WHAT IS TOP OF MIND AWARENESS (TOMA) AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT?
Top of Mind Awareness in Marketing
Marketing aims to get your product or service in front of as many people as possible who are willing to buy it. Even if you have the best product or service in the world, no one is going to purchase it if they do not realize that it exists. Then, you have to make sure your audience remembers your brand. That is where top-of-mind awareness, frequently shortened to TOMA, is helpful.
Top of mind awareness is an automatic, reflexive link that exists in an individual’s mind at a certain time. For example, if one were to say football, you might think, “NFL.” In Europe, they would think of “Premier League” or “Bundesliga.” TOMA is different for different people in other places.
Another idea is cookies. When someone says cookie, you might think, “Oreo.” That is the power of TOMA when it comes to marketing. You want the association to be so powerful that when someone thinks about your product or service, they think about your company above all else.
Why Does Being Top of Mind in Marketing Matter?
You may think that top of mind awareness is simply in neuroscience. On the other hand, it also matters when it comes to marketing. Some of the biggest reasons why include:
- You can build trust with your customer because they associate your brand with a certain product or service.
- This clearly increases your brand awareness because it places you at the front of everyone’s mind.
- You can also generate loyal customers because the customer is going to place your brand above all else when it comes to that product or service.
So, how can you put top of mind awareness work for you?
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How to Increase Top of Mind Awareness with Marketing
Ultimately, there is no singular action that is going to keep your brand at the front of your customers’ minds. You have to do this with a well-rounded marketing campaign. Start with digital marketing to get your name in front of as many people as possible. You will also need to measure top of mind awareness to make sure you are getting the results expected. Below are some tactics you can use to increase top of mind awareness:
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Email Marketing Strategy
To increase top of mind awareness with your email marketing strategy, there are a few key things you should be doing. The first is studying your audience’s habits and interests. The last thing you want to do is send someone an email they don’t need or care about. You can also use data from social media and other channels to understand what kind of content will resonate with your audience. Next, you want to ensure that you are using the right tool for the job. There are a lot of different email marketing platforms out there, but you must find one that fits well into your workflow and offers features that will enhance your overall campaign. You also want to make sure that your platform has robust analytics capabilities so that you can see how effective your campaigns are at reaching their audience and converting them into leads.
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Build a Social Media Presence
One of the most effective ways to increase top of mind awareness with your marketing strategies is to build a social media presence. Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are becoming increasingly popular with consumers. Building a social media presence takes work; to succeed, you will need significant time and effort. But if you put in the work, it will be worth it in the long term. Building your social media following is also an excellent way to keep your brand current with trends and incorporate them into your marketing strategies. With an active social media presence, you can get quality content from passionate people about your brand and industry. This helps create buzz for your company through shares, likes, comments, and links.
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Content marketing
Content marketing is one of the most effective ways to increase your top of mind awareness. Content marketing includes blogging and creating white papers, infographics, articles, etc. All of these articles will be written to appeal to your target audience’s interests. Additionally, you can use branded content to spread stories about your company to an audience with which you have a connection. Branded content is defined as any content created by or for a particular brand. It has been shown to increase consumer awareness by 87%.
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Building brand awareness
Your brand is the most powerful tool when it comes to top of mind awareness. This encompasses your identity, color scheme, and unified marketing presence. If all the pieces of your brand fit together, you will drive top of mind awareness associations with your product or service, solidifying your place in the market. By exceeding customers’ expectations, you’ll create brand loyalty, which will help you retain your existing customers and expand the voice that your business is a reliable source. Your current customers are the best source to get referrals for your business. Build brand awareness so that when users think about a product or service you offer, the first brand they’ll think about it’s yours.
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Perform a Market Research
By conducting marketing research, you’ll be able to understand your target audience thoroughly. Understand their needs, wants, desires, and the specific brand they think about when a need arises. That way, you can refine your marketing efforts, ensuring they resonate with your target market.
What are the benefits of Top of Mind Awareness in marketing?
Staying top of mind in your industry brings many benefits to your company. Some of those benefits include:
- Higher brand credibility and trust translated into more prospects
- Greater engagement in social media translated into higher quality traffic
- Greater lead generation
- Increased lifetime value of loyal customers
Get Marketing Help from RealTop Digital Marketing
If you could use some help developing your email or social media marketing, REALTOP is here for you. Contact us today to get a free marketing plan and get help to build a top of mind brand!
Best regards, Nik Tsoukales, CEO
Direct Line: 617-315-1138
Main Line: 800.676.8350
Skype: nikitastsoukales
Email: nik@realtop.com
FAQs
How can you use top of mind awareness to your advantage?
If you want to sell a product, you need to know what people will think about it. Think about the last product you bought that was highly rated by its users. Did you buy it because that product was the most popular? Or did you buy it because it was considered to be the best? You can use top of mind awareness to sell any product because you know what people’s minds will be like.