website traffic and setting up lead magnets or using retargeting campaigns to have people take a small action.
Final Thoughts
Marketing campaigns can work to increase brand awareness, grow your email list, promote a sale, or a wide variety of goals. Marketing campaign are like tools for a construction project. Using the wrong one will cause you a lot of frustration and may not get the job done. You should familiarize yourself with your objectives and determine if a branding or action campaign will help you reach your goals.
If you’re currently running a branding campaign and not getting the results you expected then it might be time to add other marketing tactics to your overall strategy. We can help guide you in the right direction. Let’s connect and get your brand in front of more people ready to buy from you.
Contact us today to get started. 800-373-4373