Ok, who said both? I know someone said it somewhere. Truthfully speaking though, your strategy around a specific campaign cannot both. You are either acquiring leads and new business or you are building awareness about something. Now for those of you who still believe you can have both, I’m going to share a personal story and the inspiration for this post.
A vendor reached out to me the other day about paid programs. This said vendor is an online directory and we have the opportunity to pay for first placement in a category. As he was describing the proposed program, he said ‘this will help with brand awareness’. ‘A-ha,’ I said, ‘I am not seeking to build awareness, my focus is on acquisition. Let’s talk about how your site will help me generate leads.’
Now this individual could have said that the awareness would lead to leads but he did not. What he did was continue on about something else entirely and I never got an answer. I still don’t know how I will generate leads by buying media on this site. Why? Because his site is one that you meet your awareness goals but not one in which you can meet acquisition goals. He never will have an answer.
I often will see marketers who confuse awareness with acquisition. The intent is to reach one goal but they end up shooting for both or hitting the other. The two can absolutely be intermingled but not often. It’s very different to run an awareness campaign and an acquisition campaign.
Here are some key differences:
Measurement
With an acquisition-focused campaign, you are measuring how many leads you generate and, most importantly, how many are qualified.
With an awareness-focused campaign, you are measuring your brand’s voice and recognizability in the market
Placement
With an acquisition-focused campaign, you are purchasing media in strategic places that your target market frequents
With an awareness-focused campaign, you are placing your brand in strategic places to be found by the media and influencers in your space
Call to Action
With an acquisition-focused campaign, there is a clear action that you want your audience to perform (register, download, sign-up)
With an awareness-focused campaign, your action is not as loud. You may not have an action at all other than ‘we hope you recall our brand and message’
Strategy
With an acquisition-focused campaign, the strategy is often inter-twined with content marketing, product marketing and the direction of the company. The strategy’s length is dependent upon the sales cycle and how things progress through the funnel.
With an awareness-focused campaign, I have observed shorter strategic periods. When you are building awareness of something, it’s either a big announcement or a brand overall. One will remain pretty consistent and may fluctuate with actions of competitors but not often.
Do you think you can accomplish both acquisition and awareness at the same time using the same channels?
I think you can do both. Acquisition deals more with the past, in other words, you are promoting an existing product within the niche, whereare awareness focusses on the future: Promoting new or upcoming ideas or products. However, both could be within the same niche. Once you build up your audience you are simply discussing different things along the same timeline.
@richescorner
I love how you put that. Where I place the difference is if I have $1 to spend, would I spend on acquisition or awareness? Therein lies the root of what I am trying to get to with this post. You simply cannot spend that $1 to do both and track it the saem exact way.