How to Use Brand Response Marketing for Maximum Impact
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. A video is worth even more. With that in mind, let’s look at a classic example of brand response marketing in action.
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) business Dollar Shave Club made this video, back in 2012:
The video is funny, memorable, and super shareable, which explains why it went viral and has more than 28 million YouTube views. The video uses a simple call to action, urging people to “Try the Club” and sign up for a subscription.
It’s a good example of brand response marketing done right. In essence, it builds brand awareness and drives sales at the same time. Let’s take a more detailed look at how brand response marketing works.
What Is Brand Response Marketing?
Brand response marketing is a cross between brand storytelling and direct response sales. It usually starts with engaging content that includes a call to action.
It’s like a first date – the ad or content woos you, creates a connection, encourages you to buy, and leaves a good lasting impression. For this reason, some marketers actually call it “customer seduction”!
Another well-known example of brand response marketing is “We Buy Any Car”. They use a blend of brand-building ads and content, coupled with direct response strategies. The marketing boosts awareness through consistent brand messaging, but also directly drives consumer actions – such as getting a car valuation or selling a car through their website.
In general, there are three steps involved in brand response marketing:
- Create content that really grabs people. Share things your target audience will find interesting or entertaining, and want to share with others. This could be a blog, video, podcast, or even live chat on Instagram. The aim is to set yourself up as the go-to person or brand in your niche.
- Boost your content through targeted ads and other paid channels. This gets people to click and engage.
- Drive conversions with a strong call to action. Ask people directly to buy your product or sign up for your service. In some cases, you can also use retargeting to get sales from people who previously engaged with your content.
Brand Response vs Brand Awareness
You can’t build a good brand response campaign without first understanding what brand awareness is.
In simple terms, brand awareness is the first step of a brand response campaign. You need to create content that engages people. You should bring in your best creatives – writers, directors, designers, whoever can help make your content stand out. Alternatively, team up with an ad agency to get all the creative expertise you need.
At the brand awareness stage, you’re not so concerned with the raw numbers. You should use analytics to find the best keywords, but that’s all. You’re not too concerned with driving sales right away, just getting people to click on your ads and engage with your content. The aim is to get plenty of traffic, but it won’t drive sales on its own.
Driving sales is where brand response comes in. It usually involves running some form of ad campaign to drive traffic to your content. However, don’t be tempted to run old-style ads that are overly pushy or salesy. Make them as creative and engaging as your content. Native ads work well, as they don’t feel as intrusive
Finally, you need to make sure that your content includes some kind of call to action, such as a sign up or buy now button.
How Do You Measure Brand Response?
You’ll need to do some number crunching at the brand response stage, as display ads and PPC ads require monitoring and optimization for the best results. You’ll also need to make sure your content is holding people’s attention.
Keep a close eye on key metrics, such as:
- Click-through rates (CTR): Tells you if people are noticing ads and are interested enough to click on them
- Cost per click (CPC): Tells you how much you’re spending to get a user to click on your ad
- Content engagement: Look at metrics such as unique visitors, average time on page, and bounce rate
- Conversion rates: Tells you whether the clicks are turning into sales or leads
Once you have some reliable data on how well your ads and content are performing, the next step is optimizing it all.
How to Improve Brand Response
If things aren’t going too well, don’t make the mistake of simply throwing more money at ads or pumping out more content.
Although increasing the quantity of content might be tempting, it won’t do any good unless it’s high-quality and highly targeted.
These days, more than ever, people want to spend their time online engaging with content that offers value – either some kind of insights, transformational information, or entertainment. To create engaging content, you need to really understand your audience and give them what they want.
Understand your audience on a deep level
One of the first things you should do is create an ideal customer profile (ICP) and buyer persona(s). This means really getting to know your target customer’s behaviors, preferences, and pain points. Once you have a very clear picture of who your ideal customer is, the next step is to decide what will interest them.
For instance, let’s say your target market is young professionals aged 25 to 35 who are tech-savvy and passionate about sustainability. They’re likely to spend a good chunk of their time on platforms such as LinkedIn for career growth and Instagram for lifestyle inspiration.
Therefore, you might create blog or social media content such as “How To Advocate for Green Policies at Work” or “DIY Office Upcycling Projects”.
Tell interesting stories
People connect with stories more than they do with bare facts. For example, we kicked off this article with a mini-story about Dollar Shave Club’s viral video. If you want people to relate to your brand, tell stories that forge an emotional connection.
Dove created a highly effective story campaign called “Real Beauty” that challenged the negative impact of traditional beauty ads on women’s self-esteem. The campaign told the stories of real women, rather than models, and celebrated individual differences.
Test and enhance
To optimize your content, it’s a good idea to A/B test certain elements, such as headlines, intro copy, and calls to action. Sometimes even a small tweak in wording or placement can make a big difference.
Retarget potential customers
People won’t always buy on their first visit. The average conversion rate for a retail lead is just 3%, with most people needing multiple content interactions before they’ll consider buying.
A retargeting strategy helps keep your brand top-of-mind by showing them ads related to your content on publisher sites or social platforms. With retargeting, you should tread carefully and gently guide potential customers back to your content or site. Don’t be too pushy, as it could negatively impact brand perception.
Brand Response Marketing Examples
Old Spice – “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”
In an attempt to rejuvenate the brand and appeal to a younger audience, Old Spice launched its ad and content campaign on Super Bowl weekend.
The Old Spice Man was available in real-time, answering questions on social media with personal video messages. Altogether, Old Spice filmed 200 video responses. This interactive experience built brand awareness and drove extra sales by encouraging the audience to visit the Old Spice website and purchase products.
GoPro – “Be a Hero”
GoPro’s “Be a Hero” campaign features user-generated content (UGC) on their social media. Customers share footage captured by their cameras, such as extreme sports and exciting outdoor pursuits.
Overall, the campaign helped to get GoPro more widely noticed online and increased sales through brand awareness, followed by brand engagement, and finally, strategic calls to action that drove conversions. This is the perfect recipe for brand response marketing.
Tell Engaging Brand Stories and Drive a Powerful Brand Response
Brand response marketing involves telling engaging stories, then getting people to take action, such as buying a product or signing up for a subscription.
A typical brand response strategy uses ads to drive traffic to engaging content, then converting people into paying customers with direct calls to action. To do it well, you need to know your audience on a deep level so you can create the right messages and content, track your results, and then optimize to suit.
If you’d like to find out how Outbrain can help you run and optimize native ads and retargeting as part of your creative brand response strategy, get in touch today.
