What is always-on marketing and why you should be doing it

This year has been challenging for both businesses and consumers, with rising cost-of-living pressures leading to shifts in retail habits. During these quieter times, it’s crucial to maintain visibility so that your brand remains top-of-mind when consumers are ready to make purchasing decisions.

Adopting an ‘always on’ approach ensures your brand maintains a consistent online presence. This not only strengthens relationships with existing customers but also engages new prospects, ultimately enhancing brand awareness and recall.

What is always-on marketing?

Always-on marketing, as the name suggests, is when your marketing efforts are up and running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. It’s a continuous marketing activity that isn’t necessarily tied down to a season or event.

Always-on marketing doesn’t mean you need to be constantly running paid ads – though we do highly encourage it if your budget permits. Your always-on marketing can be a mix of multiple activities including organic social media content or email marketing; something that continuously puts your brand in front of the consumer. Posting to your social media channels is a form of always-on marketing activity.

Always-on marketing vs Campaign-Based Marketing

Always-on marketing is all about building awareness about your brand while campaign-based marketing typically supports a specific event. For example, the release of a new product or a sale. 

Always-On = Ongoing marketing activity using evergreen content to drive awareness and exposure.

Campaign-Based = Marketing activities that have a start and end date and have a more direct objective, eg. conversions.

What are the benefits of always-on marketing?

1. Familiarity and the ‘Mere Exposure Effect’

The Mere Exposure Effect is a psychological phenomenon discovered by social psychologist Robert Zajonc in 1968. This effect suggests that people tend to develop a preference for things simply because they are familiar with them. In other words, the more frequently someone is exposed to a particular stimulus – be it a word, image, sound or person – the more they are likely to have a favourable attitude toward it.

This means that even if your ads or posts are noticed only briefly, you’re still getting value from them being noticed at all. Always-on marketing benefits from the mere exposure effect because the repeated exposure will eventually create a sense of familiarity and, in turn, loyalty.

2. Building a connection with consumers

As well as recognising your brand, continuous exposure will keep you front of mind. This creates a connection between you and the consumer and by reinforcing your brand message, they will be more likely to stay loyal to your offering over the long term.

3. Capture consumers no matter where they sit in the funnel

Always-on activities enable you to capture consumers no matter where they sit in their customer journey.

You can be top of the funnel simply by introducing your brand to a new consumer. You can be in the middle of the funnel by reinforcing your message to a consumer who has seen your brand before. And lastly, you can be at the bottom of the funnel when the consumer is ready to buy.

How to deliver a successful always-on marketing campaign

So in theory an always-on marketing strategy sounds great, but how can you apply it?

1. Use multiple channels

Relying on more than one channel means you can reach your audience wherever they are, for example, doom scrolling on their phone, watching TV or listening to a podcast.

2. Continual optimisation

Always-on activity isn’t ‘set and forget’. To ensure your creatives are engaging and relevant, it’s important to test and optimise your artwork and ad copy. We recommend a refresh at least once per quarter. This will avoid creative fatigue.

3. Make the most of your retargeting audiences

The best way to combine your always-on and campaign-based campaigns is to utilise retargeting audiences. When a campaign-based campaign is ready to launch, you can start retargeting users who have been exposed to your always-on activity. Remember the ‘mere exposure effect’? This will help drive conversions because a connection has already been established.

Start your always-on marketing activity

Ready to implement your always-on marketing strategy? Find out how Aston Social can help you keep it on track and optimised for success. Book a discovery meeting with our team today!

Looking for other ways your brand can stay visible, particularly when things are quiet? Check out our list of digital marketing strategies to help you keep afloat.