Awareness-raising

[Jahangir655]

Many marketing briefs will say that “raising awareness” is one of the key goals of the campaign. This sounds sensible, but it is too vague.

There are many strands of awareness-raising, so it’s essential to ask some questions during the strategy stage of a thought leadership campaign. Awareness of what, and among whom? And where does that awareness lead to in a purchasing journey? I may be aware of a brand, but that doesn’t mean I understand what it does or whether it can give me what I want now or in the future.

Instead, consider the kinds of associations you want to create, and be clear about who you are trying to reach and influence. This way, you will know exactly what you want to achieve.

The 95:5 rule, set out by Professor John Dawes of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, is that most buyers of B2B services will only buy every five years. This means that, in any given quarter, only 5 per cent of your audience will be looking to buy or renew, while the rest of them will not be considering a purchase and so are “out of market”.

According to the rule, marketers should concentrate their resources costa-rica mobile phone numbers database on priming the 95 per cent rather than spending a disproportionate amount of budget trying to influence the much smaller 5 per cent. Many businesses pay too much attention to the small proportion of the audience who are ready to buy, rather than the much larger proportion who are out of market.

But the split will rarely be 95:5, because B2B purchasing may take place every three years, or even annually (in which case the split should be more like 75:25). Dawes himself says that the 95:5 rule should not be followed slavishly, and circumstances will vary depending on the service or sector. Companies considering allocation of budget across brand building and performance marketing need a clear view of the duration of buying cycles and how these vary across segments.