By Zoe Menendez, Senior Digital Media Manager.
Brand awareness amongst your prospects is one of the key factors that can get a prospect moving down your sales funnel and getting closer to becoming a client… In today’s world where trust between your firm and a potential client is developed over time and on digital platforms, that requires what’s called “Brand awareness ads.”
Brand awareness ads are ads with the main objective of educating an audience about your brand. They help potential prospects learn what your brand’s mission is, who your team is, the services you specialize in, how you’re involved in your community, plus anything else you want people to know. The goal of these ads is to target people in your area who haven’t connected with your business before so you can fill the top of your sales process and start to work them through it.
These ads also work hand in hand with any other marketing you have out there to ensure that your firm is always top-of-mind. In fact, a recent HubSpot study found that 50% of customers are more likely to work with a company whose logo they recognize. That’s potentially 50% more clients that could be yours, just because they recognize your logo from a Google Display ad or a Boosted Post on Facebook.
Building Trust
Brand Awareness ads are a great way to build trust between your brand and your market in a world where this is becoming increasingly more difficult. In a recent Simplicity Lone Beacon OneCast, Jason Jenkins, Simplicity EVP of Sales Training, talks about how 92% of people are connected to everything through their mobile device and how our inability to communicate effectively and genuinely through these platforms has contributed to the Trust Recession. Therefore, financial advisors need to engage with them on mobile devices and run ads to them where they’re at. Because trust is so important and people are always on their phones, brand awareness ads work so well at actually developing trust between your company and your prospect. They’re a cheap way to consistently get the word out about your firm, take ad space away from your competitors, and to target marketing- and/or sales-qualified prospects on their terms.
However, brand awareness must be conscious of where a prospect might be in their process of making a buying decision, and it must respect them where they’re at in that process. Our data shows that people vet multiple advisories and take a long time before finally. It’s not like choosing a candy bar at the grocery store, rather, it’s a life-defining decision! Because of this, the content of this ad is quite important. It needs to respect that they’re still trying to figure out if they can trust you.
Constructing a Brand Awareness Ad
A brand awareness ad is educational, personable, and not “salesy” and does not attempt to push them to work with your firm right off the bat or use a product you offer. As such, you might want to consider making your brand awareness ads highlight your people and quick words or slogans that define your mission in a way that articulates the benefit you offer. Also, having these ads direct to your “Team” page so people can get to know the dedicated team that can help them, or have the ads direct to your “About” or “Purpose” page so they can learn how you’ve been helping people retire or why it’s such a passion for you. Making sure your ads nurture your audience and encourage exploration on their own timeline is crucial in building that trust. People are being sold to all the time and if we’ve learned one thing about today’s consumers, it’s that they like to do things on their own timeline. If your ads don’t feel like you’re pressuring them to take action, then you’re starting to get the hang of brand awareness ads.
Invest in Your Long-Term Success
As the Senior Digital Media Manager for Simplicity Lone Beacon, I often see advisors try to ignore brand awareness and go right for direct lead-generation campaigns. While those play an important role, it may not produce the best results if it’s the only digital ad strategy in play. A well-rounded digital marketing strategy can keep the folks who may be ready to meet with you next month engaged, but it can also help maintain engagement amongst the folks who might be just starting the process, looking for a brand that respects them and who speaks to them, instead of pushing them too hard when they’re not ready. A lot of advisors think they are just looking for leads and closed business now, but in reality, just like in the retirement strategies they offer, longevity is key. And in marketing, that means showing your firm of people is genuine, cares about them, has what they’re looking for, and keeps them engaged with your firm along their multi-month, even multi-year process of picking a financial advisory firm to work with.
At Simplicity Lone Beacon, we provide our clients with digital strategies that generate leads and keep them engaged whether they’ve just started thinking about a financial advisor or whether they’re moments away from making a decision. So, let’s connect to see how our team can help close more business by nurturing prospects on their journey to becoming your customers!
About the Author: Before Zoe came to us she worked with two well-known New England advertising agencies where she honed her skills at digital marketing serving both local and national accounts. She attended Johnson and Wales University where she won two national collegiate advertising titles and graduated with a BS, as well an MBA in Advertising and Marketing. Zoe is a native New Englander and grew up in New Hampshire, but happily for us left for the city life in Boston where she resides and is a proud mom to her cat, Winston.