The people with bright ideas who build and run the company, yes. But also the devotees who use the product or service, find it valuable, and tell their friends and colleagues about it. Telling your brand’s story in a compelling way that conveys its distinctive possibilities and sparks curiosity is an integral part of your marketing strategy. But how can you craft an effective narrative that reaches the right people and persuades them to pay for your product or services?
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The answer: tapping into the tenets of brand marketing. By doing so, you’ll be able to spread awareness of your brand — and turn curious passersby into dedicated customers and loyal brand advocates.

What’s brand marketing, anyways?

Rather than spreading the word about a standalone update of what your company is up to (like a new feature or special event, for example), brand marketing is the segment of marketing where you promote your brand’s story, and build overall awareness of your brand. Think of it as a chance to convey what your brand is all about, and grab the attention of potential customers — and, ideally, make a lasting, favorable impression.

One of the most important elements of brand marketing is storytelling. To tell your brand’s story in a compelling and easy-to-grasp way, it's necessary to have a distinctive and cohesive brand identity and brand message. 

These elements help the people you’re trying to reach (a.k.a. your target market) understand what it is you do and what you stand for in the world. This includes not only the essentials of what you offer, but also your brand’s mission and values, who your products and services are most relevant for, and how it feels to interact with your company.
Ultimately, brand marketing is a holistic way to foster recognition, build trust, and fortify your brand’s reputation. When done well, you’ll pique the interest of people who’d most benefit from what you offer — and they’ll keep your brand top of mind.

And, what is lead generation?

A high-quality lead is someone who has shown genuine interest in your company’s products or service. They’ve signaled this interest by interacting with your brand in a meaningful way. Maybe they downloaded a piece of content, signed up for your newsletter, engaged with a social media post, or responded to a sales pitch. In short: Think of a lead as a potential customer.

Lead generation is the process of finding these “leads” or potential customers, and strengthening your brand’s relationship with them. It’s an important piece of the marketing funnel and plays a role in fostering new customer conversion and acquisition. 

By interacting with these potential customers and keeping their awareness and interest in your brand going (and growing), you have the chance to turn their initial spark of curiosity into action, guiding them from simple bystander status to loyal customer.

How brand marketing boosts lead generation

For your brand marketing to have the most impact — and generate the most high-quality leads — it’s essential to have a deep understanding of your target audience. To get started, craft a targeting strategy that’s specifically designed to meet your intended customers’ needs. Consider which marketing channels they visit most, their spending habits, and what sort of content they tend to interact with. 

When you tailor your approach to your audience’s preferences and motivations, your message is more likely to cut through the noise, elicit a reaction, and lodge in people’s memory for the long haul. Take Grubhub’s viral end-of-year campaign, “2022 Delivered.” This fun brand moment recapped the nation’s ordering trends for the year in an interactive way: highlighting the personal eating habits of millions of users. 

The response was tremendous, with overwhelmingly positive feedback on social media as people shared their highlights and compared stats. And the high engagement numbers — a 51% email open rate and more than 1.3 million page views — signaled that people truly connected with this shareable brand marketing strategy.

This type of marketing effectively spreads brand awareness and boosts brand recognition. As people shared their top late-night orders and other meal stats on social media, their followers who aren’t yet Grubhub users got a taste for the brand filtered through their friends’ genuine enthusiasm. This form of social proof can inspire peers to become customers. Because, when happy and engaged customers share what they love about your brand in a real and natural way, it inspires potential new customers to see what the fuss is all about.

Messages that feel like they’re speaking directly to someone’s experience make an impression and move the needle. On the other end of the spectrum, when your message isn’t reaching the right people, it’s like shouting into the void. As the Nielsen 2023 Annual Marketing Report underscores: “Ads that best reached their intended audience generated significantly higher ROI than those that didn’t.” In other words: Investing resources to reach the right people pays off — with positive associations and feelings of loyalty and trust, which keep your company top of mind.

Think of your website as a catalyst

Once you’ve got your brand marketing strategy in motion and potential customers are streaming in to learn more about your offerings, your website plays an essential role. 

When done well, it’s a seamless extension of your marketing efforts and a hub where you can nurture relationships with the leads you generate.

For example, building security company dormakaba uses their website to showcase the possibilities of their products to inspire their audience of builders, architects, and planners — and, in turn, convert prospective customers. Each page of their website has a call to action to lead viewers to the information they’re seeking. Native contact forms connect to marketing automation tools to get visitors started on the path to becoming customers. Seamlessly translating the site into five languages with Webflow’s SEO controls, dormakaba can literally speak their global target markets’ language, which fosters a more personalized experience, and leads to better conversion.

Since potential customers will come to your website looking to learn more, you have the chance to deepen their awareness and understanding of your brand — and guide them to next steps in the customer journey. Whether someone visits your website with a sliver of curiosity or they’re already intent on signing up, having a clear, compelling website poses a powerful opportunity to further educate prospective buyers, acquire new customers, and grow your business. 

Convert more customers with Webflow

Quality websites bridge the gap between brand awareness and lead generation — and make a winning first impression on potential customers.

To launch a brand marketing strategy that fosters high-quality leads, you’ll need the right tools.

See how Webflow Enterprise, a powerful visual web development platform, can help your marketing team turn interested visitors into devoted customers. Learn how to make landing pages that convert, create websites that drive leads, and tailor localized and internationalized site experiences to audiences worldwide.