Should you focus on building your brand on social, or driving direct response?
Each element has its place, but according to LinkedIn, it’s branding that will deliver the best results in the long run - so long as you take an intentional, sustained content approach.
As per LinkedIn:
“Evidence is mounting that loading budget into performance marketing without a brand strategy to support it risks diminishing returns. Research by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) shows the impact of demand marketing declining quickly over time, while an investment in brand keeps on giving. That’s why IPA data suggests that the optimal marketing mix gives 60% of budget to brand, compared to 40% for demand.”
In other words, you should be looking to establish relationships with your social media audience over time, through a focused content plan, which reinforces your brand ethos and approach. At the same time, however, you also need to be promoting your latest products.
A combined approach, factoring in the importance of each element, will help maximize your results – though it does take time to establish your brand, and that requires foresight, a strategic map to establish clear expectations, and investment, especially early on.
This is the focus of LinkedIn’s latest infographic, which provides some key pointers on utilizing a combined brand and demand approach to maximize performance.
Of course, there’s more to it than this. The key challenge is probably convincing your executives to invest in such a program, when they won’t see optimal returns in the early stages. But maybe, this graphic will help to underline the approach, and guide your planning moving forward.
You can check out LinkedIn’s full overview here.
