Brands often become exceptionally good at one specific part of the customer journey. They offer a great first impression. They’re champions in closing sales. They’ve even got the perfect email sequence in place. But what distinguishes the brands that grow and succeed over the ones that plateau is constant engagement at every single level.
It’s much harder than it looks, however. Because the person who’s never heard of you before needs entirely different messaging than the one who’s visited your site for the third time and still hasn’t bought – and neither of those will require the same engagement as an existing customer. Therefore, it’s not that it’s hard to reach all these people, but instead that it’s hard to reach them with the appropriate messaging at the appropriate times without breaking the bank on fragmented campaigns.
The Visibility Gap Too Many Brands Are Blind To
Most visibility gaps occur along the customer journey, and there generally are too few touchpoints in the middle. Brands successfully pay for awareness components – social media advertising, content and perhaps even PR – and they know how to convert – retargeting, email inquiries, promos – but there are too few direct interactions and repetitive opportunities during that middle phase when someone knows who you are but isn’t ready to pay yet.
Because that’s where it gets expensive. And those people who aren’t ready to pay yet are either stuck in a world of options – shopping around, reviewing feedback, perhaps with budget approval constraints – or they’re just biding their time with intentions of buying later. Either way, when you’ve paid for awareness at one level, you want it to convert.
But most brands treat awareness components like a campaign thing and then connect with their leads once that portion is closed for good. But customers don’t experience your brand in campaign form. They experience your brand as visibility or lack thereof in real-time while they’re making decisions that take days or weeks.
Connecting Visibility Without Connecting Burnout
The traditional answer is to “be everywhere,” which is bad advice for those without unlimited budgets. When a brand exists everywhere, it’s mediocre everywhere. That doesn’t create trust; that just burns through resources.
But alternatively, what’s better is consistent visibility in the right places relevant to your audience. In order to achieve this, however, not only is it important to know where your audience is situated, but also where they’re located throughout the customer journey. A person conducting research is on entirely different platforms than someone who is ready to purchase today.
When it comes to awareness, it’s about reach – you’re looking to make yourself known as a prospective option for people who have no idea you exist. Therefore, volume matters now more than ever. It makes sense in displays and content distribution channels and high-reaching platforms that seek large amounts of impressions without hoping for quick turnaround purchases. Instead, you want your name to be at the forefront of people’s minds when they’re ready for a purchase.
However, consideration works differently because this information is for those who already know about you, and they’re trying to determine if you’re right for them. Thus, working with ad networks for advertisers becomes more valuable because you want consistence without personally up-keeping dozens of independent publisher connections. You want constant visibility across multiple sites and spaces while those potential purchasers are doing research; getting this kind of exposure efficiently on your own is difficult.
And then there are decision makers – people who just need that extra push – from retargeting and direct response appeal for those who have already shown enough interest. They’ve been to your pricing page; they’ve added an item to their cart; they’ve downloaded your ultimate guide on all the benefits you’re selling. They just need that nudge at that exact moment.
The Frequency Problem No One Ever Talks About
One thing most adages get wrong is telling you to increase your frequency – as if that’s always a good thing! But sometimes more visibility just makes customers frustrated.
The threshold differs per stage – a person can see you often enough in awareness because you’re not asking them to do anything yet; they just need to recognize the name. But once they get sick of your retargeting ad in a three-day span after perusing your site without converting, it’s not tenacity anymore; it’s pushiness.
This is why channel diversity matters so much. When you’re reaching someone through different formats and contexts – a display ad here, a piece of content there, maybe a podcast mention or newsletter inclusion – it’s not bombardment; it’s establishing your presence as a credible source in every arena.
That’s how visibility creates trust and not animosity.
Connecting It All Together
The brands that do this effectively don’t have vastly different messaging across each stage; instead, they adapt slight nuances of the same message based on where someone sits in the customer journey. Your brand story should never change – but how you present it does.
In awareness, you’re leading with the issue or goal you solve/deliver to grab someone’s attention because they need that justification at a base level without delving into specific features/pricing yet. You’re answering, “Why should I care about this company?” In consideration, you’ve got them showing up so now you’re aligning why you’re the best fit – your differentiators, case studies, proof – they’re ready to learn “Why you instead of anyone else doing the same thing?” And finally, in decision mode, you’re minimizing friction – a guarantee here, an objection addressed there – you need to determine what’s standing in someone’s way of saying yes right now?
The Resource Reality
Most marketing teams are already stretched thin; by now adding “be everywhere” across each level will result in burnout. But here’s what’s key – you don’t need to be!
Instead, it’s all about working smarter and not harder by figuring out where your current visibility efforts actually lie. Most brands will discover they exaggerate either on one side or another of the spectrum with nothing presently established in the middle; once you see where gaps exist, you’re either able to redistribute resources or continue building out wisely.
Moreover, you do not have to own every touchpoint; that’s where partnerships, distribution networks and different platform opportunities come into play; you want consistent visibility for someone instead – even if it’s borrowing others’ audiences and platforms – to make it work.
What Consistent Visibility Actually Feels Like
When this is done right, people tell customers they’ve “seen them everywhere.” They can’t pinpoint what convinced them – it’s been too many touch points – across too many contexts – but that’s how it worked because it felt familiar enough.
Not because they ran the greatest campaign or spent thousands upon thousands of dollars – but because when someone in your target audience researches a solution for an entire week, your name organically pops up multiple times throughout various channels.
That’s visibility that drives revenue because it mimics how people operate in real-world settings.
