How to determine the success of your marketing campaigns?

Advertising or marketing goals are closely related to the behaviour of the target group which can be roughly divided into three phases.

1. Cognitive phase: the target group is unfamiliar with your brand --> branding
       I. Create or increase brand awareness
       II. Create desired image
2. Affective phase: the target group knows the existence of your brand --> bonding
       I. Creating a bond
3. Context phase: target group knows your brand and is ready to proceed to action --> action
       I. Encouraging concrete action

By defining your marketing goal and coordinating the campaign, you prevent inefficient campaigns. For example, there is little point in making concrete product offers towards a target group that does not yet know your brand and product. Or a brand awareness campaign towards an audience that has been loyal to you for years. Not very useful, is it?

In creating or increasing your name recognition, it is often just one thing: to show your brand or product to as many people as possible as often as possible. However, you do not just do this, it is important to think carefully about the target group, the budget, available resources and of course the appropriate message.

Planning and the power of repetition
A campaign that revolves around brand awareness is aimed at a target group that is not familiar with your brand. You are not yet in their evoked set, the group of brands or products from which people make their final choice. One impresson is not enough for this either, the strength of these campaigns is in planning and repetition. Make sure your brand or product is shown to the target group at different times and in different ways to end up in their evoked set.

Do not be too specific
Your goal is to create brand awareness and that is why it is important not to go into product details or services too specifically. Keep the communication general and focus on the impressions and their frequency.

Branding is about the perception that people have of your brand. The great thing about this perception is that you have a direct influence on it with your marketing communications. Sounds good right? However, it is not as simple as it sounds. Your message has to be in line with the target group in order for it to come across well and stay in good shape. Chances are you miss the mark if you do not properly examine your target group first and adjust your message accordingly.

Consistency and communication
Think carefully about what your brand or product does to actually make a difference for customers and incorporate this into your campaign. You want to create a positive attitude towards your brand and let people recognise the added value. It is important to be consisent in your communications, both inside and outside the company. Set a vision and house style and use this time after time, this recognisability will result in an optimal impact.

Impressions and clicks
Creating an image actually falls in between branding and bonding, with a slightly stronger emphasis on branding. The primary goal therefore remains the number of impressions of your campaign, but you can also carefully try to generate traffic here. However, keep in mind that you can not be too specific and / or commercial here either, because you want to create a positive attitude towards your brand and trigger as few 'red flags' as possible.

After the branding phase you actually want to bond people to you. In this phase it is no longer enough just showing your brand, but you actually want to add value to the perception of the target group. Bonding can be seen as the phase in which the focus of marketing shifts cautiously to sales. Adding value can be done, for example, by additional informative content such as an article, video or infographic. Unlike creating an image, in this phase you focus more on the problems of the customer and the solution that you can offer. You show that your company is the expert in its field and ensures that the customer can not ignore you.

Traffic and follow-up actions
In this phase you can focus on traffic to your website and / or profiles on other channels. Your content represents an informative or advisory value towards the target group and the ability of reading this may require some effort in the form of a click. Subsequently, it is wise to think of follow-up actions in advance, because with the reading of an article, no bond has yet been created. Consider, for example, showing additional content via email, display or social remarketing.

If your target group is already familiar with your brand, products and services and is also aware of the added value of this, you can proceed with a campaign aimed at inciting concrete action. Combine the communication from the previous phases into concrete call-to-actions that are clear and recognisable. Consider, for example, filling in a contact form, registering for a newsletter, requesting a quote or, of course, proceeding directly to a purchase of your product or service.