If you’re in the midsts of marketing a new business, or you’re trying to revamp an old one, you’ve probably heard of the term ‘brand awareness’, ‘brand perception’ or ‘brand association’. You might be wondering, what is this ‘brand awareness’ that everyone keeps referring to?
Well, you’ll be pleased to know that the fellow businesses or enthusiastic marketers who keep referring to brand awareness, and demanding you build upon it, actually have your best intentions in mind. Brand awareness is a vital element of your marketing strategy, and in many ways, is the backbone of all your other marketing decisions.
This article will explain what brand awareness is, why it’s so important, and how you can increase the brand awareness of your business.
What is brand awareness?
Brand awareness refers to how aware the consumer is of your brand. This awareness can range from how familiar they are with your logo and products, to how well they know you, the founder.
It’s about how well people know your brand and how they react to it. The more people that know your brand and react to it positively, the more likely they are to buy from you and share information about your business with other people in their lives.
Good brand awareness builds loyalty and establishes you as an expert in your field. Outstanding brand awareness can even overrun commonly used words in favour of your brand name or term, making your brand a proprietary eponym.
One well-known example of this is the word “Zipper”. Zipper is actually a brand name, whilst the ‘hookless metal slide fastener’ is the product. People became so familiar with the term Zipper for the fasteners that they started referring to the product as a Zipper, and the name has stuck ever since.
Imagine if your product or service became so popular and so well-known that it overrun the official terminology. Now, that would be pretty incredible marketing, wouldn’t it? This is the kind of brand awareness all businesses should strive for.
Brand awareness is about building loyalty. It’s about becoming preferable over the other options on the market, and it’s about getting people to recommend your brand to others. These are all vital assets to a successful business, but they don’t happen instantaneously. Brand association is something you build over a long period. For as long as your brand is in existence, you should be working to increase brand awareness. If you’re serious about increasing your brand perception, you need to be in it for the long game.
In this article, we’re outlining five simple ways you can increase brand awareness for your business.
How you can build brand awareness
01. Sell as a person, not a brand
It’s no secret that modern-day marketing relies on people. People want to buy from people. We can see the success of this marketing technique in the ever-growing influencer industry.
Selling as a person rather than a brand has numerous benefits. Individuals feel more comfortable buying from people they trust. As an individual, you’re able to empathise, understand problems and relate real emotion to your decisions. This authenticity helps build trust and enables consumers to feel comforted by your brand.
Ultimately, these positive feelings are going to result in them remembering your brand, returning to purchase, and sharing how they felt about your brand with others.
02. Show up on socials
In addition to highlighting the value of people in sales, the influencer industry also shows us how successful showing up on social media can be for increasing brand awareness and establishing brand perception.
As a brand, it’s essential you make social media a valued part of your marketing strategy. Establish a social media strategy and start showing up consistently across platforms with the same message, visual identity, and tone of voice to build recognition. The more you actively show up, the more likely people are to remember you, and the more likely you are to resonate with them.
Showing up on Social Media shows you care. It shows you value your consumers, want to connect and be as transparent and authentic as possible.
Executing a social media strategy is going to grow your followers and boost your engagement. Increasing these statistics increases the likelihood of these users converting to buyers. Although a high follower count isn’t everything, it can help establish authority in your field.
03. Tell your story
Stories hold emotion. This emotion is crucial for increasing your brand perception. Consumers want to relate to and understand your brand’s purpose and ethos. A well-constructed narrative can help provide this in an entertaining and immersive way.
The more information consumers have on your brand, the more likely they are to trust and buy from you.
Well written copy is a vital asset to good brand awareness and something many brands overlook. By utilising the power of words and sharing your story with as much depth and emotion as possible, the more likely you are to relate to your consumer’s emotions and experiences. Your potential customer will feel understood, and this value will reflect on how they interact and share your brand.
04. Create Shareable Content
Creating shareable content such as educational content or entertaining content is more likely to be shared, and as a result, seen by more people. By creating shareable content, your content extends beyond your followers. Several of your followers might resonate with your content and share this on their own profiles. From this, people who don’t follow you will interact and may engage with your profile. Shareable content is a simple and almost entirely passive way to increase brand visibility.
05. Utilise SEO
Similar to using creative and engaging copy, SEO is a way to increase brand visibility using words. Search engine optimization increases your chances of being seen on Google, and as a result, can increase traffic and engagement on your online platforms.
Search engine optimization takes a lot of time and can be an extremely demanding process. It requires you to consistently produce high-quality content, with specific features and formatting. Although this can take a long time to nurture and grow, the payoff is ongoing. Good search engine optimization can organically and passively promote your business.
Utilising SEO increases searchers’ familiarity with your brand, builds trust and establishes your expertise. Search engine optimization is one of the best ways to promote brand awareness as it results in you showing up through Google, the world’s most widely used search engine.
As outlined in this article, brand awareness is achievable through a variety of marketing methods. Utilising as many of these as possible is going to increase your brand perception and brand association in turn growing your business.