A critical step every business should take on the road to success is to build brand awareness. When you have a brand that people are familiar with, it is that much easier to convert leads into paying customers.
How to Build Brand Awareness
What is brand awareness? Simply put, brand awareness is the degree to which consumers remember your brand as it relates to your product or service. It happens when someone recalls your brand from past interactions or from just seeing your company name or logo. When customers see or hear your brand, they immediately know what to expect.
In many ways, brand awareness equates to your business’s reputation. When people are able to remember your brand, it means you have managed to carve out a place in their memory. This, in turn, cultivates trust and confidence in your brand. As a result, you can attract more customers, increase customer retention, and set your brand apart from the competition.
Why Is Brand Awareness So Important?
Anyone who has a familiarity with marketing knows that brand awareness is of paramount importance. Why? Because without brand awareness, you can’t establish yourself as a credible brand. You can’t sell your products and services if people don’t know who you are. A lot of consumers even forgo cheaper alternatives in favor of a brand they already know and trust.
Having a good brand is one thing, but making sure your brand is visible is another. It is essential to constantly develop your brand and reinforce its associations from the perspective of your target market. When people are familiar with your brand, you will find it much easier to promote and sell your products and services, new or otherwise. You will also have a better chance of retaining current customers.
Tips for Successful Brand Awareness Marketing
If you want to build brand awareness for your business, here are some strategies to keep in mind:
1. Establish a Social Media Presence
In a time dominated by social media, companies that lack an online presence are almost always guaranteed to fail. Facebook alone has 2.6 billion monthly active users. It remains the undefeated giant in social media.
But, other social networking sites are also worth your attention. Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest, and LinkedIn are all great choices.
Create a social media page for your brand on every platform relevant to your business. Small businesses, in particular, can benefit from social media marketing to enhance brand awareness as it is an affordable and accessible medium.
You can increase online visibility by regularly posting updates accompanied by both broad and specific hashtags. You can also create your own hashtag for your brand.
While posting on a regular basis helps, social media also gives you a way to communicate with your customers. Reply to comments from fans. Monitor brand mentions on Twitter and address complaints if you see them. Answer questions. Even the smallest of actions can make a difference.
2. Be Consistent Across All Platforms
Consistency is vital when building brand awareness. In fact, consistency can even affect revenue. You want to make sure customers can identify you from a sea of other accounts and businesses. Use the same logo, username, and color scheme on all of your channels. Make sure your website matches your social media pages, too.
Apart from aesthetics, it is equally important to have uniform NAP (name, address, phone number) citations on all directories. Thus, you must claim all of your listings so you can modify them if necessary. It pays to have a Google My Business account for this. Search engines rely on consistency, and so do customers.
3. Create a Referral Program
Referrals are a great way to introduce your brand to new customers. Consider forming a referral program where existing customers can refer their friends to your business in exchange for a reward. This helps increase brand awareness and contributes to customer loyalty at the same time.
Dropbox, for example, used this brand awareness strategy in their favor when they were first starting out. Users who referred other people to their service received an extra 500 MB of storage space. The result? New and happy customers as well as great word-of-mouth marketing.
4. Advertise
Advertising is another great tactic that can build brand awareness for your business. Traditional forms of advertising such as print media are dying out. Nowadays, it is more effective (not to mention simpler and cheaper) to make use of online channels.
Social media platforms, for instance, already have built-in marketing campaigns that you can use. You can even adjust your preferences and set a daily budget limit. Just remember to create aesthetically pleasing ads that resonate with your target audience.
You can also use pay per click (PPC) advertising to get the word out on your brand. Although it is possible to rank in search results organically, nothing beats Google advertising. With this, you can buy the top spot on search results relevant to your brand or product. Display ads, on the other hand, showcase your brand on banners and sidebars on various websites.
5. Offer Valuable Content
Many companies start a blog in order to boost website traffic and convert leads. But, your blog shouldn’t just have generic, cookie-cutter content. Your blog posts must offer value to readers and move them down the conversion funnel.
Make sure to use the right keywords when writing your blog. A mixture of broad and long-tail keywords can get you to rank well on search results. You should also follow a weekly schedule for new posts. You don’t have to limit yourself to text posts either. Infographics, video tutorials, and interviews are great ways to improve your SEO, too.
6. Adopt a Retargeting Strategy
Retargeting is another tactic that can help you boost brand awareness. This type of campaign takes leads who failed to convert and redirects them back into your funnel. For example, if someone visited your website, viewed your products, but failed to make a purchase, you can retarget them with emails, Google ads, or social media ads. Retargeting is a great and polite way to remind customers of your brand and potentially nudge them in the right direction.
7. Form Partnerships
Forging a partnership with other brands and people can pave your way to success. It is perfect for small businesses, in particular, but also works well for already established brands.
Using this strategy, you can partner with other businesses, bloggers, or influencers to promote your brand or product online. You can also sponsor events and donate to good causes to help build brand awareness.
8. Offer Freebies and Discounts
It’s hard to say no to freebies and discounts. If you can swing it, offering free items or items at discounted prices can do wonders for your brand. It allows people to try what you have to offer and potentially come back as full-paying customers. If you offer a service, try adopting a freemium model. A lot of established services like Spotify, HootSuite, and even online games already use this strategy.
For an offline approach, you can also try giving away items like pens, coasters, frisbees, and tote bags with your brand’s logo and name marked. Position yourself at local events like festivals or bazaars — anywhere with a lot of foot traffic.
9. Be Fun and Entertaining
Everyone loves entertainment, and it’s a good way to build brand awareness and form a special identity while simultaneously showcasing some creativity. Many brands have now become known for their fun, zany, or unique ads or posts. Wendy’s, for example, has a very humorous Twitter account with almost 4 million followers as of writing. And everyone looks forward to OldSpice commercials.
With Time and Effort
You may feel anxious or unsure about investing so much time and money into helping build brand awareness. But, it is a necessary part of promoting your business, especially if you are just starting out. Don’t expect your numbers to climb exponentially in a short period of time. Developing brand awareness takes time and patience. With the right strategies and a good amount of effort, though, it will all eventually pay off.
If you need help increasing your brand awareness, let the experts at Tanner Grey help you. Call us today at 844.500.1339 or contact us online to learn more about our services.
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