Should your marketing build brand awareness or bring in leads?
Most small service businesses should start with work that brings in leads they can trace, because it usually pays back sooner and shows what is working. Brand awareness, meaning how many people in your area know and remember your name, still matters: it feeds word of mouth, helps in a new area and can make every other channel work a little better. Add it once inquiries arrive steadily, and judge it by whether more people come to you by name.
The difference in one table
| Brand awareness | Leads | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | More people nearby know and remember your name | More people get in touch now |
| Typical work | Vehicle wraps, yard signs, sponsorships, posts that are not selling anything | Showing up when people search or ask an assistant, asking for referrals, ads aimed at people already looking |
| How it shows up | More people who arrive already knowing your name | Inquiries you can count by source |
| How fast | Usually slowly, over months | Ads and referral asks often sooner; search usually builds over months |
Why most should start with leads
A small business usually has a limited budget and needs work to pay for itself. Lead work can be traced: you can count the inquiries a channel brought and the jobs it turned into. Many service customers also have a need right now, so being findable at that moment often matters more than being remembered.
Awareness also works only if the basics are in place. If calls go unanswered or the website does not say what you do, the extra attention is wasted, which is why the related answer on where to start with marketing puts those first.
Where awareness still matters
- Word of mouth: people tend to recommend a name they remember.
- A new area or a new service, where nobody has heard of you yet.
- Large, planned jobs such as remodels, where customers often notice a business weeks before they are ready to call. The related answer on what a marketing funnel is covers that notice stage.
- A crowded market, where a familiar name can tip a customer who is comparing a few businesses.
How to tell whether awareness is paying off
- Ask every new inquiry how they heard about you, with answers that let someone say they saw your truck or a sign; the related answer on 'How did you hear about us?' options has a list.
- Over the months, watch for more inquiries that name a sign or vehicle (recorded as campaign), a recommendation (referral) or your address typed in (direct). Together they can show awareness at work, though people who search for your name are usually recorded as search.
- Where you can, give a campaign its own phone number or short web address, so its inquiries can be counted; the related answer on tracking leads from flyers, signs and vehicles covers how.
- Give it time, and compare the same months year over year rather than week to week.
Related answers
- Where should a small business start with marketing?
- What is a marketing funnel, and does a small service business need one?
- What answer options should 'How did you hear about us?' have?
- How do you track leads from flyers, yard signs and truck wraps?
Lead generation and lead tracking
A lead that waits a day goes cold, and a lead with no source teaches you nothing. Ascent Vision fixes both.