Companies often make the mistake of simultaneously launching different campaigns to achieve their goals, not recognizing this is often inefficient. Instead, it's better to choose suitable campaigns based on the specific goals in place, like branding or call-to-action efforts. What you want to achieve determines which campaign is best for you. If you want to increase brand awareness, drive more traffic to your website, or increase sales, it's essential to develop the most compatible plan.

Learning more about each marketing campaign type and how to use them helps you choose the right marketing strategy for your business.

What Is a Branding Marketing Campaign?

Branding campaigns increase brand awareness and recognition by introducing people to your business as it educates them about your offerings. The more people become familiar with you and what you offer, the more likely they will buy from you over less familiar competitors. Over time your campaigns connect with audiences and your company gains credibility, people will come to trust you. 

One example of a branding campaign could involve TV advertising to showcase your brand and what it's all about, providing a basic overview of your offerings in the process.

What Is a Call-to-Action Marketing Campaign?

Call-to-action campaigns involve more specific goals. Rather than focusing on your brand, they center around products and services. The overarching goal of any CTA campaign is getting people to complete a specific action. These could include:

• Buying one of your products or services
• Visiting your website
• Downloading an eBook or other content
• Submitting contact details
• Subscribing to email newsletters

Call-to-action campaigns can inspire direction with engaging offers, pushing people from the awareness stage of the buyer's journey to becoming customers.

What Are the Benefits of Each Campaign?

Branding campaigns introduce your business to new prospects and familiarize them with you. Over time, they can help you establish a strong connection with your audience. The more exposure you get for your brand through these campaigns, the more people will keep you top-of-mind compared to competitors. 

As a result, you'll likely be the first business that comes to mind when people want to make a purchase. Branding campaigns are also great for marketing during in-between busy periods, making sure that people don't forget about you even if sales have dropped.

On the other hand, call-to-action campaigns are for when you want people to complete a task, whether it's to make a purchase or submit information to become leads. You can use these campaigns to encourage people to buy new products or try services, visit a new physical location, take advantage of a sale, or take another step to convert. 

A compelling call-to-action campaign will help turn prospects into leads or customers, carrying the top-of-funnel audiences you gained through branding efforts to the bottom of the funnel. These campaigns are especially crucial if you want people to complete the desired action in the immediate future or within a specific period.

What Are the Downsides of Each Campaign?

While branding campaigns can help generate awareness around your company, you may not see immediate results. They can also be more difficult to track because you can't be sure if people see your ads based on impressions or even views. The key performance indicators ultimately aren't as clear as the kinds of conversions you would see with a call-to-action campaign, which makes it harder to gauge their success.

As mentioned above CTA campaigns are great for driving people to perform a specific action but aren’t as effective unless people know and trust your brand. Even with an attractive, tempting offer that might be hard to refuse, people will be reluctant to convert if they don't perceive you as a worthwhile company. 

You need an effective branding campaign to fuel the effectiveness of your calls-to-action. It can also be challenging to identify what isn't working in a CTA campaign if it's underperforming, in which case you may need to conduct an A/B test to see which CTA phrases and other content drive more conversions.

How to Choose the Right One for Your Business

Both of these campaigns are vital for a business's success, but you need to know which to use based on multiple factors. Decide whether to use a branding or call-to-action campaign based on your current goals and marketing plans. For instance, do you want to stay top-of-mind between sales cycles, or do you want to drive sales for a new product line?

You'll also want to consider your audience and where they're at in the buyer's journey. Branding campaigns are ideal for making initial appeals and pulling people into the sales funnel. Call-to-action campaigns turn leads into loyal customers by converting audiences already familiar with your brand when they’re ready to purchase.

Knowing which type of marketing campaign to use and when helps you reach every audience. Alternating your efforts brings them through the buyer's journey from the awareness to the decision stage. With an effective combination of both, your business will stay above competitors and ensure that you get the best possible ROI from your marketing efforts.