The First Name They Call: Digital and Non-Digital KPIs for Brand Visibility and Awareness
When a Sri Lankan founder needs to register a company or file a return, one name comes to mind first. Here's how a business-services brand can become that name, with KPIs for visibility and awareness across both digital and non-digital channels.
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Every month, somewhere between 2,000 and 2,700 new companies are incorporated in Sri Lanka. In the first nine months of 2024 alone the Registrar recorded 19,784, up 18% on the year before. Every one of those started with a founder asking the same question: who do I call to get this done?
For a brand that helps founders and SME owners register, run and stay compliant (company formation, accounting, tax, payroll, legal), that question is the whole game. The goal isn't fame. It's being the first name they call.
Getting there takes two things. Visibility: being seen where founders look, online and in person. Awareness: being remembered when the moment comes. This post sets KPIs for both, across both digital and non-digital channels.
Two Goals, Two Arenas
| Digital | Non-digital | |
|---|---|---|
| Visibility (seen) | Search rankings, social reach and share of voice, AI-assistant answers, Google reviews, free tools and guides | Events and workshops, partner referrals, press and radio, printed guides, signage |
| Awareness (remembered) | Share of search, branded search, ad recall | Survey recall, event recall, referral and word-of-mouth share |
Most teams measure only the top-left box, because it's the easiest. But in professional services, trust often travels offline: an accountant's recommendation, a workshop at a chamber, an article in the business pages. If those channels have no KPIs, nobody owns them.
Awareness Means Owning the Moment
General fame isn't the target. The target is being remembered at the exact moment a founder needs help. For this kind of brand, there are six:
- Starting a company: "How do I register?"
- Choosing a structure: "Sole proprietorship or Pvt Ltd?"
- Registering from abroad: "Can I set up in Sri Lanka from overseas?"
- First registrations: "I need a TIN, VAT, EPF and ETF."
- Tax deadlines: "My return is due." (In 2026, about 92% of individual taxpayers still hadn't filed weeks before the 30 November deadline.)
- Law changes: "What does the new rule mean for my company?"
Your awareness survey asks, for each moment: "Which company would you contact for this?" The percentage that names you, unprompted, is your most important number.
The KPIs
Digital visibility (monthly)
- Category search visibility: the % of 30–50 key searches ("company registration Sri Lanka", "TIN registration", "Pvt Ltd vs sole proprietorship", in English, Sinhala and Singlish) where you rank in the top 3.
- Branded search impressions: how often you appear when people search your name, year on year.
- AI-assistant answer share: the % of founder questions where ChatGPT, Gemini or Google's AI answer names you. Test it monthly.
- Target-audience reach: unique founders and SME owners reached on social, with paid reach shown separately.
- Social share of voice: your mentions and engagement as a share of your category's.
- Google reviews: count and rating, compared with competitors.
Non-digital visibility (monthly or per activity)
- Founders reached in person: people at your workshops, talks and events who saw the brand.
- Speaking and hosting slots: talks and workshops at chambers, universities, co-working spaces and trade events.
- Active referral partners: accountants, banks, lawyers, incubators and co-working spaces that sent at least one founder this quarter.
- Earned share of voice: quality-weighted mentions in print, radio and TV business coverage, against competitors.
- Responses per 1,000 people reached: hotline calls, WhatsApp keyword chats, short-link visits, codes used and walk-ins from each event, guide or sign.
Awareness (quarterly to half-yearly)
- Unprompted awareness by moment: the % who name you for each of the six moments.
- Prompted awareness: the % who recognise you from a list of competitors.
- Share of search: your brand's searches ÷ yours + competitors'. This is the one awareness number you can read every month.
- Event recall: the % of attendees who still name you 30 days later.
- Referral share: the % of new enquiries that came from a friend, client or partner.
Three Rules for Setting Targets
Shares, not sizes. Sri Lanka's online audience is still growing fast: Facebook's reach was up about 15% and TikTok's about 25% in a year. A "+10% reach" target can be hit by doing nothing. Set digital targets on share against three to five named competitors. Set non-digital targets on rates (recall, responses per 1,000) and active partners, not headcount.
Give both arenas a target. A team that only grows digital numbers misses the referral and press routes many SME owners rely on. A team that only does events can't be found by the founder searching at midnight, or from Melbourne or Malé.
Share awareness, own visibility. Awareness is moved by everyone, so it's a shared 25% of every person's score. Every visibility KPI has one owner.
Then use one formula:
Target = Baseline × (1 + market growth) × (1 + ambition)
Hitting the baseline plus market growth scores 50%. The agreed target scores 100%, and a stretch goal scores up to 150%. Take the baseline from 12 months of history, or 90 days avoiding April and the November tax spike.
A year of illustrative targets might look like this:
| KPI | Arena | Today | Target | Stretch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category searches in the top 3 | Digital | 20% | 35% | 45% |
| Share of search | Digital | 18% | 21% | 24% |
| Google reviews | Digital | 150 | 250 | 300 |
| Active referral partners per quarter | Non-digital | 8 | 15 | 20 |
| Founders reached in person per quarter | Non-digital | 600 | 1,000 | 1,400 |
| Event recall after 30 days | Non-digital | 25% | 35% | 45% |
| Unprompted awareness, "starting a company" | Both | 8% | 13% | 18% |
One caution: detecting a 5-point change in awareness needs roughly 435 to 1,565 survey respondents, so survey 400+ founders every six months and aim for 10-point moves a year.
Who Owns What
| Role | Arena | Owns |
|---|---|---|
| Brand Lead | Both | Awareness by moment, share of search, referral share, brand consistency |
| Search and Content | Digital | Top-3 category searches, branded impressions, AI-assistant answers, deadline content on time |
| Social and Video | Digital | Reach, social share of voice, saves and shares, Google reviews, ad recall |
| Partnerships and Events | Non-digital | Founders reached in person, speaking slots, active partners, event recall, responses |
| PR and Thought Leadership | Non-digital | Earned share of voice, expert appearances, research cited by the press |
What Moves the Numbers
Digital
- Own each moment in search. Write one clear guide per moment in English, Sinhala and Tamil, and update it the week a rule or fee changes.
- Beat the deadline. Publish deadline content four weeks before the quarterly instalments (15 May, August, November, February) and the 30 November return date.
- Be the answer AI gives. Write direct, factual answers with dates, fees and steps that assistants can quote.
- Make free tools work. Calculators, name checkers and guides earn searches, links and shares.
- Ask for reviews at the moment of delivery: the certificate is issued, or the return is filed.
Non-digital
- Teach, don't just exhibit. A free "register your company" workshop at a chamber or university builds more recall than a stall.
- Build a referral network. Accountants, banks' SME desks, lawyers and incubators meet founders at exactly the right moment.
- Publish data the press wants. An annual report on company formation trends earns print, radio and TV coverage.
- Print things founders keep. A deadline calendar on a desk is a year of visibility.
- Make every printed piece countable. Add a WhatsApp keyword, a hotline and a short web address to every guide, banner and card. Add a QR code too, but never on its own: Sri Lankans see payment QR codes everywhere but rarely scan them.
In both arenas
Use the same look and the same message everywhere. A founder who sees your guide on Google, your logo at a workshop and your name in the Daily FT should recognise it as the same brand every time. That's how being seen turns into being remembered.
Reading the Results
Every quarter, put three numbers side by side: a Digital Visibility Index, a Non-digital Visibility Index and an Awareness Index, each set to 100 at your baseline.
- One visibility index lagging? Rebalance effort between the arenas.
- Visibility up, awareness flat? You're seen but not remembered. Fix consistency and message.
- Awareness up, visibility flat? Referrals or press are doing the work. Find out which and invest in it.
Before You Start
- Name 3–5 competitors, including the do-it-yourself route, and freeze the list.
- Write your six moments and one message for each.
- Build your list of 30–50 category searches in three languages.
- Start registers for partners, events, printed materials and press mentions.
- Add "How did you hear about us?" to every form, chat, call and walk-in. Include accountants, banks, events, radio and newspapers as options, not just Google and Facebook.
- Run your first awareness survey among 400+ founders and SME owners.
- Capture consent at events and on forms. Core duties under Sri Lanka's Personal Data Protection Act begin on 1 January 2027.
When the next founder asks "who do I call?", the answer should be you. Measure both arenas, and you'll know whether it is.
