A Top-of-Mind Awareness approach to marketing
In which category is your business? Is it a product or service that people buy every week or is it something they purchase less frequently? Maybe it’s something that is generally purchased once in a lifetime.
If it falls into the infrequent category, your approach to marketing needs to be different.
Top of Mind Awareness comes into play. This approach requires ongoing awareness campaigns in your potential marketplace. Your goal here is for future buyers to “know you before they need you.”
For example, a couple who is raising a child realizes the need for orthodontics. For them, an investment in orthodontics may only come around once in a lifetime, or at the most, once per family member.
Or, suddenly a home appliance goes on the brink. The homeowner needs to make a decision and make one quickly. If they have already come to know, like and trust an appliance dealer in their area, that dealer will have an elevated chance of earning their business. Through correct messaging, their marketing has not only created awareness, but subtle efforts along the way have created trust. The family knows them before they need them. The business has created top-of-mind awareness.
Top-of-mind awareness doesn’t require large monthly ad expenditures. It does not mean putting all eggs in one basket either. It requires consistency. It means finding ways - whether big or small - to show up in front of your audience all year long. Consider recording some short videos to post in Stories or Reels. This method builds trust more quickly. If we think of it in terms of an ad buy, it would be better to divide the budget to run several ongoing small ads than to use it all on a few large ads. In this case, a marketing budget can and should be stretched to allow for branding to happen throughout the year. For social media marketing, the most effective approach would include a combination of consistent organic posts plus ongoing paid ads.
“So many of our judgments and decisions, from the strategic to the mundane, come down to the information we can call to our conscious minds in an instant,” John Hall, Author, Top of Mind
If your product or service is purchased infrequently by consumers, employ a top-of-mind awareness approach to marketing