The ABCs of Brand Objectives: Define and Execute Like a Pro

Today’s biggest brands – McDonald’s, Starbucks, and Apple – have even bigger brands; ones that we instantly recognize, trust, and identify with.

But those brands weren’t just born with built-in reputations and client bases. Not at all – they got there by planning, strategizing, monitoring, and optimizing. These brands are successful now because they first set clear, measurable brand objectives, then executed them to the letter to reach their target audience, create a strong brand identity, and nurture brand loyalty.

Yet defining good brand objectives is easier said than done – there’s a reason, after all, that so few companies include them in their marketing plan, let alone get them spot on. So let us help.

Below, we outline what brand objectives are and unpack the different types of goals you can build your strategy around – whether that’s generating leads, building your audience, increasing your authority, or retaining your customers. Then we’ll share our four-step guide to researching, defining, executing, and measuring your brand objectives – and how Similarweb can help.

There’s no nonsense here and zero jargon – just simple, actionable tips and advice to help you get your brand from where it is to where you want it to be.

What are brand objectives?

Brand objectives are specific, measurable goals you set for your business’s brand.

Your brand, of course, refers to the way your company comes across to customers. What kind of feelings does your brand inspire in them? What associations do they make when they see your business’s logo on a billboard or hear its name on the radio? What’s your brand’s personality? How does your brand speak? What’s your tone of voice?

Your brand objectives, then, lay out the specific parameters for your business’s success. Your objectives should encompass actionable steps, be tied to a specific time frame, include engaging messaging, and have crystal clear success metrics.

These objectives could include increasing your brand’s awareness, building a wider customer base, or encouraging customer loyalty. Alternatively, they could be focused on boosting your brand’s industry authority, promoting your latest products, or simply growing your market share.

Types of brand objectives

Brand objectives come in many different shapes and sizes. So before you get down to the nitty-gritty – that is, the defining, refining, and executing – let’s explore what kind of goals you might consider and go over some brand objective examples.

Increase audience awareness

The formula is simple – more awareness of your brand, as evidenced by direct traffic, almost always equates to a healthier bottom line. So whether your business is just starting out or has been around for a while, getting your name out there is never a bad idea.

Some ways you can increase your brand recognition through marketing campaigns include:

• Publishing informational, top-of-the-funnel, SEO-focused content online. If it ranks well, it’ll provide you with plenty of organic traffic, leading to more eyes on your content and brand.
• Running paid advertising on social media or search engines to drive clicks through to your site, and build up familiarity with potential customers.
• Investing time, and effort (and even money) into a solid social media strategy. If you can deliver high-quality content that’s relevant to your audience and niche – and at a consistent pace – you’ll pick up a steady stream of followers.

For more info about how to get your content marketing strategy right, head over to our content marketing hub – there are over 45 articles there waiting for you!

Generate more leads

Leads, glorious leads – what business could survive without them? Particularly if you’re in the B2B space, generating hot, sales-ready leads – and then delivering them at speed into the laps of your sales team – will be a crucial brand objective.

Digital marketing methods your business might utilize to generate more leads include:

• Offering visitors to your site access to a gated asset – such as an eBook, white paper, or original proprietary research – in exchange for their contact details.
• Embedding lead generation forms naturally into your online content.

Hang on to your existing customers

Of course, generating those leads is only half the battle. Next comes the hard part: turning those leads not only into new customers but customers that will remain loyal to your business and keep coming back for more.

Common sense says that these customers are the most valuable – and the data does, too. One survey of small businesses suggested that more than 50% of their annual revenues were generated by repeat customers – and that these consumers, on average, spent 67% more than their brand-new counterparts.

With that in mind, keeping your current customers happy should always be high on your list of brand strategies. So how can you go about it?

• Send emails with deals and discounts that are exclusive to your existing customers. Let them know that you value their business, and – if you have the data – tailor your offers and product recommendations to your customers’ specific demographics and preferences.

• Establish a rewards program to treat your most frequent customers for their loyalty.

Promote new products or services

When it comes to launching a new product or service, you’ll need to draw upon several of the brand objectives listed here. To successfully get a new offering off the ground and into the stratosphere, you’ll need to drum up awareness, generate leads, and acquire new customers.

Here are a few ways you can go about it:

• If your product is SaaS (Software-as-a-Service), or something else that’s subscription-based, offering a free trial is a tried-and-tested technique to conjure up some hype around your product.
• Paid advertising across search engines, content delivery networks (CDNs), and social media is great for promoting new offerings – although the costs involved mean it’s more of a short-term solution.
• Maintaining an online presence – and publishing regular content, such as blog posts and thought leadership – is a more effective long-term option, and doesn’t have to cost money.

Build up your authority in the industry

Being able to present yourself – and your brand – as an expert in your field is absolutely vital. If you don’t, people probably won’t listen to you (let alone trust you!), nor be willing to invest their time or money in your products. Plus, ever since 2018 – when Google’s E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) entered the scene as a major ranking signal for SEO – knowing your stuff is more important than ever.

Here are a few techniques you can use to develop your reputation as an expert in the eyes of both search engines and users:

• Write guest blogs for well-respected websites in your industry – particularly those with a high domain authority (DA). If they’re willing to provide a link back to your site, that’s even better!

• Keep tabs on forums or discussion groups relevant to your business’s niche. By regularly answering questions and engaging with your audience there, you’re sending powerful trust signals about your brand.
• Host a free webinar or interview influencers in your industry.

• Attend networking events and trade shows to connect with key players.

To learn more about building your audience and brand, delve into our research hub online. There are more than 20 articles there that cover market segmentation, website demographics, and everything in between.

How to define and execute brand objectives

Now that you’re clued up on the types of brand objectives out there, it’s time to zero in on your own – then start actioning them!

Follow these four simple steps to get you there:

Step 1: Do your research

Before you start setting any objectives, you’ll need a strong understanding of what makes your audience tick.

How old are they? What are their needs and pain points, and how can your service solve them? What do they do in their free time, and where do they go for product and industry information? Aim to cover these bases with carefully selected market research questions before planning out your brand goals.

You’ll also need to get to grips with your competition. Without knowing what – and who – you’re up against, your brand objectives won’t be taking in the bigger picture, and are unlikely to reflect the realities of your industry.

Similarweb’s competitive analysis tools can help you get granular, data-driven insights into what your rivals are up to. By delving deeper into their marketing strategies and acquisition tactics, you can better inform your own brand objectives and find out exactly how your business stacks up.

Step 2: Make your objectives SMART

Follow this framework to ensure a strategy destined for success.

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Timebound

Drawing up your brand objectives against this framework helps ensure that everyone involved in executing them is on the same page. Ascribing specific deadlines and equally concrete success metrics to your objectives holds your team accountable for their success, and allows you to accurately evaluate progress.

Step 3: Assign KPIs

Now that your SMART brand objectives are drawn up, it’s time to assign each one a set of KPIs: clear metrics which will define whether or not you’ve been successful.

The kind of KPIs you assign to each goal will depend on the type of brand objectives you’ve selected. Going back to the specific objectives we discussed above, some of the metrics you could build your KPIs around are:

For increasing audience awareness:

• Bounce rate: Is your audience seeing what they expect to see when they land on your website, or heading elsewhere?
• Page views: Is your content getting noticed?
• Session duration: Are people really engaging with your articles and posts?
• Market share: How many people within your target market are customers?

For generating leads:

• Cost per lead (CPL): How much is it costing you to win new customers?
• Lead quality: Are the leads you’re generating relevant to your business’s purpose and industry?
• Conversion rate: Are you able to convert the leads?

For retaining your customers:

• Churn rate: How many customers have you lost?
• Customer lifetime value (CLV): What’s each customer worth to you in the long term?
• Repeat purchase ratio: Do your customers buy from you more than once?

For promoting a new product:

• Sign-ups/purchases: Is your latest product flying off the shelves?
• Return on ad spend (ROAS): Is your paid marketing working?
• Impressions: Are you getting through to people?

For establishing industry authority:

• Backlinks: Is your outreach strategy effective?
• Webinar attendance: How many people tuned in to your talk?
• LinkedIn connections: How many relevant industry ties have you forged – and can you turn them into sales?

Step 4: Execute your strategy, and continue to optimize

With your objectives and KPIs defined, it’s time to execute your strategy. There’s no hard and fast way to do this; it’ll depend on the size and scope of your company, your business model, the resources you have available, and the channels you’re most interested in targeting.

If there is a hard and fast rule, it’s this – for your brand objectives to be successful, you’ll need to keep iterating, evaluating, and optimizing against them.

Fortunately, this is one of the areas where the Similarweb web analytics platform was designed to help you excel in. With Similarweb, you’ll be able to:

• Maximize your conversion rates while driving down CPAs.
• Analyze the kind of search terms, creatives, landing pages, and ad networks your competitors use.
• Create a better content marketing strategy by identifying trending keywords.
• Understand – and increase – your share of paid search and display traffic, as well as optimizing your share of voice in the organic space.

With intelligent, impactful insights powering your business – and helping you keep an eye on the competition – Similarweb provides everything you need to define and execute your brand objectives.

After all, it’s one of our brand objectives to help you do just that – so try Similarweb for free today, and good luck!

FAQs

Why are brand objectives important?

Just as you wouldn’t set off on a long hike in the Appalachians without a map and a compass, you wouldn’t launch a business or brand without a clear idea of where you’re going.

That, in a nutshell, is why brand objectives are so important. They’re your roadmap for success, your North Star – they’re the how behind your brand’s why; your strategy, your sage, and your signposts for success.
Is there a way to know what my competitors’ brand objectives are?

Brand objectives are a key component of a brand’s overall commercial strategy, so – unless you’re on particularly good terms with the competition – that info’s going to be difficult to come by.

Unless, of course, you use Similarweb.

With our platform’s detailed insights at your disposal, you can find out more about your competitors’ marketing and referral strategies. Similarweb can also help you uncover the competition’s best-performing publishers and ad networks, allowing you to optimize your own placement strategy accordingly.

Try Similarweb today, for free, to learn more about what we can do for you.