There's no question that building brand awareness and recognition are crucial for the success of a business, but explaining that value to the CEO or CFO is often challenging. The success of most types of marketing campaigns is measured through return on investment (ROI), but how do you calculate the ROI of brand building? Even though you can't directly measure the ROI of brand building, brand awareness does increase a marketing campaign's ROI in many ways. Here are some key indicators that show how brand awareness is affecting your bottom line.
Measuring the Effects of Brand Awareness
Although quantifying the ROI of brand-building campaigns is difficult, there are some metrics that can show the importance of brand awareness. Just be sure to benchmark key indicators often so you can determine which efforts are having a positive effect on your bottom line.
- Direct website traffic is a good indicator that people remember your brand enough to visit. Measured over time, it can tell you how well your brand-building efforts are working.
- Social media can tell you whether your brand is creating a buzz. Measure likes, shares, and followers. Also, track what people are saying about your brand.
- Search volume can tell you a lot about brand awareness. By tracking search volumes of specific branded terms and items, you can see how well your branding methods are working.
- Tracking conversions help you measure the effects of direct, referral, or social media traffic on business outcomes and help you prove the ROI of brand awareness.
- Monitoring your competition can help you better plan how to use key channels and platforms. It can identify important influencers in your market, as well as reasons potential customers are choosing competitors.
How Do You Measure Brand-Building ROI?
Before you begin any brand-building campaigns, it's important to set your goals so you know what to measure. Do you want to increase social media engagement, newsletter subscriptions, or search volume? Don't just conduct one brand-building campaign and use the results to improve next year's campaign. Benchmark often and make constant adjustments to your branding strategies.
You also need to have the right tools in place to accurately record and analyze the results of your ROI data. Google analytics or a third-party customer relationship management (CRM) system can help you monitor how well your brand-building efforts are paying off. You can also partner with an experienced digital marketing firm that can handle all your tracking and analysis so you can focus on activities that improve your brand's reputation and overall success.
Contact a company with ROI solutions services near you.