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Advertising's Role in Lead Generation and Brand Awareness
By Dale Justice, Partner, Justice & Young

Many companies struggle with the integration of lead generation and brand awareness efforts. Some business leaders assume attaining brand recognition means sales leads will naturally follow. This is a fallacy. Trust me, marketing has never sold anything. Sales people sell things.

Marketing can play a valuable support role in the sales function. Good marketing helps strengthen brand awareness, which can be described as the sum total of the market's experience with your products or services. Your brand simply reflects your company's reputation. Whether your company is well-known, highly respected or considered a thought-leader among the business and trade media all speak to brand awareness. These elements obviously also will play a powerful role in shaping the customer mindset.

Introducing a product or service into a new market is challenging. Generating sales is especially difficult if you do not enjoy high levels of brand awareness. Effectively supporting sales efforts with marketing activities requires a strategic approach that incorporates a mix of brand awareness and lead generation tactics.

Traditional advertising can be extremely valuable for reaching target audiences. The most effective advertising campaigns address the benefits of the product or service head on. Hard hitting creative tells a compelling story focused on a customer's concerns or points of pain. The ad should close with a persuasive offer that provides an engaging solution.

According to industry research, such well-crafted ads placed in a strategically researched publication will become effective only after running six times. This level of frequency is required to affect brand awareness.

Experience also tells us that simply relying on brand awareness will not achieve market penetration. In the end, somebody—the sales team—has to sell something. The marketing team, however, can further assist with lead generation.

Lead generation marketing is the art of creating immediate interest in a specific business offer, product or service. It is by nature a one-to-one marketing endeavor, designed to reach individual consumers. Common lead generation tactics include: e-mail blasts, targeted direct mail, dimensional direct mail or PURL (Personalized URL) combinations. To maximize success, all of these approaches must work hand-in-hand with sales efforts. Lead generation marketing and promotion plans require direct sales follow-up.

The concept is relatively simple: identify your target audience by name; create a communication strategy that specifically addresses a point of pain; creatively communicate how your product or service improves or eliminates this problem; and provide a compelling offer that entices the recipient to initiate trial or secure a sales meeting. Lead generation is vastly improved if the company enjoys good brand awareness; however, it is important to remember that good brand awareness is no guarantee of a steady stream of quality sales leads.

While advertising may be an effective method to reach target audiences and generate qualified leads, there are many other tactics that can and should be utilized. Public relations can be a cost-effective way to generate trusted and credible messaging. Target audiences may be reached through a variety of methods, including media relations, sponsorships, community outreach, social media and more. These efforts often deliver third-party endorsement, enhancing the power of key marketing messages. Reaching audiences from this unique perspective can be equally if not more effective than traditional advertising.

There are various other marketing tactics that can positively affect brand awareness. The key to success is a well-designed strategic approach that combines advertising, direct, public relations and online efforts to generate awareness, understanding and appreciation for your company's offerings.

Keep in mind that maximum brand recognition cannot be achieved by utilizing only one of these tools. The best results are realized when a number of methods are coordinated and executed simultaneously to work together (and in conjunction with sales) towards a common goal.

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