Awareness does not lead to conversion; allocating marketing budgets by action

Awareness does not lead to conversion for a lot of consumer products.  You would never know this by the number of repeating TV commercials but it is the rule rather than the exception of today’s marketing.Marketers need to think in terms of awareness, interest and action and allocate marketing budgets in proportion to each step.

Awareness should be awareness within your target market. It has to be measured in terms of quantitative (% of audience that is aware) and qualitatively (what message does your audience recall and is it lead to action?).

Once consumers are aware of your product, brand, the next step is to be there when they want more information (interest).  For some products this means either on the Web or for other consumer products it could be and FSI in the newspaper.   Marketers need to clearly understand which products consumers are going to research on the Internet vs. which ones they are not going to research.  For example, a consumers is probably going to go online to research insurance or a new over-the-counter treatment than a new yogurt or ice cream.   There are a lot of marketers who mistakenly believe that consumers really want to have a relationship with a salad or pasta company on social media.

Don’t forget to use online advertising to remind people to check out your product as well. Consumers may see your product on TV and say “I wouldn’t mind trying that” but in this age of really busy consumers you need to remind them to check out your product/brand.

Action. This is where marketers need to put the most thought about budget allocation.  If you discount your product too much, even to drive trial, and consumers try it only because of the price you may lose a lot of share when the promotion ends.  Consumers today love saving money and if your brand does not give them enough reason to come back than in all likelihood they will not come back.

There are ways to increase action without steep discounts.  Bring your customers together to talk about your brand over social media if your product warrants a discussion.  The best Tweets are ones that retweeted by your customers to other people.

You should also have a tiered plan for action in case you’re not getting the lift you need. Marketers need good metrics to measure buzz as well as sales so they can tie the two together.  If you’re getting a lot of buzz but your product is slow to move off the shelf than obviously the buzz your getting is not driving business objectives.  If, on the other hand there is a direct correlation between buzz and sales than you need to determine how to keep the buzz fresh and vibrant.

Awareness does not equal conversion.  Allocate and measure in order to meet brand objectives and you can spend marketing dollars where they will do the most good.

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