“Consistency is king with advertising and marketing activities”
In marketing the term, top of mind awareness, is a way to measure how well your brand ranks in the minds of your target audience. If anybody were to be asked to respond, without prompting, to recall the brand that comes to mind when mentioning a type of service or product, is a result of the marketing. All of us make decisions to use a service provider or when buying a product based on the brand that comes to our mind first. We are bombarded with choices, daily. The question is how do you ensure that your business sky rocket’s out of the noise into your target audiences’ ‘first-option-list’? Marketing and advertising are the most traditional ways to build brand awareness.
The following three conditions are some of the qualifying factors for top of mind awareness that you should be aware of:
Exposure
As you increase your exposure you make more people aware of your business’s brand. This is within your control. The more frequently your client or potential clients are exposed to your brand on various platforms, the more likely they are to do business with you. Create awareness with regular communication. If you are using social media posts frequently and at different times of day. Capture your audience’s attention! In marketing, you might have heard the phrase – consistency is king.
Establish a frequency and format your clients can depend on. The moment you stop or approach your marketing in an ad hoc manner the strength of your brand fades. It gives your competitor’s an opportunity to place their messages at the top of your client and potential clients’ minds. Even if you might not be at the top of everyone’s list at the moment, being visible might move you to the next position. People choose the ‘number two’ on their list when their first choice is either not available or disappointed them in a way.
Favourite
Everyone has an ideal take-away restaurant, clothing store or hair salon. The only way to increase your chances of staying the brand of choice is to consistently provide great products and deliver excellent service to all your clients. Clients are eager to share their great experiences with those they know. This then in itself becomes marketing. Collect and share testimonials from happy clients. A new client who might not have you as the number one on their list yet, will be encouraged to learn there are pleased clients out there. It reduces their risk to make the choice to try you.
People become loyal to your brand and over time no amount of marketing from a competitor will lure them away. Every business has regular clients and it would be wise to reward them for that. Clients want to feel appreciated. Offer discounted services or a free product to ensure they continue to come back to their favourite place. The more often they visit your business, the higher you rank on top of mind awareness.
Bad experience
We all have had bad experiences that we will not easily forget let alone warn our friends and family about. This is also top of mind, but not in a good way. These are not your potential clients as you are only coming to mind for negative reasons.
By conveying regular surveys, it will ensure that there is a platform where clients can voice their opinions if they are not happy with your service or products. It is important that everyone in your business understands the importance of the impact their behaviour might have on clients when they deliver the promises that are made in the marketing messages.
Consider every moment as an opportunity to build up your brand. The more frequently you engage with your fans, the more familiar you become. In the end, the top-of-mind winner takes it all!
This article is a general information sheet and should not be used or relied on as professional advice. No liability can be accepted for any errors or omissions nor for any loss or damage arising from reliance upon any information herein.