Can you measure ‘raising awareness’?

Direct sales vs. raising awareness

Marketing’s end-game isn’t always just getting someone to buy a product. Companies are focusing less on direct sales, and more on improving the awareness that surrounds their brand. This could be because issues arise when companies haven’t futureproofed their brand’s marketing strategy, or rely on one-dimensional tactics.

However, ‘raising awareness’ isn’t strictly and quantifiable business objective, and it can be difficult to measure ROI.

Measure the reach of your campaign and its content

One useful metric to measure is reach. With this, you must assume a certain level of awareness will come from a certain level of reach. We can be confident that with an increased reach, awareness is likely to increase. There is also another useful set of metrics, but first, a case study:

Inspired by the 2017 instalment of BBC’s Blue Planet (featuring David Attenborough) and the nation’s growing concern for the damage caused by plastic pollution, an opportunity arose for a project with the objective of raising awareness.

With clients ranging from shipping tankers, to sustainable fisheries, charities and bio-gas producers – the campaign had a wide range of target audiences.

A content-led, print and digital solution was vital to the Future of Plastic. This allowed the campaign to reach a targeted-but-varied audience based on their preferences, behaviour and demographic. For example, sending copies to delegates at events like the International Symposium on the Effects of Climate Change on the World’s Oceans, securing social media promotion from the likes of Fauna and Flora International (featuring their Vice President Sir David Attenborough on the cover!); and also using paid facebook targeting for the digital platform.

So, a strong reach was secured for the Future of Plastic, but what were those other metrics to consider?

Measure reader engagement with your campaign’s content

You should count the reach of your campaign (print copies, website views etc.), but looking into quantifiable metrics that suggest how these readers are engaging with content is also a great way of indicating how awareness-raising a campaign has been.

The Future of Plastic campaign measured how many people scrolled through the content online, how long they had articles up on their screens for, how many read the entire article and finally, how many people clicked on the associated sponsor’s branding.

By analysing these readers, who ranged from top-tier government officials and philanthropists, to the general public, a picture was built of their behaviour: which led to an educated guess that the campaign was indeed raising awareness.

In the case of Future of Plastic, a scroll depth of 73.2% and a scroll rate of 80.5% fundamentally suggests that people are reading the content, and therefore being made aware of the campaign’s message!

No purchases were demanded; no click-baity titles were forced in; no fake influencers were making elevated claims… and yet clients were left happy and confident that Future of Plastic had raised awareness of their brands.

Raising awareness: key takeaway

The extent of your campaign’s reach will help determine how much awareness you’ve raised; but if you delve into the engagement metrics, you can be even more certain.

Future of Plastic’s strategy’s success was also recognised with a Content Marketing Association Award nomination this autumn. (Watch this space for a win by December!)

For more information about how our content and distribution strategy could help your campaign raise awareness, in a measurable way, please get in touch.