The issue marketers faced back then was describing how effective their campaigns were. For example, how would a marketing executive tell a business owner the increase in revenue that their billboard campaign provided? Sure, you can put together some numbers and statistics based on how many people live in the city, how many people drive by the billboard everyday, and how many sales the business has had since the campaign. But let’s be honest, these figures are after all, well - figures.
The Real Value
So what was the value in these campaigns? The answer is simple: brand increase. It was all about brand. How do people perceive your brand? Do people get happy when they see your logo? Are people excited when they step into one of your stores?Fast-forward to the marketing industry today and you will notice a similar trend. Sure, there are very measurable methods that you can take with a marketing campaign that work wonderfully. For example, search engine optimization or pay-per-click are both great investments and can show you exactly how much money an agency has made you. But I’m not talking about these methods.
Social Media
I have noticed some trends with social media. Many companies are on social media, much like many companies had billboards and radio spots years ago. And much like those companies’ years ago, companies today are struggling with measuring how much worth social media is bringing them. Not only that, companies are struggling with standing out and communicating what their brand is to the general public.There are very helpful tools out there to help with social media. Tools like Buffer, FollowerWonk, and Bitly are all great examples of how marketers can utilize social media while providing numbers and context behind campaigns. However, I would argue that social media provides so much more than just showing a client how many clicks their website received. Social media has the power to sway mass amounts of people into feeling something about your brand.
Is Brand Increase Measurable?
Can we measure brand increase? That’s really the golden question isn’t it? My answer to that would be yes, in many ways we can. At the same time, should we be trying to quantify something that means so much more than a number or a figure?Perhaps “traditional marketing” isn’t so traditional anymore. Maybe certain components of marketing are making a full circle. Maybe we should be focusing more on quality, and increasing brand rather than throwing up another post because that’s what everyone is doing. Regardless, it’s going to be interesting to see what happens with social media and brand awareness in the coming years.