DIGIDAY and Vizu recently released their State of the Industry Survey and found that a majority of web marketing focus in 2012 will be on improving brand visibility. While greater sales are certainly a goal, businesses believe long-term improvement of brand recognition is even more valuable.
The survey found that 49 percent of businesses hope to improve direct response conversion with more spending this year. However, 64 percent say they hope to boost the awareness of their brand in 2012. In terms of the total spending increase, 44 percent said they plan to add more than 10 percent to their budget for brand building, while 22 percent will do so by more than 20 percent, according to the survey.
Part of increased brand building is altering the strategies of certain channels to target new prospects more effectively. Sixty-three percent of businesses using social media marketing said they plan to increase time and financial investment on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms, compared to just 34 percent planning no changes.
Foursquare recently released a new feature that could help businesses improve their branding efforts. Brafton highlighted the tool, called Explore, in a recent report. Essentially the feature allows companies to search for businesses with terms beyond its specific type of business. Encouraging customers to review a business on foursquare can help with greater branding and increased business.
